Best Served Cold

“You were a hero round these parts. That's what they call you when you kill so many people the word murderer falls short.”This is the first standalone novel in The First Law world and let me just say that it was a wild ride!I love when authors expand their worlds with additional books and after reading this, I need more authors to do this with standalones. I adored Best Served Cold. It does everything a continuation is supposed to do. It expands the world of the First Law by showing us a different part of it, but also gives some side characters from the previous books the main character treatment.Monza as the main character was just amazing! I loved her and all of her bad decisions. Her motivation is very clear from the beginning. Her mind is always on her mission and even when it feels like she may lose sight of that, she brings it back into focus. Monza also has no problem screwing people over in order to get her revenge, which makes her ruthless, but at the same time, she has these moments where she shows guilt and remorse. She is for sure a complex character, which is something Abercrombie is really good at creating.Speaking of amazing characters, let’s talk about Shivers. He was a side character from the First Law Trilogy and all I really knew about him was that he wanted revenge for his brother’s death and he never really got it. It’s ironic that he would hook up with another person on a quest for revenge for their brother’s death as well. Shivers is another complicated character because there were moments where I understood him and his motivations and even rooted for him. There were also these moments where I was questioning his thought process. I will say that overall, I ended up quite liking him.“All your life spent getting ready for the next thing. I climbed a lot of hills now. I crossed a lot of rivers. Crossed the sea even, left everything I knew and came to Styria. But there I was, waiting for me at the docks when I got off the boat, same man, same life. Next valley ain’t no different from this one. No better anyway. Reckon I’ve learned … just to stick in the place I’m at. Just to be the man I am.”I also loved Nicoma Cosca. By far, one of the best characters in the entirety of the First Law so far. He brought the humor and fun to the story and I couldn’t tell if I could trust him or not, which is something I tend to enjoy in a character. I still dislike Duke Orso though. He can choke because he is still a backstabbing snake and nothing about that changed in this book. There are little cameos that I also enjoyed seeing like Jezal.This is a revenge story, so unlike with the First Law trilogy, this does have a central plot even though the strength is still the characters. I love a good revenge plot line, so it is not a surprise how much I loved this. The story itself was full of plot, schemes, and people betraying others left and right. There is also a lot of death and violence as well, which isn’t shocking considering the type of story this is.And that ending! The ending has me excited for future books because I wonder if what we learned at the end of the book will be important in the next trilogy. I’m excited to see.“Sometimes men change for the better. Sometimes men change for the worse. And often, very often, given time and opportunity . . .’ He waved his flask around for a moment, then shrugged. ‘They change back.”

Best Served Cold is a stand-alone novel taking place in the same world as Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. Although Best Served Cold does legitimately standalone from Abercrombie's other works, having read the First Law trilogy is advised to make the background world easier to comprehend. So if you haven't read Abercrombie before, you should begin with The Blade Itself, the first novel in the First Law trilogy.Best Served Cold is a classic revenge novel focusing on mercenary Monza Murcatto's efforts to avenge her betrayal at the hands of her former employer, the Duke of Orso. Accompanying her on her mission is Caul Shivers, a vicious Northern killer set on making amends and doing the right thing, Friendly, an awkward, number-obsessed killer, two poisoners (a master and an apprentice) and Nicomo Cosca, a mercenary who played a role in the First Law trilogy. Some other characters from the First Law trilogy also make appearances of varying import. Like Abercrombie's other works, Best Served Cold is a violent, bloody book. There's also somewhat graphic sex and a lot of bad language. If that's not your style, you probably shouldn't bother. But if you've enjoyed Abercrombie's other works, Best Served Cold is definitely for you.Overall, Best Served Cold was very entertaining. Character creation and development is always one of Abercrombie's strongpoints and the cast here is particularly strong. Monza and Shivers made for an entertaining pair of protagonists (even if Shivers' character arc was very predictable) and their interactions were often very funny. Monza is particularly well developed and her progression is rather impressive. Further, the character arc of the two poisoners - Morveer and Day - was very well handled. Friendly is more than a little awkward at times, but his constant deadpan makes for some really humorous scenes. I'm still not a Nicomo Cosca fan, but he also had his moments. The writing, as usual for Abercrombie, was crisp and effective. He's not a poet, but he can convey descriptions and dialogue as needed. Further, few write action scenes as well as Abercrombie. Abercrombie has a reputation for writing very "realistic" fantasy. I think that is true to an extent - his fighting scenes are dirty and gritty and nasty, rather than the high-minded, highly stylized fighting that so often inhabits the genre. But his characters tend to be larger than life and outlandish (though that's not a bad thing) and his plots can be a little ridiculous at times. Further, the locals featured in Best Served Cold are very well fleshed out and, in my opinion, much more interesting than anything in the First Law trilogy.Best Served Cold is really, really violent. Even for an Abercrombie novel. The death-to-page ratio was staggering (particularly given the lack of large scale battles) and at times it really felt excessive. It sometimes felt as if Abercrombie was just killing characters for the sake of killing characters, rather than to advance the plot. Still, the important deaths were handled very nicely and some of them occurred in some very entertaining ways. Abercrombie also has the occasional habit of relying on convenient writing (usually appearing in the form of plain good luck when characters are in seemingly impossible situations). But the strength of Abercrombie's novels is the sheer entertainment value - the plot may not always develop in the most realistic ways, but it progresses in an entertaining way no matter what. Finally, although many readers claim that they are often surprised by Abercrombie's novels, I have yet to be surprised even in a small way through four books. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the books are so much fun to read, but they seem awfully predictable.Best Served Cold warrants a very solid four stars. It's a highly entertaining adventure fantasy rife with violence, mayhem, and a generous helping of humor. It isn't brilliant literature by any means, but it's an awful lot of fun and, if you don't have a weak stomach, it's well worth your time if you. To reiterate, although Best Served Cold can and does standalone, readers are much better off completing Abercrombie's First Law trilogy before tackling Best Served Cold.

