The Heroes
Ratings189
Average rating4.2
Three days battle in the North from Lord Grim Dark
So many various, interesting characters already in the first couple chapters and it’s so good to see how characters change as the story progresses. Also there's a very well made, kinda natural recap of the most important events from previous books. Although some characters have too many descriptions and inner monologues in their chapters.
Abercrombie captured the three days battle from every possible angle—young, scared men with no experience, generals, great swordsmen, strange and furious Northmen. You can feel the heavy atmosphere of war in the air with detailed and very helpful maps, fast, chaotic fights and, of course, fantastic chained points of view during battles. But there’s also a bit too much politics with too many names of various officers and their relationships.
It could've been a bit better, especially after the perfect Best Served Cold, but I still want to read all the spin offs.
I've read just about every book Abercrombie has written in the First Law series and this one is probably the best. The Heroes is action packed, fast paced, exciting, but most importantly an earnest and damning examination of the violent people he often glamorizes in other books.
Abercrombie writes a lot about the pointlessness of war and the waste of human life but he's never been so focused on his critique of violence as he is in The Heroes. War is not glamorous, and “heroes” as they are often worshipped in his stories are nothing more than ordinary people that can swing a sword and have been lucky to survive long enough to earn a name... names that are soon forgotten once they've been put “back to the mud.” Abercrombie is usually really good at weaving complex morality into his tales, but he's at his best in The Heroes.
It also sets up the Age of Madness trilogy and frame those books in a new light. Calder is now one of my favourite characters and I really didn't see that coming and it makes me want to re read that entire trilogy!
Anyway, yeah, damn good read.
This is a book with all the hallmarks of Abercrombie's writing, except for a very critical one: an intriguing plot. Otherwise, the writing is engaging, the characters are unique and well-developed, and it's all infused with the gritty anti-heroic Abercrombie magic throughout. But it wasn't a compelling read for me.
He did something interesting by placing the entirety of the book over the course of a few days of a battle. I respect him for trying. But ultimately, it was not a compelling read, and from about the middle of the book onwards, it was a true slog to finish.
Ah, I'm just a fan-boy. I think no-one comes close to Abercrombie at writing characters that slowly reveal themselves to their essence (Gorst...) Nor are able to describe a fighting scene where banality and fate take over heroics
Well this book was a slog, just like a war but I feel quite satisfied after finishing it. I don't know why it took so long. It seemed every time I picked it up I got interrupted or had started too late in the evening to keep awake. But that's not to say the book put me to sleep. Far from it. Some of my favorite scenes in fantasy are in this book. The moment where Craw says his last goodbye to Beck is gold. And I very much like the way Mr. Abercrombie is weaving a lofty back story of Bayaz and the Dark ones high above the heads of these genre novels. Nice bits for us fans of the Dogman, Shivers, and Logen too. All in all an excellent read. Just don't expect to rush through it, i fyou're anything like me.
I thought this was great, but not quite as good as the previous books in the series. Still going on my faves list!
Executive Summary: My new favorite Joe Abercrombie book!Audio book: I know people swear by Steven Pacy, but I once again got Michael Page as the narrator. I can't compare the two, but I think Micheal Page is pretty good. He does some pretty good voices, though sometimes it's hard to tell the characters apart because while he mostly makes the Northmen and the Union sound different from one another they tended to sound similar to each other. He does a pretty good voice for Bremer dan Gorst though.Full ReviewI like Joe Abercrombie, but not as much as most of my friends seem to. I enjoyed the 4 previous First Law books, but haven't loved any of them. This one comes close though.This feels much more like a sequel to the original trilogy than [b:Best Served Cold 2315892 Best Served Cold Joe Abercrombie https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347732723s/2315892.jpg 2322406] did, but I'd say it's important to read that first or you'll be missing out on some important details for some of the characters here.We see the return of many of the characters from the original trilogy, a few of whom have been promoted to POV characters. There are only a handful of POVs during most of the book, but there a few parts where he does this sort of “Roving” POV that follows the action from person to person. I'm not sure if I'd have liked it if he did it for the whole book, but in the select places he used it, I thought it worked very well.I liked most of the POVs, but it's a toss up between Curnden Craw and Calder for being my favorite. They are very different characters, and Curden is certainly the more likable of the two, but I just really enjoyed the Smart “Coward” among all the “dumb” brutes of Calder's.Like his other series, he does include a strong female character, but compared to the others I found her by far the weakest/least interesting.This is Abercrombie's war book. Just like a real war, there is only a small amount of fighting, and an awful lot of waiting, speculating and planning. It's really in the in between moments that this book shines for me, but as expected Mr. Abercrombie writes some pretty great actions sequences too.I found the ending of this book to be immensely satisfying, much more so the both the First Law trilogy and Best Served cold. The only real reason this book isn't getting a 5 star rating for me is I found some of the lesser POV story lines far less interesting than the others. Overall a really good book though, Highly recommended.
This is the First Law standalone that I was most anticipating, and I'm really glad to say it mostly met my expectations!
The Heroes follows a three day battle from both sides as they fight a battle over...some hills known as The Heroes. And it has all the things a three day battle would entail- pointless death, the tedium of campaigning, violence, pointless death, politicking, commander hubris, great duels, pointless death.
Because without a doubt, Abercrombie has some things to say about war in this book. And for a book that is, on its face, about battles, it is certainly pretty critical of the whole shebang. The commentary on war was some of my favorite elements of this one, and what elevated it over Best Served Cold for me.
