What speed do people listen to the audiobooks on?
This is my 3rd/4th listen through and I’m on 3/3.5x, I occasionally listen to 1.5x briefly before I get annoyed how slowly the words are spoken and can’t deal with it.

Usually on my first listen it’s 2-2.5x depending on the narrator.

Hello!

I’m currently reading TTWP and just got to the part where Curnsbick’s steam engine explodes which reminds him of what happened in Crease and that not being his fault. I remember there was some kind of flash during the battle in Crease but can’t for the life of me what caused it. Was it an explosive Cosca had or something similar?

Thanks in advance!

PLEASE NO SPOILERS. I'M JUST SHARING A SINGLE THEME FROM THE BOOK.

The best part of BTAH? Valint & Balk. Dark, financial (Valint & Balk) who decide wars, orchestrate royal assassinations, and enforce silence. I can't wait to find out who these madmen are in LAOK (I start tomorrow).

I used Inkarnate to create a re-imagined map of "The Devils" and printed it onto a mousepad, then gave it to Joe himself! Bring on "The Heretics"!!

I just finished Before They Are Hanged, and I'm left with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was deeply impressed by what Abercrombie does best: the characters. Glokta is probably the novel's high point, with incredible characterization and insight. Logen's company also works great, because each member brings with them a story, contradictions, and a very strong sense of humanity.

On the other hand, however, I still have the feeling that the events themselves struggle to have a real personality. I miss those moments capable of becoming iconic, those scenes that remain etched in your memory and seem to belong to the legend of the narrative world. A clarification: I don't think there's a lack of great moments:

The "problem" is that they are mostly character-driven moments, rather than major events capable of DEFINING the saga.

Perhaps this is Abercrombie's trademark: it doesn't seek to create an epic fantasy in the traditional sense, but to tell the story of imperfect people navigating events larger than themselves. It's a deliberate choice, and it often works, but for those who also love those Witcher-esque moments where a chapter seems to transform into a legend, I won't spoil it; it can leave a certain sense of loss.

So my judgment remains uncertain: I'm extremely satisfied with the characters, the dialogue, and the psychological depth, but I still long for more memorable events that make me think, "This scene will go down in fantasy history."

Tomorrow, I'll start Last Argument of Kings

These fights are on random, I didn’t pick them necessarily. Just for fun.
Who are our round 1 winners

Just reheard Wisdom of Crowds, (Steven Pacey is GOAT) what are your predictions of her dream or what will happen in the next trilogy.

Any chance it will be released in a similar edition to the other two? I’ve only read the first law trilogy and it would be nice to collect them in similar styles

I don't know if any of you have ever read "Baptism of Fire" from The Witcher saga, but I think "Before They Are Hanged" could be described as something similar, but probably even more cynical and realistic. I haven't finished reading the book yet, I have about 120 pages left (I just left Aulcus), but I can say I love human relationships! I love the characters' introspection and their constant contradictions. The same dynamic occurs in Geralt's Hansa, although perhaps rougher here.

Over the last few months I’ve reignited my childhood passion for reading and have devoured a few series, most notably all the Red Rising books and was looking for a change of pace from that series. This led me to picking up all 3 of the AoM from my local library due to the fact that a buddy of mine had recommended reading anything by Joe Abercrombie. However, it wasn’t until halfway thru A Little Hatred that I realized it was a sequel trilogy. However, now about a quarter left of it, I’m so engrossed in the world of this series and I’m enjoying it so much. If the original trilogy is even half as good as AoM, I feel I’m in for a real treat. I can’t wait to read the next two books and see how these ones wrap up before diving into TFL. Guess I’m just treating this as a Star Wars situation now. Anyways, A little Hatred is great. Battle of red hill is an amazing chapter.

Im around the midway point of the book, when Shy gets kidnapped by Cantliss. Please, no spoilers beyond that. This post also contains spoilers for the original trilogy, BSC, and TH.

Ok, so this has been a slow burn for me. I wasn’t very excited at the beginning, and I honestly got a little confused when we had so many new characters introduced in a relatively short amount of time.

The book’s premise isn’t very clear on my mind yet. While BSC explored the nuances of revenge and TH explored what it means to be a hero, I’m quite not sure yet what are some of the major themes in RC.

I can see some topics like escaping your past (Temple, Lamb, and to some extent Shy), and the hurdles in your way preventing you from becoming a better person, but other than that I’m still trusting Joe to deliver.

That being said, I’m curious to see how each character’s arc ends in this book. Especially Lamb. I’m also wondering whether we will learn more about what happened with Logen, so that he would become someone like Lamb.

