I can’t imagine what it must of been like seeing Caul Shivers in A Little Hatred without reading the standalones like he is a COMPLETELY different person than he was in the first trilogy it must of been so jarring 😂

Met the guy personally at a talk/signing. He does _not_ like having maps in his works. He said that when you include places that aren't visited, you restrict what you can do in the future but when you only include what's visited, it looks like artifice rather than a map. He does have unpublished maps for his own reference though but I doubt they'll see the light of day before the franchise is over since he changes it a lot.

Excellent review, done. Now, let's cut right to the chase. Who wants Daniel Greene to interview Joe Abercrombie? - Yay, anyone?

"Once"? Lord Grimdark is his friggin' Twitter handle.

"Whoever played Butcher on The Boys-" You speak of my Lord Eomer, Son of Eomund, Third Marshal of the Riddermark!

Hell yes! Already read the book twice. Abercrombie is a genius. Also, yes - I agree. Gimme Karl Urban as Logen, I'm so on board.

Just finished A Little Hatred based on your recommendation, can't thank you enough. The audiobook is sensational

I also think that Joe has the most memorable action writing. After a lot of other books i can still remember all the action scenes vividly, they are incredibly immersive. And till the day i die i will remember the siege of Dagoba (not sure of the city name, maybe its something different) from the second book in the first law trilogy... I could smell the city while reading it!

"I love Robin Hobb" - are you planning on reviewing her books?

By the way, you said that you love how Joe plants these nuggets that pay off later by having you sit inside a character's head, realize what their personality is like, then have another character interact with them with you watching from the outside and reading into the lines of subtext because you now know this character's methodology and thought process. Well, in that case, read the stand alone books. Shivers, Gorst, Calder are POV characters in them, and nearly every time they show up in A Little Hatred there's tons of subtext that hints at things from the Stand Alones. It's simply delicious. Not to mention, other characters appear in the stand alone books too, and... I can't say more without spoiling things.

Lookin forward to tryin this series out

"Whoever played Butcher" oh Daniel. You mean Dr. Mccoy from Star Trek? Eomer from LoTR? Dredd from Judge Dredd? Skurge from Thor Ragnarok? Karl freaking Urban?! Whoo boy, sorry, felt my boy Karl got a bit disrespected lol. One of my fav actors who is totally unappreciated.

Just a shout out for R E Howard. The first lord of Grimdark. “ Barbarianism is the natural state and will ultimately triumph “Conan was not a nice man.

Mannn this is good to hear. I’m going through the first law trilogy now. I’ll admit that the blade itself didn’t grab my attention as quickly as I’d hoped it would but it’s growing on me now.

I would also point out in addition to your well-thought-out summary of why Joe Abercrombie's writing style works, that Joe's well-timed and thoughtful use of a sort of Terry Pratchett esque humor (or at the very least very British sense of humor) interposed with the darker aspects helps both to emphasize and ease a transition between darker sections.

I finished this book yesterday and I loved it even more than some of the First Law books!

There is a map of the First Law universe in the short story collection Sharp Ends! Not in the series itself idk why lmao Also, I'm sure you can follow along with a Little Hatred just fine without reading the second trilogy, But yes you do miss a lot by skipping it to come here. Like the whole story of a lot of the biggest secondary characters (Shivers, Finree, Bremer, Duke Orso) and a lot of conflicts that have been kind of brewing between the first series and A little Hatred.

I loved this book. The new characters, some old friends I've been missing. I look forward to seeing what comes next.

Great review! I really need to read more by Joe Abercrombie. I've only read Half a King which I loved.

Joe doesn't like maps. Neither does Glen Cook. But if you want, there's a map in "The Sharp Ends"

Rikke rhymes with picker - she tells Orso when she meets him towards the end of the book.

Fantastic review! It makes me want to reread the First Law trilogy again as it has been about ten years.

You should do a video on grimdark done badly. Would watch.

So excited for this! But I am planning on reading the stand alones first. Had to lol at "Chekov's gun" being a pop culture film thing. Anton Chekov was a Russian master of the short story and his advice was exactly what you described in the video. Every element included should contribute towards the story as a whole.

Well glad I decided to watch this review first. Just bought a signed copy of A Little Hatred and was excited to get into it. Daniel Greene you have gotten me very interested in reading Joe Abercrombie but now that I know I should read First Law Trilogy and the stand alones first I will be waiting. Unlike you, Daniel, I like reading the previous books before the later books because of small spoilers. I also love seeing the connections. For example I got giddy seeing the connections between Warbreaker and The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. Nonetheless great review, though a 2 month old review now, and thank you for this. It saved me a lot!

never read hist stuff, bought the first law years ago but had a tough time reading it as it is grimdark, and struggled with the tone of the prose, have a great feeling for joe though, anyone who writes these dark ass books and then also does his own YA stuff is a interesting mix that interests me, would try him again some day, thanks daniel

Awesome book. Just finished it and I can't wait for the next one. I think you'd need to read the first trilogy and at least "Best Served Cold" and probably "The Heroes". You'd be missing a lot without them.

