Best Served Cold

Recent Comments

1. 

   Greg @ 2:55 am

   When the infamous mercenary captain, Monza Murcatto, seems to be getting too powerful, her employer, Duke Orso, attempts to have her and Benna, Monza’s next-in-command, killed. Short work is made of Benna, but, by a cruel twist of fate, Monza survives, just barely. And her quest for vengeance sets a spark to the powder-keg that is the country of Styria during the Years of Blood.

   Best Served Cold is a stand-alone novel that takes place in the same world as Joe Abercrombie’s acclaimed The First Law series. To his many fans (of which I’m certainly one), I say: you’ll be more than pleased with Best Served Cold. Along with a colorful array of new characters — criminals, henchmen, assassins, power-hungry nobles, and mercenaries — several of the second-string characters from The First Law play a major part. I’d list them, but half the fun of this book is guessing just who will show up. I will just give you this much: if you liked the despicable soldier-of-fortune Nicomo Cosca before, or maybe even if you didn’t, you’re gonna love him in Best Served Cold.

   Mr. Abercrombie’s stories have been called “fantasy noir” and I can’t think of a better description. Think Quentin Tarantino or Guy Ritchie doing a fantasy movie and you just about have the right idea. Mr.Abercrombie’s First Law and Best Served Cold has edginess, a multitude of criminals, raw and gritty dialogue, horrifyingly realistic violence, and dark humor.

   Best Served Cold drags the reader along on Monza’s grim and unyielding vendetta which in turn ignites vengeful repercussions that only throw other deadly events into motion. It was fascinated to watch how one person’s obsession can drag so many others down with it and how once someone starts down a dark path, their whole self-concept can change. But, there’s no need to lose heart in the darkness. There just may be (according to the individual reader’s interpretation) a small ray of light at the end of the tunnel.

   I do feel compelled to warn that Abercrombie may be too dark for some readers, and the sexual content is raunchy — but it is on par with the tough, roguish characters. I almost knocked off a half star for this, but the ending more than made amends.

   
2. 

   Christopher E. Eirkson @ 4:31 am

   Best Served Cold is yet another showcase of Joe Abercrombie’s wonderful writing ability. The characters are hardly cardboard cutouts – Abercrombie does a fantastic job of making them all come alive, and each individual feels quite human. In The First Law trilogy, the reader felt as though they were right there with Logen, Jezal, and Ferro on their halfway-epic journey. Best Served Cold offers the same feeling, but delves even deeper into the psyche of the main characters, the events they experience, and the changes they undergo as a result of those experiences. Abercrombie’s strength is in his ability to create believable characters, and have them develop and change (and not always for the better!). He’s said himself that he’s not a worldbuilder, but instead attempts to create stories that focus on people. The Circle of the World is built through their eyes, instead of from the perspective of an omnipotent narrator.

   Best Served Cold is bloody. Even bloodier than any of The First Law books, especially on a personal level. Abercrombie does an amazing job of reinforcing the notion that Styria is a land of chaos, where backstabbing is commonplace and the idea of “every man for himself” is the norm. These themes were present in The First Law books, but they are only exponentially multiplied in this new setting.

   However, Best Served Cold is not without its flaws. In furthering the idea that violence is a part of everyday life, Abercrombie sometimes goes too far. A LOT of tertiary and unnamed “extras” are killed. Sure, in the Trilogy, hundreds die, but those deaths are implied as an inevitable result of war. Many of BSC’s deaths are firsthand and personal, but they become too numerous, and the reader eventually becomes numb to them. Yes, that’s Abercrombie’s world, but I found myself tempted to skip over many of the fight scenes in the latter third of the novel.

   Additionally, many of the events in the novel feel forced, or borderline Deus Ex Machina. I won’t say any more to avoid spoiling anything, but after a while these occurrences detracted from the novel. The Trilogy used such events sparingly, enough so that they were acceptable, but BSC’s use of forced events eventually removes the power of surprise twists. I only found myself becoming giddy over such twists once or twice during the last half.

   To put things simply: what the Trilogy does well, BSC attempts to push further. Sometimes it works, but sometimes things go too far (i.e. too much mindless violence, too many twists, etc.)

   Again, Abercrombie’s strength is in his amazing characters and their development, combined with the dark, unforgiving world that he places them in. These elements are fresh and welcome in a genre that, I feel, needs some fixing. In fact, many speculative fiction stories nowadays should follow Joe’s example.

   As a final note: this IS a standalone novel, but I recommend that anyone who hasn’t read Joe Abercrombie’s works should start with The First Law trilogy, beginning with The Blade Itself. In my opinion, they’re a bit better, and many of the references in BSC will make more sense if you read the Trilogy first. Otherwise you’ll be scratching your head over who Juvens and Euz are, or what an Eater is. Knowing these tidbits is certainly not required to enjoy Best Served Cold, but they make things much clearer.

