The first time he called Lederlingen, Ladderlugger, i was dying laughing. Books don't so that to me normally. I smile and giggle, but its the first time i've bursted out laughing
This was my favorite so far and really stuck with me long after I finished. It’s much more theme over plot. Joe did a great job of displaying the nihilistic and pointlessness of it all. The hill was pointless, no one really cared about it or the town for that matter. Craw retires only to realize he can’t do anything else and goes right back to a new war. Gorst saves the day three times only to have his “love” hate him, despite saving her husband, and we as the reader realize he was manipulated by Bayaz since it seems he was the real person who banished him and then allowed him to return to the king. Gorst just goes back to his depression. Beck accomplished nothing but killing a friend. Calder didn’t become king. Tunny sat around in the mud. Aside from Finree nothing changed and even that was a wash since her husband got promoted and her father got demoted. The North didn’t expand its boundaries or gain true sovereignty. The wars didn’t stop, just a new enemy. Stranger-come-knocking didn’t get civilized or the wife he wanted. And most heartbreaking of them all is Whirrun dies not in glory but a random spear in the back. And this demigod figure, feared and respected by all, doesn’t even get a song. Forgotten mere hours after his death. The part about the old songs being forgotten because new battles bring new songs really drove home the pointlessness of all the fighting and it gets you absolutely nothing. I get that a book about a pointless battle in a nothing valley over a random hill might turn people away but I felt it was amazingly done
I think it was my least favorite so far for the exact same reasons. Joe has already DONE a great job of showing the pointlessness of war, the lack of heroism in heroes, and the "surprise" of Bayaz in the background pulling all the strings. These are nothing new. I was expecting something new. Still loved it, though. :)
@@tedhekman yea exactly. Abercrombie be like " oh i wrote another war book about how war is terrible, pointless and unnecessary. " ok? then why did you write another book about war then? lol. at least it wasn't predictable and boring like best served cold. if you take away the insistent message of " war bad mkay? " its actually an amazing book.
So glad you got me to read Abercrombie. What I love about this book is how the Bloody Nine's reputation alone can change a battle. I hope he is not dead and can't wait to read the next book to find out.
The Heroes might be my favorite First Law novel so far even though it has none of my favorite story characters. I have to disagree with your assessment of the character of Cpl. Tunny. Speaking as a former Infantry NCO; every real military unit has a few like him in their ranks, and they are actually in a strange way indispensable. It's subtle, but he is actually a better and more important character than I think you picked up on. He certainly adds a lot to the veracity of the books military "feel" (as do the scenes with the various Generals). Glad you mentioned the shifting POV sequence during the climactic battle. I felt that captured the chaotic randomness of battle extremely well.
I’ve been told those who have served in armed forces click with this book more than those who haven’t. Looking at it from this perspective I can see how. But even the most useless Abercrombie character (*cough Shy South cough*) is better than most series best characters.
I think The Heroes benefits strongly from a more thematic reading than a plot reading. The theme is pretty up-front and pretty damn fully explored -- what makes a hero and is being a hero worth everything it seems to be? (Gorst is a traditional war hero, he is also a petulant monster; Beck becomes a hero by happenstance and dishonestly; Finree saves like 50 lives just by being a hostage; etc.) Heroism and what makes one a hero is essentially paramount to understanding the culture of the North. Everybody wants a name, and they earn it by killing. And it adds to the greater theme of the series once the reader learns (at the end) that all of it was just a game Bayaz and, by proxy, Khalul are playing.
Spot on. The only plot-line is that there is going to be a decisive battle between the North and the Union in their latest war. Even the characters (always Abercrombie's greatest strength) are secondary to theme in this novel. I think he pulled it off near perfectly. The dark, gallows humor running through the dialogue worked great too.
You should have read that excerpt in Gorst's squeaky voice that the audiobook narrator (Stephen Pacey, the one and only) gave him. It creates such a wonderful juxtaposition with all the butchery and violence Gorst unleashes on people. I wish we had his POV in other novels, because he's such a tragic, comedic, tormented character, more unique than at least three quarters of the characters you get in other fantasy novels.
God I just got done and I was not enjoying it. I groooooaned when I realized Gorst was going to be a recurring POV. But it really needed to be done to drive home 1 reason why Gorst is the way he is. Got used to it of course. The performance is always great from this reader.
Also, that "Tell us how you really feel, Gorst!" letter he writes to the king then burns...That bit had me laughing my ass off. "Your High and Mighty Fuckhole" Classic!
Wonderful was wonderful. Her family history, and her eventual revelations about the real reason she hadn't gone home was...not really dropped like a bombshell twist, yet it deepened the character in such an interesting way.
Tbf becks ending is kind of anti grim dark. I was fully expecting him to end up in the circle like his father to get killed (due to being only a minor POV and the fact that joe has killed off people like west before) but he said fuck this shit I’m out and went to go split logs. That’s a really happy ending, and not just for a joe Abercrombie book in my opinion
Just finished the Heroes, can't believe you didn't like Tunny as a character or saw him as pointless, thought the was fantastically written and extremely funny, peak Abercrombie humour. Found him a welcome break to everything else that was going on. That said I love your review videos, and it's part of my excitement and motivation to finish a First Law Book because it means I get to watch your video afterwards! Time to go dig my nose into Red Country.
I also thought you were harsh on Beck as a character, I thought he return home was quite emotional, and when his Mother said 'You've only been gone for a few days' I think that was for the audience too, hit me like a train that what I'd just read was just 3 days of fighting because it was all so intense and immersive. Also think he perfectly encapsulated the naive, young idealist meeting reality head on. I found his PoV chapters of when he was actually in the fighting, especially in Osrung, really made you feel like it was you yourself was there alongside him being thrusted into the fighting without any notion of what to do with yourself.
Always personal preference though, I liked the politics within the Military itself re: the Officers and their personal ambitions, but as you acknowledged elsewhere and I think it rings true, that people more familiar with the military probably appreciate that side more than most.
I felt very similar on my first read of the Heroes. It wasn't until my second read that I really began to love it.. I've read each of the standalones multiple times (as well as the first trilogy) and my spot for "favorite" standalone is constantly changing back and forth between the 3
I think it was just that Best Served Cold felt like an extension of the original trilogy and this one just felt...different. That was a bit jarring. I'm sure on a re-read I would feel differently, knowing what I was going into. Looking forward to Red Country.
Absolutely. The same reason I don’t read YA, but plan to give the Shattered Sea books a go because I’m sure Joe writes YA better than most YA authors do.
