Spoiler-free
And so continues my buddy read of The First Law series with my friend, Chad. (Keep reading for Chad's takes at the end). So far, this series has been top notch, where I have enjoyed each instalment in its own way. Red Country is the 3rd book in the sequel ‘standalone’ trilogy and while these 'standalone' books have failed to capture the magic of the original trilogy, they have still offered an interesting expansion to this world as a whole. It pains me to say it, Red Country was a complete drag for me. I guess if I were to dislike any Joe Abercrombie book it would no doubt be the western one… Besides, having the 6th book in a series be the first dud is pretty good going so props to that!
The Premise
In much the same vein as Best Served Cold being a revenge story and The Heroes being one epic battle, Red Country is, at its core, a rescue mission. Shy South’s younger siblings have been kidnapped, forcing her and her seemingly cowardly stepfather - Lamb - to embark on a perilous journey across the Western landscape to retrieve them. This land is rife with gold fever, feuds and untrustworthy mercenaries. Yet perhaps, the most important secrets lie closer to home…
The Review
I should probably preface this review by saying that I don’t typically like western settings… At all. I don’t even know specifically what it is about them that irks me, but they’ve never managed to pull me in. I thought that if anyone could break the mould it would be Lord Grimdark, himself. Unfortunately, after finishing Red Country my feelings towards westerns remain very much the same. To be fair, it’s probably more western inspired than a full blown western and that’s not to say it was all bad. Afterall, it’s still a part of a series I am heavily invested in, but ultimately I found the entire thing painstakingly tedious. Bottom line, I was just bored, waiting for that one event to hook me in (it never came). Even after finishing I can’t help but ask myself what the point of it all was? The pacing was awful and lacked any clear direction. I am obviously missing something, but to be honest I don’t really care enough to find out. The plot lacked imagination and with the exception of Temple, all the new characters sucked. This is a rare criticism for Joe Abercrombie, who in my opinion, crafts some of the best characters in fantasy. It just seemed as though Red Country in particular lacked the spark and innovation from the previous instalments.
All that aside, the quality of writing is still stellar and Joe Abercrombie’s signature humour is sprinkled throughout, perhaps even more so than other books in the series. Yet, these are the two things I have become accustomed to when reading a First Law book. Perhaps, that is unfair and makes me judge his books more harshly than I would otherwise, but at book 6 I feel like I need much more than good writing and a sense of humour. At no point was I enjoying the book, so I can't in good faith rate it any higher. I’m hoping that this is just a blip in the series and I can just forget about it moving forward. I will probably take a little break before reading Sharp Ends (sorry Chad), just so I can recalibrate and get my love for this world back. I don't want my experience with Red Country to tarnish future books.
🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑- 2 stars
Spoiler Chat/Rant
Shy sucked. There, I said it. I would love to chat with someone who liked Shy as a character, and ask them one simple question - why? I can’t even think of one interesting thing about her. To me, she felt like a diluted Monza. And if you have read my Best Served Cold review, you will know how much I hated that Frankengirl pest. Look, I get it, Shy’s lost her siblings and is doing everything she can to get them back, but have some personality while you’re doing it… Please! I’m having to read from your perspective here... Looking back, I guess Shy is the main reason for my lack of engagement in this one, as she is the main POV and the character voice just wasn’t there.
Lamb sucked. Another one. Embarrassingly, if this wasn’t a buddy read with Chad, I can’t help but wonder how far into part 1 or 2 I would have gone until I realised it was Logen. But once he told me, It was so obvious that I don’t know how I missed it lmao. This just goes to show how invested I was. I have never been an official member of the Logen Ninefingers fan club or anything, but I have always liked his character and found his whole bloody nine quirk interesting. However, in Red Country, his whole personality fumbled down to being a grumbling nuisance. He sucked. I guess a large part of it was that we mainly see him through the eyes of Shy, who sucked herself, instead of having Logen as the POV character, like we are used to. I do like the idea of having Logen disguised as Lamb, but it wasn’t executed well enough and left me disappointed.
Why, why, why did Joe Abercrombie spend so many books teasing this big fight between Shivers and Logan just for it to end in some awkward farewell?! Urgh, so annoying! I’m not saying I actually needed to see the fight, but give me something, anything, please… By this point, we all know that Joe likes to invert tropes and expectations (The end of Before They Are Hanged comes to mind), but this was a big miss. I was really hoping that the ending would save this book for me and get me pumped to continue, just like Best Served Cold did, however this was the most lacklustre ending imaginable. What a joke.
I spent far too long than I’d like to admit figuring out whether the Ghosts were actual ghosts or not xD. I came to the conclusion that they were some kind of native inhabitants to the land, but the fact that it took me so long to figure that out (and I'm not even 100% now) goes to show the distinct decline in the quality of world building. And to top it off, after I got over the whole Ghost fiasco, we got Dragons... Is it a real dragon? No, it’s some other poorly described clan. And also some knock off Trojan horse mechanical thing. What even was that? I know I’m probably sounding so dumb right now and I recognise that my focus kept drifting, but that’s because I just didn’t care and was trying to simply push through it.
