I finished listening to the audiobook today and it delivered great grimdark stories and has nearly every character in the First Law Trilogy and World Books either referenced directly, hinted at, or even a small cameo. I think the book shines with the newer characters of Shevedieh and Javre and their stories interweave wonderfully between stories that are more related to the First Law Trilogy or World books. The narration is top-notch, it’s great to hear Steven Pacey voice old and familiar characters as well as creating great voices for newer characters, even Joe Abercrombie narrates a story pretty good. This was a highly anticipated book for me this year and it did not disappoint, that makes 2 in a row for great audiobooks this week (the other being The Last Werewolf.)
- A Beautiful Bastard: Story about Colonel Glokta and the infamous bridge. A cool backstory for Glokta with numerous cameos of the First Law Trilogy and a couple from the Heroes.
- Small Kindnesses: Shev and Javre, their first meeting and formation of their long working relationship. Severard is also featured.
- The Fool Jobs: Curnden Craw and his Dozen in the east of the Crinna. Cracknut Whirrun, Wonderful, and Jolly Yon featured, what’s not to like here?
- Skipping Town: Another Shev and Javre tale, and another fun story.
- Hell: Temple and Haddish Kahdia experience of the tail end of the Siege/Fall of the Dagoska. This one was extremely good. It features the fruit of the desert, thrice blessed and thrice cursed.
- Two’s Company: Shev and Javre meet Cracknut Whirrun, need I say more?
- Wrong Place, Wrong Time: This one features the little people who get caught in Monzcarro Murcatto’s epic plot for revenge.
- Some Desperado: Shy South/Smoke backstory before the events of Red Country. Listening to this story in Dangerous Women is what lead me to picking up the First Law Trilogy.
- Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden: another backstory before the events of the Heroes, featuring Bremer dan Gorst and Pale as Snow. I enjoyed this one as the Heroes, over time but not initially, became my favorite novel in series.
- Three’s a Crowd: Shev, Javra, and Carcolf. This one is my favorite out of the whole book. Some cool references and backstory for some of my favorite characters.
- Freedom: This is the one Abercrombie narrated, it’s a retelling of the events in Red Country where Cosca sacks a town sheltering supposed rebels. I liked this one too, Abercrombie is a decent narrator, he really goes over the top in the already over the top account of the sack of Averstock.
- Tough Times All Over: Another great tale featuring numerous First Law characters.
- Made A Monster: This one is another awesome tale. It was close to being my favorite of the book. It’s a story of infamous event of Rattleneck and his son, it provides a great insight to how the Bloody-nine came about.
So this was an audible credit well spent. Abercrombie’s First Law series (trilogy and world books) delivers on satisfying fantasy that also has great humorous bits to round out the grimdark story. Shev and Javre, they quickly became some of my favorite characters (along with Logen/The Bloody-Nine, Glokta, Cosca, Monzcarro Murcatto, Shylo Vitari, Shy South, Bayaz, Craw and his dozen.)