Mike's Book Reviews they’re quite gritty and dark for YA, but have that addictive flair for morally grey characters and political scheming that makes his books great. I still occasionally read YA, but these sure don’t feel like YA
Just finished this, I almost DNF’d this after the first 300 pages I was struggling BIGTIME with it, but like you said, last couple of hundred pages I could not get enough of it.
I finally can watch this video! Tunny was a nice break for me since his chapters made me laugh sometimes. I think he was meant to be sort of the comedic relief since everything else was so serious. Unfortunately, I didn't like this book as much as the others that came before. I was bored most of the time and some characters didn't have a strong enough personality for me to remember them or care for them. The book still had some good moments and Calder was interesting from beginning to end. Gorst and his obsession with Finree was creepy. I was expecting not to like this book much though because I don't care about war stories in general. I always feel like I've seen it all and the messages at the end are always similar so that becomes boring and repetitive to me. I can take a few chapters about war (like in "Last Argument of Kings"), but 600 pages is too much. I think this will be the only book in the series I will not reread in the future. It wasn't bad, it was just not for me.
I was the same way. I liked the second half, but I was bored to tears the first half of the book with everyone just waiting between battles. So much slower paced than the 4 books that came before.
Tastes are so strange, I often have to remind myself how personal they are and how it doesn't have to make sense to me. I can not comprehend how someone would put any of standalones before the main trilogy, but there you go, so many put Heroes first. I love Red Country though and hope you enjoy it more than Heroes.
I too put the standalones before the original trilogy, although I love that trilogy very much. I feel that in the standalones Abercrombie shines much more, and the unique theme and settings of each book, not to mention the wonderful characters and story (but that's something he brings to every book) feel much more special to me. Although the original trilogy is fantastic and one of the best I've ever read, the standalones "simpler" "smaller" stories allow for such wonderful special stories that I can't help but love them more. Also, I feel like they're a testament to how much better Abercrombie's gotten, which is saying a lot, since he started from a pretty high spot already. But the standalones have an advantage. We already know the world, we know some of the characters, or at least some of the places and persons that the main characters mention (and engage with), so he has an "easier" job in that he only has to make us fall in love with the characters, which he seems to do effortlessly every time. It's like we're watching the second season of a TV show we already love, and find that 'oh wow! It's gotten even better!' I personally love Red Country more, but that seems silly to say because comparing the standalone novels feels unfair, since they're each so very different. I love all three of them, and can't wait for A Little Hatred and the whole new trilogy.
I'd probably go 1) LAoK 2) TBI 3) BTAH 4) BSC 5) Heroes. The original trilogy has over a decade of my love and adoration in its corner, so it would be difficult to surpass them. It's like the Star Wars original trilogy. Nothing will ever compare.
Great reviews! I just picked up Red Country and wanted a refresher, and Ive said for years the Heroes is my favorite. If youre curious why, I would say its Abercrombie shining at something he is particularly good at, writing military movements. I read a lot of non-fiction military history and I can tell Joe does too. All of the set up early on was really easy for me to get invested in because it was familiar as a lead up to a large conflict but because its fiction could zoom right into the major player's minds. Thanks again for the summary and review, subbing for more great content!
Thanks for watching! Joe certainly excels at military fiction. I find those who have served in armed forces tend to gravitate towards this book as their favorite of the series.
Simply put, and maybe it’s because of my background in PolSci, there’s little else, fiction or otherwise, that addresses war in a holistic way so well. It also does so through brilliant characters and amazing narrative. That’s why this is a brilliant book. If you look at it as simple storytelling, entertainment, it falls short. I think you’ve missed the mark here. Thanks for your reviews as always.:)
Calder went from a fuckle chuck in the first trilogy to my favorite character in the series. Getting inside this man's head does so much work. He grows so much from that young dumb bastard to an older, wiser bastard but a good bastard. Definitely also recenters my entire perspective of the first trilogy.
Just finished! Easy 7/10 for me. Just loving the First Law world so far. Small break time and straight to Red County and Sharp Ends. Followed by his newer trilogy… 😊
Yo! Great review as always. If this "Demon Cycle" review is the one I'm thinking of, then I'll definitely need to watch your review to decide if I should finish it...I got the series for sale and have been sitting on it for years! I think Best Served Cold is a lot like Kill Bill (both plot and theme, actually!)...and continuing with that analogy I think The Heroes is more like Pulp Fiction, not really plot wise but with jumping around in narration and taking place over a very short period of time, you feel like you're there to experience every moment of it from all points of view. Both are great but some people prefer one over the other! I'm fortunate to like them both a lot, and hard to choose between the two most days. Best Served Cold is definitely more fun. The Heroes is pretty nihilistic. I'm glad you enjoyed Bremer in this one! I'll need to watch your review on the First Law and see what you thought about Colonel/Major West's character. He was always my favorite!
See I have the exact opposite feeling. I think the Heroes is the best of the books so far because of how little time it covers. I love how for most of the pov characters this three day stretch of battle is one of the most important events of their lives, but in the grand scheme of things it's really unimportant. I like how the end of Tunny's story really illustrates that by just shipping them off to Styria with no fanfare. I suppose I just really like how it was a smaller story versus a big world changing event like the first law trilogy or best served cold.
If you had told me back in the first trilogy that I would be cheering for Calder over Black Dow I would have laughed you out of the room. Here we are though. Love Whirrun 🗡️
I read your good reads review the day before I started the heroes so I was expecting a slow start. I’m glad I did because as a result I was enthralled from the beginning. I absolutely loved it. I disagree about comparing it to Fires of heaven, that book nearly ended my wot journey, luckily I kept watching your videos and continued with WOT. great job as always Mike.
I read the Hobbit, the LOTR trilogy, stuff like the Odyssey and Nights of the round table when I was a kid but since then I haven't read any fantasy books or really any Fiction. My grandmother made me watch GOT with her I enjoyed the first 4 seasons and heard everyone say the books were so much better so I read them and really enjoyed them someone after that said if you liked ASOIAF then you'll like First Law. So I really enjoyed the first 3 books then after best served cold I immediately finished the rest really quickly. Honestly Fist Law is the best fantasy even fiction book I ever read I been reading others steadily since then an I'm not getting anywhere near the same enjoyment as I did with First Law. I just wish UA-cam had more First Law content like it does for ASOIAF. Like character profiles theory videos I'd love to see stuff like that for For First Law. Anyway thanks for these videos. I hope all is well on your end best wishes to you and yours.
