Review: Joe Abercrombie practicing restraint.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 15, 2014
Young Prince Yarvi doesn't seem to do many things well except find places to hide away from everyone and everything. And yet he immediately begins to show signs in this novel of his capabilities as a minister in his world - not in a religious sense, but as a dispenser of wisdom, advice, and common sense. Unfortunately this fantasy world is more a place for the strong and the agile with warfare and fighting seeming to take up most of the lives of those who live here. Yarvi has a disability that he cannot possibly overcome to make him the heroic fighter his country needs when he is elevated to kingship. Naturally his relatively sheltered existence has made him completely unprepared for treachery when it happens. Once he finds himself in the lowliest of all positions he learns that his deformed hand is not what determines whether he will survive. You learn to use the best of yourself to keep living one more minute, one more hour. So what is the best of young Yarvi?If you are a first time reader of Joe Abercrombie's novels, you need to understand that this is an example of Abercrombie being restrained. The book is undoubtedly aimed at the young adult reader and Yarvi is a young boy moving into manhood who must learn all the hard lessons at once. Because of this, even though the novel is filled with violence and death, it is actually done in a holding-back, ratcheting-back style over previous Abercrombie novels. Fortunately that does not diminish the appeal for someone such as me who has tackled other Abercrombie novels and lived to tell about it. I liked the honest portrayal of these characters where everyone showed signs of weakness but also signs of strengths. Not one dimensional characters at all, more realistic than anything. That is definitely a hallmark of Abercrombie's works since it is very often difficult to tell his hero from his villain. There is a plot twist at the end of this novel which came right out of nowhere for me, but it certainly did work for the story. I was surprised to find no obviously cliff-hanger ending since I understand there are to be more books in this series. This can definitely be read as a completed novel if you don't choose to continue following Yarvi's adventures. I would find it very, very hard to not read any other books that follow this one.I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are my own.