|
Half A King by Joe Abercrombie Joe Abercrombie has been around for nearly 10 years now. An instant hit as a fantasy writer. All his books are great. This new one though is............probably his best one yet, and it's a YA (Young Adult) book. If you know about Joe's previous works such as the 'First Law' Books, then this must have been a big challenge for him to hold back on his usual graphic detail. This book is the start of a new trilogy and although made YA friendly, it should not be left for YA's to just read it. I would read anything by this man, and I mean anything, so once I heard about this book, I actually purchased a copy for my Kindle, as I could not find a review copy beforehand! The storyline itself has a young Prince Yarvi, who becomes King on the death of both his Father and the next-in-line, his elder brother. Albeit being set in medieval times, it is as realistic as you could expect from a fantasy book, as there is no magic! No magic I hear you say? Yes, no magic, or should that be, no, no magic? This ticks all the right boxes for me. If want to read about bloody wizards and all that, then pick up The Lord of the Rings trilogy, as anything subsequently released since then with wizards has been no comparison for me! With Half A King by Joe Abercrombie, you get realism, you get plenty of fighting, (as ever) great characters and so many twists and turns. As you can tell, I really enjoyed the story about Yarvi, who for probably half of the book, is looked at as some kind of failure by his family. Yarvi has a disability, so has trouble when it comes to fighting but you follow him on his journey, and you really warm to him as a lead character. You will be reading page after page, just to find out what happens next. I mentioned above that the fight scenes are less graphic that in Joe's previous books but don't let that mean there is no gore. It's just the certificate 12 version or PG13, depends if you are UK or US/Canadian/Australian/etc... The book is aimed at being read by everyone and anyone. The bookshelf you will find it on may say Fantasy but don't let that put you off. If you want action, realism, a cracking character to get behind, twists and turns, then all I can suggest is, READ THIS BOOK! 10 ouf 10 |
Review by Carl Marsh
|
More Book Reviews
Custom Search