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I stayed up and read it. I did not like it at all. Effortpost up once I’ve had some sleep, but I think it’s the worst of the six trilogy books.
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Sep 14, 2021 13:08
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Promised effortpost. Caveat: Some of these criticisms are "this is bad" and some are "I did not like this", obviously the second set are completely subjective. 1. I'm really mad that Orso died, he deserved better, and I wanted him to end up with Savine and...I don't know, adopt children or something. Yes, I know, it's very funny that he says he hates hangings all the time, and then he gets hanged. My sides, they are splitting. And having all the other characters tell Rikki she was right, and her not really feeling that guilty about it, did not sit well with me. 2. Savine going from "I hate babies" to "OMG I love my babies" is a trope I detest. I'm aware it occasionally happens in real life also. (Also, I think doctors/midwives could usually tell when a woman was going to have twins? Not always, though) 3. The great change/reign of the Judge was pretty much paint by numbers French Revolution. There wasn't really anything added by having our characters in it. It was also not particularly different from the Valbeck section of the first book. 4. For all the warnings that were given about Bayaz would be back to collect on this or that debt that the characters were ignoring, he sure did a lot of Not Appearing. If there are further books, maybe that will be remedied. Really, without the secret war against the Prophet, Bayaz' whole Thing looks kind of pointless. Maybe he just gets bored. 4.5 Also, Valint and Balk has been built up as a terrifying tool of Bayaz but they've burned down three branches of it now and there's no real reprisal. I thought the manager, or the missing key, or the vault, would turn out to be important in some way, but they really didn't. 5. Broad and Clover really didn't do much that was interesting. 6. Leo is just a loathsome character, and he got almost everything he wanted, (in this book.) Abercrombie's other characters are usually either loathsome but complicated, or trying to redeem themselves, with mixed results, or...something. Leo has been racist, sexist, and homophobic the whole time, and it's just unpleasant to see someone like that have their plans succeed almost perfectly. Granted, he may have trouble in the future with Savine and her crowd, but with that exception, things work out Too Well for him, IMO 7. The House of the Maker has been lurking too much in the background to not have done something. It keeps being mentioned every time someone describes Adua. Maybe the Burners could have tried to break in and accidentally unleashed...something, add a little fantasy/horror element to the Hot Redhead Robespierre narrative. Really, I think the book was either too short or too long. Either the whole thing should have been the mob marching on Adua, discovering that Pike betrayed them, and eventually culminating with the mob taking the city, or else it should have gone past that, and gotten the Savine/Leo feud to some sort of stable equilibrium.
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Sep 16, 2021 05:41
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In the first trilogy, they'd just discovered gunpowder, putting it in the late medieval era (~1300 or so), although a lot of the social stuff, professional armies with uniforms, large government bureaucracies, etc, seem somewhat later. Then, in the second trilogy, twenty years later, they have the first railroads, indoor plumbing, and so on (Early 19th century.) Obviously technology doesn't have to develop in the same order, and Bayaz might be speeding things up, but that's still a lot of progress for one generation. So if Abercrombie wants to, he can leave the world at its current tech level for quite some time without becoming 'unrealistic'
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Sep 20, 2021 06:17
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I disagree that the new trilogy didn’t have standout moments-the first book had the duel, Sabine’s tour of the factory and subsequent escape, Sabine discovering her true parentage, and Stour and his guys killing Scale. The second had the railroad explosion/subsequent Yoru fight, and the battle of Stouffenberg, and Orso’s conversations with Leo and Jappo. I agree that the third didn’t have as many though.
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Sep 20, 2021 16:43
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That last one would be a pretty new thing for the series, someone who starts the book off with power instead of gaining it near the end (and immediately regretting it)
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Sep 30, 2021 01:40
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Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:I'm sure there are some disabled vets who would love to get a better role than "war victim.” My ideal adaptation is each book being a season of prestige TV so you could pull in Glotka's glorious charge in pretty easily. I think Hot Glokta is just Joe Abercrombie tbh.
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May 26, 2023 04:38
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Ainsley McTree posted:Not for nothing, but I feel like if someone I had met more than once or twice suddenly had two different colored eyes, I'd notice it quickly. Might even be the first thing I notice about them meeting them the first time actually, it's a very distinctive trait Isn't there a point towards the end where someone runs into both Marovias within a few minutes of each other?
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Jun 11, 2023 06:39
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DangerDummy! posted:What's the general consensus on the trilogy following Red Country? I've seen some bitching and moaning about it in a few places, but I didn't dig too deep into it because I trust randos on the internet far less than most goons. I thought the first two were very good and the third was highly mediocre. The third becomes a really obvious find-and-replace for the French Revolution Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:Just finished a re-read-through and it was much more enjoyable the second time knowing there's no big magic poo poo lurking in the background this time. This also disappointed me. In the first six books, we see a lot of interesting lore about the Magi. We also see a lot of characters we like get jerked around by Bayaz, who then declines to jerk around the characters who are..well..jerks. I was also really disappointed by how conspicuously the House of the Maker doesn't appear. Nobody poking through the rubble or searching the basements or what have you. In fact, outside of the North and the Eaters, I don't remember any significant magic.
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Jul 26, 2023 07:55
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My favorite was the Glokta story. Such a bastard. Got what he deserved. And then more. Like, way too much more.
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Apr 16, 2024 23:00
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