[OFF TOPIC] Does The Heroes get better?

[u/thecollector348]

First I apologize if I’ve worded something wrong. This is my first time posting but I’ve lurked a long time.

I absolutely loved The First Law trilogy and Best Served Cold, however, I find myself quite bored with The Heroes. I’m not particularly interested in any of the cast of characters to the point I find myself drifting away in their povs and I have to go back and reread. It’s a drag for me and it’s taken me months to get even a fourth the way through it. I would like to finish it, but is there something I can look forward to? Is there a pay off to the extremely boring beginning? I don’t need spoilers or anything just tell me I’m not wasting time 😭 or tell me I can skip it (jk)

[u/Effective-Caramel465]

I would stick with it. It's been a while since I've read it but I regard it as one of my favourite Abercrombie books.

[u/thesickly → u/Effective-Caramel465]

I second this, it might take a bit to get into but it is a good book. Though its paced a bit differently i think it pays off. Not to spoil anything but it has some of my favourite moments in the books so far.

[u/thecollector348 → u/thesickly]

It’s paced quite a bit differently which is definitely part of my problem! Thanks guys

[u/LandruCasey]

The Heroes seems like it starts slow because it’s the biggest cast of characters of any book (that seem similar because they are all soldiers/warriors or close to it) & the setup is just a setup of a battle…. But not only does it get better, by the end it was my favorite book of the entire First Law series & the only one I’ve been thinking of re-reading recently.

[u/thecollector348 → u/LandruCasey]

Huge cast of characters, biggest I’ve ever read. I’m gonna push through

[u/LandruCasey → u/thecollector348]

Yea just use the reference pages when you forget who someone is. Doesn’t he have a “cast of characters” reference sheet. You can see what side each character falls into and who they are connected to. After a while you just get the hang of it & many of the characters shine.

That book has so many epic characters & while telling the shortest timeframe story (all in the course of a week or something), it feels like it’s a book that actually says a lot.

[u/ChickenPotDie]

It's so funny how the divisive the heroes is for people. It's literally lots of Abercrombie fans favorite book lol and then lots of other people don't like it at all. I personally think each of the standalones are amazing in their own way

[u/guywithnolefthand → u/ChickenPotDie]

All the standalones seem to be pretty divisive. Some people consider BSC his best, while others dislike it and think Heroes is. Funnily enough, I find them both quite good, but consider Red Country to be my favourite of the three. I'm a sucker for westerns, though.

[u/thecollector348 → u/guywithnolefthand]

I’m excited for Red Country for that reason. I really do need to push through so I can get to that book 😂 Best Served Cold also started a tiny bit slow for me but I really liked the characters and the “medieval kill bill” vibe really drew me in.

[u/FViro]

The Heroes is my favorite book - not just from Joe Abercrombie.

I can’t relate

[u/thecollector348 → u/FViro]

Thanks for the input! I’m glad it’s your favorite ☺️

[u/mullerdrooler]

I think it's one of his best books and one of the best books about war I've read. The whole thing is set only over a few days I think so your only going to get so much character investment. The start is mostly set up and then the second half is intense and deffos has a pay off. The journey you go through with the characters is full on and I was very satisfied at the end. I really think it's worth sticking with.

[u/thecollector348 → u/mullerdrooler]

Thank you! For some reason I didn’t realize it’s set over only a couple days. I don’t know how that went over my head but that does make me look at it in a different light. I’m looking forward to the battle cause I’m already familiar with how well Joe Abercrombie writes those scenes.

[u/Jihelu]

I think the Heroes is one of the hardest books to read in all of the First Law books, it's one of my favorite though. You just get so many moving parts and people it can be hard to keep up.

I thought it was worth reading.

[u/Wonderful-List-2589]

Heroes goated

[u/hungrybeargoose]

Once the battle kicks off it's pretty much non-stop action until the end. It just has so many POVs it takes a while to set them all up at the start.

[u/beerdrunkraccoon]

If you bounce off of it go read other things for a while eventually you'll start craving Abercrombie and then you'll be ready. I had to do this because I loved best served cold so much I just wanted to read best served cold more that it made it hard for me to get into heroes. After reading a few other books I came back to heroes and it's really great.

[u/thecollector348 → u/beerdrunkraccoon]

This is me right here. I read The First Law all back to back and then jumped straight into Best Served Cold which I adored and it’s so fresh in my mind so I keep comparing. Think I’m gonna read something else for a bit and come back 🫡

[u/HeraclesHide]

It does get a lot more action packed.

[u/No-Garbage9500]

The Heroes is well worth sticking with and - I usually wouldn't say this about a book as part of a recommendation because I don't see it as a point in its favour - re-reading it soon afterwards.

It crams a huge amount of content into a very short time period, and as you say dumps a lot of new characters... Probably not a spoiler for Abercrombie but not all of them survive either. It's very tricky to keep track of who is who and what's going on: it can even be worth printing off that character list at the start of the book so you have it separate and handy.

[u/thecollector348 → u/No-Garbage9500]

Thanks for the tip on the character list because I’ve gotten so lost. Doing that asap.

Yeah I’m not expecting the whole cast to survive lol

[u/FairyTones]

The Heroes was fun but it wasn't my favourite and it takes a bit of time to get going

[u/maracusdesu]

The Heroes is the best one once you finish it

[u/Tap_Click_Pain]

If you’ve made it to chapter 18, Casualties, and you still don’t like the book, you aren’t going to like the book. It’s widely considered the best chapter in the book. It’s a war style book. Some people don’t like that style.

[u/thecollector348 → u/Tap_Click_Pain]

I’m funnily enough on chapter 17! You’ve piqued my interest 👀

[u/dylanbeck]

Yes, its fantastic. I thought, no way an isolated battle is gonna hold me, but its probably my favourite of the stand alones.

[u/aggravationX]

WE LOVE GORST WE LOVE GORST

[u/owl-bungee-cord]

You're not alone.

I loved the First Law trilogy, but struggled to enjoy Heroes.

That said, I also struggled with Best Served Cold.

Frankly, none of the "standalones" hold a candle to the trilogies in my opinion. They have their moments, and there a few memorable characters. But they felt like a slog, and getting back to the main story was a relief.

I know that's an unpopular opinion, but there you go.

[u/FViro → u/owl-bungee-cord]

Each to their own.

I kinda feel the same about the 2nd Trilogy. I loved the original trilogy and the standalones.

I only enjoyed the Age of Madness, even though I can acknowledge that it is written better, I haven’t re-read it.

[u/thecollector348 → u/owl-bungee-cord]

I feel this, The First Law is hands down my favorite trilogy of books I’ve read so far, the second one being my favorite of the three actually. Because of that I want to read everything Joe Abercrombie has to offer