Characters make major consequential decisions that seem to fit whatever outline Abercrombie had for the plot, while not even noticing or mentioning obvious options B or C that would have made sense for all involved. I just didn't want to spend any more time with these folks, but it's a loooong book and you're stuck with them. Vick, is there a single interesting things about her? Savine is an unsympathetic frontrunner, he tries to humanize her with adversity but it's very clumsy.

Rikke is such a 1990s Manic Pixie Dream Girl cliche that I'm embarrassed for him. There's none on the level of Ninefingers, Ferro, Cosca, Glokta, Monza, etc, and the new ones are either grating or all over the map - it feels like JA sketched them out and gave them each the requisite 3-4 tics but never could quite get a handle on them. What really kills it are the POV characters though, which were the high point of all his previous stuff. The final 1/3rd of this last book picks up a little steam, but the mood gets killed by predictable 'twists' that just fit Abercrombie's earlier templates and plus major plot & characterization holes.

This series crams in enough dramatic society-changing events for 10 trilogies, but aside from JA's usual wisecracking dialogue it's done in such plodding broad strokes and so much repetitive inner monolgues that there's rarely a sense of tension or momentum. 'No one writes with the seismic scope or primal intensity of Joe Abercrombie.' (Pierce Brown)īy far the weakest of Abercrombie's books. The banks have fallen, the sun of the Union has been torn down, and in the darkness behind the scenes, the threads of the Weaver's ruthless plan are slowly being drawn together. And in the bloody North, Rikke and her fragile Protectorate are running out of allies.while Black Calder gathers his forces and plots his vengeance. Orso will find that when the world is turned upside down, no one is lower than a monarch. With nothing left to lose, Citizen Brock is determined to become a new hero for the new age, while Citizeness Savine must turn her talents from profit to survival before she can claw her way to redemption.

Now that belief will be tested in the crucible of revolution: The Breakers and Burners have seized the levers of power, the smoke of riots has replaced the smog of industry, and all must submit to the wisdom of crowds. Some say that to change the world you must first burn it down. From the New York Times best-selling author of A Little Hatred comes a stunning fantasy novel that finds the world in an unstoppable revolution where heroes have nothing left to lose as darkness and destruction overtake everything.

Wisdom of the crowds joe abercrombie