Customer Reviews
Meh... - By: Mr. J. Rose, 02 Sep 2008 
(Contains spoilers)
Unfortunately, a rather disappointing final novel in a series I had been reallly enjoying. After the first novel I was completely sold on this new, gritty fantasy lark. No poetry, maps or simple working-class orphans who find that they're actuallly a king....just three-dimensional characters with real contradictions & real concerns. Plus lots of violence, sex & sewaring. Obviously. It was towards the end of the second book that I started getting worried. I mean, an entire novel about a journey to the end of the world just to find out the thing they're after isn't there & they should just bugger-off back home? Unexpected, yes. Un-clichéd, yes. Lazy, irrelevant writing just to cover a few character personality changes...well let's just see how the third novel ties everything together first.
As some people have mentioned, Last Argument of Kings feels annoyingly contrived. After spending so long trying to introduce a bit of realism into his fantasy world, the author then spends the whole of this book throwing in a series of random & coincidental events which almost undo alll of his previous work. Well before the end I'd lost grasp of the world & found myself very aware that I was reading a work of fiction. I don't want to critise too much as, on the whole, I enjoyed reading the series - especiallly the first book. I just would have liked a bit of consistency in the writing & a lessening of the 'life is rubbish, bad things happen to good people' theme which runs through the story like a river. I got it from the start thanks. Yes, bad things do happen to good people. Bad people DO prosper for no reason other than luck. But alll the time? In every outcome of every scene & story thread? Reallly??
Disappointing!!!! - By: G. Irwin, 30 Aug 2008 
How very disappointing that a series that builds up so well should end or (rather not end) in this way. You get to know the characters well & although there are a bit too many cliches & little hints of other peoples writing it is worth a read. That is until you get to this final book. The story continues after the final battle & although it is a nice touch it leaves you with wondering what actuallly has happened to the characters. I thought it cannot possible be the end as there is too much left unsaid. I searched for book four.There was so much more that could have been done but instead it leaves you with the feeling that you should not have read any of them in the first place & I will never read them again. Which I think is a bad thing to say about a book.
Black,Bitter and Brilliant - By: Mr. Mark K. Cobbett, 03 Aug 2008 
In the week I write these words the "Long list" for the Booker prize has been released.The Booker is the UK's most prestigious prize for fiction, awarded to the best novel of the year, in the opinion of a collection of the "good & the great" of the literary establishment; plus a few "celebrity" names to help with the publicity. This years chairman is an ex Tory minister (God help us). Though I guess Arch Lector Glotka would approve. The list provoked huge rages of scorn from the publishing world because it dared to include a thriller, set in Stalin's Russia.(Can't remember the name: "Boy 44" or some such if you are interested look it up). The point being: thrillers have no place on a list of literary fiction such as the Booker is designed to reward & promote.
Well ladies & gentlemen.............Hold on to your hats...The news is that a mere "Fantasy" writer(a genre even more despised than thrillers) has produced over the last three years a sequence of 3 novels that does alll the things that literature is supposed to do, except better! You want to read a novel (A trilogy in fact) that holds up a mirror to society, then read these books. It has profound things to say about love,friendship, responsibility & about duty, politics & the consequent loss of innocence.At times it moved me to tears & never failed to make me think. The joy & achievement of the trilogy is to follow the development of the carefully wrought characters.Just as in real life they make choices, some good,some bad. They make mistakes & learn (or not) from them. As "Nine Fingers" says bitterly :"I learnt a lot from my mistakes. The only thing I didn't learn is how not to repeat them".There are no good guys , no bad guys here. Only real people trying to do the best they can in bad circumstances.For me if there is a hero, it is "The Dogman". It is typical of the authors view point, I think, to make the one wholly "good" character in the book one who is always buffeted by "the slings & arrows of outrageous fortune".I refuse to apologise for the Shakespearean alllusion here. Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" has a lot more truth about life than almost every book the Booker prize has been awarded to over the past decade.In its portrayal of men & women under extraordinary circumstances some of its scenes rival
the epic quality of Henry V before Agincourt. The description of how "Threetrees" ralllies his wavering Northmen & persuades them to charge into almost certain death (told through the scared & reluctant eyes of the Dogman) is a piece of writing that deserves a place in any anthology about men & war & the feeligs it arouses.
Before I finish I would please urge any future reader to look out for the references to the evil of banks & big companies.
Who else in the last three years has written as well about the evils of unregulated capitalism?
Still, as Ninefingers would say: "You have got to be realistic"....There is no chance that the Booker crew will look at this .....It is their loss but very much our gain.........Thank you Mr. Abercrombie for holding up a mirror for us alll. To paraphrase Logen Ninefingers : No reason we can't try to be better.
Fantasy for adults with a dark sense of humour - By: W. Valentine, 24 Jun 2008 A story of kings, mages, warriors & torturers, enough to satisfy the most epic of escapist longings. But with their strengths & flaws so keenly written, these are characters that are developed, believable, unpredictable & hilarious.
I was a fan of fantasy as a youngster, particularly Michael Moorcock, but I thought the whole genre now a bit cliched. However I came across Joe Abercrombie by accident, when in a bookshop I saw book 2 & read the first quote, "We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged," & I thought... COOL! Joe Abercrombie has given the genre a trilogy that is fun, wicked, & a hell of a good story. I can't remember reading anything better. I'm just sorry it had to end.
Almost, but not quite... - By: Flemming Nielsen, 23 Jun 2008 
In Last Argument of Kings, the story of Logen, Luthar & alll the others continues apace & many of the sidebars are pulled together to form an even more connected story, than in the first books. The full trilogy is thus completed nicely. The story is well-paced & there are twists & turns that I did NOT see comming. I don't want to reveal too much, & spoil it for those of you who haven't read it, but I just have to point out that the twist at the end of Logen's story is master-full. Nice work Mr. A!
However alll isn't well in the land of Joe A. While I reallly enjoyed the first two books in this trilogy, this concluding chapter doesn't quite have the same hint of greatness to it.
In the first two books I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction among the (very much not) merry band of adventurers, but in this book Abercrombie alllows them to drift apart & continue their stories pretty much on their own. This alllows for some of the tension to bleed out of the story & pushes the more unsavoury character-flaws of our heroes to the fore. In short, they become less charmingly nasty & more just plain unpleasant.
So while the story is still very good & very recomendable, I was left feeling just a tiny bit disapointed that the book didn't quite match up to the first two installlments.