You say you dont understand why Shivers would follow Caurib. But it makes perfect sense to me. Shivers followed Bethod and only stopped respecting him when he aligned with the witch, made the Feared his champion and made a pact with the flat heads. It is far from the realm of possibility that Caurib would have detsted these decisions as well but it would be far more difficult to walk away from your father than it would be from your King. Perhaps Caurib had every aspect that Shivers liked in Bethod before the changes, perhaps Shivers joined Bethod because of Caurib. This is not really a far fetched realization at all. Hell, Caurib could have been the one to give Shivers his name & make him a named man.
Caurib is a sorceress who serves Bethod in the original trilogy and gets killed by Black Dow in Last Argument of Kings. I think you're thinking of Calder.
I agree with your take on the pace of this one. It was a slog for me as well but overall i did end up enjoying it. Especially the illustration of the futility of war.
It bugs me that we never got a proper post-war follow up on Aliz. I had such a morbid curiosity about her fate after being left with Stranger-Come-Knocking.
Amazing review but man, I couldn’t disagree more with your opinion on Tunny. Ya I totally agree he didn’t NEED to be there for the story to work, but I’m damn glad he was. Dude cracked me up. His relationship with Yolk was great. Also having read AoM, it was a good introduction to both of those both of those characters in hindsight too. But that’s not really a fair point to bring up for this book. I just thought Tunny was jokes. “Think you’re the best part of the egg, do you yolk?” Fuckin got me I can’t lie. I didn’t expect him to say that at all 😂
Just finished this one. Damn alot to say about it, try to keep it short. Gorst is a god damn monster! Loved his action scenes and he self pity/hate made me see him is such a diffrent light and the moment when he recognised shivers sent tingles down my spine. Cool to see byaz still pulling those strings like a massive doosh. Much more to go into but I am too lazy haha. With this book compared to the other I felt was a slowish burn to the point where I didn't rip through it, took me a good while. but liked it alot . Next up red Country.
Hey mate, I don't want to be an arse but I think you totally misunderstod calder at the end. Bayez has establihed domination over Calder... so Calder passes rule to his brother, and will rule from the shadows, knowing that neither of them truly rule. Really it's no act of love or charity, Bayez runs the keep.
The relationship between Dow and Shivers was underdeveloped imo. Which lead to the only moment I've been unable to accept, in any of the FL books.Also, I don't think he made Dow black enough. In order to justify what happens, for me, there needed to be an act so despicable ascribed to BD that there was no question he got what he deserved. As it was, I found myself rooting for Dow towards the end. :)
My biggest problem with this standalone was it just felt like we already got this in the trilogy, just expanded on. We've seen this before. Big battle in the north with Union mishaps. If you're really into military happenings and manoeuvres, this will be the book for you, but for story telling sake I personally found this the weakest of the three standalones.
Another Quick Comment here regarding Prince Calder: We only saw him once before this and that was during his brief visit to Bayaz's Northern Library at the beginning of The Blade Itself and when he encounters Logan Nine Fingers, he calls him a Dog in front of Bayaz and offers to Put Him Down... Not at all the sniveling coward we see in this book. Perhaps he didn't have a lot of page time, but this seems a continuity lapse on Joe's part...
Calder seemed to be a cocky young idiot at that time, it was nearly a decade before the book. He also appeared later when he ordered Forley executed for nothing, then again with his brother when Black Dow tried to kill Logen at the end. I don't see any inconsistencies, he hung back in that fight and tried to shoot Logen while his brother and Dow did the fighting
@@Ulalamulala No, Calder didn't appear when he ordered Forley killed, that was a flashback from The Heroes. Having recently reread this. Logan is the most Feared man in the north, apart from Fenris the Feared now (beginning of the series) but Calder is cocky like he could take him at Bayaz' place. That doesn't jive with his character from The Heroes. It just doesn't.
Calder himself seems to indicate he was an arrogant brat many years ago. Its been a decade since than and he went from prince of the north to nothing so i guess he matures.
@@bloodynine9017 NO, read it again. Calder rode in awith his guards and called Logan a Dog; he was all attitude. Scale arrived with His Father and the Sorceress. Calder was first and he didn't act anything like the way he does later in Heroes.
I actually really liked the Union political drama, because I found it so funny that most of these generals were actually semi-competent in different ways, but they are still petty as all hell. It shows how useless this actually makes them and, unlike in the original trilogy, there's not really anyone more competent to take over. Kroy is the only one with a level head, which is kind of ironic considering how petty he used to be too. It's also a truth of battles like this, in that normally they're less about the battle itself, and more about using the chaos to shift into higher positions, with the death toll
I dont understand how someone can like best served cold better than heroes, but fair. ill give my opinion: best served cold was completely predictable , meanwhile I was at the edge of my seat for half of this book, couldn't put it down. The drama was way stronger too, the plot way more interesting, everything was better idk, you liked best served cold more, fair enough.
I'm amazed you got banned off Pat's reddit hahaha. That's fucking hilarious. Also, I should note, Rothfuss is one of my favorite writers and one of my least favorite storytellers. Also, I don't like him not fulfilling his promise. I get it, it takes time, doesn't take King time, doesn't take Abercrombie time. Rothfuss, it takes time. No idea why, the story is already finished, it ends in the inn. What the fuck is taking so long lol
Whoa. That's like asking me to pick which one of my kids I love more...I'd have to seriously think about it and maybe do a video on it in the future. I'm definitely going to go all Kingy on this channel in the near future. I'm just on a Fantasy kick right now.
Of Wonderful and Shylo Vitari, I just think Joe is not as original with female characters. There are similarities between the most important ones (which are far less than the male ones) Finree dan Brock and Ardee West have some similarities, as do Vitari and Wonderful, and then you get Monza which leads a great book isn't much as character, other than those I can't recall other important women in the saga
I'm only about 9 minutes into your recap here, and it's probably been 8 years since the last time I read this book but all I remember of this book is I was bored with it and I just wanted to get through it so I could get to read country that being said I just came across the part where you said you were surprised that it was Shivers that killed black Dow. Why would you be surprised by that? It shows his personality is exactly the same as it was at the end of best served cold. He betrayed Monza because she treated him like a dog and a piece of crap throughout the entire book and he came to resent that and he smiled as he tried to kill her because it was preordained. If you treat Shivers like crap then it's preordained you will die, or at least he will turn on you
One more comment, the path that we see Shivers taking is he is becoming exactly what he hated so much in his early life, and since we're talking about spoilers, that's why he lets the bloody nine go at the end of red country it's because he's at that point in the bloody Nine's life where he's about to change again
@@mikesbookreviews Wow! Five years after a review and you're still reading the comments! I'm impressed, but not as much as I am with your reviews. Great commentary. Only found you recently but plan on following your channel to learn of other books/series worth reading.
