Best Served Cold

Executive Summary: Overall I enjoyed this stand-alone novel more than the First Law books themselves, despite the lack of likable characters. It's Kill Bill meets Ocean's 11 in a medieval setting.

Audio book: I believe this is the first audio book I've listened to narrated by Michael Page. I think he does a pretty good job. He is clear and easy to understand. He does a variety of accents and voices. I would definitely listen to another book read by him.

Full Review
I enjoy Mr. Abercrombie's writing quite a bit. But it's rather bleak. This book has only despicable characters.

First, we have the protagonist, a former mercenary bent of revenge.

Then we're got her assortment of “friends”:

- A ‘master' poisoner and his assistant

- A Northern Barbarian whose best skill is killing.

- A serial killer with an obsession for numbers. Rain Man he's not.

- Another mercenary whose loyalties are fluid based on whose paying the most.

- And a “retired” torturer

You know it's a bad sign when the most likable character is probably the serial killer.

That doesn't mean the characters are badly written. They are certainly quite entertaining too. Nicomo Cosca is especially amusing. But with no one really being likable to me, I wasn't sure what/who I was routing for by the end.

That sort of makes it a weird book to me. Typically even if the main character is “bad” they have some redeeming qualities or something to make them into a sort of anti-hero.

Monzcarro Murcatto may have had some redeeming qualities once, but now she is bitter and angry and won't let anything stand in the way of her revenge.

I think Mr. Abercrombie does do a good job in taking some minor characters from the first series and promoting them to larger roles in this stand alone novel. I think this also ties thing together nicely with the First Law trilogy without really spoiling things much.

I'd highly recommend reading First Law BEFORE tackling this book. Sure it's stand alone, but there is a lot of context and references you'll miss if you haven't read that first.

As a fantasy book, this was pretty light on the fantasy. It could almost have been an alternate history book if it weren't set in Mr. Abercrombie's First Law universe.

At its heart this is a revenge story. Monzo is determined to make the ones who wronged her pay. It makes for a fun romp full of unexpected consequences and lots of action.

Overall I really enjoyed it. Plus considering I wasn't sure what outcome I was rooting for, I ended up really liking the ending.