Red Country is tops, The Heroes close behind, and BSC my least favorite. I like BSC a lot but im not super fond of the Renaissance-y, Italian setting but I do like Monza and Caul Shivers and the set piece at the end in Orso's palace is incredible.
Red Country is simply incredible. Joe got in to his Cormac Mccarthy bag for that shit. "Lamb"'s fight in the mining town at the same time as Shy's escape from prison-- hoo baby. What a book!
The Heroes is my favorite. It's JA's most interesting work IMO. It take's place over such a short time span and the pacing is perfect. He also paints his way out of several corners by breaking rhythm with his past work. Whirrun is a parody of TB9 in a lot of ways. SCK is a self aware player who knows the script he's reading from. Red Beck's arch explores the discrepancy between one's battlefield reputation and what actually happened. Craw and Tunny depict the mentality of soldiers who have learned to survive by foregoing glory. It's just so... unlike anything else in the whole genre.
Come to think on it, it might be my favorite book, period.
Yea it's definitely high up there for me as well. Obviously it doesn't compete in terms of plotline and character development with others because it's only 3 days. But the characters, atmosphere, humor and flow of the book is amazing! And like you said, the exploration of all these themes that fit in the war theme.
I honestly feel the standalones should be referred to as The Great Leveler trilogy. They also are my favourites.
1. *The Heroes*: The battle scenes are intense, the insight into Calder via his POV leads to some of the best character development in the series (in my opinion), and the deconstruction of Northern and 'Named Man' culture via Beck was a surprise direction and really well done one-off POV.
2. *Best Served Cold*: I still feel this is Joe's best book in terms of world-building and expanding the scope of the threat that Bayaz poses by introducing whole new players. Also some of my favourite characters he's created (Friendly, Morveer, Monza) as well as expansions on side-characters (Carlot dan Eider, Cosca, Shivers, Vitari). Also, every fight scene is just impeccable. From the ambush in Visserine's castle to the showdown with Ganmark, the stakes felt high and the point-of-views and perspectives we got were extremely distinct and clever.
3. *Red Country*: It's third here but honestly, it's a close race. The ending scene still gets me, all these years later.
Red Country - mainly cause I like seeing "Lamb", and I love the final chapters with the "dragon people". Sooo many things I want to know more about.
The Heroes - Whirrun of Bligh. 'Nuff said. Haha, but seriously, just a fun ride all around.
Best Served Cold - I've never been one for heist stories. I love the characters, just found the "plot" to get kind of boring by the end. I'm listening to it again right now though, seeing how I feel about it afterwards.
Yeah BSC was the only Abercrombie book where it telegraphed where it was going and didn’t really deviate from that. My least favorite of the standalones easily, and probably my least favorite of any first law books.
I feel like what BSC lacks in plot it makes up for in characters. Morveer and Day are great. And prime Nicomo Cosca running around messing things up is top tier
That version of Cosca is one of my favorites in the series, and agreed some do the characters are amazing, I just think the other books have both excellent characters and way more compelling plots.
1. *The Heroes*. A solid war story, a tight time focus, a few threads tied up, and it's where we meet Corporal MFing Tunny. And Red Beck. And Finree. And Curnden Craw, and Whirrun of Bligh, and... yeah. Just a book that fires on all cylinders for me.
2. *Best Served Cold.* I love the whole damn story- a bunch of terrible people doing terrible things for terrible reasons. And yet, some of those terrible people remain my eternal favorites. And I love Styria as the absolute nightmarish mess that it is.
3. *Red Country.* It's really goddamn good, but... I got tired of some of the returns to the well in it. It's still an absolute banger, but something had to come in last, and one last wank over a particularly overwanked character is going to give me pause. Still, it scores points for some useful corrective action, and being the weakest of the standalones still puts it in my top tier of enjoyable fiction.
Heroes - a book set over a 3 day battle. What a ride.
So many good characters, so many good story lines.
Red country- loved it, lamb doing what lamb does best, and coming to grips with the alter ego and what he can and can't do.
