It’s hard to choose just one, but if I had to pick:
A description of Gorst in Sharp Ends - “He looked like a clenched fist.”
Also, Stour and Clover’s little tryouts looking for a magic user to contend with Rikke.
I recently got the the First law trilogy box set (paperback), and have so far finished "the blade itself" and am now reading "Before they are hanged". I have noticed that Gloktas chapters contain weird spacing issues in italicized text, has anyone else had this issue?
See the image for example. If it is intentional by Joe, please also don't spoil. This was just something strange I noticed and seems like a misprint.
Edit: Note that it isn't just stylistic for Gloktas letters further don't the page in his thoughts it is also the case
So a few weeks back I finished The Wisdom of Crowds and The First Law has quickly become my favorite series. I'm not gonna hop on it right now, but I'm already feeling the itch for another series like it. Any recs? Already read ASOIAF, tried getting into Black Company last year and didn't enjoy it.
Im about 75% through Last Argument, once i start I can't put it down! But the last three times that I have stopped were immediately after reading squelched. This was the 14th time. (There is only one left and it is almost near the end of the book, i checked)
I also just had to see the math on this so I went back:
The Blade Itself- 2 uses
Before They Are Hanged - 8 uses
The Last Argument of Kings - 15 uses (6 of which are packed within only a hundred or so pages)
Granted, TLAK is about as quarter longer than the other two.
Me, having learned the word originally as a kid playing Diablo 2 where "squelch" means to mute, I am also hit with blunt-force cognitive dissonance when Abercrombie is indicating some wet fart sound from under a muddy boot.
Anyone else notice this or another pet word J.Aber likes?
Rikke will birth Orso’s child
Savines twins will fight each other for the throne or Audie will take it. Sorry Herald
hildi and the boy are going to be eaters
bayaz will try to stop the age of progress because it screwed him over.
thats all
I’m in the midst of my first re-read of the whole fantastic series, and of course picking up things I couldn’t really have noted on the first read. Especially in a story that spans so many years, it’s easy for there to be small butterfly-effect style things that have big implications down the road. I came across one that I found interesting.
In the waning chapters of Last Argument of Kings, after the Battle of Adua, the Closed Council meets and discusses (among other things) what to do with the children of the fled traitor Lord Brock. You’ll remember that Lord Brock sided with the Gurkish in the hopes of being put on the throne.
Now, we who have read the entire series love to hate Leo dan Brock and point out that he is only alive through the good graces of King Orso, Jezal’s son, when Orso spares him at the end of The Trouble With Peace. But it’s easy to forget that Leo owes his entire existence to King Jezal, whose son he rises against executes.
Going back to LAOK, the Closed Council is poised to approve the execution of Lord Brock’s children — one of which we will later learn is Harod “Hal” dan Brock, the husband of Finree and father to Leo. The Closed Council seems completely content with the execution of Hal and his unnamed sister.
It is only through one of King Jezal’s rarely successful defiances of Bayaz that Lord Brock’s children are instead released, a noble action that will tragically (though indirectly) lead to the death of King Jezal’s son.
Just an interesting little tidbit I thought I’d share. If you didn’t find it interesting or you already noted it, at least I gave you another reason to say “fuck Leo” on this fine Saturday morning.
EDIT: ah failure to proofread. don’t come after me for saying “Brock’s” in the title when I meant “Brocks.” I will pay for my sins.
What do you think? Is the guy in the queue in Valbeck with Gunnar Logen Ninefingers?
No hate to Jezal. I love him as much as anyone else, but these are the vibes I got from the entirety of Before They Are Hanged and The Last Argument of Kings.
So, Glokta made it. He did get rid of most of Bayaz's influence. He destroyed the banks. Union can now, at least for some time, grow without him holding it by throat. Now, Union have a chance.
And yet it already lost, thanks to one detail - execution of The high king Orso.
In moment he took last breath, Union lost Starikland and Westport. Both of his sisters are spouses of its rulers, and so far we could see, Orso loved his family and they loved him back.
They lost legitimacy of its goverment, no matter how much Savine tries, she and her council will be usurpers.
It's possible they lost chance for good relations with Styria - there is no way Jappo will seriously consider something close so long as Leo sits in Council. He could make deal with Orso. He can make deal with Savine. But you cannot make deal with Leo cunt Brock. Shit, maybe even Westport willingly joins Styria now.
It's questionable how much Zacharus will trust the Union. Bayaz's influence or not, he probably won't trust name "dan Glokta".
And most importantly - the moment Orso took his last breath, Leo created founder of the new Bayaz's bank.
Decades of planning, hundreds of thousands dead, state ruined for one chance - and it already went south because of Brock.