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I'm going to throw in the dissenting opinion here and say that (in the first 120 pages of TBI), his prose was pretty weak, and the plot didn't grab me. That coupled with his 'I don't really read fantasy and I didn't write much before this' spiel already threw me off. It could be the a dark, subversive, plot-twisty book, but when I cringe at your writing every few pages and have little interest in what the people are doing after the first hundred pages or so, I wouldn't call you 'amazing'. That said, it's on hold at the library right now, so I'll give it another chance.
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Apr 26, 2010 08:27
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Skellen posted:Ok, I'm starting Best Served Cold and I like Shivers, but please let me know if Logen makes an appearance. Just a yes or no, please. I've got 20% of the book left to read: No.
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Apr 26, 2010 08:29
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One of the things I've always wondered about Abercrombie's world - who would win in a fight if both had plain weapons and both were in good health between Logen in Bloody-Nine mode and a "Furious" West.
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Apr 26, 2010 08:31
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Tornhelm posted:One of the things I've always wondered about Abercrombie's world - who would win in a fight if both had plain weapons and both were in good health between Logen in Bloody-Nine mode and a "Furious" West. West in "Furious mode" (if you can even call it that) Beat the poo poo out of his defenseless, oval office of a sister (who totally had it coming) Bit a dude in the face Logen in Bloody-Nine mode Survived 10+ duels with the best fighters in the north and took mortal wounds in each one that would have killed any other living human On more than one occasion killed dozens of shanka without taking so much as a glancing blow Murders everything in sight with indiscriminate rage Killed Fenris The Feared: a near invulnerable, centuries old demonspawn It's really no contest. Logen has some sort of supernatural ability, West just got really angry. Best Served Cold: Shivers showed a sign of going into a similar berserk as Logen, just without the friend murdering. It only happened once and nothing really came of it though.
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Apr 26, 2010 09:12
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Bummey posted:It's really no contest. Logen has some sort of supernatural ability, West just got really angry. See, I always figured that it was more likely that West was a variant on the classic Berzerker with Logen leaning more towards Multiple Personality Disorder, so while the Bloody-Nine was pretty much a psychopath, it wouldn't matter as much against West, it would pretty much end up just being a contest to whose alter-ego faded first.
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Apr 26, 2010 10:21
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Copernic posted:1. Monza identifies the next hit and the team sets up Sold. Just started this morning. And I regret mentioning Redemption Falls earlier in the thread. It was crap. Steer clear. Gravy Jones fucked around with this message at 11:52 on Apr 26, 2010 |
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Apr 26, 2010 11:42
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Tornhelm posted:See, I always figured that it was more likely that West was a variant on the classic Berzerker with Logen leaning more towards Multiple Personality Disorder, so while the Bloody-Nine was pretty much a psychopath, it wouldn't matter as much against West, it would pretty much end up just being a contest to whose alter-ego faded first. Not really, "furious" West is just West without his usual inhibitions, and he is at best just a very good fencer. The Bloody Nine is an unstoppable killing machine. Draw your own conclusions.
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Apr 26, 2010 14:10
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Yeah I'm about a quarter of the way through "Best Served Cold" and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Someone please refresh me- we saw Shivers fairly briefly in the other books, right? I'd look myself, but they're loaned out. He was the son of someone and wanted to kill Logen initially, but then ended up liking him? It took me a while to pick up on Vitari being Glokta's old lackey too, had totally forgotten she existed.
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Apr 26, 2010 14:38
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Thoughts on the possibility of Logen being dead? Think to the dream that Shivers had just after his eye was put out ... every one of the people he had dreamed of were dead, wouldn't it be odd to have just one exception?
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Apr 26, 2010 15:24
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^^whether he comes back or not (he will) I choose to believe Logen livesTShields posted:Yeah I'm about a quarter of the way through "Best Served Cold" and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Someone please refresh me- we saw Shivers fairly briefly in the other books, right? I'd look myself, but they're loaned out. He was the son of someone and wanted to kill Logen initially, but then ended up liking him? It took me a while to pick up on Vitari being Glokta's old lackey too, had totally forgotten she existed. He's Rattleneck's boy . . . no, the other one . . . work it out. Shivers was the leader of the carls that left Bethod and went to fight with Threetrees, Logen killed Shivers' older brother when Shivers was still a boy, so there's some bad blood there, yeah. Also in case you missed it the banker on Monza's hit list is the same banker that bailed out Glokta in Dagoska.
