TL;DR:
+++ Very fast paced, very hard to stop reading
++ Interesting protagonist, with the right sense of vulnerability and ability, and a nice set of supporting characters
++ Twists aplenty and nicely executed
+/- Not as long as I wanted it to be, but was good while the pages lasted
Review:
“A fast-paced tale of betrayal and revenge that grabbed me from page 1 and refused to let go.”—George R. R. Martin
That line sums it up, from someone who knows best. Half a King is like your A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones novel distilled into its essence and with the sex bits taken out. The story is pretty much your typical medieval fantasy fare: successor wars, betrayal, revenge and with dirt and blood rubbed all over the pages. The plot is pretty straightforward in that sense, and there are twists aplenty. I finished the book in less than two days -- it was THAT entertaining.
Worldbuilding is there, though it's tightly integrated into the plot. As Amazon labels it as Shattered Sea Book 1, I'm hoping it wouldn't take too much time to get to the next book, and that it won't span across a dozen volumes. Well, maybe it would be nice if there would be 12 books in this series, as long as each of them ends as satisfyingly as the first one did.
The book isn't really about innovating, in fact, you can see the similarity between this book and other books (Game of Thrones, Bernard Cornwell books) and movies (13th Warrior comes to mind), but it's just so well done, I can't recommend it enough. I just wish it were just a bit longer.
Verdict: highly recommended 4/5
Details:
Author: Joe Abercrombie
Genre: Fantasy
Book Length: 354 Pages (Hardcover Version)
Published: July 15, 2014
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