Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law trilogy is a violent, brutal series that does a fantastic job of making readers connect with its flawed heroes. No matter what awful things some of the characters did, Abercrombie was able to instill enough soul into these characters so that the readers could still find things to like about them.
The two prime examples of this were Logen Ninefingers and Sand dan Glotka, and to a lesser extent, Jezal dan Luthar and the Dogman. All of these characters were far from perfect; each did things for which they were not proud, but they were also molded into what they were by the violent world around them.
This isn’t an easy trick to pull off, especially with so many flawed characters. It is what sets The First Law apart from many other modern fantasy series.
Abercrombie followed up The First Law with a trio of standalone books set in the same world: Best Served Cold (2009), The Heroes (2011), and Red Country (2012). These are separate stories, but several characters cross over to varying degrees from the first three books to Abercrombie's standalone efforts. Today, we're looking back on these three standalone novels set in The First Law world and reviewing each of them. There will be SPOILERS.
Best Served Cold
Best Served Cold is a tale of revenge, as evident from its title. It features several returning characters from the original series, like Caul Shivers, Grand Duke Orso, Nicomo Cosca, and Carlot dan Eider.
The book focuses on Monza Murcatto, a mercenary general and protege of Cosca’s. When Orso tries to kill her and murders her brother, she sets off on a quest to destroy the seven men who were present when she was betrayed.
The story itself, while incredibly violent, is a riveting tale and moves along at a brisk pace. The characters are detailed and colorful, but the most significant difference between this book and the first series is that none of the characters have enough redeeming qualities for the readers to pull for.
But that isn’t quite true. Several characters do have a chance to gain the reader's sympathy, but instead of improving as people, they all become the worst versions of themselves. Murcatto, Shivers, and Cosca all have plenty of opportunity to cultivate the better parts of their nature, but all fail and give in to the craven, brutal aspects of themselves.
This is a commentary on revenge. It isn’t something that will make anyone a better person; instead, it will pull the inner demons of the person seeking revenge to the surface and affect those in contact.
Because all of the characters move backward while fighting their personal demons, Best Served Cold can be uncomfortable to read. It becomes all about the violence and the revenge, and the characters growing less and less human, less and less relatable, and less and less likable.
Grade: C
The Heroes
While Best Served Cold spans several months and multiple locations, The Heroes is set predominantly in one place, over the course of about a week.
It covers the Battle of Osrung, a small village in a small valley, between the men of the North, led by Logen Ninefingers' old crew member Black Dow, and the Union, led by General Kroy. Black Dow and Kroy are returning characters from the original series, as are Caul Shivers, Bremer dan Gorst, and others.
The battle unfolds through the eyes of several characters on both sides of the conflict. Again, most of these characters lack redeeming qualities. The lone exception is Curnden Craw, an old, honest Named Man, stuck in a world of younger warriors and brutal violence.
He is a dinosaur of sorts; honesty isn’t a trait that is cultivated any longer, but most men respect Craw because of that honesty. He is a straight-shooter in a world of duplicity. He can hold true to his values throughout the book, and is a character with whom readers can connect.
One character readers may be disappointed in is Bremer dan Gorst. His destiny was stolen from him in The First Law, and he was caught up in a failure not of his making in Best Served Cold (this event is covered in that book, but dan Gorst’s part isn’t known until The Heroes).
Abercrombie returns to a narrative tool he used so effectively in the original series with Glotka. Bremer has a running monologue with himself throughout the book, but while that monologue made it easy to empathize with Glotka, it portrays Bremer as a weak, whining fool who allows his circumstances to dictate his fate. Through these monologues, readers see that Bremer has an unrealistic plan to return to the king’s good graces.
Despite the bitterness that Bremer feels for how an unfair world has treated him, he becomes a reluctant hero of the battle because his best qualities are his courage and his fighting skills. Despite his inner turmoil about his current disgraced plight, he is able to redeem himself, almost by mistake. This could have been a grand, deserving moment for Bremer, but because of his monologue that readers are privy to, it’s apparent that he may not deserve his redemption.
There is plenty of political intrigue mixed in with all of the fighting, and the book is as fast-paced as Abercrombie’s other works. There are a few more good moments in this book than in the last.
Grade: B-
Red Country
Red Country takes readers to a completely different setting: the Near Country on the western continent of the Circle of the World. Readers have seen this western continent before. In the second First Law book, Before They Are Hanged, the wizard Bayaz leads a party through the southern portion of it. But the setting for that journey bears no resemblance to what we see in Red Country, which feels like the nineteenth-century American Old West.
As with the other follow-up books, characters from the original trilogy pop up. These characters include the beloved Logen Ninefingers, the loathsome Nicomo Cosca, the lost Caul Shivers, and the resilient Carlot dan Eider.
Several new characters are introduced, including the likeable Shy South, the lawyer Temple, and dime novel hero, Dab Sweet.
Unlike the other two stand-alone books, Red Country provides a positive goal for the main characters, though it is derived from evil events. Shy and her adoptive father, Lamb (Logen), discover that Shy’s siblings, Ro and Pit, have been kidnapped. They set off to find them, joining a wagon train heading from the Near Country to the untamed Far Country.
Logen once again is trying to settle into a peaceful, loving person, seeking good. As with his other attempts, fate intervenes, he is pulled back into his violent ways, and his base nature takes over.
While seeking Shy’s siblings, she and Lamb end up in the mining town of Crease, where they find themselves drawn into the middle of a local feud in a winner-take-all fight. The power brokers have agreed to a fight between their champions, with the loser leaving town. The Mayor (Carlot) convinces Lamb to fight for her, and he is forced to do battle with Glama Golden, a Named Man from the North (introduced in The Heroes). Lamb wins, of course, but Cosca arrives to stir trouble at about the same time.
Cosca is hot on the trail of a rebel leader wanted by the Union. As usual, Cosca and his band of mercenaries do more harm than good, but they do help Shy and Lamb recover the young kidnapped children, who had been sold to the Dragon People, a mystic folk whose purpose in this story overall is somewhat unclear.
In the end, Shy finds her lost siblings and, after several adventures and mishaps, brings the children home.
Shy is one of Abercrombie’s most relatable characters. She’s had a rough past, but it is behind her. She is just trying to make ends meet in a harsh world with her siblings. Temple is an interesting character because he is also trying to overcome a tragic past (isn’t everyone in Abercrombie’s world?), and is trying to find good in himself.
Temple is obviously smart and has held many jobs in his short life. He’s never stayed with one long enough to appreciate that it could be his calling. In the beginning, he is Cosca’s lawyer, but Temple cannot stand the brutality of the mercenary life, and he escapes. He is pulled from a river by Shy, and it is the beginning of a sweet, slow-moving romance that is Abercrombie’s best love story to date.
This book has the first true happy ending in Abercrombie’s world, though some might argue that The Heroes had a decent ending for many of the characters as well. The bad guys got what they had coming, and the good guys made it back home safe and sound.
This is also the first book where there are clear good guys and bad guys, even when the good guys are forced into bad things. It is still a violent, ugly world, but this book offers more positives than any others set in this world to date.
Grade: A
Best Served Cold, The Heroes, and Red Country give readers who love The First Law series something extra. Abercrombie stays true to the pre-industrial world he’s created, and he provides closure to several characters from that initial trilogy. If you are a fan of his work, The Age of Madness is another trilogy set in the same world, 28 years after The First Law series ends and 15 years after Red Country. There are sure to be even more ties connecting it to the original trilogy and the standalone books.