I didn't enjoy this book at all. Real slog to get through. Glad when I finished it. Didn't like the characters,didn't enjoy the three day battle. I was bored. I literally loved every other book up until this point. I'm a bit nervous going forward with red country.
I totally agree with your assessment. For me I didn’t understand why gorst past made him like he was. It seem over the top for something simple. I did like the character fighting scenes and such but his internal Monologue was downright annoying annoying and his fascination with this woman just brought this character down for me. I’m the end he put his foot in his mouth so there want even a payoff for all the drooling I had to listen to. Not to mention he was complaining the whole time that he got cheated by being a escape goat but no he actual messed up. In the end Gorst is just a over size baby.
Gorst is just an oversized baby? Many characters that Joe has written could be described just like that. The point here maybe that all of us "adults" are oversized babies. It would fit the cynical style typical of Abercrombie.
I read this book like a passerby watches at an accident. I guess it is morbid curiosity now. Joe has only written two characters that I actually liked by the end of their stories. All of the rest are just bland collections of tropes. You can be all dewy eyed about his writing but I am not fooled. None of those characters are as deep and unique as you think they are. Worse, the plot of all 5 books so far is the same; Bayaz wins and if you don't like it, you get screwed. The best part of this story is that it didn't revolve specifically around this world's crappy magic lore, only its crappy wizards. The magic system is total crap but the magic monsters are much worse. This worlds Vampire analogue is so nauseating and annoying made more so by the fact that they are in every book, behind every thing that happens for the most part and totally uninteresting. The only 'imaginative' thing Joe did is make them cannibals instead of vampires. So they have no weaknesses, not even sunlight really. Why the entire world isn't covered with these supermen/women is beyond me. All you have to do to get supreme power is eat your neighbor. Also, if you break the first law you get even more power and become even stronger than that. It seems like the first and second laws are like the apple in the garden of Eden. God said not to do it, just to tempt you into taking a bite. This story can be boiled down to People fight because Bayaz and his brother are still fighting after a thousand years and the north is currently aligned to his brother. Many people die, including the leader of the north. The new leader accepts the leash frrom Bayaz and the book is over. Alot of characters you don't care about die, get excited and then disappointed and mained etc. Nothing really important happens except the name plates on certain positions of power change. Bayaz has cannons einvented, yeah, so what. Joe reuses a lot of characters you didn't care about before nand you still don't care about now and then tosses in some new ones that he will reuse until he kills them off or you get really tired of them. Joe even uses the dreaded resurrection trope here; you thought the character was dead, they should have been dead but no, they miraculously survived! Actually, he did that twice when the POV character's husband survives the explosion that destroyed an entire town; mostly because he wanted to write the POV character gGorst getting the knife twisted in his guts by having to save the man who married his love interest. No good reason a man who led the assault from the front should be found inside a stone building alive when everyone else in the entire town was dead... no reason but plot armor. You can't even blame Bayaz for it since the explosion was created by his enemy and so he couldn't have predicted it. Just a totally horse-crap reason for a character living. Just like Nicomo Coska who can't die because Joe likes him. I can't wait to see how much fun Red Country is; I've already started it :)
Bayaz didn't win in Best Served Cold, and the pointlessness of the battle was intended. War is the prelude to talking, the book wants to tell you war is useless except as an opportunity people to place their own names into the positions it makes available. I agree that Scale's survival was plot armour, but it's perfectly feasible that Brock survived the blast. It wasn't targeting the front line any more than the rest of the soldiers in Osrung and plenty of others survived it too
@@Ulalamulala Brock was a Cavalry commander, those are two very good reasons he should not have been inside a building when the explosion occurred. He should have been ripped apart or at the least permanently deafened. That close to a blast of the power described the sound itself could have killed him by shattering his eardrums. None of those building should have survived, let alone people. Heave you ever heard the sound an M-80 firework? A barrel of powder is literally thousands of times more potent. The Gurkhish fire from the end of book 3 was able to totally toss thousands of tons of stone into the air. I doubt that over the 10 intervening years it got less potent. Perhaps they used less of it, but even one barrel would be devastating and they used far more than 1.
Corporal Tunny was some of the funniest of Joe’s work I’ve ever read! “Think your the best part of the egg do you yolk”
His interaction with Mitterick was just hilarious, one of my favourite chapters in the book.
@@GiraffeFeatures "The same Tunny that..."
The first time he called Lederlingen, Ladderlugger, i was dying laughing. Books don't so that to me normally. I smile and giggle, but its the first time i've bursted out laughing
This was my favorite so far and really stuck with me long after I finished. It’s much more theme over plot. Joe did a great job of displaying the nihilistic and pointlessness of it all. The hill was pointless, no one really cared about it or the town for that matter. Craw retires only to realize he can’t do anything else and goes right back to a new war. Gorst saves the day three times only to have his “love” hate him, despite saving her husband, and we as the reader realize he was manipulated by Bayaz since it seems he was the real person who banished him and then allowed him to return to the king. Gorst just goes back to his depression. Beck accomplished nothing but killing a friend. Calder didn’t become king. Tunny sat around in the mud. Aside from Finree nothing changed and even that was a wash since her husband got promoted and her father got demoted. The North didn’t expand its boundaries or gain true sovereignty. The wars didn’t stop, just a new enemy. Stranger-come-knocking didn’t get civilized or the wife he wanted.
And most heartbreaking of them all is Whirrun dies not in glory but a random spear in the back. And this demigod figure, feared and respected by all, doesn’t even get a song. Forgotten mere hours after his death. The part about the old songs being forgotten because new battles bring new songs really drove home the pointlessness of all the fighting and it gets you absolutely nothing.
I get that a book about a pointless battle in a nothing valley over a random hill might turn people away but I felt it was amazingly done
I think it was my least favorite so far for the exact same reasons. Joe has already DONE a great job of showing the pointlessness of war, the lack of heroism in heroes, and the "surprise" of Bayaz in the background pulling all the strings. These are nothing new. I was expecting something new. Still loved it, though. :)
@@tedhekman yea exactly. Abercrombie be like " oh i wrote another war book about how war is terrible, pointless and unnecessary. " ok? then why did you write another book about war then? lol. at least it wasn't predictable and boring like best served cold. if you take away the insistent message of " war bad mkay? " its actually an amazing book.