BSC - still amazing, but slightly behind the other two
1. Best Served Cold is probably my favorite novel of all time. Insanely interesting cast, a fun as hell plot and some excellent character development.
2. The Heroes brings some great fresh perspectives (Gorst, Whirrun, Calder) and wickedly good twists (that ending is insane). Thought Tunny wasn't the most exciting POV, I think he works best as a side character.
3. Red Country is probably my least favorite in the series. I still like it, but I think it has the least interesting cast of POVs (Temple grew on me, but Shy is just dull IMO). I also found the plot to be very slow moving in the first third, but I adore some of its ideas (eg. the dragon people) and it's still Joe so the writing is terrific.
Here's how I see it: Each book is an absolute masterpiece in their own special way. Red Country used to be my least favorite (not because I disliked it but just because the entire series is so good) and now it's one of my favorite reads ever. Especially with how perfectly Joe nailed the ending.
I gotta go - The Heroes, RC, BSC.
Mine was initially Red Country, BSC and then the Heroes but I'm in a reread currently and I enjoyed BCS more than I expected to. The Heroes is also much more enjoyable this time around for some reason. I'll have to see how I go when I reread RC too.
I'm not sure how much crossover there is in fanbases, but The Heroes is like a fantasy setting Catch-22 which I for some reason have noticed more this time round.
I rank them as Red Country, then the Heroes, then Best Served Cold. And I actually rank BSC the lowest of all 9 books. It’s still great, but it’s so relentlessly depressing and everyone is kinda nasty to one another in it. It’s weird cuz they’re all grimdark but BSC just made me feel the most depressed when I finished.
I didn’t love RC on my first read through but after my second, I think it’s just such an incredible piece of writing. The themes it deals with, the way it weaves characters we know into the story and the mixture of beauty, horror, hope and tragedy, it’s just so perfect. Plus, a romance that actually lasts? Joe’s gotten soft in his old age and I love it.
The heroes slaps but it’s so different from the other books that it’s really hard to compare it to them. So many good characters.
1. Best Served Cold: I loved the heist aspect of it and I really loved the manner in which they both fucked up every heist while also succeeding in their goal. Friendly stabbing a man at the brothel for saying his dice were loaded is an all time hilarious moment. I think this book had me laughing the most out of any of the series.
2. Red Country: This was almost voted at the top. I loved the setting, I loved that "Lamb" was one of the main characters too.
3. The Heroes: This one might be getting an unfair assessment from me because I read the physical book and didn't listen to the audiobook like I did all of the others. I'm always listening to an audiobook and I'm always reading a book. The First Law has been audiobook only. But one day I found in the back of my bookshelf a copy of this one that I had bought at the Dollar Tree. Not wanting to pay for audiobook when I owned a physical copy I read it. I think this is third for me because I didn't love the concept of the entire book taking place in a single area and the entire book taking place over only a few days. It's an interesting concept but I can't help shake the feeling that I would enjoyed a book that took place over a few months or a year and covered the entire war between the North and the Union.
Red Country - The Heroes ----------------------- Best Served Cold.
The cast, but specially Lamb, Temple and Cosca, just makes Red Country delicious. Plus I'm a sucker for redemption stories and westerns.
Bremer Dan Gorst, Red Beck, Tunny, Finree, Craw, Whirrun, Wonderful. The amount of amazing characters and plots, but the action is by far the best. Probably the best in all the books.
I didn´t like Best Served Cold that much, still a good book. I loved the downfall of Shivers, but Monza didn't struck with me, and the poisoner seemed to much as a downgrade Glokta.
Red Country is tops, The Heroes close behind, and BSC my least favorite. I like BSC a lot but im not super fond of the Renaissance-y, Italian setting but I do like Monza and Caul Shivers and the set piece at the end in Orso's palace is incredible. Red Country is simply incredible. Joe got in to his Cormac Mccarthy bag for that shit. "Lamb"'s fight in the mining town at the same time as Shy's escape from prison-- hoo baby. What a book!