The character work was also, as always, excellent. Abercrombie was able to make me invested in several new characters - Craw, Whirrun, Finree, Beck- as well as several returning characters from the original trilogy that are expanded here. I also think The Heroes has some of his most “good” characters - most of (all?) the characters in the last four books are various levels of trash bags, but several characters in The Heroes I would describe as atleast mostly good people. It was refreshing.
Two of my favorite characters from the original trilogy return in this one, and one is utilized excellently and one is, unfortunately, just around for a cameo or two. The fight scenes were once again excellent, especially the more intimate fights. The chapter “Casualties” is one of the best chapters Abercrombie has written, showing a bunch of regular soldiers during battle. The humor was outstanding, once again. Genuine laugh out loud moments. The cheese trap!!! Now that's progress.
My only criticisms of this book is that one POV, Tunny, is just a waste of page time. I think the book would have had better pacing if he was cut. I also think Abercrombie got a bit too into his whole “there are no heroes” bit. We got it, Joe.
I'll leave you with a piece of wisdom by this book's real Hero, Whirrun of Bligh: “Armour is part of a state of mind in which you admit the possibility of being hit.”
9/10
5.5/10
I will have to reread this in written format. This rating might be unfair as I felt that most of the problems with pacing and me being confused all the time could be solved by reading the written version.
Definitely better than BSC. I've never read an action scene where it follows a character to his death and then transfers to the character who killed him. Simply brilliant. It was fun getting more character development of Shivers and Gorst. Can't wait to read the next one!
Like there are good B Movies there are good B Books. And this is one of them. But after all I can't give it more than three stars. Nice story, nice characters, but overall not much depth to it.
Although set in the same world as his First Law trilogy, it's not important to have read the trilogy first. (Though, I have – years ago – and Best Served Cold as well). Abercrombie always writes a good story. As I started this one, though, I had my doubts. It's essentially the tale of a battle that rages for a little over three days in some unremarkable area of the world near a walled town called Osrung. The Union forces are led by Marshal Kroy and the Northmen are led by Black Dow. There are dozens of characters we follow on both sides. Several of them will die. One of my favorite characters was Bremer dan Gorst, a huge hulking swordmaster with an unnaturally high squeaky voice. Another was Calder, a noted coward among the Northmen, but also a son of a deceased former king of the North. By the time I got to the last third of the book, I kept turning pages to see what would happen. Who would die? It was a very good ending too.
Its not a genre I've read much of. Its a well-written bloody book about three days of war. I would think it'd be an excellent one in this genre. Don't think its for me though.
Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie, say he writes a damn good book.
Nearly the entire book takes place around a hill in the North called The Heroes, named for the famous warriors who are supposedly buried beneath giant slabs of stone. There's been an ongoing war for years between the North and the Union, which both sides are growing tired of.
Abercrombie manages to work in some important worldbuilding throughout the book. While The Heroes works as a standalone novel, with viewpoint characters that at most played minor roles in the previous books, some questions from past books are answered. What happened to Shivers after the events in Best Served Cold? What's the general state of the North and Union after The Last Argument of Kings? And so on. Plus, there are some technological advancements mentioned briefly in this story that lay the groundwork for the new trilogy Abercrombie is planning to launch in 2019.
True to form, most of Abercrombie's characters are various shades of “likeable” asshole. Beautifully-written, complexly flawed assholes. They are motivated by fear, greed, self-preservation, lust, and generally anything that you're not likely to find associated with heroic figures.
There are roughly six main POV characters, evenly split between the armies of the North and the Union. Each POV is carefully chosen to show us a different experience of war. Fighting for the North, we get to see the story through the eyes of a disgraced former prince, an elderly and honorable warrior who just wants to retire, and a young man determined to win glory in battle. Fighting for the Union, there's an ambitious wife of a mild-mannered officer, a depressed and nearly suicidal fighter with an unhealthy appetite for killing, and a jaded corporal who has to help the new recruits.
Abercrombie is renowned for his skill with crafting characters. He's mastered the art portraying characters with contrasting values and motivations. For example, a character might seem like a misunderstood man bent on redemption, and yet also be a depraved murderer who thinks only of themselves.
It isn't easy to sum up the plot of a book that is mostly one giant battle. In a broad sense, the story covers the climactic end of the war between the warriors of the North and the armies of the Union.
However, the story is more accurately described as a series of six interwoven character arcs that take place before, during, and after the battle. Unlikeable characters come close to redemption, likable characters fall from grace, and some find themselves nearly exactly where they started.
More than half the book is a multi-day battle, but I never felt like the fight scenes drug on too long. One fight scene, in particular, might be my favorite in all of fantasy, with a brilliant use of POV switching. There were plenty of “quieter” scenes that focused on character interactions to complement the bloody scenes.
The prose and dialogue are both skillfully done. Characters talked like real people, and the banter had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion. Abercrombie also manages to string together words that are both crass and beautiful, never spending too long on descriptions or resorting to flowery prose.
One of the central themes of this book was that there are no heroes. People act in their own self-interest more often than not, and those that are truly selfless are quickly forgotten. A little bleak, maybe, but still a powerful theme for the book.
The characters, humor, grit, and dynamic worldbuilding all made this a fantastic read. The audio narration is done by the incredibly-talented Steven Pacey, who manages to make an excellent book even better.