Reviews

Half the World by Joe Abercrombie

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timinbc's review against another edition

4.0

A good sequel. Strong female lead again, as with many of the books I've read lately. Doesn't affect the quality of the plot at all, so this is not a complaint.

In this one, I felt the YA-ness of it shone through a bit more. Many things were telegraphed quite openly so you wouldn't fail to figure them out. Example:

Spoiler

Grom tells us no man can kill him (thanks, Macbeth!) and we know how THAT will end

. But it IS a YA and I can't fault it for being one.

Thorn (whose mother calls her Hild, and I wonder if Abercrombie read Nicola Griffith's historical novel Hild, also about a super-capable young woman) is a good character. She's very capable, but she worked hard to become so, and is certainly capable of getting things wrong.

Brand is interestingly weak and strong, depending, and in the end we see why that is when we understand how he fits in his culture.

Hunnan is not a good character at all. There's no need to draw a bad guy in such broad strokes. He's a mustache-twirling brute and no one, not even Yarvi, has noticed or seems to care? I know YA is usually fuelled by "it's so unFAIR!" but sheesh.

And of course the plot includes a difficult trek from A to B and back, but Abercrombie uses it well, with each incident along the way developing the characters of thise involved.

And King Uthil's der, duh, "Steel!" character doesn't seem to have learned much from the adventures of book 1 where his shipmates learned so much.

By the end, one grows tired of reading

Spoiler

"You knew? You did this?" And Yarvi just smiled.

Too often. OK, he talks about being limited in what he can do, and in many cases the actions are reactions to something uncontrollable, but still ...

I'll read the next one.

jwrieden's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

obaka's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

anatrnd's review against another edition

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4.0

це було чудово! Торн тепер одна з моїх улюблених фентезі персонажок, бо НУ ВОНА >>>>>>>. романтика спочатку здавалась зайвою у цій пригодницькій, політичній та досить жорстокій серії, та і я не дуже люблю троп ґуд бой × бед ґьорл, але я просто закохалась в Торн і Бранда, вони чудові, і їхнє кохання поступово розвивалось, за що плюсик автору. до речі, в цій частині підвезли вже справжнє фентезі (ельфійську магію), бо у першій частині, як пам'ятаєте, нічого, крім вигаданого світу, не було.

загалом, мені дуже сподобалось продовження, можливо навіть більше, ніж "Пів короля". єдиним мінусом (кайнда?) виділила б те, що Ярві якийсь зовсім інший, порівняно з попередньою книжкою, і це мейкз сенс, бо у нього вже нова посада, але все одно був певний дисонанс, що це інший персонаж, а не головний герої першої частини

amblygon_writes's review against another edition

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5.0

The characters were fantastic. I wasn't drawn to them at the start, but the way their connections developed seemed so natural. This was a dark and at fun read!

majabwds's review against another edition

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3.0

I don't know why people think this is YA. It's kinda brutal and violent. Filled with characters that are difficult to root for but we get there.
I also see that Abercrombie likes to have anti Gandalfs in his stories - in this case and older mentor who does some questionable things (poisonings mostly) behind the scenes to make events happen the way he wants them to.
I would say that this is a light grim dark fantasy. Yes, the main characters are younger but still horrible things happen to them and they do some horrible things themselves. The world is cruel and unfair (especially to women) and there is so much blood.
The writing was a bit meh for me. It seemed disjointed at times.
I