Red Country

Did not expect to see another book by Joe Abercrombie so soon after The Heroes and was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon it by chance. As others have noted, Steven Pacey is a remarkable narrator and would make a mediocre story sound superb. So much the better when the story is a decent one.

There are many parallels in Red Country to the colonization of the Americas, which adds an interesting tone to the story and at least for me, makes it easier to picture the world around the main characters. Storytelling is quite good, albeit the pacing is a little slow, events less grandiose and I would have, personally, enjoyed seeing more tie-ins into the previous books. I'm now more hopeful about hearing more about the fates of many of the old characters, though. There is a long time span between The last argument of kings and Red country along with plenty of characters and events to expand upon, so maybe we shall see another book detailing that time period more closely from the perspective of characters we haven't heard of for a long time.

Only gave the story four stars, because it doesn't quite stand up to the first law trilogy. You just have to be realistic about these things. ;)

Thank god Luke I read your review after finishing the book. I can't understand why did you include such a spoiler without an alert dude. I would report you, but after voting negatively the button disappeared.
Very good book guys. If you aren't familiar with Mr. Abercrombie's books you should start with the first law trilogy, and after that continue with Best served cold, The heroes and finally Red country.

Abercrombie seems to have run out of ideas after a terrific start with the First Law trilogy. Now we just get a series of relatively straight forward stories that seem to go nowhere and give us no new insight into the greater picture of the land, it's people and politics.

Abercrombie needs to return to the style of the First Law: expansive, in depth, political, twists and turns and some real good surprises, not to mention a little magic and the sting in the tail ending.

This book like the Heroes and Cold Blood seem to be a platform for venting his liking of uninhibited violence, mutilation and general antithesis of mainstream fantasy. It would be more palatable if put in a greater context which is seriously lacking here.

This is probably the last book I'll listen to from this author even though Pacey really makes it shine as he did for the rest. If the next book is a mostly a cut and paste of the others with a change of characters and slightly modified plot line, then I'm afraid Joe has lost a listener.

Bloody nine fingers

the last fight

the last one

allmost, but it is a bit long

It compliments the last trilogy, and i love joe abercrombies writing:-)

Joe Ambercrombie is widely regarded to be among the founding fathers of dark or gritty fantasy, and his latest installment "Red Country" is among the best of his work.
Steven Pacey's performance and portrayal of the characters fits amazingly, portraying the key traits of the characters just perfectly.
Red Country is a good listen, it will make you cringe and it may make you feel sick to your stomach, a tribute to both Abercrombie's skill at description and Pacey's reading.
I fully reccomend this audiobook, but be prepared for bloody and gory descriptions and characters so vile that you can scarcely believe it.
furthermore, it would not be required to be familiar with Abercrombie's former works, but the book would hold much more depth if you are familiar with the characters and events that took place in his former novels.

What a pleasant surprise to find this book, I have read and enjoyed all the previous books and was looking forward to reading this once I found it.

While you don't need to read the previous books to enjoy this story, it will certainly bring a whole new depth to the story if you have read the previous novels. There are many, many appearances by some favourite (and some not so favourite) characters, scattered throughout the book, and the author slowly reveals some of them to you, teasing you with the information, and sometimes he just reveals them straight away. Interestingly, the story is told through the eyes of a whole cast, and it brings a fresh look, a different perspective to how we see these old characters.

I thoroughly endorse this addition to the series, and do wonder at the genius of Joe Abercrombie, for his amazing storytelling talent, and for the masterful production and narration of Steven Pacey, brilliant as always.

A Good Time

no way near as good as the heroes

Any scene with Union interests

Not really

Set after the heroes - but u dont really know what happened to the UNION!
Last we heard they were off to Styria -but so many years have past we dont know what happened!! did they win?

Joe seems to be very Anti Union which is just strange.......

Definitely. Steven Pacey is on of the best reader out there and perfectly fits this book.

The bloody nine reemerges

The bloody nine reemerges

No.. Gotta savor this one.

A very good listen. Good use of a credit.