Words are weapons.
Princess Skara has seen all she loved made blood and ashes. She is left with only words. But the right words can be as deadly as any blade. She must conquer her fears and sharpen her wits to a lethal edge if she is to reclaim her birthright.
Only half a war is fought with swords.
The deep-cunning Father Yarvi has walked a long road from crippled slave to king’s minister. He has made allies of old foes and stitched together an uneasy peace. But now the ruthless Grandmother Wexen has raised the greatest army since the elves made war on God, and put Bright Yilling at its head – a man who worships no god but Death.
Sometimes one must fight evil with evil.
Some – like Thorn Bathu and the sword-bearer Raith – are born to fight, perhaps to die. Others – like Brand the smith and Koll the wood-carver – would rather stand in the light. But when Mother War spreads her iron wings, she may cast the whole Shattered Sea into darkness.
Princess Skara has seen all she loved made blood and ashes. She is left with only words. But the right words can be as deadly as any blade. She must conquer her fears and sharpen her wits to a lethal edge if she is to reclaim her birthright.
Only half a war is fought with swords.
The deep-cunning Father Yarvi has walked a long road from crippled slave to king’s minister. He has made allies of old foes and stitched together an uneasy peace. But now the ruthless Grandmother Wexen has raised the greatest army since the elves made war on God, and put Bright Yilling at its head – a man who worships no god but Death.
Sometimes one must fight evil with evil.
Some – like Thorn Bathu and the sword-bearer Raith – are born to fight, perhaps to die. Others – like Brand the smith and Koll the wood-carver – would rather stand in the light. But when Mother War spreads her iron wings, she may cast the whole Shattered Sea into darkness.
Not so in Half a War.
Despite its title, this book doesn’t do things by half. Half a War is packed from cover to cover with full-on danger,
full-on violence, and full-on excitement. The stakes are higher than they’ve
ever been: the events of the first two books have finally come to a head, and
the Shattered Sea is embroiled in outright war. The High King’s army are
marching, and standing against them is the small but dogged alliance of
Gettland, Vansterland and Throvenland. But it’s an alliance of necessity rather
than friendship, and the leaders of each nation must learn to co-exist for the
greater good of their people.
I simply can’t praise Half
a War highly enough. This is the
Abercrombie I know and love: the Abercrombie who writes killer action scenes
and breathless, adrenaline-fuelled battles; the Abercrombie who loads his pages
with dark humour and gritty violence; the Abercrombie who creates flawed yet
likeable characters whose witty yet realistic dialogue dances off the page and
whose fates we as readers become genuinely invested in. This Abercrombie is not afraid to place his characters in dangerous
situations, and to force them to make decisions in which they must weigh their
own needs against the needs of others. Neither is he afraid to hurt his
characters – or, by extension, his readers – and I feel like this is the first
time in this trilogy that the ‘true’ Abercrombie really shines through the YA
veneer.
In the same vein as the second book, Half a War has characters who previously featured as main
protagonists taking something of a back seat, allowing a new set of characters
to come to the fore. So, while Father Yarvi and Thorn Bathu both have their
fair share of page time, the real focus here is on two new protagonists: Skara,
a deposed and recently orphaned princess; and Raith, bloodthirsty swordbearer
to the legendary warrior Grom-gil-Gorm. Both characters are remarkably
different to one another, yet both are extremely likeable, and I personally
sympathised with both of them a lot more than I did either Thorn, Brand or
Yarvi. Still, each and every character has a role to play, and when the full extent
of certain characters’ involvement with the ongoing conflict is revealed it makes
for a delightfully outrageous surprise.
The only aspect of the series I’m still not entirely
convinced by is the notion of ‘elf magic’, which to me seems kind of shoehorned
into Half a War given that it was
only hinted at subtly in the previous two books (rather than made an integral part
of the world as in Mark Lawrence’s Broken
Empire). However, it does allow for incredible plot opportunities; and
although I feel that the storyline involving the ruins of Strokom could perhaps
have been fleshed out a bit more, I can’t deny that it results in some madly
incongruous and awesome imagery (one particular scene involving the elderly
Mother Scaer is both hilarious and terrifying, and will likely stick in my mind
for a very long time).
Half a War is fast-moving
and highly entertaining. It’s a fairly intense read, full of action and twists,
and is led by sympathetic yet unpredictable characters who constantly surprise
us with their decisions, eventually leaving us with an optimistic yet by no
means fairytale ending. All in all, a stunning finale to a really enjoyable
fantasy series. I would absolutely love to see more of the Shattered Sea in the
near future.
5/5
Half a War was a good book. Joe did an amazing job and his writing skills are amazing. The book was a great read and the work was remarkable. Thanks for the review.
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