Xenix posted:

Just finished the book today and generally enjoyed it. I'm kind of disappointed the next one won't be out for another year. Some thoughts I didn't see touched on in the discussion so far:

In Rikke's third fit, she sees an old chief, dead, and assumes it's the Dogman. Isern even asks her if it is the Dogman and she asks who else it could be. I can only think that their discussion was misdirection because a couple chapters later Jezal is dead instead.

coolusername posted:

However, Clover killing Wonderful DEFINITELY landed with the shock without being just for shock value - it fits in with absolutely every single part of his internal monologue and the set up while still being a surprise, and there's enough female characters POV in play that it feels bad without being.. well, a lot of fantasy books.

tokenbrownguy posted:

^ got so friendzoned he broke

loquacius posted:

here lies Gorst, he never scored

As for adebisi lives's theories: am I remembering wrong or did we never actually learn what The Weaver's real identity was? Because it would be both horrible and awesome if it was Bayaz, who is now behind all sides of every conflict everywhere

I would really like if in the next book we get to see a glimpse of Bayaz and Zacharus/Cawneil having proxy battles in Gurkhul to see who gets to hoover up more of Khalul's turf

e: one of my favorite lowkey moments from the new book was Leo geeking out when he finally got to meet Gorst in person but immediately being disappointed by Gorst's weak handshake, because that proves that sadly this famous war hero is actually bitchmade

ZekeNY posted:

Partially let off the chain, even. "I should warn you that I was still holding back." Same old Gorst; I hope he survives the clearing out of the old generation into book 3 at least.

loquacius posted:

That's the thing, though -- accepting the duel without having any idea how good a fighter Stour was was really the only example I can think of of him doing anything that could be really considered a "bad idea" in the scheme of things, and that was most of the way through the book, after I had already been subjected to many chapters of everyone hating him for what seemed to be no good reason. Like, give me a chapter where he bites super hard on a feint and gets a whole bunch of people killed and barely escapes with his life or something to show how dumb he is, that wouldn't have been hard.

As it was, his first chapter essentially being him going to his mom with big doe eyes all like "look, Mommy, I won a victory, are you proud of me? Please please say a single solitary nice thing to me for the first time ever" and her responding with "jesus gently caress why am I saddled with this utter embarrassment failure of an idiot-child, sorry everyone, he's just, like, super dumb" kind of set the tone for the rest of his chapters for me. You're right that the Rikke examples are more explainable, and they wouldn't have felt the same way to me if it wasn't for the Finree ones.

I dunno it's entirely possible this is personal for me because near the end of the book, when he'd won the war and his only remaining parent finally DID give him a single sentence of praise and he thought something about how that was the first time in years he could remember her doing that, I was like "oof yeah I know that feel"

Really it's not that surprising he grew up to be fixated on the idea of glory and popularity, this poo poo is what happens when you're mean to your kids, everyone

e: yeah, upon reflection caused by this conversation I can definitely confirm that the core of my issue with Leo is bad parenting by Finree, which is probably due to trauma on HER part from the stuff that happened in The Heroes followed by however Leo's dad died

Grand Prize Winner posted:

Nah, her husband was that guy's son and got promoted from lieutenant or something to lord governor thanks to Finree in one of the earlier books.

Not a spoiler for the new book so I'm not tagging it.

loquacius posted:

This would have made Gorst infinitely happier than continuing to base his entire identity around serving the Union government did, so of course he didn't do it and instead did the other thing

e: AU fanfic that is just Caul Shivers and Northman!Gorst in a madcap buddy action-comedy

Suxpool posted:

I think I'd be a little disappointed if Bayaz ever got his just desserts. I've always felt Abercrombie's so good because his books seem so true to life from a cynic's point of view. The truly powerful never get their comeuppance. It's relatable.

Harold Fjord posted:

He's explicitly ahead of the curve and sees the true power in money, rather than nobility

Terror Sweat posted:

Plus you're going to have this major figure in the world go out without ever even appearing on page?

Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:

Warden posted:

From what I gather, opinions are divided. I liked it quite a bit though. The first one was the strongest, in my opinion. Maybe give it a try, and then decide if you like it enough to continue?

It's ostensibly YA fiction, but basically the only thing different from Joe's "normal" output is that there are no cringe-worthy explicit sex scenes and nobody says "gently caress".

Xenix posted:

I'm fairly convinced we've already seen him in A Little Hatred. Broad see's a large old man with a star shaped scar on his cheek in a line in Valbeck, thinks he's a veteran, and they almost come to blows. Logen has this scar (from the fight with The Feared) in Red Country and is as much of a shitter as Broad. Maybe more of one.

Affi posted:

I'm fine with his fate remaining a mystery and I hope they keep it that way. There are figures of power moving around the periphery of the civilized world and i'm okay with a scarred old slab of meat that is very good at killing people being one of them.

Pouring one out for old man Logen. Never forget when he was chased over the rooftops of Adua in the first book and you were thinking "Why is this guy such a big deal in the north?" and then they corner him.

staguar posted:

I couldn't remember what Golden did in The Heroes, so I went to First Law wiki to look him up and, man, the fan art of him is amazing.

staguar posted:

Who's selling it autographed?

multijoe posted:

I thought Shivers was meant to be pretty good looking prior to getting his face hosed up? He's still pretty young and earnest then, didn't yet have the marks of a veteran fighter.

Harold Fjord posted:

I don't remember him being especially tall, I got the idea that most people find him kind of unassuming for a North Man until they see him in action. But it's been a while since I've read. In my brain he always kind of looks like Lobo

Ccs posted:

Well... Terez gets coerced into going to bed with Jezal against her will. Never shown, but we know it happened.

Southpaugh posted:

The cover arts real ugly, but the books... Are very good.

Hiro Protagonist posted:

If I got spoiled on the villain for the First Law Trilogy, how hosed am I? A friend accidentally let it slip and realized that was a big spoiler.

VagueRant posted:

Did Joe not admit that was absolutely the source of that character design?

Chamberk posted:

Starting my reread of A Little Hatred/The Trouble with Peace to prepare for the final book next month. Very interesting to see Leo and Rikke's first chapters knowing what happens to them over the course of the next two books....