Half a King

Nice YA and grim dark mix

Great intro giving a lot of information with only necessary descriptions just in 70 pages. And overall the story is fast paced and gripping and presents some twists and betrayals very early. It also features awesome, realistic action and many really different, detailed environments. Some episodes are a bit too nice, though, for example the oaths.

The main character struggles a lot and his growth is really visible and understandable, although he’s a bit too lucky but that's fine. And all the other characters are really varied and interesting. The ending is very cool and intriguing.

Can’t wait to read the whole series!

This doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it doesn't need to. This was so much fun, with hilarious banter between characters.

I made it. I saw it through to the end even though multiple times I was going to give up on it. I had no idea this was a YA novel until after finishing it, which explains why I spent so much time wishing things weren't so dull and uninteresting. But that's really no excuse. If you can't write an engaging story without writing it for adult audiences, maybe stick to writing it for adult audiences.

The bones of this novel are great, but that's all it is. All bones and no meat. Everything is painfully surface level and a drag to get through. I got invested in it at the end of Part 1, then Part 2 came to a screeching halt, then Part 3 got better, and Part 4 was really quite good. Which is even more frustrating, with such a strong ending, why did I have to fight so hard just to get to it. The whole book should be like this. Does the ending justify the slog of getting through 75% of a not so good book? Not quite, but maybe.

I don't see myself continuing with this series unless I find them dirt cheap. If things can pick up where this left off and deliver on the great premise it has, I'll be pleased, but this is just not it. Three stars is very generous as this is written well enough, but as of right now this is at the lowest end of three stars you can be without dipping into two. Two stars is a bit harsh and undeserved.

I do look forward to giving First Law a chance though.

Audio read by: John Keating

Audiobook was amazing. The story itself had less to no fanatsy elements and was more of a character development story for the prince. The ending was nicely done with the revelations.

Abercrombie is an author I've been meaning to read for a while. I picked up this series for this reason, and I'm glad I started with Shattered Sea.

Half a king is an interesting book. The story unfolds rather quickly, the character's development is fun to see, and the the plot is enjoyable. The only thing that struck to me as odd was the ending. Nothing wrong with it. Actually, it was a perfectly good ending, so I don't know how this can be the first of a trilogy. However, I'm going to continue the series just to see where it goes.

Even though I can't say this is my favorite book, I can definitely say it made me want to read Abercrombie's adult books. They seem promising!

Me ha gustado todo: el ritmo, los personajes, la forma en la que está escrito, la ambientación, la historia y el final.
Hasta la biografía de Abercrombie al final del libro! XD
Seguiré con el siguiente, este autor ha sido un gran descubrimiento!

Nice to get some background on the actual start of this trilogy! The book is focused on Yarvi, which fills in a lot of information about his character that we missed from the second book, where he is much more of a secondary character. Compared to the second, I didn't find the rest of the cast as compelling, and the plot felt a little more contrived, but there's still fun to be had.

I picked up Half a King from the library on a whim because I have heard the name Joe Abercrombie quite a lot. It was supposed to be a quick read to introduce me to the author.

PLOT ???????????????
The story centres around Yarvi, a crippled second son in a world where he isn???t expected to amount to much. He is considered ???half a king???, not worthy to inherit the throne. When his father and brother perish, Yarvi is suddenly forced into the forefront of a dangerous world he thought he would never have to confront.

WORLD-BUILDING ???????????????
I personally feel like this could have been a fantastic novel, if all aspects of it had been done in more detail. The cast of characters were not developed, or given histories or motivation past a sentence each midway through the book. The world the book depended on wasn't clearly explained at all. Every character spoke about the history and religion as if it was incredibly important, yet none of that was explored or set up at all.

CHARACTERS ???????????????
I particularly found the main character to be irritating and immature during the entirety of the book. This is understandable, and many books follow an immature character trying to grow up quickly to assume a responsibility they must bear, it simply was the case that I felt Yarvi had no features that endeared me to him. I felt that the characters felt like caricatures, and utterly unbelievable. A large portion of the dialogue felt forced and over the top.

OVERALL ???????????????
A lot of reviews I have seen on GR for this series feature the comment that Abercrombie???s other books are an improvement on this one. I won't continue with this series, but I might try another of Abercrombie's as I've heard his other books are better.

I really enjoyed this until the plot train began bearing down heavily and driving everyone into the unpleasant-and-predictable corner, but then surprise! Penultimate twistage saved the day. I am very pleased with this turn of events (pun intended), and will be pressing on.

This is the first Abercrombie I've read, I do have The Blade Itself but wanted to start with this series. I enjoyed this a lot, especially Yarvi as a character. He has issues, but his character building from the start to the end of this book was great. I also thought the twists at the end of the book were fantastic, I didn't see either coming. My one (minor) issue with this book was that it could have done with a little more world building near the start, it just took me a little longer to get into it than I would have liked as I was struggling to imagine everything going on, but it didn't detract from the rest of the book. Looking forward to the next instalment!

excellent book.