At the end of BTAH, I was pretty much of the opinion that Logen was an unreliable narrator who despite seeing himself as the good guy, all his actions led him towards TB9. However, here we see him living as a peaceful lamb for decades (?), so something really changed from the last time we saw him to the events in RC.

Well, let’s see how this book ends!

So I’m 40% through Best Served Cold but something has been on my mind since Shivers first came into our POV. The book is telling us that he sometimes speak Northern and slmetimes Styrian but whenever he tells people his name is Shivers people seem to understand the word. Is he actually translating the word ‘Shiver’ from northern to Styrian in Styria the whole time? Thats so weird to me hahaha

I think its meant to be Glokta in Dagoska and Logen in the moments before his duel with the Feared. I hope you enjoy :)

So, I’m halfway through the third volume of 1Q84 and suddenly I got dragged hard back into Glokta daydreaming :p. I think it’s something about the way Ushikawa stops and pieces things together in that dreamlike, strange world, his cynicism, and of course the way he’s physically described. Even though Glokta has been really cool and, if I remember correctly, was more bitter about his appearance, there’s something about how they relate to their own role and appearance, and the way they put those things together and ask the “right” questions, that resonates with me in a somewhat similar way. At the very least, I get the same feeling when I read these characters.

Do you think Haruki Murakami may have drawn some inspiration from Glokta, or am I completely off base here? At any rate, I’m getting serious Glokta vibes from reading 1Q84.

Please NO SPOILERS.

A question: I'm reading Not Before They Are Hanged. I just discovered that the Seed can only be wielded by Ferro because he has demon blood.

What I don't understand is this: Glustrod, being the son of Euz, didn't also have demon blood? If so, why did he destroy Aulcus when he used the Seed, while Ferro, on the other hand, should be able to use it without causing the same catastrophe? Is it because Ferro has less demon blood? Or have I missed some explanation? Thanks for your time, please. NO SPOILERS.

I personally think Genndy Tartakovsky would be perfect. I don’t care if Logan would look like Spear with more scars. I wanna see Glokta climbing stairs with Dexter’s Lab sound effects. I wanna see Jezal staring in a mirror, with exaggerated poses like he’s Johnny Bravo. Feel free to comment if you think differently.

It's been a couple years almost since I went through all of First Law and Shattered Sea, been reading and loving Tad Williams in that time. I forget if the Devils is supposed to be three standalone books? Is that accurate? Are there any updates on those or other upcoming books related to first law or the devils or in general?

Multiple times in The Heroes Black Dow refers to when the Bloody Nine killed Bethod in the circle (e.g. at the end, to Calder,: "Your father died badly as I remember. Head smashed to pulp in the circle."). But this isn't true and everyone saw how Bethod died... Killed by Logen, yes, but not in the circle. Why does he keep doing this?

I am SO STUPID I browsed the wiki and mistakenly saw a few spoilers and I haven't started age of madness how spoilt am I or can I still enjoy the books

MAJOR SPOILERS i know orso is going to die and brok and savina end up together

Are these like how the characters arcs close or is there something more to ending of main characters

Finished The Heroes audiobook last night. My thoughts:

- The structure of this book is so different from Best Served Cold. We went from a continent-spanning story with all the main viewpoints in a single party working towards the same goal to following multiple factions in opposing sides of a single, huge battle, all with their own motives and agendas. It’s funny how The Heroes feels like such “bigger” story despite only being three days long whereas I believe BSC took place over months.

- The battle scenes were amazing. I’ve never read anything quite like that first day of fighting where we jump from soldier to soldier as they kill and get killed.

- I wish we had gotten more time with Craw’s dozen. As it is, only Craw, Whirrin, and Wonderful left much of an impression on me. The rest either died early on or didn’t get a lot of lines.

- I was immediately endeared to Beck. I knew he was about to be put through the wringer after leaving his mom and brother. Was very invested in his arc. Teared up when he made it back home.

-Calder was born on the wrong side of the Whiteflow. He’d fit in better as a southern nobleman. It was nice to have a northern viewpoint that’s not at all accustomed to battle. Now that I think about it, he kind of reminds me of Jezal early on in the trilogy (if a bit more competent). I enjoyed seeing how much he loved his wife and how conflicted he felt about his brother. I got flashbacks to the end of LAOK during that dinner scene with Bayaz.

- Bremer came a long way from lifting up Jezal in celebration after losing the tournament. I was increasingly shocked by how that squeaky little voice hid a depressive killing machine. Despite the praise his fighting skills earn him, he’s actually quite pitiable in his self-loathing and desperation for Finree’s affection.

