Joe Abercrombie writes grim dark
fantasy novels, and he is on my list of favorite authors. His most
famous work is The First Law trilogy. So if you have not read
The First Law trilogy, then I envy you, because you have yet
to experience for the first time, one of the best works in the genre.
But I am not reviewing The First Law trilogy here. Instead, I
would like to talk about Joe Abercrombie's new book, it has an
interesting name called Half A King.
In Half A King, Joe Abercrombie
stepped into the genre of YA fantasy. To be honest, when I heard Joe
Abercrombie wrote Half A King as a YA novel, I was really
skeptical about this book, and it did not interest me. This is
because I do not have a good impression about YA fictions. Let me
explain: From my understanding, YA fictions often involve stories
about “coming of age”, and the current YA market is dominated by
books chokefull of cliches and repetitive themes. For
examples, themes like; teenage romance, set in a futuristic,
dystopian world, or some story about “the chosen one”, so on and
so forth. I just don't like this type of books, they all feel the
same to me and I find them boring.
However, good reviews for Half A
King began to spawn on the internet. Many reviewers described
Half A King as ripping yarn set in a fantasy world resembling
the Viking age. That grabbed my attention! Because I like reading
Viking novels! So I decided to venture into the world of Half A
King. The result? I love this book, and I am adding Half A
King to my list of favorite books. Today, I would like to share
some of my thoughts about this book, and the reasons why I like it.
Let me start by providing a synopsis for this book.
Synopsis:
Day after day, bitter waves from
Shattered Sea batter endlessly at the sandy shores. The harsh
environment gave birth to a hardy people, their world governed by the
iron arms of powerful kings. Kings who inspired awe and obedience by
martial might.
Our story began, when Prince Yarvi was
born as the second son to the king. His birth served as a mockery to
the royal family, because Yarvi was born with only one good hand. He
could not grasp an axe or hold a shield to foray into the heat of a
battle. In the eyes of his father, Yarvi was a weakling and a
disappointment.
Half a man, they called Yarvi. But
that's fine because Yarvi was going to give up his status of princedom
and become a minister. A twist of fate changed Yarvi's plan, when his
father and older brother died in a murderous plot, putting Yarvi
next in the line to be the new king. But Yarvi's deformed hand made
him some sort of a joke, he was half a king, because he could never
inspire the traditional image of a warrior king among his subjects.
Half a king or not, Yarvi made a full
oath to avenge his father and brother on the day he seated on the
throne. As Yarvi sat on a lonely
throne, he learned an important lesson; that things are never what they appear to be.
What I think about this book:
Most YA fantasy novels suffer from
cliched themes such as: “the chosen one”, “teenage romance”,
or “good versus evil”. I am happy to report Half A King
steered away from these cliches. Instead, it gave us a revenge story
about a boy, and how his plan to exact vengeance on the murders of
his family transformed him. In retrospect, Half A King breaks
away from the stereotypical themes in the modern YA fictions, and
this book refreshes the genre with a story bursting with realism and
intrigues.
Half A King also surprised its
readers with unexpected twists and turns of the story. Unlike many
fantasy novels where you can usually predict how the story will
unfold, Half A King is unpredictable. When I was reading this
book, there were numerous occasions when I predicted the story was
going to unfold in a certain direction, only to discover in the next
chapter, that the outcomes turned 180 degrees away from my
prediction. I could feel a real sense of danger lurking behind the
waves of the unfolding events in the story. This made the story both
interesting and intriguing, where the unpredictability taut the story
with tensions, while you guess, nail-bitingly, at the fate of your
favorite character in the next chapter.
Half A King also features one of
the steepest character developments I've seen in the genre of fantasy
fictions. Yarvi began his story as a weakling. As
the story progressed, we could really see how Yarvi's traumatic
experiences transformed him from a weak boy to a deeply cunning man.
Meanwhile, Half A King has a cast of interesting, supporting
characters. Their relationship with Yarvi was lively portrayed,
cutting deep impressions into readers' minds. When I was reading this
book, I felt the story really made me care about every character, and
I was drawn into Yarvi's world.
World building plays a crucial role in
a fantasy novel, it can either make or break a story. Joe Abercrombie is one of the masters in this art, and his world building skills shined in Half A King. In a mere space of 300 pages,
Joe Abercrombie created a fully living, breathing world, complete
with its own background history, culture and lore. The fictional
world of Half A King is a reminiscence of the Viking world.
Joe Abercrombie brought this fictional world to life, with vivid
portrayals of a harsh, cruel environment where the bitter cold
assaults the land, and the merciless sea bears both despair and hope where people's livelihood reside.
For me, reading Half A King was
a joy ride. The story flowed at a very good pace. This is a
fast-paced book, but it is also packed with enough details to draw a
reader into its world. Joe Abercrombie's writings is top notch, it is
energetic, vibrant, and descriptive. He used words strikingly and
beautifully to craft captivating sentences, enabling the readers to
visualize every scene in the book.
As I closed the final chapter in Half
A King, I marked this book on my "worthy to be re-read" list. This is a powerful and memorable story, and it is
very enjoyable. It is true that Half A King is not The First
Law trilogy, because it is not as bleak. But in comparison to The
First Law trilogy, I actually prefer this diminished sense of
bleakness in Half A King.
In my opinion, Joe Abercrombie proved himself to be a versatile
author, masterfully weaving the “grim dark” aspects into the
story without leaving the readers feeling bleak at the end. Instead,
readers emerged from Yarvi's dark journey at the end of the book,
with a sense of satisfaction, eagerly anticipating the sequel,
currently scheduled for release in February 2015, titled “Half A
World”.
P.S. I based this book review on my
copy of the limited edition for Half A King, published by
Subterranean Press. This is why the book cover, and the artworks
displayed in my book review differ from the retail, paperback
version of the book, which can be found at most bookstores.
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