Tidbits from the world of the First Law.

This is a solid 3.5 star anthology collection. Most of the stories were good, not great, and a few were wonderful. I’m thinking particularly of “The Beautiful Bastard,” which shows us a pre-Gurkish torture ruination Glokta, and the very entertaining “Two’s Company,” which takes two characters that form the backbone of this collection, and pairs them with my personal favorite Abercrombie character, Whirrun of Bligh, aka Cracknut (’cause his nut is cracked).

Even though all of these stories could be read on their own, Abercrombie made a smart call by including four stories spaced out through the collection that follow the pair of unlikely friends, Shevedieh and Javre, the Lioness of Hoskopp. The stories featuring those two are connected by not just characters, but also by a loose overarching plot that is actually somewhat resolved. The best thing about this decision is that it sort of negated my biggest complaint that I usually have with short story anthologies. I have a really hard time truly enjoying them because without time to get invested, they don’t engage my emotions. Even if a story collection is clever or surprising or something else, if I don’t have the old emotions along for the ride, I’m not going to like your book. Spreading these two knuckleheads across the collection tricked my brain into thinking there was something like that going on, plus it actually gave me time to get to know those characters.

This is a must-read for Abercrombie fans, but I don’t recommend it for anyone who hasn’t read all of his First Law novels. A lot of the stories are only interesting and make sense if you know what they’re referencing, i.e. the one that takes three very violent incidence from Best Served Cold and shows us three random bystanders who get caught in the crosshairs of Monza Murcatto’s revenge plan. Only, it doesn’t tell you that’s what’s going on, and if you haven’t read that book, you will have no fucking clue what’s going on. Some stories make sense logistically, but you won’t care about them if you haven’t met the characters before, like the one that checks in with Craw’s gang of Named Men, or the one that gives us Bethod’s side of his break with Logen.

I do wish that some of the stories had been able to stand on their own a bit more. I also found myself constantly trying to remember the books, because Abercombie has this habit of shoving in Easter eggs all over the fucking place, and you only spot them if you know his work. I don’t like feeling like I’ve missed or forgotten things, and some of this felt like that. Overall, though, worth it. I do hope he plans to write more actual books set in this world, but I do think I really need to re-read at some point.

Breakdowns and ratings for each story if you click through to my Goodreads review.

[3.5 stars]