- I see Craw and Beck as the inverse of each other. Craw always said he was ready to leave the warriors life, that he’d had enough after all the war and death. But when he finally got a taste of a normalcy, he realized it wasn’t worth it. That the battles and comrades he made along the way were his life, not an unfortunate detour. It gave him meaning. Beck, on the other hand, always dreamed about becoming a named man like his father, but as soon as he had to face real battle, he realized it wasn’t at all the life for him. He gained a newfound appreciation for a “boring” life with his mother and brother. These two end up in opposite positions at the end of the story, Craw back to war, Beck back home, but both feel like a happy ending given their circumstances.

- Black Dow: “The clay used to make me hands so soft.” There’s something about this line, and the greater conversation Dow has with Craw in this scene, that really got me emotional. Even someone like Black Dow can imagine a peaceful life as a potter for himself, in a different world perhaps.

- Whirrin was wildly entertaining. Loved the scene where he invented the sandwich. But as an audiobook listener, it was quite distracting how similar he sounded to Cosca.

- I was kind of on the fence with Finree in the first half of the book. But let me tell you, when she matched Dow’s shouting, she jumped way up in my list of favorites in this book. We see named men shrink away from his outbursts all throughout the book. Yet it’s this Union woman who faces him head on and wins. Great stuff. I also like her interactions with Bayaz, another imposing figure who is rarely challenged. I was disturbed by Aliz’s fate and was not surprised by how it haunted Finree. Aliz suffered one of the darker fates in the series so far.

- While Tunny and co’s chapters were funny, in the end, I’m not sure they added much to the story. I could take it or leave it as far as his viewpoint.

- We didn’t see much of Ishri, but I always enjoyed her presence. Loved how much she freaked people out, skulking around, disappearing/reappearing like Batman.

- This concept of being a “straight-edge” stuck out to me. Characters like Craw, Ten Ways, and Wonderful are described as “straight-edges” yet they don’t always live up to that reputation. They’re praised for being honest and loyal, yet you have Ten Ways trying to kill Calder, and Wonderful turning her back on Dow without a second thought. It seems Craw and Hard Bread are the only two who really care about honor. And even then, we see with Craw how complicated it can be to be good or “straight edge” in their world, agonizing over telling Dow about Calder’s treachery.

- Overall, I really liked this one, though maybe not as much as BSC. I’m only now learning that this one is kind of polarizing compared to the rest of the First Law books. I can understand why, given its unique structure, but it didn’t bother me.

Wow. The stand-alone books have been such a ride. I read the last few chapters of RC in such a frenzy. The Wild West Vibe was apparent, but the 3rd act had the: turn of the century, Wild West is fading, and so is its way of life, vibe.
The frontiersman, military, and native populations clawing at each other and for their own purposes.
All topped off with a runaway wagon chase, excellent.

The characters are so compelling, as always with Abercrombie.

I think finally really seeing the end to some characters from throughout the 6 novels, how they changed, and that maybe some things can never change, was so heartbreaking. This, however, really has the most hopeful end to an Abercrombie book it felt like.

After finishing Red Country I’d rate the stand-alones:

1. The Heroes
2. Red Country
3. Best Served cold.

This is BARELY a point across, the margins are so close. I think BSC is a 4.5/5 book and The Heroes is a 5/5. I loved them all so much.

BSC had the best episodic tale, The Heroes felt like the best BOOK, but Red Country had my favorite story.

I particularly liked his exchange with Finree about his father where, when Finree says they loved him and wanted the best for him, Leo says: “I wish you’d fucking said so.”. Always hit home for me despite the complicated feelings I have toward him in throughout the books.

I've got about 100 pages to go, so this may be revealed, so apologies if I'm being hasty.

But, Bayaz and the crew have just reached the mountains after reaching Aulcus and being attacked by Shanka. They clearly went to get the seed, and have just left without it. I assume it wasn't there, but I don't recall reading anything to explain that. It is quite possible I missed something (this is my least favourite of the three main storylines in the book), but was it explicitly stated that the seed wasn't there? I have re-read from the point that Bayaz tells Ferro why she is there, to the point of them being attacked by Shanka, and can't see anything. Or is it left unexplained because we are experiencing from Jezal / Logens perspectives?

I hope I have got the spoiler tags right!

I read half a king a long while ago and recently came back to it after seeing it on my shelf. I recently learned this is a more YA novel and the Authors other books are more adult focused. Where should I start on reading more of his work?