First, if you haven’t read Joe Abercrombie before, I highly recommend checking out his First Law trilogy. It’s a great exploration/takedown of classic fantasy tropes with some great and very memorable characters. It’s probably most representative of his writing style and the things he likes to write about.
But if you don’t feel like reading three rather large books as an intro to an author, Half a King would do nicely as well. Keep in mind, however, this is technically YA, although it’s unlike any YA I’ve ever read, and basically the only reason for that categorization given by the story is that the protagonist is young. Honestly, if nobody had told me it was YA going in, I wouldn’t have known. Abercrombie certainly tames down his language and violence, but again, if I’d never read Abercombie I wouldn’t have known that, because toned down Abercrombie is still pretty profane and violent, and the way he writes his characters is adult in pretty much every sense of the word. Anyway, fuck things being categorized as YA. This is just a rip-roaring good yarn, and both of its two sequels are being published next year, so practically no waiting!
As for the plot, Half a King follows Yarvi, the youngest son of a King who has always been seen by his father as a weakling due to his studious nature and small stature, and more importantly, to a disabled hand he’s had since birth. When Yarvi’s father and older brother are killed unexpectedly, he is forced to become King, a position exactly no one expects him to succeed in. And then some other stuff happens I’m not going to tell you about because this book is too much fun to spoil, but basically it’s not going to go where you think it’s going to go.
What I will say: I love the characters, particularly one called ‘Nothing.’ The way Abercrombie treats Yarvi’s disability is also really fascinating. The book is by turns horrifying, moving, and even funny; and by the time several ending events have hit you, you realize how tightly the book was put together, and it forms this gorgeous whole. I read it practically in one sitting, and I enjoyed myself quite thoroughly. If you like fantasy at all, you pretty much need to read this. Maybe you won’t like it as much as I did, but I’m pretty sure you’ll like it a lot.
Joe Abercrombie is fantastic (if you haven’t yet read Red Country it’s my all time favorite). I rushed to get this and wasn’t disappointed by the slight YA bent. If anything it actually made for a smother read, some scenes in First Law are so skitchy that its tough to get through (still love it however). Since I won’t get around to writing my own review I hope it’s OK if I jump on yours :)
So much fantasy is based on the theme that the evil uncle plots to steal the throne from the young but noble prince. The prince goes out and slays dragons, finds magic amulets, meets and nice a girl, and generally gets it together to come back and take back the throne. Half A King blows that up in an entertaining and original story. There was truly no moment in the book where you could accurately predict what would come next. And yet the story moved forward in a very organic and believable way.
Joe Abercrombie and Mark Lawrence are taking fantasy in such fresh and fun directions I simply can’t wait to see what they’ll come up with next.
Yup, I’ve now read everything Abercrombie has written! Review for that should be posting sometime this week?
I haven’t read Mark Lawrence yet. He’s on my list, but I’ve heard some things that make me think I probably won’t like his stuff very much. We’ll see.
Adore Lawrence. Full stop. Prince of Fools might be more accessible if the violent antihero isn’t you cup of tea?
Anti-heroes on their own usually aren’t, no. But it pains me to read things out of order!
I haven’t read anything by Abercrombie, but this sounds like it’s something I would really be interested in ~ putting it on the list!
Do it!
Narfna, why do you always write so well about books I haven’t read yet? And we tend to agree on the exact same kinds of books. I’m pretty sure you are to blame for a good 20% of the books on my ever increasing TBR list. It’s not like I’m not 15 reviews behind already and can barely find the time to read because of my stupid teaching job (and that’s before the kids start handing in essays that I have to grade). Now I’m going to have to add this to my list, too. *resigned sigh*
Mwahaahahaha.