The Heroes

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And its books where I continue to think on them after I've put them down that show a talented writer. Mr. Abercrombie you have a new fan. Cuentan que Dow el Negro ha llegado al trono del Norte subiendo una montaña de calaveras. Mientras, el rey de la Unión ha decidido que hay que pararle los pies y sus ejércitos ya han invadido el Norte. Miles de hombres están convergiendo en un antiguo círculo de rocas (los Héroes), en un valle anónimo que se convertirá en escenario de una de las batallas más sangrientas que el Norte ha presenciado. Al mismo tiempo, los dos bandos están infestados de intrigas, rencillas y envidias, que hacen el final imprevisible... Continuing my recent Joe Abercrombie First Law binge with the second standalone story, The Heroes. But, do not be fooled by the title. There are no heroes, just in keeping with everything in this world to date. No glory. No winners. No heroes. As always, most of the characters are self-serving, calculating and traitorous figures with a variety of power, with the main goal being just to survive. But, despite that, as a reader I love to accompany them. The man in the golden armour had floundered to a riderless horse and was dragging himself drunkenly into the saddle. There were corpses everywhere: horses and men, Union and Northman, sprawled on the shingle, bobbing in the ford, carried gently by the soft current. He hardly saw any Union cavalry left. Only Northmen, weapons raised, nudging their horses cautiously towards him. Es una "fantasía" dura, muy sombría, militar; Abercrombie no rehuye mostrar el horror de la guerra. Además física como mentalmente, a los participantes, novatos y los más curtidos de las batallas.

It's an excellent tale and arguably Abercrombie's best book yet ... Its pace really showcases his talent for differently voiced and realistically motivated characters ... any genre fan can enjoy what's one of the best fantasy books of the past year." --- SciFi Now (5 star review)

That isn’t the only reason I hated the novel, but it did piss me off the most. Nothing speaks the word redundancy more than an overly used metaphor. The entire novel also felt restrictive. It is essentially one big battle sequence. So, its layers of action upon action in the same boring place. I hated the end. I hated the beginning too. And I especially hated the middle. This is Joe Abercrombie’s worse book. Please bear in mind that I’m actually a big fan of this author. I’ve read all of his books, and this is the only one I strongly dislike. So, don’t hate me. I do like Joe Abercrombie, but not this book. The idea of writing a whole book about one battle over the course of three days felt somehow both refreshing and stale. I've never read a fantasy book that has such a limited scope before, which will good also made me hungry for the larger world and the grand scope of things that the First Law Trilogy did so well. The thing I like is Abercrombie’s writing, the humor works for me most of the time, it is atmospheric and the moral compass of all the characters is broken! There are very good quotes and the internal monologue of some of the characters is the best thing ever (Gorst gets a special mention). I can’t say I connected to the characters as much as I wanted to but it was still good.

Lasmark sprang at the shield with the bridge, for some reason barely taking note of the man behind it. Perhaps he wanted to pretend there was no man behind it. His sword instructor would have been livid with him. Before he got there a spear caught his breastplate, sent him stumbling. The point scraped past and he swung at the man who thrust it, an ugly-looking fellow with a badly broken nose. The sword split his skull open and brains flew out. It was surprisingly easy to do. Swords are heavy and sharp, he supposed, even cheap ones. Wetterlant simply turned away. ‘We stand! We stand and fight!’ He was a proud man of a proud family, and he would stand. He would stand until the bitter end, if necessary, and die fighting with sword in hand, as his grandfather was said to have done. He would die under the regimental colours. Well, he wouldn’t, in fact, because that boy he ran through had torn them from the pole when he fell. But Wetterlant would stand, there was no question. He had often told himself so. Usually while admiring his reflection in the mirror after dressing for one official function or another. Straightening his sash.The first time I fell in love with grimdark fantasy novels was after reading The First Law Trilogy, and The Heroes will mark the fourth time his book entering my favorites of all time shelves. Thank you for reminding me once more why I love grimdark fantasy novels. All hail Joe Abercrombie, the Lord of Grimdark. I absolutely recommend The Heroes to fans of grimdark or military fantasy. I’m closing this review with this little beautiful quote or advice from the book that I think every one of us should always try to remember. Con una gran habilidad Abercrombie consigue que llevando unos pocos capítulos leídos nos resulte imposible soltar el libro. Si tengo que mencionar una cosa de este autor es que sabe cómo escribir frases y personajes memorables dándole a todo un gran toque de realismo y se nota que es algo que domina muy bien.