Half a King

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.