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Apr 26, 2010 16:20
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Bummey posted:He should also learn some other words than squawk and croak because god drat, people croak and squawk all the time. sour spit Drove me nuts once I started to notice it. And I'm like 90% of the way through BSC right now, really looking forward to the climax/wrap-up of it all. I do like the role reversals between Shivers spiraling out of control when he started out "the likable good guy", and the more you find out about Monza, you realize her reputation was undeserved and her brother who she cherishes is really to blame for it all, yet she blames herself. Kind of a cliched tortured character, but still interesting in the way he develops the unveiling of it. Khatib fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Apr 26, 2010 |
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Apr 26, 2010 16:37
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Ballsworthy posted:^^whether he comes back or not (he will) I choose to believe Logen lives Yeah, I caught the banker bit, thanks for the info.
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Apr 26, 2010 18:11
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Bummey posted:Logen has some sort of supernatural ability
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Apr 26, 2010 18:12
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I'll add my vote and say Abercrombie is my favorite author at the moment. The man is a writing machine and I hope he keeps up the pace and quality. Someone mentioned it earlier but I don't think anyone writes a better fight scene than Abercrombie. In regards to The Bloody Nine I'm assuming the man is possessed by a spirit when he goes into Berserker mode, right? Or am I the only one thinking that? Also, when I heard news that they were making a series for GRRM, I started thinking about who they could cast for The First Law trilogy. Who do you think would make a good Ninefingers, Black Dow, Cosca and Bayaz?
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Apr 26, 2010 18:20
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Only one choice for Bayaz
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Apr 26, 2010 18:26
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Ballsworthy posted:Only one choice for Bayaz I believe you posted the wrong picture. This is the only person capable of playing such a magnificent bastard.  Edit: Okay, I could see him doing a decent Glokta too. Tornhelm fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Apr 26, 2010 |
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Apr 26, 2010 18:46
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Ballsworthy posted:Only one choice for Bayaz Perfect choice. I was thinking Varro from 'Spartacus' for The Bloody Nine, or maybe just an unknown. Also, Cosca has to be my favorite character. The man is like a cockroach, you just can't get rid of him. Hughmoris fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Apr 26, 2010 |
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Apr 26, 2010 18:47
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Ray Stevenson as someone. Anyone.
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Apr 27, 2010 03:13
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Feel free to flame the hell out of me, but Johnny Depp as Cosca. He could just play his Jack Sparrow character with a different outfit and it would be absolutely perfect.
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Apr 27, 2010 03:38
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Thanks for posting about the newer books. The First Law trilogy was awesome and I had no idea this guy had new material out. Granted, it has been awhile since I picked them up, but drat. I'd encourage anyone on the fence to pick up The Blade Itself and give it a try. The opening scene hooked me and I read all three books in the course of a couple weeks.
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Apr 27, 2010 03:47
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Diver Dick posted:I'd encourage anyone on the fence to pick up The Blade Itself and give it a try. The opening scene hooked me and I read all three books in the course of a couple weeks. Thats exactly how I got started- I read the first page of the book and had to know what happened next. I was lucky enough to stumble upon him after all three were out.
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Apr 27, 2010 05:52
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Ballsworthy posted:Only one choice for Bayaz is what i pictured bayaz as unconsciously I was kinda iffy throughout the blade itself until i got to Logan straight up murdering all those practicals. i mean the book wasnt bad it just hadnt grabbed me until that point, it's probally one of the better fantasy fight scenes ive ever read. Zasze fucked around with this message at 06:58 on Apr 27, 2010 |
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Apr 27, 2010 06:43
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Zasze posted:^ It really can't be repeated enough that Joe Abercrombie can write one HELLUVA fight scene.
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Apr 27, 2010 10:26
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Anyone else see Friendly as an agitated Brian Posehn? If you've ever seen his stand-up, he does a weird squawky pissed off voice, and after Friendly's "Apologize to my loving dice!" flip-out, he's all I see for the character.
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Apr 30, 2010 06:51
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TShields posted:Anyone else see Friendly as an agitated Brian Posehn? If you've ever seen his stand-up, he does a weird squawky pissed off voice, and after Friendly's "Apologize to my loving dice!" flip-out, he's all I see for the character. Not really, but I'm glad I just finished the book because that's going to taint my vision of him. I really liked Friendly. He's definitely my favorite in the book, but Morveer comes up a close second. Well, Cosca of course, but I like him a lot more in The First Law when we always saw him from someone else's point of view. It's not always a good idea to put the reader into the mind of the character, as much of a fan favorite as they might be.