So glad you got me to read Abercrombie. What I love about this book is how the Bloody Nine's reputation alone can change a battle. I hope he is not dead and can't wait to read the next book to find out.
The Heroes might be my favorite First Law novel so far even though it has none of my favorite story characters. I have to disagree with your assessment of the character of Cpl. Tunny. Speaking as a former Infantry NCO; every real military unit has a few like him in their ranks, and they are actually in a strange way indispensable. It's subtle, but he is actually a better and more important character than I think you picked up on. He certainly adds a lot to the veracity of the books military "feel" (as do the scenes with the various Generals).
Glad you mentioned the shifting POV sequence during the climactic battle. I felt that captured the chaotic randomness of battle extremely well.
I’ve been told those who have served in armed forces click with this book more than those who haven’t. Looking at it from this perspective I can see how. But even the most useless Abercrombie character (*cough Shy South cough*) is better than most series best characters.
@@mikesbookreviews True that!
@@mikesbookreviews Aww I loved Shy lol
I think The Heroes benefits strongly from a more thematic reading than a plot reading. The theme is pretty up-front and pretty damn fully explored -- what makes a hero and is being a hero worth everything it seems to be? (Gorst is a traditional war hero, he is also a petulant monster; Beck becomes a hero by happenstance and dishonestly; Finree saves like 50 lives just by being a hostage; etc.) Heroism and what makes one a hero is essentially paramount to understanding the culture of the North. Everybody wants a name, and they earn it by killing. And it adds to the greater theme of the series once the reader learns (at the end) that all of it was just a game Bayaz and, by proxy, Khalul are playing.
Very eloquently said. I think you nailed the entire theme of the story.
Spot on. The only plot-line is that there is going to be a decisive battle between the North and the Union in their latest war. Even the characters (always Abercrombie's greatest strength) are secondary to theme in this novel. I think he pulled it off near perfectly. The dark, gallows humor running through the dialogue worked great too.
the plot is certainly great as well. one of the most interesting exciting plots i've read actually. so many twists and turns and good tension.
Black Dow has such a presence, brilliant character.
You should have read that excerpt in Gorst's squeaky voice that the audiobook narrator (Stephen Pacey, the one and only) gave him. It creates such a wonderful juxtaposition with all the butchery and violence Gorst unleashes on people. I wish we had his POV in other novels, because he's such a tragic, comedic, tormented character, more unique than at least three quarters of the characters you get in other fantasy novels.
So many bring up these audio books. I listened to some samples on Audible and he does seem very good. Loved his voices for Ferro and Yulwei.
God I just got done and I was not enjoying it. I groooooaned when I realized Gorst was going to be a recurring POV. But it really needed to be done to drive home 1 reason why Gorst is the way he is.
Got used to it of course. The performance is always great from this reader.
Yeah I really didn't like Gorst.
Also, that "Tell us how you really feel, Gorst!" letter he writes to the king then burns...That bit had me laughing my ass off. "Your High and Mighty Fuckhole" Classic!
Gorst is amazing in Heroes. Probably my MVP of that book.
For me it was Craw and his "dozen" but Gorst came close.
@@SpencerDragonMonster Loved Craw (eventually) and Wonderful.
Wonderful was wonderful. Her family history, and her eventual revelations about the real reason she hadn't gone home was...not really dropped like a bombshell twist, yet it deepened the character in such an interesting way.
@@SpencerDragonMonster That is Joe's forte. Every time you think you have a character pegged, he hits you with that left jab.
Beck and Craw (while going in polarized directions) - This is what passing for a happy ending in an Abercrombie book, aye?
Ha ha just about. I kept waiting for Craw to get knifed at the end.
Tbf becks ending is kind of anti grim dark. I was fully expecting him to end up in the circle like his father to get killed (due to being only a minor POV and the fact that joe has killed off people like west before) but he said fuck this shit I’m out and went to go split logs. That’s a really happy ending, and not just for a joe Abercrombie book in my opinion
Just finished the Heroes, can't believe you didn't like Tunny as a character or saw him as pointless, thought the was fantastically written and extremely funny, peak Abercrombie humour. Found him a welcome break to everything else that was going on.
That said I love your review videos, and it's part of my excitement and motivation to finish a First Law Book because it means I get to watch your video afterwards! Time to go dig my nose into Red Country.
I also thought you were harsh on Beck as a character, I thought he return home was quite emotional, and when his Mother said 'You've only been gone for a few days' I think that was for the audience too, hit me like a train that what I'd just read was just 3 days of fighting because it was all so intense and immersive.
Also think he perfectly encapsulated the naive, young idealist meeting reality head on. I found his PoV chapters of when he was actually in the fighting, especially in Osrung, really made you feel like it was you yourself was there alongside him being thrusted into the fighting without any notion of what to do with yourself.
Always personal preference though, I liked the politics within the Military itself re: the Officers and their personal ambitions, but as you acknowledged elsewhere and I think it rings true, that people more familiar with the military probably appreciate that side more than most.
@@GiraffeFeatures I definitely agree that line becks mother gives at the end hit hard and gave some great perspective concluding the story .
I felt very similar on my first read of the Heroes. It wasn't until my second read that I really began to love it.. I've read each of the standalones multiple times (as well as the first trilogy) and my spot for "favorite" standalone is constantly changing back and forth between the 3
I think it was just that Best Served Cold felt like an extension of the original trilogy and this one just felt...different. That was a bit jarring. I'm sure on a re-read I would feel differently, knowing what I was going into. Looking forward to Red Country.
Agree with everything you said! Least favorite First Law, but still leaps better than other authors’ bests
Absolutely. The same reason I don’t read YA, but plan to give the Shattered Sea books a go because I’m sure Joe writes YA better than most YA authors do.
Mike's Book Reviews they’re quite gritty and dark for YA, but have that addictive flair for morally grey characters and political scheming that makes his books great. I still occasionally read YA, but these sure don’t feel like YA
@@lindsaym7265 I figure I could probably knock them out in a few days. Perhaps in 2020.
Just finished this, I almost DNF’d this after the first 300 pages I was struggling BIGTIME with it, but like you said, last couple of hundred pages I could not get enough of it.
Also my favourite part was the Northerners getting terrified when they were imagining they were seeing/hearing Logen during the battles
Yeah the first half was rough for me. But the second half felt like First Law.
THE BLOODY NINE! 😂
I finally can watch this video!
