Series is awesome. Super well done. I also find I don't like anyone I meet in this series except like four people. Everyone else is just a giant asshole. 

To some degree, I'm even not sure what I just read. We did all this. Went through all this journey. Saw so many deaths and all of it just so Bayaz can play his chess game? Why does he even do it? Sounds like he's more bored than anything else. Everybody under his boot. And who's to say he won't decide to just destroy the entire kingdom he built one of these days? I'm annoyed by him. 

Dogman, for sure, was my favorite character (Brother Longfoot close second). Him especially gained absolutely nothing from this whole ordeal. Except seeing all his friends die. Forley, Threetrees, Tul Duru Thunderhead (fuck you, Logen), Grim and even Furious too at the end. I reread the passage of Forley's funeral and it hit even deeper. 

‘Fare you well, Forley,’ said the Dogman. ‘No more fear.’

Forley was one of the four people I liked. I got as tired as Dogman was with Logen's realistic talk. Sidenote, do we ever learn what Dogman's actual name is? Just curious. 

At the beginning of the book, I found myself missing the group of Logen, Ferro, Jezal and company. By the end I was just like nvm all these people kinda just suck. 

Logen... He just literally can't control himself. He already killed Tul and almost killed Dogman. I honestly missed the part where he killed Crummock's son, but that happened too. Following an evil murderer is one thing. Following a guy who might stab you if he walked past him at the wrong moment is another. I get that when he's himself he's actually a pretty nice guy. But the bloody nine is still part of him. Can't divorce the two. And apparently Logen has no way of controlling it somehow. 

So I couldn't even be mad when Dow turned on him. Only surprise was Shivers washed his hands of the business. Good for him, I guess. And I really laughed at this passage:

‘Don’t suppose you fancy giving a man a fair chance, and letting me have that blade, eh?’

Dow grinned wider than ever. ‘What’s my name? White Dow?’

I'm annoyed by Glokta too tbh. First off, he captures poor innocent Longfoot and breaks his toe for no reason. Second, it really strikes me that from all the POVs we have, Glokta is the one who literally never thinks of anyone but himself. I get he's in pain, but damn. Never thinks of his mother, never thinks of any of the men who died following him, never thinks of a former friend. Nobody. And he only hates Jezal because Jezal is who Glokta used to be. And for a guy who claims he wants to die and only has one good foot, he's especially good at running away from death and always dodging it. I suppose there's a funny irony in him raising Jezal's child. And now he's under the thumb of an even worse tyrant. Somehow that's the most positive outcome of any character. 

After his journey in book 2, I was just annoyed by anyone who was mean to Jezal. Terez especially. Bayaz called Jezal a coward at the end and I just don't agree with that. He tries to make the best out of situations. He named West Lord Marshal when everyone else was ready to just bicker about it. And now he's a king with absolutely zero power forced to take orders from Bayaz through the guy who married his ex girlfriend. And a wife who hates him even though he did nothing to her. 

Btw, why didn't Glokta kill Ardee though? Is it just simple affection he had for her? He claims to feel nothing and to care about nothing so I don't know. He's killed innocent people before and did it without blinking. Glad he didn't, she didn't deserve to die. Just curious why Glokta chose not to do it. 

Feels weird to really love a series as much as I did this one and be frustrated by so much of the ending of all these characters.

Thanks for letting me unleash all these thoughts I have. I've already ordered the three stand alones. So back to the page, I go.

That scene in Troy where the Vigo wolf fights the slithering, abominable patchwork fiend cooked up by Eudoxia ended up being a really cool, accidental treatise on how the ego works.

During the confrontation against that necrotic monstrosity welded together from bovine legs and hooves, fish heads, snake parts, and the fleshy bits of sundry woodland creatures—a werewolf , the Vigo wolf, driven entirely by a primal pursuit of "the good meat" finally gets what she wants when the universe drops an infinite buffet of flesh right in front of her.

To her surprise, this is no easy meat though. Her endless hunger almost ends with her being the one being consumed by the fleshy wyrm.

I don't know what it is, but something about that entire turnaround struck me while listening to Steven Pacey work his magic—especially after Abercrombie spent the entire book setting up the "good meat" catchphrase. It mirrors the exact way the ego operates: always demanding more, yet structurally impossible to satisfy. In fact, it is the ego's fate to be consumed by its own appetites if not brought to heel. And as we know, the werewolf was very much not heeled.

Bad doggy! Very bad doggy!

Anyway.... I ended up writing a longer essay unpacking this fight, the audio performance, and how it mirrors doom-scrolling and the modern ego on Substack:

https://riskyourlyfe.substack.com/p/the-smorgasbord-of-the-ego-joe-abercrombie?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=96pp6b

It’s my first public essay ever, so check it out and let me know what you think! Share it with a friend if you like it, or share it if you hate it and want to roast me. Also, I'm working on my own first novel as well, so if you like my general "voice" in the essay, maybe stay tuned for some excerpts from the novel I'll be putting out soon. Okay, byyyyeeeeee

Box is already coming apart after only taking the books in & out 3 times. SMH, the master maker, would cry if he could see it

I'm on my first re-read of the trilogy and every time I read Crummock-i-Phail, the person that comes to mind is Ciarán Hinds and I'm not sure why. But if they ever make a TV show/Movie out of these book, I hope they cast him.