   
3. 

   The Mad Hatter @ 7:27 am

   Best Served Cold has to be the most anticipated Fantasy read this year. As soon as I got my greedy hands on it I just had to start. All the fervor over the cover design doesn’t matter in the end. It is the pages between the cover that counts and that is truly entertaining. Abercrombie is building on the world he started with The First Law Trilogy although centering it on parts not visited prior, namely Styria and it related nations. Yet it differs from First Law in that it is a much more personal story. He does include a couple minor characters from First Law although they grow much from what they start as. As the title suggests revenge is the driving force. Monza Murcatto is Grand Duke Orso’s most trusted general who has won him many battles, but now he feels she has become to popular and will try to usurp him. Orso has Monza’s brother Benna killed and nearly her as well in an incredibly detailed account of her literal fall from his graces.

   After Monza heals (partially) she begins gathering a group to help get revenge upon those who killed her brother. Abercrombie has done a superb job creating another stellar cast of characters you just love to hate and hate to love along with the most gritty action that could be wanted. Surprisingly, I found the most redeemable character in Friendly, who is a cold blooded killer with an utter fascination for numbers. Although unlike most of the other characters he is very straight forward with his dealings and is perhaps left the most untwisted in the end. Abercrombie still manages a fine balance of well realized characters, believable dialogue with a detailed world while also masterly offering twists and turns to the plot and characters.

   Abercrombie has been known to do some vile things to and with his characters and he certainly rides the edge just enough not to turn most readers off with some of his characters predilections most notably involving Monza and her brother’s past as well as a certain Duke’s sexual interests. Having said that this is definitely not a book for the prudish or squeamish. Overall, I found the style and format very similar to Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora. It is very much a series of capers; however the goals don’t involve money, but rather killing. Only the characters aren’t lovable rogues (except Cosca) like in TLoLL, but rather some of the most notorious murderers and back-stabbers in the world. Have no doubts that Abercrombie is still cruel to his characters. If anything he does worse to them here than in First Law. There are no happy endings in an Abercrombie book and there never should be.

   Best Served Cold is meant as a standalone and newcomers will definitely find it open enough without having read prior volumes yet fans of First Law will be reward for their knowledge of the world and appreciate the little things and some surprise appearances from other characters. I give Best Served Cold 9 out of 10 Hats. Abercrombie has left a few holes open and secrets unrevealed that are sure to pop up in his next novel of the First Law world and I’ll be there for it. Abercrombie has once again proven why he is an award-winning author.

   
4. 

   Williams @ 8:24 am

   I wanted to love this book. I really did. But I should have known, from the First Law series (which i actually enjoyed, but was also disappointed by) that this book was going to let me down.

   There are a few spoilers ahead, but I’ve told you about them beforehand – just FYI.

   The book was entertaining and well-written, with a beautifully-crafted world, peopled with believable races, cultures and customs. The characters were 3-dimensional – as their personal stories/tragedies were revealed, I came to understand their motivations and actions. They loved and hated according to their pasts, they experienced individual joys and sorrows that shaped them into the people they became on the pages of Best Served Cold. But the story- and the characters- totally fell flat in the end. What a disappointment. I can forgive a bad writer, if s/he has a good story (Greg Keyes’s Briar King series comes to mind, as well as Brian Sanderson’s Mistborn tril., Karen Miller’s Godspeaker tril., and Sherwood Smith’s Inda series), but I CANNOT get around an exceptional writer spitting out rubbish (Anne Bishop [EVERYTHING after the Dark Jewels tril.]comes to mind, Melanie Rawn’s Spellbinder series, Gail Martin’s Necromancer tril. and Terry Goodkind’s Sword and Truth series [EVERYTHING after Stone of Tears was redundant and crap]).

   As Logan Ninefingers always said, “You’ve got to be realistic” – so I wonder if this is what Abercrombie was/is attempting with his Circle of the World books. People never change, he seems to be telling us. Ever. No matter how many chances people are given to change what they are, and become who they WANT to be instead of what circumstances have MADE them in to, the world is always going to expect you to be who you WERE, so there is no use fighting against it. Stagnation is inevitable. Optimism is futile; the world is crap, and move on.

   As a fantasy geek, I find that hard to accept in the novels I read, but accept it I do, so that my opinion of what I’m reading doesn’t become jaded. The problem here, then, is WHAT IS THE POINT?

