Half the World

By: Joe Abercrombie

Narrated by: John Keating

Length: 13 hrs

Publisher's summary

Sometimes a girl is touched by Mother War.
Thorn is such a girl. Desperate to avenge her dead father, she lives to fight. But she has been named a murderer by the very man who trained her to kill.

Sometimes a woman becomes a warrior.
She finds herself caught up in the schemes of Father Yarvi, Gettland’s deeply cunning minister. Crossing half the world to find allies against the ruthless High King, she learns harsh lessons of blood and deceit.

Sometimes a warrior becomes a weapon.
Beside her on the journey is Brand, a young warrior who hates to kill, a failure in his eyes and hers, but with one chance at redemption.

And weapons are made for one purpose.
Will Thorn forever be a pawn in the hands of the powerful, or can she carve her own path?

©2015 Joe Abercrombie (P)2015 Recorded Books

Please get Steven Pacey back

It's hard introducing a new narrator to an author /narrator duo where their previous history has made a memorable footprint. The new guy is just a place setter while we hope Steven Pacey returns. Not fair to the new narrator or die hard Abercrombie readers.

I remember how I savored beginning a novel with that author/narrator combo. They were each better together than apart.

Please get Steven back.

Great book

Great to listen to and great to read. Can't wait for the final book. Terrific narrator. Try his other book narrations as well.

Everything this guy writes

If it’s Joe Abercrombie I’m here for it. Great new characters are brought into the narrative, plenty of action and even romance. Fast becoming one of my favorite authors. Better than the first book imo.

great epic fantasy fiction book

sometimes you may get lost keeping up with all the characters but if you like George Martin then you can follow this no problem. I wouldn't put him in the same league as Martin but definitely worth a listen.

Great action but confusing purpose

Abercrombie remains the master of the fight scene. But, there is more to a story than fight, fight, fight. Could have used a bit more depth in plot and character purpose. Still, the characters were fun and, overall, this is an entertaining listen

Freaking Awesome!

This was better than I expected. His characters are brutal and hilarious. The story is twisted and exciting with many tidbits of wisdom.

Narrator brings it down, unfortunately.

I really enjoyed the story, but the narrator leaves some to be desired. Somehow, the male characters are higher pitched than the female, and all the characters seem to end most of their sentences with a question mark so statements sound like questions. Even a simple affirmation like "me." end up sounding like "who, me?" The non dialogue parts are fine, but when it comes to reading dialogue, his voice gets high pitched and whiny.

Another Excellent Series

I can't wait for the next one!
It seems like I say that after every book Mr Abercrombie releases...

Great narrator.

Does anyone else ever wonder why fantasy just seems to sound better when the narrator/characters have a British accent?

A lot of fighting

I had a harder time getting into this book at first, but once it got going it was good.

It is the sequel to Half a King, and once again we have Yarvi, who was once (very briefly) King of Gettland. Now he is minister and adviser to the current King, his uncle Uthil. War with the High King is brewing, and Yarvi’s task is to find allies for this war. He sets out in a galley, along with several of his comrades from his previous adventures on a long and perilous journey which features an arduous portage over high mountains.

The main characters in this story, though, are two new characters, young teenagers. There is Thorn, a girl who lives to fight, and whose ambition is to follow in her father’s footsteps as a sworn shield, and Brand, an orphan who has been apprenticed to a blacksmith.

Thorn is a good fighter, but not as good as she thinks she is or as good as she wants to be. She is also a very prickly character with a chip on her shoulder. One of Father Yarvi’s friends undertakes to train her to be the fighter she really can be, a job that takes over half the book. But Thorn is determined. It takes her even longer to figure out how to get along with people.

Brand, on the other hand, doesn’t like the idea of killing people. He is a good-hearted lad who tries to live by his late mother’s guidance to ‘stand in the light.’ He wants to join the King’s Guard to have a family and to earn enough money to take care of his sister (who, by the way, has also learned from the blacksmith, become one of the finest blacksmiths in the land, and doesn’t particularly need taking care of, thank you very much). He is strong as an ox but not much of a strategic fighter, and his high principles put him at odds with the master-at-arms, destroying his chances at a career in the King’s Guard.

Along with the adventures of the journey and subsequent war, there is also a sort of strained romance between Thorn and Brand. Brand is committed early on, but typically, Thorn takes forever to realize what is happening, and even longer to figure out what to do about it.

The Lesser Evil

Half The World is the sequel to Half a King from Joe Abercrombie and it was definitely the middle book in a trilogy. Middle books tend to get a bad wrap because their sole purpose is to get to the final book where everything big happens.

That isn't to say that it was bad. Abercrombie has a way with words and world building that is like none other. You really get to know the characters and get to care for them

This book introduces Brand and Thorn as the two main characters who travel with Father Yarvi on their quest to gather allies in the coming war against the high king.

This book read more as a fantasy political thriller where the characters interact with royalty and try to gain their trust.

The end is where it got good, but I'll leave it there because of spoilers.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️