Best Served Cold

By: Joe Abercrombie

Narrated by: Steven Pacey

Length: 26 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Springtime in Styria. And that means war. There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white.

While armies march, heads roll and cities burn, behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king. War may be hell but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso's employ, it's a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular - a shade too popular for her employer's taste.

Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto's reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.

©2010 Joe Abercrombie (P)2010 Orion Publishing Group Limited

The revenge theme splattered everywhere

The narrator was brilliant as ever, but the story was a drag to me. I just didn't find it pleasurable to read a story about revenge and how every other character became influenced by vengeance. With a couple of exceptions there weren't many twists either.

Very average

I listened to this book following the First Law series which I found very enjoyable.

Unfortunately this particular book is pretty much a straight out, almost boring tale, with only a twist at the end to keep it from being rated even lower.

Abercrombie has excellent character development, but I feel that the characters are a little too disfunctional in an almost "American sitcom disfunctional family" style.

One particular failing that I found annoying was the eventual predictable situation of knowing something was going to go disasterously wrong when detailed and meticulously laid plans were set in motion.

All in all it felt like the characters and story had moved from the sublime to the ridiculous.

There aren't really any surprises here, no multi threaded grand design all coming together at the end. The characters are all so extremely flawed and hateable to point you feel nothing for them, which doesn't give the listener much to identify and feel with through the course of the book.

Excellent narration rescues a rather forgettable storyline.

Disappointing narration

After being blown away by the excellent production (& excellent narration by Steven Pacey) in "The First Law" series, this production really let me down. I started listening to it immediately after the completion of "The First Law" and it was terrible. I had to stop, I'll try it again later, because I am sure it is a good story, but "The First Law" excellent production is still to fresh in my mind.

Great narrator. Awful book.

Really struggled with this one. Between Unlikeable characters and a predictable story full of deus ex machina, there's really only one thing to enjoy and that's the narrator doing his damndest to breathe some life into this mess.

Steer clear.

Difficult to finish

None of the characters are likable. Revenge story that has an interesting premise but hard to immerse in the mc's quest and methods.

Way too much despair for my taste

Spoilers!!!

I really like Abercrombies anti-hero style, but something is missing in this one. Hope... I think.
Atleast the bloody nine was hoping to be a man good enough for sulky and moody Ferro. And she struggling to dare to love him. Or Jezal struggle to the right thing, or the dogman and so on. There were some hope in all these characters to do the right thing.

In this book everyone felt like an asshole. Even the main character was an asshole until the point she won and became pregnant. Then she wanted to forgive. It's like a slap in the face to the reader for thinking she might do the right thing BEFORE she wins. This might be the unfair reality Abercrombie wanted to convey, but I don't have to like it.
And her reason for her revenge was sooo weak too. Yes, she loved her brother, and fucked him(not helping her to get sympathy) but that's a weak reason for revenge since he was an horrible person that always used her to get what he wanted. And if is she did it for herself then she truly is horrible(which is better then pretending otherwise), but then Cosca comes and tell us that she isn't "truly" evil because he knows her. No matter what she "feels" doesn't matter when here actions does the opposite. I am hard on this book because it felt like sobstory without the reason for sobbing.

In the end it's a good story and we'll written characters but it all left a sour taste in my mouth (as Monza would have said). Can't really recommend it unless you like being a bit frustrated afterwords. If you can handle that, well then it's a good book. It felt more like a depressing filler made for setting up characters for the next adventure with Logen and the others.

Steven Pacey were awesome yet again.

I miss Nine Fingers and Jezal

Not as good as the first 3 for me. On to the next one though.

I love Joe Abercrombie books.

Would you try another book from Joe Abercrombie and/or Michael Page?

Yes to Joe by defiantly not to Michael Page.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The narrator, shocking.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Michael Page sound like he is reading Shakespeare.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes

Not as good, as the first books

Too many coincidences, inconsequential story telling, no one to root for, too many sex scenes in too much detail and too nihilistic for my taste. After the first good books this is definetly a let down.