Anyway, enough of the moaning. Temple was fantastic! I absolutely loved his introduction to this world and can not wait to see what else he brings. His plot line was the only part of this book I enjoyed. It felt so satisfying having him slowly pay off his debt to Shy. Also, their initial meeting with Shy finding him in the river was so comical and peak Abercrombie. The way Temple slowly gains the respect of, not only Shy, but of his peers was really rewarding to see. All of his speeches were delivered perfectly and I was rooting for him the whole way. Honestly, I wish this whole book was from Temple’s perspective. It would have been much more entertaining and refined with clear direction. Yay for Temple. You’re a good egg.
Speaking of good eggs we also had brief appearances from Friendly. Yay! If only he was there to count every time I audibly groaned whilst listening to this. I jest, I jest. He was a treat as always and it’s always a pleasure to have him appear in any given scene to offer his numerical insights lol. We love you Friendly.
Cosca is basically the 'big bad' of this one. This is an interesting choice, as I feel like he’s been built up as a sort of lovable mercenary over time, only for all that character building to come crumbling down into this villainous mess. I’m not mad at it, it’s just an unusual choice. This just goes to show how you never know where a particular character arc is headed in the world. I still enjoyed him as a character and he offered some great comedic relief from all the plainness of other characters. Looking at you Shy -.-.
There are so many other new characters featured in this book and honestly, they were all completely forgettable to me and not even worth mentioning. I guess I was interested in the Mayor being a potential returning character, but to not have that reveal within this book felt was an absolute piss-take. I’m really disappointed in this one. Oh well, I guess I will stop here before I ramble on anymore. It pains me to give Joe Abercrombie such a poor review, but say one thing for Ang, say that he will give his honest opinions.
Thanks for reading - Ang :)
Chad Takes
Red Country was more of a challenge for me than the other two standalones and I’ll preface this by saying I certainly didn’t enjoy it as much as the other two - especially The Heroes which I thought was brilliant. I’ve got not a lot of insight to share admittedly.
Reading this book came at a funny time for me as I’d recently got glasses for the first time so was swept up in the pleasure of actually being able to see again and enjoy things at a distance. This meant I could watch tv and movies and play games again without getting blistering headaches. And as such I became full-body obsessed with Subnautica and spent almost every waking and non-working hour playing it……I’m bringing this up because I think the way I actually read Red Country is partly to blame for why I didn’t enjoy it as much. Ended up where I was just reading like half a chapter a day sometimes and just had no real urgency to pick it up which killed the pace and the flow. This went on for the first three parts of the book (part 2 especially I found very difficult). Unbelievably, or very believably, I started to really enjoy reading this again after completing Subnautica 😅 The novelty of clear vision had also worn off by then a little bit too, so I blitzed through the last two parts.
Obviously hugely relieved and pumped that Logen is back…but full disclosure, I couldn’t really bond with either Temple, Ro or Shy; which is a big shame considering they’re the 3 main POV characters in this. They never really came alive for me and I just felt like a lot of the surrounding characters (Lamb/Cosca/The Mayor/Dab Sweet/Zacharus) were much more interesting. But I’m gonna be positive and just talk about the one big thing I did find interesting about each of them and leave it at that:
- Shy’s relationship with Lamb/Logen and her evolving opinion of him throughout the journey.
- Temple tries his best.
- Ro becoming hugely changed by her captivity.
I was very satisfied admittedly by the ending, and it was great and also sad to see Logen doing what he does and lopping heads off and kicking them out of a barn. It does seem like there’s just no way Logen can escape himself wherever he ends up. I had a feeling he’d go into his Bloody Nine rage in the mountains and nearly kill either Ro or Pitt so I’m hugely glad that he was restrained. I think a reasonably contentious part of this book is why Shivers was included at all, but a part of me wanders if Lamb would have left Shy eventually anyway if Shivers hadn’t turned up - despite Shivers ultimately walking away. If Shivers can move on, why can’t Logen? Where’s next for both of them is the question. Has Shivers realised he’s more pissed off with Monza than Logen? Had a big feeling that Sworbreck was gonna kill Cosca by the end so was pleased I predicted that 😅
I’m also dying to know the identity of the Mayor and whether it’s someone we’ve met before. I think she was my favourite presence in this book. The return of Zacharus was hugely fascinating to me though as he’s sort of the only way this book seemed anchored to the main world of the first law. I don’t think we’ve met all the magi out there so I’m really wondering whether they’ll all be incorporated by the end and play a larger role in Age of Madness. Best Served Cold and The Heroes felt very linked to the main world with Bayaz’ being present directly or indirectly. But other than Zacharus featuring, this one really did feel like a separate thing. Ultimately, less moved by this than Best Served Cold and The Heroes. These 3 books feel like fun experiments which I’ve gotta admire, but I’m very ready to step into something a bit grander when we start Age of Madness. However, Sharp Ends first.
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