Review: Not Mr. Abercrombie's best effort
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 17, 2014
At first I thought that Joe Abercrombie was coasting, riding the tsunami of his earlier work. "Half a King" starts slowly, Prince Yarvi seems rather too similar to Sand dan Glokta, and there is a strong whiff of YA correctness souring the mix.After a few chapters, Mr. Abercrombie finally peeked out from wherever he had been hiding and the book gained weight. I still do not think it is in the same league as any of his others, though, and the PG-13 decorum is irritating. "Half a King" has the feel of an old manuscript pulled out of a drawer and dusted off and is a weak offering from one of my favorite authors. For an adult reader, this is a distinctly non-thrilling start to a proposed YA series. That being said, few YA readers will have read, or be ready to read, Mr. Abercormbie's other books so perhaps I am being too demanding. I do not blame Mr. Abercrombie for following NG into the huge YA market. Well, actually, I do. How many of these will adult readers have to sleepwalk through before he takes time to write book for grownups again?Locus Mag has posted an interview with Mr. Abercrombie that readers might find interesting. http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2014/06/joe-abercrombie-fiction-on-the-edge/I received a review copy of "Half a King" by Joe Abercrombie (Random House – Del Rey Spectra) through NetGalley.com.