Karen’s Reviews > Half a War > Status Update

Storyline has split in two directions and still hold firm. Battle action on one side and mystery seeking on the other. The balance is sublime.

Wounds that send a Queen outside to be sick.
A Queen whose minister lends assurances.
A writer who gives the reader every tiny essence of his characters.

From the end of chapter Gudrun’s Example, Raith promises Queen Skara:

“Every good killer needs someone to kill for.”

He is a very good killer to be so young.

From the chapter titled Deals, because young Queen Skara is a deal maker if there ever was one:

“The world is full of monsters, after all. Perhaps the best one can hope for is to have the most terrible on your side.”

From the chapter Monsters:
(Young Queen Skara speaks; Owd is her borrowed minister)

“I used to think the world had heroes in it. But the world is full of monsters, Sister Owd.” She turned away from the dead, back toward Bail’s Point. “Perhaps the best we can hope for is to have the most terrible of them on our side.”

That’s a girl after my own heart.

Gotta stop and take a breath.
My favorite character has been killed by the worst of the worst.
If you’ve read Martin’s Game of Thrones, you know the feeling.
You get attached and the writer puts the dagger right in your heart.
It’s the price you pay when you read great epics.💔

And have I said anything yet about how much Sound reverberates off the pages Abercrombie wrote? Example from the chapter titled Killer:

“All was a storm of splintering wood and clattering metal and broken voices that echoed in Raith’s head until his skull rang with it, split with it, burst with it.”

The battle scenes are as loud as they are astounding!

Abercrombie doesn’t just paint characters with subtle ease. His scenery glows with light, shimmers with colors, and dances through every page. I am constantly smiling as I read this series through to the end.

Taken from the chapter titled Power - (Queen Skara talks to Raith)

“You do not have to trust a man to make use of him. My doorkeeper, after all, used to fill cups for Grom-gil-Gorm.”
Raith frowned harder than ever as he fiddled at that notch in his ear. “You might be best not trusting anyone.”

Almost Shakespearean in nature. Teenagers thrust into making adult decisions.

Such strong-woman books.
I am in awe of their creator.