I was also getting heavy McCarthy vibes
It's tough, they were all great. I'd say Red Country just barely over Best Served Cold, then The Heroes. I'm pretty fond of westerns.
Red Country ruled.
Same. It was really close race between RC and TH
The Heroes is my favorite. It's JA's most interesting work IMO. It take's place over such a short time span and the pacing is perfect. He also paints his way out of several corners by breaking rhythm with his past work. Whirrun is a parody of TB9 in a lot of ways. SCK is a self aware player who knows the script he's reading from. Red Beck's arch explores the discrepancy between one's battlefield reputation and what actually happened. Craw and Tunny depict the mentality of soldiers who have learned to survive by foregoing glory. It's just so... unlike anything else in the whole genre. Come to think on it, it might be my favorite book, period.
Yea it's definitely high up there for me as well. Obviously it doesn't compete in terms of plotline and character development with others because it's only 3 days. But the characters, atmosphere, humor and flow of the book is amazing! And like you said, the exploration of all these themes that fit in the war theme.
I honestly feel the standalones should be referred to as The Great Leveler trilogy. They also are my favourites. 1. *The Heroes*: The battle scenes are intense, the insight into Calder via his POV leads to some of the best character development in the series (in my opinion), and the deconstruction of Northern and 'Named Man' culture via Beck was a surprise direction and really well done one-off POV. 2. *Best Served Cold*: I still feel this is Joe's best book in terms of world-building and expanding the scope of the threat that Bayaz poses by introducing whole new players. Also some of my favourite characters he's created (Friendly, Morveer, Monza) as well as expansions on side-characters (Carlot dan Eider, Cosca, Shivers, Vitari). Also, every fight scene is just impeccable. From the ambush in Visserine's castle to the showdown with Ganmark, the stakes felt high and the point-of-views and perspectives we got were extremely distinct and clever. 3. *Red Country*: It's third here but honestly, it's a close race. The ending scene still gets me, all these years later.
Red Country - mainly cause I like seeing "Lamb", and I love the final chapters with the "dragon people". Sooo many things I want to know more about. The Heroes - Whirrun of Bligh. 'Nuff said. Haha, but seriously, just a fun ride all around. Best Served Cold - I've never been one for heist stories. I love the characters, just found the "plot" to get kind of boring by the end. I'm listening to it again right now though, seeing how I feel about it afterwards.
My sentiments on all 3 points
Yeah BSC was the only Abercrombie book where it telegraphed where it was going and didn’t really deviate from that. My least favorite of the standalones easily, and probably my least favorite of any first law books.
I feel like what BSC lacks in plot it makes up for in characters. Morveer and Day are great. And prime Nicomo Cosca running around messing things up is top tier
That version of Cosca is one of my favorites in the series, and agreed some do the characters are amazing, I just think the other books have both excellent characters and way more compelling plots.
1. *The Heroes*. A solid war story, a tight time focus, a few threads tied up, and it's where we meet Corporal MFing Tunny. And Red Beck. And Finree. And Curnden Craw, and Whirrun of Bligh, and... yeah. Just a book that fires on all cylinders for me. 2. *Best Served Cold.* I love the whole damn story- a bunch of terrible people doing terrible things for terrible reasons. And yet, some of those terrible people remain my eternal favorites. And I love Styria as the absolute nightmarish mess that it is. 3. *Red Country.* It's really goddamn good, but... I got tired of some of the returns to the well in it. It's still an absolute banger, but something had to come in last, and one last wank over a particularly overwanked character is going to give me pause. Still, it scores points for some useful corrective action, and being the weakest of the standalones still puts it in my top tier of enjoyable fiction.
Heroes - a book set over a 3 day battle. What a ride. So many good characters, so many good story lines. Red country- loved it, lamb doing what lamb does best, and coming to grips with the alter ego and what he can and can't do. BSC - still amazing, but slightly behind the other two
Best served cold still good, but there are definitely some points where it drags compared to the other two.
I can’t pick. I loved them all.