Feels really classic, only read it once but the book has a great classic medieval tale feel with that Witcher type gallows humour, wit and wisdom. Very satisfying ending as always with revenge tales.

great book if youre into this series

This was my first Abercrombie book and wow, what a great book it was. From the very beginning I was engrossed, the plot is brilliant, funny, violent and of course dark. The characters are superbly written and their development was superb. Abercrombie manages to incorporate humour into the most brutal and bloody of scenes and yet it doesn't feel forced in anyway. Truly a masterful work. I loved how despite Morveer and Cosca not being the main protagonist their characters were so well written that they became my favourite characters within the book. Can't wait to read more from this talented author!

Primo romanzo che segue la trilogia della Prima Legge. Abercrombie è un grandissimo scrittore fantasy e questo libro va assolutamente letto. È in inglese nel caso non lo sappiate leggere.

Esse é uma historia de um livro só, ambientada no mundo da trilogia A primeira lei.Conta a história de Monzcarro Murcatto, General do exército do Duque Orso, que, por medo da fama e do amor do povo por ela, sentindo-se ameaçado, resolve assassina-la juntamente com seu irmão Benna. Monza, após presenciar a violenta morte do irmão e ser atirada, quase morta de uma janela rumo a um penhasco e sobreviver, sai numa sangrenta vingança digna da noiva assassina sedenta por sangue de Kill Bill.Não espere uma leitura fácil, agradável e calminha. Espere sangue, vingança, ódio, traições e muita politicagemSete pessoas participaram da morte de seu irmão, sete heróis se juntaram para ajudar Monza na sua sede de vingança.Uma coisa fica clara nos livros dessa série: Joe Abercrombie tem um talento especial para escrever personagens que não são nem heróis, nem vilões. Ou são heróis E vilões dependendo do ponto de vista, ou melhor dizendo, do capítulo apresentado.Best served cold nos traz de volta alguns personagens já conhecidos da trilogia A primeira lei: O bárbaro Tremedeira, o maravilhoso mercenário Cosca, a torturadora Vittari e alguns outros que se eu falar agora, estraga a surpresa. E nos apresenta novos personagens que são um primor no quesito terror psicológico.É muito difícil explicar os livros de Joe Abercrombie. Os personagens são absolutamente cativantes, mas não por suas virtudes, certamente não por seu heroísmo, de jeito nenhum pelo seu carisma... Bom, talvez pelo carisma. O fato é que, como ele não escreve sobre heróis e vilões, mas sim sobre pessoas que são boas ou más, dependendo de que lado da luta você está olhando, ele te tira da zona de conforto do feliz leitor-expectador, para aquele que, enquanto lê, revê valores, questiona o papel das pessoas enquanto humanidade.Se você leu, e gostou, da trilogia A primeira lei, sem duvida vai gostar desse aqui.Joe Abercrombie nos tras de volta aqueles diálogos ácidos, cheios de ironia, com tiradas divertidas e aquele humor negro característicos, cenas de carnificina que dão pesadelo e momentos fofos que você nem sabe como foi que combinou com o resto da historia.Dizem que vingança é um prato que é melhor servido frio (Best served cold), e vingança é o que o autor nos apresenta. Em grande quantidade, as vezes morna, as vezes quente e as vezes fria, em todas as suas variedades.A viagem vai valer a pena.