Historia de traiciones y juramentos.

Es el primer libro de la trilogía del Mar Quebrado.

No es una novela larga, lo que impide tal vez algo de profundidad en los personajes. Pero es entretenida, y presenta un mundo, unos personajes, de los que quieres saber más.

Mi primer libro de Abercrombie, buena historia, buenos personajes (pero sin poder entrar en profundidad en ellos), buen universo el que plantea.

Sin duda leeré los otros dos volúmenes.

Juiy! Ik was weer even zestien!

Euh of beter: ik voelde mij weer even zoals ik mij inbeeld dat ik mij zou moeten gevoegd hebben als ik zestien was. In het echt was ik miserabel en zo, maar met Joe Abercrombie's Half a King zou het allemaal een beetje beter gegaan zijn.

Joe Abercrombie (lees allemaal The First Law-trilogie en wel nú!) pleegt een Young Adult-trilogie, en het begint alvast zeer degelijk. De wereld ziet er min of meer middeleeuws uit. Yarvi is de jongste zoon van een rijk koningshuis in het noorden ergens. Hij heeft één misvormde hand, en hij is in de leer om Minister te worden (iets als de maesters in Song of Ice and Fire): hij leert talen, hij leert diplomatie, hij leert geneeskunde, dat soort dingen.

En dan worden zijn vader en oudere broer vermoord door een koning in de buurt, verraderlijk tijdens een vredesoverleg.

Yarvi wordt onverwacht koning; zowat zijn eerste daad is dat hij niet anders kan dan meegaan op de wraakexpeditie die georganiseerd wordt door zijn oom, de jongere broer van de ex-koning. Hij heeft vragen bij het zinloos uitmoorden van onschuldige burgers, maar voor hij er iets aan kan doen, blijkt dat zijn oom het niet goed met hem voor heeft.

Hij valt uit een toren in een woelige zee, iedereen denkt dat hij dood is, hij wordt gevangen genomen en verkocht als galeislaaf – en dan begint het boek pas.

Zeker dat, onwaarschijnlijkheden volgen elkaar op, maar het stoort niet. “A classic coming of age story”, staat er ergens op de omslag, en ‘t is waar: dit is een boek dat wel geschreven lijkt voor kinderen van zestien die boeken lezen. Erm, wat ook het geval is, dus.

Maar in tegenstelling tot pakweg Anne McCaffrey, waar het ook over zeer onwaarschijnlijke kinderen gaat die helden worden, is dit wél leesbaar voor niet-tieners. Het volgende boek is Half a World, en ik kijk al uit naar (hopelijk) een uitbreiding de wereld naar buiten het hoge noorden.

A quick, enjoyable read, but the last quarter of the book doesn't live up to the potential of the earlier portions of the book. Abercrombie does a fantastic job of crafting the character Yarvi's journey from a neglected weakling to a cunning champion-of-sorts, but when the novel turns to more traditional, blood-and-steel fantasy storytelling, that intriguing character is lost in the shuffle of predictable deaths and Scooby Doo plot twists.

100% in.

It's been a while since I last listened to an audio book on physical media. I started out listening to books-on-tape, but lately it's all been audio downloads. Which is why I had to scramble to find a CD player for this book. I wound up listening to most of it my car.

A couple of weeks before I received the audio book I met author Joe Abercrombie at Jean Cocteau Theater in Santa Fe, NM, where he was reading and signing with Cherie Priest, at an event hosted by George R.R. Martin. He's an amusing speaker, embracing his grimdarkness with a wink and a smile. He read a chapter from “Half a King”, providing a nice preview for the recorded book.

The audio book is narrated by John Keating, speaking with a wide variety of voices and accents, all of them sounding very British, but well-suited to Abercrombie's tale.

Young Yarvi, second son of the king, has been groomed for the ministry because he has a withered hand. He can't fight with sword and shield, but he's learned all his other lessons well, even though he isn't aware of his skills at the story's beginning. When his father and brother are ambushed and killed, he must take the throne. He rashly swears an oath to avenge his family and embarks on a journey of betrayal, suffering, and self-discovery. He survives by accepting his fate and learning from it.

In a sense, this is a coming-of-age novel, set in a harsh and occasionally bloody landscape. That's to be expected from Abercrombie, whose other books follow squarely in the grim footsteps of Martin's “Song of Ice and Fire” saga, but “Half a King” steers clear of sex and excessive violence, offering a more thoughtful narrative that focuses on the people Yarvi meets, how he learns from them, and learns about himself. I found this aspect of the book compelling, all the way through to the end.