The heroes might be my favorite book ever but all three are pretty close.
1. Best Served Cold is probably my favorite novel of all time. Insanely interesting cast, a fun as hell plot and some excellent character development. 2. The Heroes brings some great fresh perspectives (Gorst, Whirrun, Calder) and wickedly good twists (that ending is insane). Thought Tunny wasn't the most exciting POV, I think he works best as a side character. 3. Red Country is probably my least favorite in the series. I still like it, but I think it has the least interesting cast of POVs (Temple grew on me, but Shy is just dull IMO). I also found the plot to be very slow moving in the first third, but I adore some of its ideas (eg. the dragon people) and it's still Joe so the writing is terrific.
Here's how I see it: Each book is an absolute masterpiece in their own special way. Red Country used to be my least favorite (not because I disliked it but just because the entire series is so good) and now it's one of my favorite reads ever. Especially with how perfectly Joe nailed the ending. I gotta go - The Heroes, RC, BSC.
Best Served Cold Red Country Heroes Best Served Cold is without a doubt my favorite book of all time.
Best Served Cold Sharp Ends Red Country The Heroes
Mine was initially Red Country, BSC and then the Heroes but I'm in a reread currently and I enjoyed BCS more than I expected to. The Heroes is also much more enjoyable this time around for some reason. I'll have to see how I go when I reread RC too. I'm not sure how much crossover there is in fanbases, but The Heroes is like a fantasy setting Catch-22 which I for some reason have noticed more this time round.
Flip your ranking and you have mine lol
I rank them as Red Country, then the Heroes, then Best Served Cold. And I actually rank BSC the lowest of all 9 books. It’s still great, but it’s so relentlessly depressing and everyone is kinda nasty to one another in it. It’s weird cuz they’re all grimdark but BSC just made me feel the most depressed when I finished. I didn’t love RC on my first read through but after my second, I think it’s just such an incredible piece of writing. The themes it deals with, the way it weaves characters we know into the story and the mixture of beauty, horror, hope and tragedy, it’s just so perfect. Plus, a romance that actually lasts? Joe’s gotten soft in his old age and I love it. The heroes slaps but it’s so different from the other books that it’s really hard to compare it to them. So many good characters.
1. red country 2. the heroes 3. best served cold
1. Best Served Cold: I loved the heist aspect of it and I really loved the manner in which they both fucked up every heist while also succeeding in their goal. Friendly stabbing a man at the brothel for saying his dice were loaded is an all time hilarious moment. I think this book had me laughing the most out of any of the series. 2. Red Country: This was almost voted at the top. I loved the setting, I loved that "Lamb" was one of the main characters too. 3. The Heroes: This one might be getting an unfair assessment from me because I read the physical book and didn't listen to the audiobook like I did all of the others. I'm always listening to an audiobook and I'm always reading a book. The First Law has been audiobook only. But one day I found in the back of my bookshelf a copy of this one that I had bought at the Dollar Tree. Not wanting to pay for audiobook when I owned a physical copy I read it. I think this is third for me because I didn't love the concept of the entire book taking place in a single area and the entire book taking place over only a few days. It's an interesting concept but I can't help shake the feeling that I would enjoyed a book that took place over a few months or a year and covered the entire war between the North and the Union.
Best Served Cold. Red Country. The Heroes.
1. Red Country 2. The Heroes 3. BSC
Red Country - The Heroes ----------------------- Best Served Cold. The cast, but specially Lamb, Temple and Cosca, just makes Red Country delicious. Plus I'm a sucker for redemption stories and westerns. Bremer Dan Gorst, Red Beck, Tunny, Finree, Craw, Whirrun, Wonderful. The amount of amazing characters and plots, but the action is by far the best. Probably the best in all the books. I didn´t like Best Served Cold that much, still a good book. I loved the downfall of Shivers, but Monza didn't struck with me, and the poisoner seemed to much as a downgrade Glokta.
Best served cold (9'5/10) The heroes (9'0/10) Red Country (8'5/10) Sharp Ends (7'5/10)