Karen’s Reviews > Half the World > Status Update

Awesome lines like

“Nothing was the way the gods had made it, everything tortured by the hands of man.”

And battle scenes straight out of Red Sonja and Conan.
It’s a magical work of words!

First lovers’ spat, misunderstanding, and walk away from each other angry. And they aren’t even lovers yet.

I like this notion of “luck” in everything - weatherluck, weaponluck, etc. - and the “power of grudges”.

One might ask Father Yarvi where he gets “all those wonderful toys?”

From the chapter entitled Not Like The Songs:

“A fool doesn’t fear. A warrior stands in spite of his fear. You stood.”

Wise old Rulf keeps dishing out the warrior’s lessons.

Good lines like raised drinks
This selection found in the chapter entitled Strange Times:

“Enemies are the price of success.”

Said at the onset of this book that I like the character Brand. After this last chapter, when he shows how heroic he can be to save a child, I don’t like him. I adore him. He is the strength at the core of this book - both physically and at heart.

Lines so pure they could make you cry:

“Seeds blown from half the world away and chosen by some weird luck to put their roots down here.” (Taken from the chapter entitled Damn Them, and in reference to a village sprung from people all over the Shattered Sea.)

I think almost every reader will agree with me that it’s the character build that’s most important. You can create a great plot but fill it with wishy-washy flat people and the book slams shut before you’re a third into it.

Abercrombie is masterful with his characters, and once created, they learn, grow, and age but don’t suddenly lose clarity or fade into nothingness. Pure genius.