Terror Sweat posted:

Cosca runs a group of amoral war criminals and rapists and will betray everyone for more money and safety

Suxpool posted:

rudd threetrees. the rock of uffrith. look no further for a man who only ever did what he thought was right.

Larry Parrish posted:

I'm about done with the new one and so far really all i can say is im glad Glokta and Shivers get a fairly nice turn of things. Shivers especially just gets totally dumped on in that Styrian novel and just, goddamn.

Vichan posted:

As seen in the previous trilogy non-eater magic users seem to be easily overwhelmed/tired.

Yorkshire Pudding posted:

The original trilogy mentions that each Eater gets different abilities, though there are some things that are fairly universal it seems. Never really explains what determines these abilities, whether it’s something innate or if perhaps more advanced/older Eaters gain new abilities? We don’t see any of the 100 Words do anything really crazy when they face off Bayaz, but maybe he just nuked them too fast.

Honestly, Yoru’s bullet time seems like it got kind of added in later. He never used it and it wasn’t mentioned until The Heroes where he used it to defend Bayaz against an exploding cannon, which was the book after Shenkt was introduced. My sense is that after Shenkt was introduced Abercrombie was like “you know it really doesn’t make sense why Shenkt hasn’t just murdered Bayaz at light speed, so let’s give Yoru it as well”.

Chuck Buried Treasure posted:

I really love the voices Pacey used for both Orso and Jappo, the negotiation between the two of them was a lot of fun to listen to.

I didn’t start listening to the audiobooks until ALH, now I kind of want to go back and pick up the audio versions of the other 6

Terror Sweat posted:

This is a good fit, bayaz is a pretty thick guy

Brendan Rodgers posted:

Just do whatever they do for Tom Cruise.

Scissorfighter posted:

Rereading The Blade Itself, we should have clued in on Bayaz being a villain when he ranted about the glories of colonialism outside the House of the Maker. Referring to the Midderland native population as: "Painted-faced savages, barely different to the beasts."

Paddyo posted:

That's a good point. You hear an awful lot about Calder being this big schemer, but he never actually does much of anything on his own in the previous books.

ZombieLenin posted:

I am pretty loving disappointed about Orso. I mean, I guess I should have seen it coming because it is sort of what the author does.

It is probably going to take me a long time to be willing to reread the trilogy because of it though.

Genghis Cohen posted:

I know that plot movements in this series tend to be propelled by a cascade of betrayals and cunning ruses, each more cunning that the last. But it stretched credulity with the Northern military campaign. The Rikke weakness fake-out was telegraphed to the reader miles off, and it just doesn't make any sense! First off, feigning weakness is a terrible idea in a civil war when you're keeping the secret from the general population and your own supporters. Anyone actually trying that would find all their support genuinely would melt away, leaving them high and dry. It was also a bit insulting (I know it's just a casual fantasy read, not John le Carre) that Calder, this supposed wily fox, had precisely 2 spies and no scouts. How was he blind to the forces moving away and then back, he relied entirely for information only on one informant? (separate issue, as some have pointed out, of whether Bayaz should/could have helped with any of this, having already determined Calder was his horse to back) On a more down-in-the-weed tactical sense, how did 3 small armies close in on another, literally so close they could charge directly into them, while staying out of sight? That's beyond any normal ability at stealth or misdirection. The series has always been loose about military realism (fantasy early-medieval northern europeans taking on early-modern armies that sometimes have, and sometimes don't have, mass-manufactured plate armour) but this is ridiculous.

VagueRant posted:

Hah, is the audiobook that's got people spelling Rikke as Rikka? I still want to check out what voices Steven Pacey used for this trilogy at some point.

Beefeater1980 posted:

We don’t know that Orso is dead. We know that “there was a clatter as the trap dropped open” and we know that some dickery exists with the hanging machines. I’m not ruling out that they are dead but it’s not a done deal quite yet either.

Gantolandon posted:

I completely get why Rikke sold him out though; there was absolutely nothing to gain by smuggling him to the North and his mere presence could destabilize it before Leo even thought about getting him back. He was hosed as soon as he failed to get out of the city.

VagueRant posted:

Still trying to figure how Joe squares "we're all puppets caught in a brutal web constructed by our financial masters" with "but oh no, collective policy of the masses will just lead to everything on fire, those idiots don't know what they're doing".

Is it that we just need autocrats that are...more benevolent? One super smart Great Man who can make the hard choices but not be a oval office?

loquacius posted:

This would actually be a somewhat interesting direction for them to go with it, but if Vick and Pike haven't figured it out themselves I'm not sure who's around to remind them

loquacius posted:

like the Purity Officers, overseers seeded into the People's Army to make sure every military decision is politically correct, which actually sounds pretty on-the-nose for what your Republican uncle thought the US military would become under Obama, and "purity" of course being a centrist buzzword meaning "criticisms of someone I like"

loquacius posted:

I did not know this and find it a satisfying explanation for the concept if perhaps not the name (a quick search did not yield the name of the French Revolution equivalent), thanks

zerofiend posted:

I think it's more likely to be Glustrod, not Euz.

loquacius posted:

Ainsley McTree posted:

I thought he said he intended for there to be three trilogies, so we should for sure be getting at least three more mainline novels. He seems to work pretty fast, so hopefully not too long of a wait (unless he needs more time to come up with good ideas, then i hope he does that)

Social Animal posted:

I just finished the First Law trilogy and absolutely enjoyed it. Very interested in continuing through the rest of his books but I get the impression Best Served Cold is kind of a low point. I'm just going to be blunt, will I be chasing the dragon from here on out?

Your Gay Uncle posted:

It did seem odd to me that Bayaz was such a non entity through the last trilogy, but Rikki's vision shows that he doesn't have to respond to every little thing. He's like 400 years old, he can afford to sit in his tower and play the long game.

Tosk posted:

Do I need to know anything going forward?

Harton posted:

I need to go back through the new trilogy. I thought Bayaz killed Jezel though.

Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:

It doesn't make sense for either of them.