BEST SERVED COLD - JOE ABERCROMBIE

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Permalink Reply by Satima Flavell on January 4, 2010 at 10:58am

While I did not like this book quite as much as the original trilogy, that's only my taste - some readers have preferred Best Served Cold to Abercrombie's earlier works. I love his gritty realism and refusal to make black blacker and white whiter. As is real life, with Abercrombie you get deliciously variable shades of grey.

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Permalink Reply by Jebus Jones on January 7, 2010 at 10:34pm

Great book. Great author. He should win. 'Nuff said.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Whitehead on January 13, 2010 at 1:05am

My pick for this year's award. The traditional dark humour, conflicted characters and moral murkiness of the original trilogy, but condensed and distilled into a single, stand-alone novel. Very impressive, but also very dark, stuff.

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Permalink Reply by Nick Brett on January 14, 2010 at 4:00pm

This gets my vote, dark, gritty and unconventional approach to his characters. Most are bad, just different shades of bad!

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Permalink Reply by JOE CRAWFORD on January 14, 2010 at 7:16pm

Must be something you have to aquire a taste for- I cant vote for something that i cant recommend to my grandson or daughter. Way too much profanity for my bookshelf. Thats something you never found in David s work, he knew how to get his message across without it!!!
joe

Jebus Jones said:

Great book. Great author. He should win. 'Nuff said.

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Permalink Reply by Satima Flavell on January 15, 2010 at 12:27am

Sadly, Joe, there's probably nothing in Abercrombie's work that your grandchildren haven't seen and heard on TV. Much as we older folk might decry the use of profanity in books and film, words that at one time were not used in polite company now pepper the conversation of nearly all teenagers and quite a few younger children as well. Few young people remain virgin over the age of fifteen and at least 80% of them have tried drugs well before they leave school. The result, of course, is that art is reflecting life and Abercrombie's books typify that. We might not like it, but that's how it is.

Personally, I am more bothered by the cynical attitude and the loss of idealism that permeates much modern writing - and modern life - than I am by bad language, but I have to admit that it is a lot more realistic than the God-and-country stuff we grew up with. I realise that anyone trying to maintain the ideal that good always triumphs over evil and that there is a clear boundary between right and wrong is in for some rude awakenings in life, yet I still harbour a desire to keep that dream alive, and perhaps you do, too. Stock fantasy is the only place where we find it these days, but Joe Abercrombie is a good thirty years younger than I am, and he obviously harbours no such illusions: he pushes the boundaries of fantasy, and does it well. Autres temps, autres mores.

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Permalink Reply by Nick Brett on January 15, 2010 at 3:06pm

Satima makes some very valid points.
Joe Abercrombie does write more 'earthy' material, but how dull would fantasy be if everyone wrote the same bland stuff? I loved Gemmell's books but very much 'heroic' fantasy where, amongst great storytelling, his characters very much project a positive and noble ethos. Great and I enjoyed everyone of them. The reality is different and Joe Abercrombie reflects this in his excellent books. His are anti-heroes with their own agendas and their language and actions are very appropriate in that context.
The loss of David gemmell so early was tragic, but we are lucky that a new generation of fantasy authors have given us some great books to enjoy over the past couple of years, Abercrombie, Lynch, Rothfuss, Brett(no relation!), Weeks and so on. I see these pages as a celebration of good fantasy, not to seek new authors that duplicate the style of Gemmell's great works.
If Joe Crawford choses not to expose younger people to some of these works, that is not for me to question and it is his parental right, but when they get older they have a treat in store.

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Permalink Reply by JOE CRAWFORD on January 15, 2010 at 9:14pm

Hello Nick,
Interesting take on the future of fantasy in toto, but the trend toward gross and disgusting language in print is disturbing. I hope no smut laws ever come up due to this- probably no chance because lawmakers are not very literary people. At least they dont read our books! I am looking forward to seeing vote totals. i fear that your observance may be more accurate in the case of the masses.
joe

Nick Brett said:

Satima makes some very valid points.
Joe Abercrombie does write more 'earthy' material, but how dull would fantasy be if everyone wrote the same bland stuff? I loved Gemmell's books but very much 'heroic' fantasy where, amongst great storytelling, his characters very much project a positive and noble ethos. Great and I enjoyed everyone of them. The reality is different and Joe Abercrombie reflects this in his excellent books. His are anti-heroes with their own agendas and their language and actions are very appropriate in that context.
The loss of David gemmell so early was tragic, but we are lucky that a new generation of fantasy authors have given us some great books to enjoy over the past couple of years, Abercrombie, Lynch, Rothfuss, Brett(no relation!), Weeks and so on. I see these pages as a celebration of good fantasy, not to seek new authors that duplicate the style of Gemmell's great works.
If Joe Crawford choses not to expose younger people to some of these works, that is not for me to question and it is his parental right, but when they get older they have a treat in store.

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Permalink Reply by Greyweather on January 16, 2010 at 9:24am

While I thought the novel was good, I was never able to connect with the characters the way I did with his first three novels. I admire Abercrombie's willingness to try a new and different approach to a tale of revenge, but I think he took it too far and it became almost a farce.

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Permalink Reply by Anna on March 3, 2010 at 9:39pm

Hi, I loved Best Served Cold, though not quite as much as his First Law Trilogy. What I did like was how he name-dropped throughout and how cameo characters from the First Law took on starring roles in Best...

Abercrombie transformed fantasy for me. I used to struggle to find a fantasy book that contained something very fresh, very new, but these books do it. It takes purity and perfection out of fantasy and replaces it with people who are real - they fart and swear and bleed and die - and to me, that makes the fantasy even more powerful.
With traditional fantasy, you want to be the hero/ine and be that noble and good and beautiful etc. With Joe's fantasy, you can quite easily picture yourself exactly as you are filling that character's shoes. You don't need to change in order to be the hero/ine - or should I say anti-hero/ine?

Anna

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Permalink Reply by Stuart March on June 11, 2010 at 9:26pm

Sorry you didn't like the swearing, but I personally thought the book was aimed at an adult audience. If your grandchildren are not in secondary school then I also wouldn't recommend the book to them. I would recommend childrens fiction. If they are in scondary school then don't worry about the swearing, it's nothing they won't have already heard in the playground. I'd be more concerned about the sex scenes!

JOE CRAWFORD said:

Must be something you have to aquire a taste for- I cant vote for something that i cant recommend to my grandson or daughter. Way too much profanity for my bookshelf. Thats something you never found in David s work, he knew how to get his message across without it!!!
joe

Jebus Jones said:

Great book. Great author. He should win. 'Nuff said.

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