Red Country

4.5/5

Hey, someone spilled a western novel all over my favourite fantasy saga! What is fresh hell is this?? It's actually one of Abercrombie's better books as it turns out.

I picked this up after finishing The Heroes and couldn't put it down. Gold rush towns, greedy prospectors, and a sprinkle of characters from previous books fleeing war and violence (or seeking it out) for a better life in “The Far Country”. It's definitely the most disconnected book from the ongoing First Law Saga as not much of consequence happens here to set up the next trilogy, but we do learn a bit more about the lore of the old empire, which is always welcome.

I can't spoil much in this book with my review. Just... if you're a fan of certain characters from The First Law you need to read this because it goes places. Lamb... oh Lamb. My favourite coward, shame he lost that finger at some point...

Had a great time reading this, Joe Abercrombie never disappoints. I'm thankful for going into this without reading the synopsis because it would have really ruined the surprise about Lamb for me.

Now that I've completed the First Law standalones I can finally move on to the Age of Madness trilogy woohoooo

“All struck with a madness of hope. Or of greed, depending on the observer's faith in humanity.”

Het uitgangspunt van Red Country heeft heel veel weg van een western, wat niet meteen mijn favoriete setting is. Dus opnieuw een First Law boek waar ik een beetje schoorvoetend in begon.
En ja, mijn favoriete Abercrombie is het niet geworden, maar het boeide mij voldoende om hem uit te lezen, wat van zijn voorganger niet gezegd kan worden.

“ A breeze blew up then and stirred the dust in the street and flapped the coats of the two men, no more than four or five strides of dirt between them.”

De setting had inderdaad veel elementen van een western: gelukszoekers, uitgestrekte landschappen, lange trektochten door een eentonig landschap, een scalperende inheemse bevolking en typische nederzettingen in een Wilde Westen-stijl vergezeld van de typische cast van inwoners.

Ook het uitgangspunt past in dit thema.
Alles draait rond Shy en haar stiefvader Lamb, die op zoek gaan naar de mannen die Shy's jongere broer en zus ontvoerden en hun vriend vermoorden. Zo sluiten ze aan bij een karavaan op weg naar een stadje ontstaan rond een goudmijn.

“All drunk on the chance of reaching into some freezing pool out there in the great empty and plucking up a new life with both hands. Leaving their humdrum selves behind on the bank like a shed skin and taking a short cut to happiness.”

Vanaf het begin krijgt de lezer hints dat sommige van de geïntroduceerde personages misschien niet zijn wie ze pretenderen te zijn. Sommige blijken zelfs oude bekenden te zijn. Dat laatste maakte mij heel enthousiast, maar uiteindelijk was dit ook wat mij het meest ontgoochelde.
De nieuwe personages waren vermakelijk en voelden echt aan, maar ze slaagden er niet meteen in mij volledig voor hen te winnen.

“One thing holding forth about justice at a thousand miles removed. Another having to press metal into flesh.”

Wat mij in deze boeken doet investeren, is de schrijfstijl van Abercrombie.
Zijn dialogen zijn altijd zeer levendig en vermakelijk. Zijn beschrijvingen kwamen tot leven in mijn hoofd en de POV's van zijn personages zijn direct herkenbaar en zeer levensecht.
De manier hoe hij de menselijke situatie beschrijft is enorm rauw en scherp en ik ben echt fan van hoe hij zaken tegelijkertijd poëtisch en platvloers naar voor kan brengen. Maar tegelijkertijd is het zijn voorliefde voor realisme tot pessimisme die er voor zorgen dat ik niet meteen kan zeggen dat ik hou van zijn boeken.

“A man of principle must make hard choices and suffer the consequences.”

Om eerlijk te zijn, begint Abercrombie's liefde voor het op zijn kop zetten van verwachtingen, zowel voor wat betreft de plot als de groei van zijn personages, zijn glans te verliezen.
In de eerste boeken die ik van hem las vond ik dit gedurfd, verfrissend en zelfs leuk. Maar nu voelt het alsof hij er alles aan zal doen om zijn verhalen zo somber, saai en zinloos mogelijk te maken. En uiteindelijk als lezer wil je toch iets van vooruitgang in een verhaal hebben en niet steeds weer te eindigen op dezelfde plek als je was begonnen.

“Evil turned out not to be a grand thing. Not sneering Emperors with world-conquering designs. Not cackling demons plotting in the darkness beyond the world. It was small men with their small acts and their small reasons. It was selfishness and carelessness and waste. It was bad luck, incompetence and stupidity. It was violence divorced from conscience or consequence. It was high ideals, even, and low methods.”

Dus uiteindelijk was dit boek gewoon oké voor mij. Het bevatte een aantal hele plezante en interessante stukjes, maar ook veel vervelende en irritante teleurstellingen.

Very good, plenty of action book, much better than Best Served Cold and about as good as Heroes.
It would have been a full 5 for me unless it were so overwrought with plenty of needless digressions and useless fillers, plus at least 2 ridiculous Hollywood style bullshit deus ex machina just to save the day.
There's a great Logen novel hidden in here and I absolutely loved it, but it amounts to (probably) only half the book.

I liked it a lot, but I have to say that I struggle to finish it also. It's good, I know Joe was reading westerns while he was writing this, and it shows. I really liked the ending but not every character was as memorable as other books. It was a fitting ending for one is the famous characters in the saga.
Overall good, far from his best work though.

