Half a War
2015 • 512 pages

Ratings65

Average rating4

15

Executive Summary: An enjoyable conclusion to a series I didn't think I would like after the first book.Full ReviewWell I read this book in a single day, so that should be a good indicator I liked it. Mind you, I spent 8 hours of that day either sitting in an airport or on a plane, but still.I really didn't think I'd continue this series after [b:Half a King 18666047 Half a King (Shattered Sea, #1) Joe Abercrombie https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389378321s/18666047.jpg 25641726] (My Review). It was well written, but predictable and uninteresting. It made me thought Mr. Abercrombie should stick to adult fare.However reviews for [b:Half the World 22055283 Half the World (Shattered Sea, #2) Joe Abercrombie https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1402314017s/22055283.jpg 40431126] were all talking about how much better it was. I enjoyed it a lot (My Review), probably the best of the trilogy.This book was a close second though. I feel like this book was even darker than the last, though nothing like his First Law books.There were once again great characters, and great world building. Part of me would like to know more about the elves and their ancient “magic”, but I think I'm largely happy to speculate about what happened rather than having a definitive answer.The new POVs in this book are once again solid, though for me personally I enjoyed Thorn and Brand better. Skara was probably my favorite of the three.It's hard to say much more without spoiling this or previous books in the series, but I'm glad I gave the series a second chance. The last two books are about as good as anything else Mr. Abercrombie's written, albeit not quite so dark.Overall, I thought this was a good conclusion to the series, though a slightly weaker book overall than the second. I think most fans of Mr. Abercrombie will be happy with this series as a whole.

August 27, 2015