Review: mini-reviews of Half the World, The Whitefire Crossing, and Lagoon

Half the World steps away from Yarvi, now Father Yarvi, pushing him back to the shadows where he belongs and follows two new characters, Thorn and Brand.  Thorn is a young girl, touched by Mother War who struggles to overcome the male-dominated warrior culture of The Shattered Seas.  Brand is a young man who wants to be a warrior, but also wants to do the right thing.

In many ways this is a better book than Half a King.  Instead of a revenge story, we get a quest and adventure tale with the characters trying to level a political playing field that is tilting away from them.  We get to see part of the larger world as well as quite a lot of character development better than any in the first book.  This novel is another fantastic outing by Joe Abercrombie. 
  
Rating: 9/10. 

The Whitefire Crossing is the first book by Courtney Schafer and the first book in The Shattered Sigil trilogy.  The book follows two characters: Dev, a freelancer for mountain caravans who is also a smuggler, and Kiran, a mage on the run who is willing to do what it takes to be smuggled by Dev from a city where magic is allowed free reign across the border to a neighboring country where magic is tightly controlled.

The book essentially has two halves.  The first covers the mountain crossing and deals a lot with geography and mountaineering while the second deals with the consequences of the smuggling plot.  There is a great deal with magic and how it is handled and regulated in this book.  The main thing though is that the author makes certain to make complex, gray characters who do things for their own reasons.  Perhaps too much so, but it works fairly well.  Certainly a novel worth reading. 

Rating: 8/10. 

Lagoon is set in the city of Lagos, Nigeria when an alien race appears and makes contact.  I should say right off the bat that this book is less about the aliens and more about what happens to the city and its people.  Basically, a bit of a character study of the effect of this kind of world-changing event, in a world that is already changing.  As other people have noted, it makes for an interesting and wide-ranging story, but also a frustrating one because it feels like part of the story is missing.  Those looking for a deeper, more complex tale or those who wish to know more about the aliens and their intentions will be disappointed. 

Rating: 7.5/10.

Last Argument of Kings

Last Argument of Kings marks a new standard in the fantasy genre. The war against Bethod continues in the North and soon the Gurkish will bring war to the very heart of the Union. With the King on his deathbed the power struggles intensify and Glotka struggles to satisfy two conflicting masters. Failing to find the seed, the travel group breaks up with Logen returning to the north to settle with Bethod, while Bayaz schemes to put Jezal on the throne. The last book in the First Law Trilogy is chock full of battles, betrayals, and machinations.
When I read other reviews saying Abercrombie took the fantasy tropes and completely tore them up in Last Argument of Kings, I wasn’t sure exactly what they meant. I have to admit I was shocked at how events turned out. The battles were amazing, the character machinations and revelations even more so. What really surprised me was how the reader’s preconceptions of the characters and the world were totally turned on its head.
Thus, The only complaint I have of Last Argument of Kings is that the world-view is too cynical for my tastes, but I think that’s Abercrombie’s point. Idealism is one extreme and cynicism is the polar opposite. Those who have power don’t want to lose it and view those who don’t as less than they are. Bayaz has survived so long because he’s the meanest, most manipulative guy on the block. We don’t see anything of Khalul so it's hard to make any judgments, but the implication is that he is not any better. The battle in the series is not between good and evil but rather between those with the ultimate power.
Last Argument of Kings is fantastic and one of the best fantasy books I’ve read in a long while. Abercrombie has established himself as a giant in the genre. I get shivers thinking of the next book, Best Served Cold. An absolute must-read.
Rating: 10/10.