Tunny was a nice break for me since his chapters made me laugh sometimes. I think he was meant to be sort of the comedic relief since everything else was so serious.
Unfortunately, I didn't like this book as much as the others that came before. I was bored most of the time and some characters didn't have a strong enough personality for me to remember them or care for them. The book still had some good moments and Calder was interesting from beginning to end. Gorst and his obsession with Finree was creepy.
I was expecting not to like this book much though because I don't care about war stories in general. I always feel like I've seen it all and the messages at the end are always similar so that becomes boring and repetitive to me. I can take a few chapters about war (like in "Last Argument of Kings"), but 600 pages is too much. I think this will be the only book in the series I will not reread in the future. It wasn't bad, it was just not for me.
I was the same way. I liked the second half, but I was bored to tears the first half of the book with everyone just waiting between battles. So much slower paced than the 4 books that came before.
Tastes are so strange, I often have to remind myself how personal they are and how it doesn't have to make sense to me. I can not comprehend how someone would put any of standalones before the main trilogy, but there you go, so many put Heroes first. I love Red Country though and hope you enjoy it more than Heroes.
I too put the standalones before the original trilogy, although I love that trilogy very much. I feel that in the standalones Abercrombie shines much more, and the unique theme and settings of each book, not to mention the wonderful characters and story (but that's something he brings to every book) feel much more special to me. Although the original trilogy is fantastic and one of the best I've ever read, the standalones "simpler" "smaller" stories allow for such wonderful special stories that I can't help but love them more. Also, I feel like they're a testament to how much better Abercrombie's gotten, which is saying a lot, since he started from a pretty high spot already.
But the standalones have an advantage. We already know the world, we know some of the characters, or at least some of the places and persons that the main characters mention (and engage with), so he has an "easier" job in that he only has to make us fall in love with the characters, which he seems to do effortlessly every time. It's like we're watching the second season of a TV show we already love, and find that 'oh wow! It's gotten even better!'
I personally love Red Country more, but that seems silly to say because comparing the standalone novels feels unfair, since they're each so very different. I love all three of them, and can't wait for A Little Hatred and the whole new trilogy.
I'd probably go 1) LAoK 2) TBI 3) BTAH 4) BSC 5) Heroes. The original trilogy has over a decade of my love and adoration in its corner, so it would be difficult to surpass them. It's like the Star Wars original trilogy. Nothing will ever compare.
Best served cold is so good though
Great reviews! I just picked up Red Country and wanted a refresher, and Ive said for years the Heroes is my favorite. If youre curious why, I would say its Abercrombie shining at something he is particularly good at, writing military movements. I read a lot of non-fiction military history and I can tell Joe does too. All of the set up early on was really easy for me to get invested in because it was familiar as a lead up to a large conflict but because its fiction could zoom right into the major player's minds. Thanks again for the summary and review, subbing for more great content!
Thanks for watching! Joe certainly excels at military fiction. I find those who have served in armed forces tend to gravitate towards this book as their favorite of the series.
This is my fav book of all time...
Simply put, and maybe it’s because of my background in PolSci, there’s little else, fiction or otherwise, that addresses war in a holistic way so well.
It also does so through brilliant characters and amazing narrative.
That’s why this is a brilliant book.
If you look at it as simple storytelling, entertainment, it falls short.
I think you’ve missed the mark here.
Thanks for your reviews as always.:)
Calder went from a fuckle chuck in the first trilogy to my favorite character in the series. Getting inside this man's head does so much work. He grows so much from that young dumb bastard to an older, wiser bastard but a good bastard. Definitely also recenters my entire perspective of the first trilogy.
I like this review a lot, thanks Mike, I think you're a great guy beside this channel. 👏👏👏
Just finished! Easy 7/10 for me. Just loving the First Law world so far. Small break time and straight to Red County and Sharp Ends. Followed by his newer trilogy… 😊
Yo! Great review as always. If this "Demon Cycle" review is the one I'm thinking of, then I'll definitely need to watch your review to decide if I should finish it...I got the series for sale and have been sitting on it for years!
I think Best Served Cold is a lot like Kill Bill (both plot and theme, actually!)...and continuing with that analogy I think The Heroes is more like Pulp Fiction, not really plot wise but with jumping around in narration and taking place over a very short period of time, you feel like you're there to experience every moment of it from all points of view. Both are great but some people prefer one over the other! I'm fortunate to like them both a lot, and hard to choose between the two most days. Best Served Cold is definitely more fun. The Heroes is pretty nihilistic. I'm glad you enjoyed Bremer in this one!
I'll need to watch your review on the First Law and see what you thought about Colonel/Major West's character. He was always my favorite!
I'm still heartbroken about West. As for the Demon Cycle, it's a 5-book series by Peter V. Brett. I finished book 1 and really enjoyed it.
See I have the exact opposite feeling. I think the Heroes is the best of the books so far because of how little time it covers. I love how for most of the pov characters this three day stretch of battle is one of the most important events of their lives, but in the grand scheme of things it's really unimportant. I like how the end of Tunny's story really illustrates that by just shipping them off to Styria with no fanfare. I suppose I just really like how it was a smaller story versus a big world changing event like the first law trilogy or best served cold.
300 subscribers?? Haha. Funny how things change in a year. Thanks for the review Mike.
85k now :)
If you had told me back in the first trilogy that I would be cheering for Calder over Black Dow I would have laughed you out of the room. Here we are though.
Love Whirrun 🗡️
I read your good reads review the day before I started the heroes so I was expecting a slow start. I’m glad I did because as a result I was enthralled from the beginning. I absolutely loved it. I disagree about comparing it to Fires of heaven, that book nearly ended my wot journey, luckily I kept watching your videos and continued with WOT. great job as always Mike.
Gorst is terrifying! His internal monologue is pure resentment.
Tunny was one of my favorites actually, thought he was hilarious
I read the Hobbit, the LOTR trilogy, stuff like the Odyssey and Nights of the round table when I was a kid but since then I haven't read any fantasy books or really any Fiction. My grandmother made me watch GOT with her I enjoyed the first 4 seasons and heard everyone say the books were so much better so I read them and really enjoyed them someone after that said if you liked ASOIAF then you'll like First Law. So I really enjoyed the first 3 books then after best served cold I immediately finished the rest really quickly. Honestly Fist Law is the best fantasy even fiction book I ever read I been reading others steadily since then an I'm not getting anywhere near the same enjoyment as I did with First Law. I just wish UA-cam had more First Law content like it does for ASOIAF. Like character profiles theory videos I'd love to see stuff like that for For First Law. Anyway thanks for these videos. I hope all is well on your end best wishes to you and yours.
