Last Argument of Kings

4,5 stars The thing about this series was that when I was reading it I had a blast, but a few months later I always kind of... forgot why. I'm not saying it's for the lack of value, not at all, but the whole thing is written in a way that works so well together that it's kind of hard to point out that one or two or three elements that are the reason why the series is worth a read. It's so effortlessly easy for me at least to read that I have a hard time saying the best features of it. In general, the book is just very fluid. Sometimes I sat down to read for a bit, I looked up and I was 60 pages in. The prose and the story itself are created in a way that doesn't feel like it takes much of an effort for you to get into it. It's dark, genuinely, but something I enjoy about it is the fact that it's not shock horror kind of edgy dark. Those things can become too much very fast and then I have a hard time taking any of the work seriously. The characters are also still great. In the not good people way, of course, by now everyone should have realised that this book is a big pile of total fucking jerks. I mean hello, one of our protagonists is an inquisitor. A very witty one with dark humour that made me chuckle more than once, but Sand dan Glokta is one fucked up individual. Logen is actually really nice. When he doesn't snap and go into a superhuman rage to just murder whoever is closest to him. At least he tried. Bayaz... is a profoundly shitty person, who basically treats the Union as his plaything against his old enemy in the worst feud of history, because he can. Ferro just want to murder. Then there is Jezal. My sweet, sweet boy Jezal, who used to be the single most stupid, selfish, ridiculous idiot on the planet. And fuck me, I actually managed to genuinely care about him, because he became such a vulnerable man who just can't handle not trying to help. He can't really make a difference when everything is going to shit, but he tries so hard. I have no idea how Mr. Abercrombie managed to make me like Jezal so much, but the dude needs someone to protect him. (Ardee can go to hell, though, they deserved each other when Jezal was a dickbag, but now that he became such a genuinely caring person that alcoholic psycho woman of profound “nobody gets me” doesn't deserve him) In the end he is like Quentin Clearwater from the much less loved series of [b:The Magicians 6101718 The Magicians (The Magicians #1) Lev Grossman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg 6278977]And then there is West, who I love. I don't care, I just... love him. And now for the reason why I took away half a star from a series I loved. What the fuck was that ending? WHAT? I am not going to lie, I was a bit disappointed in how nothing really got resolved, other than the war. Sure, some good things happened, but everyone is being fucked by Bayaz, Logen being fucked over, Ferro going to FINALLY actually take her revenge... I just don't feel like anything got resolved for anyone. Now you can say that this gave the series a unique flavour or whatever, but I don't think all of the things happening paid off and that bothers me. We had so many story lines and characters and conflicts and then we end up with "ehhh, whatever"? So at this point I would definitely recommend this series to many, many people, as it's truly great. I know there are short stories or such still left that add some things to the main body of the thing, but the issue is, I am not a lover of that format, so for now I consider myself to be done with this series. It was definitely one of the highlights of my reading of 2017 and I feel content with starting out the year with finishing this one. Good night and... what now? Are we done? Is this the end of it?