   What was the point of the story? (spoiler ahead, sort of) It’s like it serves as a prequel to “How Monzcarro Murcatto Came to Power and Entered Talins Into its Golden Age” or some such drivel. It’s a list of things that happened in order for her to reach the throne she claimed she didn’t want. But, really, what happened, of any significance, along the way? Out of all the petty, little things that actually DID happen in the book, all the main characters ended up in exactly the same positions they were in when their characters were introduced, except Monzcarro. (spoilers ahead)

   1. Caul arrived and left as a brutal, barbarian killer, minus one eye
   
   2. Nicomo came and went as a self-centered, pathetic alcoholic
   
   3. Friendly’s ridiculous part in this book served as proof that many criminals are conditioned to the institutionalization of incarceration
   
   4. Castor, self-proclaimed “king of poisoners”, received the reputation and awe he always wanted when he met his end
   
   5. Vitari came and went as a retired torturer who happened to be a mother
   
   6. Shenkt saved the day at the start and finish, saved Murcatto’s life multiple times, for ridiculous reasons – he saved her life so he could get revenge, even though ALL of his fight-scenes proved that he could have taken revenge NUMEROUS times on his own

   This is ridiculous. In addition to nothing changing from the beginning to the end of the novel, Abercrombie has the SAME themes in each of his books:

   1. torture scenes
   
   2. gruesome, bloody fights
   
   3. graphically-written, almost unbelievable – or maybe too believable – sex
   
   4. a know-it-all, babbling buffoon that everyone hates but respects for his skill
   
   5. a dangerous, vicious, blood-hungry, vengeance-seeking woman who only misses the stereotype by not being a lesbian
   
   6. a barbarian who goes into blood-lust in almost every fight
   
   7. a great battle
   
   8. an unsatisfactory conclusion

   Don’t misunderstand – I am not too “delicate” for these themes. In fact, I appreciate them, which is why I have bought and read the all 4 Circle of the World books from cover to cover. But, come ON, can it be switched around at all? Reading BSC was like reading a condensed version of the First Law trilogy. Additionally, each “section” of BSC followed the same tune (more spoilers): Murcatto enters a new country, finds the people she wants to kill, goes to kill them but there are some difficulties, eventually kills them but with more casualties than she’d anticipated, M & C have sex while she thinks of Benna, then the next section starts.

   As I said, I wanted to love this book – but the negatives (the crap story and all the main characters being un-redeemable) far outweighed the positives (being well-written and having 3-dimensional characters). So far, I have paid $75 plus tax on these overpriced books, and I wish I would have checked them out at the library, instead. If Abercrombie writes more books, I will probably read them – in hopes that the story changes. But I know, deep down, that they wont, so I will not be buying them. I am a sucker for good writing. It just sucks when good writers have nothing interesting to say.

   
5. 

   Greg @ 10:14 am

   When the infamous mercenary captain, Monza Murcatto, seems to be getting too powerful, her employer, Duke Orso, attempts to have her and Benna, Monza’s next-in-command, killed. Short work is made of Benna, but, by a cruel twist of fate, Monza survives, just barely. And her quest for vengeance sets a spark to the powder-keg that is the country of Styria during the Years of Blood.

   Best Served Cold is a stand-alone novel that takes place in the same world as Joe Abercrombie’s acclaimed The First Law series. To his many fans (of which I’m certainly one), I say: you’ll be more than pleased with Best Served Cold. Along with a colorful array of new characters — criminals, henchmen, assassins, power-hungry nobles, and mercenaries — several of the second-string characters from The First Law play a major part. I’d list them, but half the fun of this book is guessing just who will show up. I will just give you this much: if you liked the despicable soldier-of-fortune Nicomo Cosca before, or maybe even if you didn’t, you’re gonna love him in Best Served Cold.

   Mr. Abercrombie’s stories have been called “fantasy noir” and I can’t think of a better description. Think Quentin Tarantino or Guy Ritchie doing a fantasy movie and you just about have the right idea. Mr.Abercrombie’s First Law and Best Served Cold has edginess, a multitude of criminals, raw and gritty dialogue, horrifyingly realistic violence, and dark humor.

   Best Served Cold drags the reader along on Monza’s grim and unyielding vendetta which in turn ignites vengeful repercussions that only throw other deadly events into motion. It was fascinated to watch how one person’s obsession can drag so many others down with it and how once someone starts down a dark path, their whole self-concept can change. But, there’s no need to lose heart in the darkness. There just may be (according to the individual reader’s interpretation) a small ray of light at the end of the tunnel.

   I do feel compelled to warn that Abercrombie may be too dark for some readers, and the sexual content is raunchy — but it is on par with the tough, roguish characters. I almost knocked off a half star for this, but the ending more than made amends.