A short review of Joe Abercrombie’s ‘Best Served Cold’
A good, if slightly underwhelming, return to the world of ‘The First Law’
Joe Abercrombie is a prolific fantasy author (and a pretty interesting person to follow on Twitter, too). He’s best known for his First Law trilogy, but he has also written a few young-adult books, a follow-up trilogy to First Law, and a set of spinoff books set in the same universe. Best Served Cold is one of those spinoffs. It’s about a mercenary in Styria, a nation geographically close to Adua (where much of The First Law is set.
I chose to read this book because I liked The First Law a great deal and think Abercrombie’s writing style is great. Earlier this year, I also read A Little Hatred, which is the second book in his sequel trilogy. While I waited for book two in that series to come out (it released in September; it’s on hold in my library right now) I decided to give Best Served Cold a try.
Much like The First Law, Best Served Cold follows multiple protagonists, starting with just one perspective and then gradually expanding as the story develops. The two “main” characters are Monza (the mercenary out for revenge) and Shivers (a minor character from The First Law who is also present in the sequel trilogy). There are a few others, but the majority of the chapters come from one of these two people and it’s clear that they form the centerpiece of the story.
The book’s greatest strength is the characters themselves. Every single character has some kind of fatal flaw. A few of them have some good qualities too, but Abercrombie seems most interested in telling a story with no clear “good guy.” The myriad ways that each character interacts with everyone else are the best reasons to pick this book up. Everyone is out for their own interests, and the broader story unfolds through their betrayals, plots, and schemes.
Best Served Cold falls short in its pacing. It’s a lengthy book, and some of the chapters in the second half don’t carry the plot forward as much as their earlier counterparts. The central story of revenge and plotting is solid, but I think Abercrombie could have purged some of the less-central parts of the plot and ended up with a slightly shorter book.
Best Served Cold falls short of the high standards set by The First Law trilogy, but is still a perfectly enjoyable book on its own. Abercrombie is a really good character writer, and the dialog and interactions in this story more than make up for the pacing shortfalls. As we wait for his second trilogy to conclude, fans of his work could do a lot less than checking Best Served Cold out.
The views expressed are mine alone and do not represent the views of my employer or any other person or organization.