My newest favorite from Abercrombie so far. He is always able to tell such a grim tale with his horrific and gritty characters, and it's in these player's down-spiraling arcs that makes me wish worship that guy even more. You know you're reading Abercrombie when you can easily root for the evil villains.

Red Country accounts everything we've seen in the First Law and concludes one final time in a westernized theme. Hell yeah!

On another note: I've been listening to this series on Audible and I'm glad I have, because Steven Pacey is an absolute gem of a narrator.

____

Audio read by: Steven Pacey

Executive Summary: Not as good as [b:The Heroes 9300768 The Heroes Joe Abercrombie https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1375671200s/9300768.jpg 12879765], but still quite enjoyable.Audio book: So in the US Steven Pacey reads the original First Law trilogy, but not the first two stand alone novels. Since I read the trilogy, this is the first time I've had him as a narrator. Now I wish I had listened to the trilogy. Mr. Pacey is excellent. I wish he was the narrator for The Heroes as well. I will definitely be on the look out for other books he narrates in the future.Full ReviewSo this book is almost impossible to review without spoilers, but I'm going to try. It's probably going to be a bit on the short side as a result.This book (like all of his in this world) has excellent characters. That's what makes Mr. Abercrombie's novels so enjoyable. They aren't necessarily likable characters, but they are definitely memorable.This book like the last two stand alone novels has a great mix of new characters with appearances of some old “favorites”. I'll refrain from naming which characters show up, and simply talk about the new ones a bit.Shy is pretty enjoyable character. I actually ran into her before in a short story in [b:Dangerous Women 17279560 Dangerous Women George R.R. Martin https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1370759802s/17279560.jpg 19236677]. Lamb is pretty awesome, especially later in the book. Meanwhile I went back and forth on Temple. I found him very annoying early on, and less so later on.For anyone whose watched Yojimbo (or more likely its unlicensed western remake: A Fistful of Dollars), there is a bit of that feel here. Thankfully this is not a retelling of that story, but likely a nod from Mr. Abercrombie.I found the book a little slow in places. But it was also really awesome in other places that made up for it well.Anyone who was a fan of the series so far, should enjoy this one as well.

3.5

I'm of the opinion that Abercrombie probably can't write a bad book, but he can certainly write a book that doesn't vibe with me that much and that is Red Country. Literally nothing about this book is bad. Everything about it is well done- Abercrombie did not forget how to write compellingly. The characters are all interesting, the dialogue is great, the action scenes are great. But if I never have to read about a character trying to save a wagon ever again, I will be a happy lad.

One thing that did actively bother me a bit about this book is how it was trying to “have its cake, and eat it too” in regards to this being a standalone. I think this is a terrible “standalone” book. Most of the best parts require previous knowledge and I would go as far as to say that an entire character's arc and existence isn't given enough context unless you've read previous books. However, Abercrombie doesn't come out and say this character's name or most of the reasons why this character would be doing the things they're doing. The way this character's arc wraps up leaves a lot to be desired from what actually happens in this book. From a narrative standpoint this bothered me a lot; pick a lane here.

But the book was still enjoyable for most of it. There's a scene in this book that is one of my favorite scenes in First Law so far. Overall, I'm glad to have spent time with the characters in this book, but I'm also happy to move on into Age of Madness (after Sharp Ends).

Joe Abercrombie returns with a third and final standalone novel set in a post-First Law universe, telling a story of revenge in a westernized world. After returning home to find their farm burned and a family friend slain, Shy South and her cowardly stepfather Lamb set out on the trail of the group responsible, venturing in the wild frontier known as the Far Country.

The back cover tells us that the past never stays buried, and finding his home burned down and his stepchildren stolen, it's clear in the first chapter that Lamb is already being put aside, and that Logen is coming back, ready for the black work to begin. His story here is a little similar to what we've read before of his exploits in the First Law trilogy, but this time rather than seeing a man trying to change, we see a man who seeming has managed to bury that part of himself, and having to let it loose again to get back what he loves. I think that little twist on things is enough to warrant the retread, and give us a proper sendoff for one of the most charismatic mass-murderers I've seen put on a page.

I think what helps with keeping things a little fresh is that Logen is always a secondary character in this story, and we see things through the eyes of Shy, instead. She has her own demons to deal with on the road, but, we also have to step into her shoes while she reconciles her image of the cowardly Lamb with the violent scenes he produces along the way. The other lead in the story is Temple, lawyer of the famed soldier of fortune, Nicomo Cosca, and he's actually a little strange to me. He goes through some ups and downs through the story, and while things look a little bleak at times, he ends up being one of the most hopeful characters I've seen in this series. The two play off each other pretty well and keep things moving pretty nicely over the course of the story, and bring a few laugh in their scenes together as well.

The cameos in the story, as usual with Abercrombie, are a delight. From the little touches like the oxen named Calder and Scale, to the full fledged cameos from minor characters, helping to tie off events in the 10 years of the story since Best Served Cold. Plus, in typical style, there's a few chapters that throw us around into the perspective of some real minor characters in the midst of some action, and I really love these chapters, there's always just a ton of flavour here.

I don't think this book did anything groundbreaking with the characters, but, I'd be lying if I didn't just enjoy seeing more of Logen in action, particularly towards the climax of the story. I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm looking forward to picking up A Little Hatred next.

Probably the worst of Abercrombie's books. I liked it for the old characters he brought back and some really cool moments, but much of it dragged and for some reason half the dialogue is made up of sarcastic one-liners. There's also too many “I'm 14 and this is deep” type of quotes. Abercrombie likes to criticize society through his characters, but it's usually too on the nose in this book.