Best Served Cold (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

I'd not read Abercrombie's First Law trilogy before buying this book, but rather bought it because it was £1.99 in hardback in a book sale and I'd heard he was meant to be a pretty good author. After making sure that the book was a stand-alone novel (because I didn't want to get into another trilogy) I handed over my pennies and settled down to give it a go.

have to say, loved it. Loved his characters (more than two dimensional yet not quite more than caricatures) and thought the plot was great, with plenty of twists and turns and never knowing who will make it out alive. I especially liked the hinting at greater themes and larger plots working in the background. I enjoyed the book so much in fact that I finished it in three sittings and immediately ordered all three books in his debut trilogy.

If you're looking for a damn good fantasy read then buy with confidence.

I've read the First Law trilogy so I was really looking forward to this book and I wasn't disappointed.
It's a big book and at no point did it seem to amble on just to fill pages. I enjoyed it cover to cover.
Violence, sex and horror (not the ghosty jumping out horror, the other "Oh my God" horror.)
Mr Abercrombie goes from strength to strength. Can't wait for "Heroes"!

Whilst not a direct sequel to the excellent First Law trilogy, Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold returns to that same brutal medieval fantasy world and populates it with a handful of the same characters. All of the expected Abercrombie trademarks are here - explicit torture, sex, cynicism, Machiavellian back-stabbing and some incredibly vivid battle scenes. With empire building on a massive scale, its scope is certainly no less grandiose than its predecessors, so why just the 3 stars? Well, I have to confess that, whilst the previous novels rattled by at a terrific pace and I devoured them in just a few sittings, I really struggled with Best Served Cold. Quite simply I didn't warm to any of the characters. The main heroine (that is SO the wrong word!) who we dally with for most of the book, is downright loathsome. Her chief consort evolves from a fairly thuggish brute into a fairly brutal thug. The high and mighty who cross their path are inevitably effete, perverted or both. It is only in the roguish and vaguely Falstaffian Cosca and the strangely other-worldly (autistic?) Friendly that a degree of more satisfyingly 3-dimensional characterisation is developed. A couple of characters, who I would have liked to survive into further instalments meet gruesome ends. Most disappointingly of all, everyone's favourite torturer Glokta, who stole the show in the original trilogy, is only referred to by reputation here.

Not wishing to be too critical though, I did still quite enjoy this novel and I believe there are signs of Joe Abercrombie doing for heroic (or villainous!) fantasy what Iain M Banks has done for sci-fi with his inspired Culture series. The theme of sinister bankers holding states to ransom is quite a topical one too I suppose! Please though Joe, let's have more wit and characters we can relish along with the cynicism next time!

So, a fairly grim read, but just about worthwhile.

Oh, I almost forgot - the moral of the story .... hmmm... well it's either that revenge will probably not bring you satisfaction or that human nature is pretty damn base, selfish and greedy.