Reading Joe Abercrombie's The First Law for the first time. (Spoilers for Books 1-3)

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte]

Dude BSC is arguably Abercrombie's best book! However if you can't stand depressing bittersweet endings then maybe you should consider skipping it.

[RedEyedGhost]

Dude BSC is easily Abercrombie's worst book! I still wouldn't suggest skipping it though.

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte]

Cmon... Ur telling me you didn't enjoy Shiver's transformation? The roster of characters is also lot more interesting than his other books.

[Eponine]

Dammit Joe Abercrombie. I feel like an ass asking this when you're in the thread (I definitely don't expect you to answer something negative about your writing style).

The thing that bothered me about BSC was the one-dimensionality of the character habits. Each one was a little collection of repetitive tics. It was kind of charming in the trilogy where the story was new. But in such a long book centered around the same characters constantly as BSC, it got awfully monotonous. Is The Heroes the same way? Because if it's not, I'll give it a try, but if it is, no matter how good the story is, it's going to drive me crazy and I'm not going to appreciate it.

[Bloody_Nine]

At the end of the day, opinions/assholes... Fact is, if you liked First Law in general, you really should read Best Served Cold. It's story is important not for just the other two novels but surely for the future ones to come.

[Bloody_Nine]

At the end of the day, opinions/assholes... Fact is, if you liked First Law in general, you really should read Best Served Cold. Its story is important not for just the other two novels but surely for the future ones to come.

[Joe Abercrombie]

Dammit Joe Abercrombie. I feel like an ass asking this when you're in the thread (I definitely don't expect you to answer something negative about your writing style).

The thing that bothered me about BSC was the one-dimensionality of the character habits. Each one was a little collection of repetitive tics. It was kind of charming in the trilogy where the story was new. But in such a long book centered around the same characters constantly as BSC, it got awfully monotonous. Is The Heroes the same way? Because if it's not, I'll give it a try, but if it is, no matter how good the story is, it's going to drive me crazy and I'm not going to appreciate it.

I would say from my entirely unbiased position that the Heroes is probably less tic-based. Less character-based altogether, in a way, sort of ... I dunno ... An ensemble? Of course, you may dislike it for entirely other reasons.

[Jussi]

Best Served Cold is my second favourite Abercrombie novel after The Heroes.

[Jon AS]

Of course, you may dislike it for entirely other reasons.

Now there's a marketing slogan to sell you on a novel!

[Joe Abercrombie]

I feel people who disliked my books need to be pitied rather than hated.

With the proper encouragement they may improve themselves, learn, grow, deepen their understanding, and come back to the books when they're ready for them...

[dietl]

Amen.

[The Prince of Newcastle]

BSC is awesome and probably my favourite of the stand alone novels.

Cosca, Shivers, Morveer, Mucatto. Great characters. Great story. Fantastic set pieces, the bank job in particular.

[williamjm]

The thing that bothered me about BSC was the one-dimensionality of the character habits. Each one was a little collection of repetitive tics. It was kind of charming in the trilogy where the story was new. But in such a long book centered around the same characters constantly as BSC, it got awfully monotonous. Is The Heroes the same way? Because if it's not, I'll give it a try, but if it is, no matter how good the story is, it's going to drive me crazy and I'm not going to appreciate it.

I don't think most of the characters in The Heroes have tics in the same way that Friendly or Morveer did in BSC, although there are some exceptions. I think overall I preferred the character development in The Heroes to BSC, while BSC was relentlessly cynical about its characters, The Heroes is only cynical most of the time.

[The BlackBear]

Is Shivers in anyway inspired by the Hound? I can't help but imagine them almost the same (except for the eye (which I love))

[Durckad]

I feel like BSC has probably the best payoff of the standalone books. The last half of the book is just... wow. That said, getting there was a bit tough. I was getting a bit tired of the unrelenting grimness of it, of awful people doing awful things.

I feel people who disliked my books need to be pitied rather than hated.

With the proper encouragement they may improve themselves, learn, grow, deepen their understanding, and come back to the books when they're ready for them...

Have you tried celery? Perhaps of the moral variety?

[Eponine]

I feel like BSC has probably the best payoff of the standalone books. The last half of the book is just... wow. That said, getting there was a bit tough. I was getting a bit tired of the unrelenting grimness of it, of awful people doing awful things.

Have you tried celery? Perhaps of the moral variety?

Maybe they need more Important Human Themes.

[The hairy bear]

Surprisingly (at least for me), Best Served Cold is the most divisive of Abercrombie's book.

After ARC came out, we did a voting round in this forum (with people giving 5 to heir favourite book, 4 to the second, and so on). IIRC, BSC came third (after TH and LAOK), but the votes were really sparse: everyone had placed it either as one of the best two books, or one of the two worst ones.

[Chun-Li]

This might turn out to be a stupid question, but what's ARC?

[Rorshach]

This might turn out to be a stupid question, but what's ARC?

I think he refers to Red Country, it might be called A Red Country some places, hence the A

[SeanF]

I loved BSC. It may be my favourite book in the series (although I loved the Heroes when I recently reread it).

What makes it work for me is the black humour. Most of the protagonists can't even be called anti-heroes. They're downright evil. That could make the book very depressing, but the humour prevents this.

It's as if George Martin wrote a blackly comic novel set in Westeros, in which the main protagonists are Vargo Hoat, Ser Gregor Clegane, Ramsay Bolton, Septon Utt, Shitmouth, and the Tickler.