There are more books to come in this world. Yarvi's story has just begun. I think it will be worth the effort to keep reading.

This audio book has 8 compact discs, 9.25 hours of audio, and tracks every 3 minutes for easy bookmarking.

Executive Summary: Well written, but predictable.Full ReviewI like Joe Abercrombie. I consider him one of my favorite writers, but I don't love him like some of my friends seem to. Sometimes the dark fantasy is just a bit too much for me. So I was looking forward to seeing how he'd do in a Young Adult demographic.I thought for such a short book, it was way overpriced so I opted to wait until I could borrow it from the library. I'm glad I did.The book is very well written, but as expected far too short. The world building is almost non existent and the character development apart from the main character isn't much better. Contrast that with something like [b:Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 3 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1) J.K. Rowling https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361572757s/3.jpg 4640799] which is just as short but has far more of both.I think Mr. Abercrombie is so used to writing longer “grimdark” that by the time he toned things down for a younger audience he wasn't left with much. But for me the biggest disappointment is the characters. After the memorable characters from his others books, I found that I just didn't care about any of the characters in this book all that much.That said, even a “bad” Joe Abercrombie book seems to be much better than a lot of other stuff out there and I will continue on when the next book comes out, but I'm sure I'll once again wait to borrow it from the library instead of rushing out to buy it.

reviews.metaphorosis.com

3.5 stars

One-handed prince and younger son Yarvi, training to be an advisor, is suddenly thrust into the kingship, and into an unexpected nest of violence, treachery, and hardship. Can he survive, and even attempt vengeance?

Half a King is the first book of a trilogy, but also works well as a standalone novel. There are plenty of ties for potential use in sequels, but no major threads left hanging.

This book doesn't work quite as well as The Blade Itself. This is a well-crafted new-style fantasy (gritty and realistic rather than epic and wishful); it offers a ready cast of likable characters, puts them in genuine danger, and yet never strays too far from a core of lawfulness and wish fulfillment. When it does (suggesting rapid changes in Yarvi's character), it wanders away from plausibility with a setup that might work in a larger book, or over the course of the trilogy, but the shift is a bit too sudden to be credible here.

Credibility is one of the weak points of the book. A pursuit forms a core element, but it simply seems far too unlikely to hold up. Instead, the author's intent shows rapidly through, weakening the drama that was the purpose of the pursuit mechanism. This is true more broadly - the risks and solutions posed are a touch too simplistic for the grim tone the narrative employs. The result is a mildly dissatisfying older-young-adult feel - there's danger and mayhem, but you have a feeling it will mostly work out in the end.

All that said, it's an enjoyable, competently written book, and a quick read. In some ways it reminded me of Dan Chernenko (Harry Turtledove's) Scepter of Mercy series.

Overall, recommended for Abercrombie fans, and those looking for solid fantasy adventure. Plus, because this book stands alone, it's easy to test the series out and see if you want more.

NB: Received free copy for review via Net Galley.

In full disclosure, I didn't even realize this was a YA book when I picked it up. I knew it was Abercrombie, and I knew it was a fresh world, and that was enough for me to begin reading. “Half A King” is the story of Yarvin, a prince who wants nothing more than to be a Minister, learn some lore, and stay out of the light of day. Before the novel even gains too much traction, his father and brother are killed, leaving him the title of king. He's unprepared for the role, and being born with less than a full compliment of fingers on one hand, he is quick to be given the titular half a king.

This being an Abercrombie novel, there should be no surprise that betrayal and a rapid change of fortune is the next step. The phases of this journey will be no surprise to the seasoned reader of fantasy. A boy, cast into the world, must find out who he really is, rising from a somewhat despicable, sniveling child to an adult that knows his own strengths and weaknesses and how to use them to achieve his objective. You come to this story expecting an Abercrombie fantasy, but you stay because despite some of its predictable elements, its told really, really well. The reader will recognize a world that is both familiar and a degree or two off of our own. Like many good fantasies, Abercrombie doesn't try and hide the grit behind feats of magic and enchanted swords. There was magic in the world once, and we occasionally get glimpses of the enchantment that was, but this world is firmly between cold iron and hot blood.

My only criticism of this novel, and the reason I didn't think it warranted a full five stars, was that I found the conclusion to be a little too trite and pat. It could be that I am too jaded a reader, too far removed from the intended audience to be surprised by the final twist, but I found it to be a little too convenient.

That said, I would still recommend the book to readers old and young alike, although in fairness some topics may be less appropriate for younger teens - not because the writing is difficult for younger readers, but because some of the content may not be appropriate.

This review was of the digital ARC provided by Del Rey via Netgalley. Thank you to both parties for the opportunity to read this book in advance - it's been hard holding this review until closer to publication :)