You say you dont understand why Shivers would follow Caurib. But it makes perfect sense to me.
Shivers followed Bethod and only stopped respecting him when he aligned with the witch, made the Feared his champion and made a pact with the flat heads.
It is far from the realm of possibility that Caurib would have detsted these decisions as well but it would be far more difficult to walk away from your father than it would be from your King. Perhaps Caurib had every aspect that Shivers liked in Bethod before the changes, perhaps Shivers joined Bethod because of Caurib.
This is not really a far fetched realization at all. Hell, Caurib could have been the one to give Shivers his name & make him a named man.
Caurib is a sorceress who serves Bethod in the original trilogy and gets killed by Black Dow in Last Argument of Kings. I think you're thinking of Calder.
@@isaacbruner65
Thanks...i listened to the audiobooks...names get confusing after awhile
Shy south is easily the least interesting POV character Joe’s written (imo) Caul Shivers needs his own book
I felt it more like the first law than best served cold, i think is just because Bayaz is in here.
I loved Tunny and Yolk. Brought some great comic relief
I think I like them better in hindsight. Especially Tunny.
Amazing! Thank you for this video!
I agree with your take on the pace of this one. It was a slog for me as well but overall i did end up enjoying it. Especially the illustration of the futility of war.
spine knife it’s weird, folks think I hated it. I did not. It was just slow going in the first half. The second half was vintage Abercrombie.
It bugs me that we never got a proper post-war follow up on Aliz. I had such a morbid curiosity about her fate after being left with Stranger-Come-Knocking.
Amazing review but man, I couldn’t disagree more with your opinion on Tunny. Ya I totally agree he didn’t NEED to be there for the story to work, but I’m damn glad he was. Dude cracked me up. His relationship with Yolk was great. Also having read AoM, it was a good introduction to both of those both of those characters in hindsight too. But that’s not really a fair point to bring up for this book. I just thought Tunny was jokes. “Think you’re the best part of the egg, do you yolk?” Fuckin got me I can’t lie. I didn’t expect him to say that at all 😂
Just finished this one.
Damn alot to say about it, try to keep it short.
Gorst is a god damn monster! Loved his action scenes and he self pity/hate made me see him is such a diffrent light and the moment when he recognised shivers sent tingles down my spine.
Cool to see byaz still pulling those strings like a massive doosh.
Much more to go into but I am
too lazy haha.
With this book compared to the other I felt was a slowish burn to the point where I didn't rip through it, took me a good while. but liked it alot .
Next up red Country.
Hey mate, I don't want to be an arse but I think you totally misunderstod calder at the end. Bayez has establihed domination over Calder... so Calder passes rule to his brother, and will rule from the shadows, knowing that neither of them truly rule. Really it's no act of love or charity, Bayez runs the keep.
The relationship between Dow and Shivers was underdeveloped imo. Which lead to the only moment I've been unable to accept, in any of the FL books.Also, I don't think he made Dow black enough. In order to justify what happens, for me, there needed to be an act so despicable ascribed to BD that there was no question he got what he deserved. As it was, I found myself rooting for Dow towards the end. :)
My biggest problem with this standalone was it just felt like we already got this in the trilogy, just expanded on. We've seen this before. Big battle in the north with Union mishaps. If you're really into military happenings and manoeuvres, this will be the book for you, but for story telling sake I personally found this the weakest of the three standalones.
I like it better than Red Country but it was a huge step down from Best Served Cold.
Another Quick Comment here regarding Prince Calder: We only saw him once before this and that was during his brief visit to Bayaz's Northern Library at the beginning of The Blade Itself and when he encounters Logan Nine Fingers, he calls him a Dog in front of Bayaz and offers to Put Him Down... Not at all the sniveling coward we see in this book. Perhaps he didn't have a lot of page time, but this seems a continuity lapse on Joe's part...
Calder seemed to be a cocky young idiot at that time, it was nearly a decade before the book. He also appeared later when he ordered Forley executed for nothing, then again with his brother when Black Dow tried to kill Logen at the end. I don't see any inconsistencies, he hung back in that fight and tried to shoot Logen while his brother and Dow did the fighting
@@Ulalamulala No, Calder didn't appear when he ordered Forley killed, that was a flashback from The Heroes. Having recently reread this.
Logan is the most Feared man in the north, apart from Fenris the Feared now (beginning of the series) but Calder is cocky like he could take him at Bayaz' place. That doesn't jive with his character from The Heroes. It just doesn't.
Calder himself seems to indicate he was an arrogant brat many years ago. Its been a decade since than and he went from prince of the north to nothing so i guess he matures.
That wasn’t Calder that was scale
@@bloodynine9017 NO, read it again. Calder rode in awith his guards and called Logan a Dog; he was all attitude. Scale arrived with His Father and the Sorceress. Calder was first and he didn't act anything like the way he does later in Heroes.
I actually really liked the Union political drama, because I found it so funny that most of these generals were actually semi-competent in different ways, but they are still petty as all hell. It shows how useless this actually makes them and, unlike in the original trilogy, there's not really anyone more competent to take over. Kroy is the only one with a level head, which is kind of ironic considering how petty he used to be too. It's also a truth of battles like this, in that normally they're less about the battle itself, and more about using the chaos to shift into higher positions, with the death toll
Damn I kinda liked tunny by the end
Yeah I like him the whole way through honestly.
The heroes was good but still best served cold is my favorite 🤔🤨😊🤗🙂
I dont understand how someone can like best served cold better than heroes, but fair. ill give my opinion: best served cold was completely predictable , meanwhile I was at the edge of my seat for half of this book, couldn't put it down. The drama was way stronger too, the plot way more interesting, everything was better idk, you liked best served cold more, fair enough.
I'm amazed you got banned off Pat's reddit hahaha. That's fucking hilarious. Also, I should note, Rothfuss is one of my favorite writers and one of my least favorite storytellers. Also, I don't like him not fulfilling his promise. I get it, it takes time, doesn't take King time, doesn't take Abercrombie time. Rothfuss, it takes time. No idea why, the story is already finished, it ends in the inn. What the fuck is taking so long lol
I love the 1st law series but i felt his other books where tough at times
Gorst 10/10
Top ten Stephen King books?
Whoa. That's like asking me to pick which one of my kids I love more...I'd have to seriously think about it and maybe do a video on it in the future. I'm definitely going to go all Kingy on this channel in the near future. I'm just on a Fantasy kick right now.
