For glory. For victory. For staying alive.

I may have waited too long to write this review. I read The Heroes over a month ago, as part of my Joe Abercrombie week-long reading frenzy, which started after I read his latest book, the excellent Half a King. I’ve actually owned a copy of this since the day it was released, but for some reason I’d never gotten around to reading it.

The Heroes is one of three (so far) standalone fantasy books set in Abercrombie’s First Law universe, all of which are set after that trilogy. There’s no need to read any of the other First Law books in order to enjoy The Heroes, but I’m sure I got some extra enjoyment out of it (not to mention there was way less of that initial disorientation you usually get when first reading new fantasy worlds) having done so.

The Heroes continues Abercrombie’s fictional experiment to fuck around with fantasy stories in the most interesting and gut-wrenching ways he can think of. This time, the entire book is focused on one battle, seen from both sides. He goes as small as possible, and we see the story from as many POVs as he can manage, so by the end we can fully comprehend just exactly how pointless the entire thing really was. The battle the characters are fighting is not only part of a larger war that has no meaning, other than it’s organized by people using the two sides as their puppets for who knows what reason, but the actual battle itself is for a hill in a town that has no significance whatsoever.

All of this is a just a really good excuse for Abercrombie to stick his characters in a perilous situation, put them through hell, and see what they’re made of. And, spoiler alert, the ‘what they’re made of’ part is the most indicative of Abercrombie fucking around with traditional fantasy stories. These aren’t Heroes like you’re used to seeing, title of this book aside. Actually, The Heroes is the name of the hill they’re fighting for, in a delightful bit of irony. The whole book sort of dismantles the notions of that one, glorious battle between forces of good and evil, that one battle that really matters, of death that is full of honor–that battle we’ve seen over and over again in fantasy. In The Heroes, there is no good and evil, only people. The battle doesn’t matter at all in the grand scheme of things, and death is meaningless and horrible, and full of fear.

The novel’s sentiment is perhaps best illustrated by my favorite character, Whirrun of Bligh. Warning, SPOILERS: Whirrun has been told how and when he will die by one who professes to see the future. As a result, he is fearless in battle, and the legendary sword he wields is passed from Named Man to Named Man, only when they’re worthy. Whirrun believes these things protect him, as do the other characters around him. So when Whirrun is killed in one of those meaningless skirmishes, and as he dies he realizes that the stories he has believed in his whole life aren’t true, it’s like a microcosm for the whole novel. Plus, also, of course he dies, because he was my favorite character.

It’s not only war that is questioned here. Abercrombie also questions supposedly solid ideas of masculinity, violence, heroism, femininity, and power. And he does it all with lots of irreverent swearing and some truly spectacular carnage. I recommend his stuff highly for fantasy fans, for dudes and ladies, for everybody. But yes, you should probably have a strong stomach.