Half a King

Executive Summary: Well written, but predictable.Full ReviewI like Joe Abercrombie. I consider him one of my favorite writers, but I don't love him like some of my friends seem to. Sometimes the dark fantasy is just a bit too much for me. So I was looking forward to seeing how he'd do in a Young Adult demographic.I thought for such a short book, it was way overpriced so I opted to wait until I could borrow it from the library. I'm glad I did.The book is very well written, but as expected far too short. The world building is almost non existent and the character development apart from the main character isn't much better. Contrast that with something like [b:Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 3 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1) J.K. Rowling https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361572757s/3.jpg 4640799] which is just as short but has far more of both.I think Mr. Abercrombie is so used to writing longer “grimdark” that by the time he toned things down for a younger audience he wasn't left with much. But for me the biggest disappointment is the characters. After the memorable characters from his others books, I found that I just didn't care about any of the characters in this book all that much.That said, even a “bad” Joe Abercrombie book seems to be much better than a lot of other stuff out there and I will continue on when the next book comes out, but I'm sure I'll once again wait to borrow it from the library instead of rushing out to buy it.