"Half King" is the first book in Joe Abercrombie's "Sea of Shards" series and, believe me, it was very hard to resist going straight to the next book in the series. The narration keeps you entertained and keeps you on your toes for a long time. Written simply, it seems, without much colorful descriptions, but the immersion in the world described is complete.
Joe Abercrombie was educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Manchester University, where he studied psychology. He moved into television production before taking up a career as a freelance film editor. During a break between jobs he began writing The Blade Itself in 2002, completing it in 2004. It was published by Gollancz in 2006 and was followed by two other books in The First Law trilogy, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings. He currently lives and works in London with his wife and daughter. In early 2008 Joe Abercrombie was one of the contributors to the BBC Worlds of Fantasy series, alongside other contributors such as Michael Moorcock, Terry Pratchett and China Mieville.
It would seem that the protagonist is some sort of incredible whiner, forever hiding from his relatives of both sexes in dungeons and secret passages. And you'd expect something to change from the sudden happiness of being the rightful king, since he is the only heir, but no. He's even more reflective, even more self-involved, even more self-pitying. Well, okay. The next trials in the form of insidious betrayal, miraculous rescue, and hard slavery should have hardened him, in the end you expect the main character to mature, to gain wisdom, to gain some sort of power as a result of his journey, but there's no such thing. Nothing supernatural. No powerful artifacts in the icy wasteland through which he weaves in the company of his companions, the most pitiful of which he is, nor in the ancient ruins where he manages to kill the first man in his life, in the back of his hands at that. He is as weak as ever, and all his talents do nothing to alleviate his unenviable fate. The only thing he has gained in this long and sorrowful journey are friends. Friends, all of whom will give him a head start, and half of whom he will lose as he exacts his blood feud.
All in all, this is not the kind of hero you fall in love with from the first lines and follow his adventures with bated breath. And the means he resorts to to achieve his goal are very, very questionable, which does not add to his score at all. I'm still not sure how to feel about him. And yet - this is such a logical character, so poised in his character, in his decisions, in his actions, that, despite some disappointment, you realize that had he behaved differently, the narrative would have lost much of its believability and realism.
In fact, the same can be said of the world in which the action takes place. It is realistic and believable. There are no fairies and wise wizards ready to lend a helping hand and wipe out all the offending characters with a wave of the hand. Even the ancient elven ruins are only ruins and nothing more. And some of them pose a direct threat to the life and health of the daredevils who have strayed into the artifacts that have survived in these ruins. As in our world it is full of political intrigue, economics and war reign supreme. And this world is very, very cruel. And from the overflowing of his brutality more you appreciate the crumbs of kindness and warmth, which fall victim to the heroes in their hard way.
It's not what you expect here. Time after time, the plot disappoints in subconscious expectations. And the crowning achievement of these disappointments is the ending of the story, when the hero, although he keeps his vows, does not achieve at all what the reader subconsciously expects. And, perhaps, this is the main beauty of the book. It is unlike anything I have read in this genre before. In other books, the justice prevailed completely and irrevocably, but not as here ... vitally somehow. Ordinary.
Maybe the readers who have had a lot of experience reading books of the epic fantasy genre will not be particularly thrilled, but I'm very impressed and eager to find out how events developed further on the harsh shores of the Sea of Shards. I will continue as soon as I get a chance.
This article was sponsored by Carl Hayden
Kommentare