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Apr 30, 2010 07:23
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loving talk, people, Abercrombie is too awesome for this thread to die! I'm really having a hard time making predictions about the outcome of "Best Served Cold". Every time something happens, it seems to surprise the hell out of me. Someone (probably in the GRRM thread) complained that they gave up on it after 120 pages or so because it got repetitive, but I just don't see it. Yeah, they're killing off people on a list, but its incredibly different every fuckin' time, and since nothing ever goes according to plan, its incredibly entertaining. I never want this book to end!
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May 2, 2010 00:14
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Just started Best Served Cold, about 80 pages in (yay ebook version was released!). Read the trilogy a few months ago, and was wading through some mediocre poo poo since then - god I'm so glad to be back reading some good poo poo. I was at a party and found myself wishing I could get away and read some more. I missed feeling that way about a book... 
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May 2, 2010 00:39
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Ballsworthy posted:^^whether he comes back or not (he will) I choose to believe Logen lives I really hope so, he was my favorite of the trilogy and was very disapointed that he isn't in BSC. Shivers is cool, but not awesome. Seems like an emo Northman. Logen better be in the next one.
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May 2, 2010 00:55
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Finished the first law trilogy, great books, took me a while to get hooked but i think I went through argument of kings in 3 days or so.
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May 2, 2010 05:31
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I just passed the part where Shivers smashed that poor kid's head into the ground over and over when Monza was going to let him live. Fuckin' harsh. Not sure if I like him anymore, Logen wouldn't have done that. 
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May 4, 2010 13:29
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TShields posted:Not sure if I like him anymore, Logen wouldn't have done that. Bloody Nine would have.
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May 4, 2010 14:02
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The thing to remember about both Shivers and Logen is that neither is a good man, though they occasionally want to be.
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May 4, 2010 14:07
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I love how cheerful Shivers gets when he decides to stop trying to be a good man.
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May 4, 2010 14:54
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Its hard to get much more badass imagery than a shiny steel eye.
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May 4, 2010 15:34
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TShields posted:Its hard to get much more badass imagery than a shiny steel eye. What about if he put a knife in his eye socket? That'd be pretty badass.
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May 4, 2010 20:53
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Having just finished Best Served Cold, was anyone else thrown for a bit of a loop by Schenkt? I didn't realise he was an Eater until near the end of the book, where he killed a guy by tapping him with a knuckle. Even before then when he was carving up the human for food, I initially thought he just had a Hannibal Lecter thing going and it wasn't until the latter point that everything clicked for me). Him being a Lecteresque Eater though was cool, especially with him thinking of what would go well with the different parts of the body.
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May 5, 2010 10:46
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Tornhelm posted:Having just finished Best Served Cold, was anyone else thrown for a bit of a loop by Schenkt? Theres a few times earlier where he kills a guy by poking him through the collar bone with his finger or other crazy poo poo like that. I'm about 80% through and I picked up on it fairly quickly. When the other Eater[/spoils] says that her brother has been killed in the South, is that [spoiler]the pissy bitch from the last book going around killing eaters? Other books still loaned out..
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May 5, 2010 11:47
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Almost certainly. Good to know that Ferro is prospering after a fashion! vvv I agree with that mostly. I really enjoyed Best Served Cold, but it is a bit of a thematic retread. Hopefully The Heroes will break some new ground. John Charity Spring fucked around with this message at 13:10 on May 5, 2010 |
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May 5, 2010 12:55
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Just finished Best Served Cold. Had mixed feelings about it and didn't think it was in the same league as the First Law Trilogy, but I liked it well enough as a stand alone tale. I guess my biggest problem was with how similar a lot of it was to the FLT. Not just the general style and tone which is fine as that appears to be Abercrombie's thing, but a hell of a lot of the broader themes and the flow of the dynamic between the characters. I enjoyed the first half a lot more than the second and had some issues in the final act. I think what worked well in the FTL didn't work as well here. I might go into more spoilerific specifics at a later date. It was still a fun book. But I guess the thing about TFL was that it felt kind of new and somewhat subversive and this doesn't so much because it's more of the same.
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May 5, 2010 13:05
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While Abercrombie is my favorite author at the moment, I still have a gripe or two with BSC. The biggest one is that it appeared he tried to turn Shivers into The Bloody Nine. I don't have the book on me so I can't pull the passages but there were several glaring bits of dialogue and actions that very closely imitated Nine Fingers. There can be only one.
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May 5, 2010 15:22
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