Heroes was my favorite Stand Alone and BSC was my least favorite.
Awesome.
Of Wonderful and Shylo Vitari, I just think Joe is not as original with female characters. There are similarities between the most important ones (which are far less than the male ones) Finree dan Brock and Ardee West have some similarities, as do Vitari and Wonderful, and then you get Monza which leads a great book isn't much as character, other than those I can't recall other important women in the saga
The Heroes shocked me. Best served cold: On point. This could have been converted into a short story collection.
I'm only about 9 minutes into your recap here, and it's probably been 8 years since the last time I read this book but all I remember of this book is I was bored with it and I just wanted to get through it so I could get to read country that being said I just came across the part where you said you were surprised that it was Shivers that killed black Dow. Why would you be surprised by that? It shows his personality is exactly the same as it was at the end of best served cold. He betrayed Monza because she treated him like a dog and a piece of crap throughout the entire book and he came to resent that and he smiled as he tried to kill her because it was preordained. If you treat Shivers like crap then it's preordained you will die, or at least he will turn on you
One more comment, the path that we see Shivers taking is he is becoming exactly what he hated so much in his early life, and since we're talking about spoilers, that's why he lets the bloody nine go at the end of red country it's because he's at that point in the bloody Nine's life where he's about to change again
Hell, I don't remember ha ha
@@mikesbookreviews Wow! Five years after a review and you're still reading the comments! I'm impressed, but not as much as I am with your reviews. Great commentary. Only found you recently but plan on following your channel to learn of other books/series worth reading.
Have you read red country yet ?
July = Red Country
August = Sharp Ends
September = A Little Hatred
That's my First Law schedule.
@@mikesbookreviews Ok, cool - I think you'll like it based on your other reviews. I just found your channel today. Keep up the good work !
@@winiarzk Thanks! I really do appreciate that.
This is a lttle late and off topic
But man u look really young here.
Wasnt used to seeing u like this.
When you use a webcam it doesn’t show the fine details of age like a professional camera.
I didn't enjoy this book at all. Real slog to get through. Glad when I finished it. Didn't like the characters,didn't enjoy the three day battle. I was bored. I literally loved every other book up until this point. I'm a bit nervous going forward with red country.
I totally agree with your assessment. For me I didn’t understand why gorst past made him like he was. It seem over the top for something simple. I did like the character fighting scenes and such but his internal
Monologue was downright annoying annoying and his fascination with this woman just brought this character down for me. I’m the end he put his foot in his mouth so there want even a payoff for all the drooling I had to listen to. Not to mention he was complaining the whole time that he got cheated by being a escape goat but no he actual messed up. In the end Gorst is just a over size baby.
Gorst is just an oversized baby? Many characters that Joe has written could be described just like that. The point here maybe that all of us "adults" are oversized babies. It would fit the cynical style typical of Abercrombie.
@@Thomas...191 maybe your right but he is next level baby
@@caveman7608 ... "next level baby" seems a little ironic statement of critique.
Lol
It follows too many characters. Made me not care about most of them.
I took gorsht as being a spiteful narcissist, not as being depressed.
I read this book like a passerby watches at an accident. I guess it is morbid curiosity now. Joe has only written two characters that I actually liked by the end of their stories. All of the rest are just bland collections of tropes. You can be all dewy eyed about his writing but I am not fooled. None of those characters are as deep and unique as you think they are. Worse, the plot of all 5 books so far is the same; Bayaz wins and if you don't like it, you get screwed. The best part of this story is that it didn't revolve specifically around this world's crappy magic lore, only its crappy wizards. The magic system is total crap but the magic monsters are much worse. This worlds Vampire analogue is so nauseating and annoying made more so by the fact that they are in every book, behind every thing that happens for the most part and totally uninteresting. The only 'imaginative' thing Joe did is make them cannibals instead of vampires. So they have no weaknesses, not even sunlight really. Why the entire world isn't covered with these supermen/women is beyond me. All you have to do to get supreme power is eat your neighbor. Also, if you break the first law you get even more power and become even stronger than that. It seems like the first and second laws are like the apple in the garden of Eden. God said not to do it, just to tempt you into taking a bite.
This story can be boiled down to People fight because Bayaz and his brother are still fighting after a thousand years and the north is currently aligned to his brother. Many people die, including the leader of the north. The new leader accepts the leash frrom Bayaz and the book is over. Alot of characters you don't care about die, get excited and then disappointed and mained etc. Nothing really important happens except the name plates on certain positions of power change. Bayaz has cannons einvented, yeah, so what. Joe reuses a lot of characters you didn't care about before nand you still don't care about now and then tosses in some new ones that he will reuse until he kills them off or you get really tired of them. Joe even uses the dreaded resurrection trope here; you thought the character was dead, they should have been dead but no, they miraculously survived! Actually, he did that twice when the POV character's husband survives the explosion that destroyed an entire town; mostly because he wanted to write the POV character gGorst getting the knife twisted in his guts by having to save the man who married his love interest. No good reason a man who led the assault from the front should be found inside a stone building alive when everyone else in the entire town was dead... no reason but plot armor. You can't even blame Bayaz for it since the explosion was created by his enemy and so he couldn't have predicted it. Just a totally horse-crap reason for a character living. Just like Nicomo Coska who can't die because Joe likes him.
I can't wait to see how much fun Red Country is; I've already started it :)
Bayaz didn't win in Best Served Cold, and the pointlessness of the battle was intended. War is the prelude to talking, the book wants to tell you war is useless except as an opportunity people to place their own names into the positions it makes available. I agree that Scale's survival was plot armour, but it's perfectly feasible that Brock survived the blast. It wasn't targeting the front line any more than the rest of the soldiers in Osrung and plenty of others survived it too
@@Ulalamulala Brock was a Cavalry commander, those are two very good reasons he should not have been inside a building when the explosion occurred. He should have been ripped apart or at the least permanently deafened. That close to a blast of the power described the sound itself could have killed him by shattering his eardrums. None of those building should have survived, let alone people. Heave you ever heard the sound an M-80 firework? A barrel of powder is literally thousands of times more potent. The Gurkhish fire from the end of book 3 was able to totally toss thousands of tons of stone into the air. I doubt that over the 10 intervening years it got less potent. Perhaps they used less of it, but even one barrel would be devastating and they used far more than 1.
@@llywyllngryffyn8053I found that guy. Who reads books he doesn’t like just to make weird comments on UA-cam