The guy that played Butcher also played Eomer in LOTR! Nice review, super pumped for this one

Im so excited to read this one. I think my favorite book by him is Best Served Cold its perfect.

Just finished the audiobook. Great read, love the new cast and to see with nostalgia the First Law cast, especially Glokta. Stephen Pacey's voice is always high quality guarantee.

Yeah I read AoM before reading the standalones, and I gotta say I agree with you. I understood everything perfectly fine, I was just a little confused at the beginning since it was a bit since I'd read First Law and I was like "hang on was this in FL or not" a few times.

Great review! Abercrombie is absolutely brilliant. My favourite author. Sadly, it takes about a year for the books to be translated to my native language and I prefer to read them in it, so I'm doomed to wait for translation of The trouble with peace. Cant wait

Missing map? THROW IT ALL AWAY.

Came across your channel for the first time a couple of days ago and have been binge watching your WoT videos (just finishing LoC and loving it). Your reviews on other books are also great, and I've added a few to my reading list. Have you ever reviewed any David Eddings or Lynn Fleweling? It's been a while since I've read their works, but they were my introduction to fantasy as a young adult, and I'd be interested to see your take on their writing.

I'm actually listening to that on audiobook!

The character of Butcher (Karl Urban) also reminded me of Kelsier from the Mistborn series.

You are absolutely right. This book needed a map :)

1k to 70k subs already!?!? It's awesome to know you're also not bothered by spoilers. Only 1 out of 10 of my friends are the same as me.

I can’t watch the video yet because I’m only about half way through the book. That said, I have some thoughts. I just finished the chapter “The Little People” and it was magnificent. I love how Abercrombie grows as a writer and how these staple chapters have become a thing for him since The Heroes. It’s the little things that he continues to add to his repertoire and perfect over his works that really impressed me. I’m also loving all the connections to the standalones and I’m REALLY interested to see what he is going with two major chess pieces of the overall story that to the point I am in the book he has deliberately keeping boiling on the back burner.

I did lament the lack of a map as well. I agree with you also that you do need to have read the First Law Trilogy before reading this book, but not necessarily all the stand-alone novels (the only I had read so far was Red Country)

I read all of them before getting into this one. They were ALL worth it!

Found this in Barnes & Noble yesterday. The title promptly captivated me as I'm always feeling a lotta hatred. Still gonna havta read The First Law trilogy beforehand

Imagine if Joe Abercrombie was asked to write a new Star Wars trilogy! OMG ! Absolute nerd gasm 😲 .... the possibilities 😁😁😁

This series is gonna run 'till modern times, I swear.

I've read it and I have some questions. First off I've read all the others from Joe, many times over. The first law is without a doubt the greatest story I've read/listened to. I was just a bit disappointed the characters I was hoping to read about haven't been introduced yet. Where is Ferro, did she have a baby with you know who? Will we ever meet Khalul or the other Magi and follow their stories? Shenkt?

I read the first 180 pages of this book, i'm genuinely suprised that Glokta and Jezal seems like decent father for their kids lol

Now I'm curious: do you plan to read the stand-alones at some point? And why did you decide to skip them? Because they really are just as amazing as the original trilogy, Red Country is for me his most enjoyable and entertaining book to date (loved the Western vibe). :)

I haven't read A Little Hatred yet but just wanted to thank you. I honestly thought Grim Dark was not for me. I stopped reading A Song of Ice and Fire because I was bored and hated how he seemed to add things only for the shock value and not because they actually added to the story at all. I decided to try Joe Abercrombie after hearing you talk about him. I've read the first two Shattered Seas books as well as the first two books in The First Law series and they are some of the best fantasy I've read in ages. While reading Before They Are Hanged it was the most pleasure and emotional investment I've put into a book in quite awhile

Thanks for doing a Spoiler free review. I fast tracked this book to the top of my list but it is going to take a few days. ;) I love his style of Grimdark

Abercrombie is the man! I've enjoyed every book I've read of his thus far. (read all the First law books up to 'A Little Hatred')

Great review! The First Law series has been on my TBR list for a while now. I really need to check it out. On another note, could someone tell me the name of the song that plays at the end? I didn't see it in the description, but it's possible I'm looking right at it, lol.

Any way you could bump robin hobb’s books up on your tbr?

I've have read the first two books and they were amazing

I agree about the map. Started reading the second short story collection of the witcher last night. First thing I noticed was no map. Just nit picking I'm sure I'll survive.

Couple of recommendations: Robert E. Howard, the granddaddy of grimdark. If your only knowledge of his work is from movie versions of his characters, especially Conan, you are in for a pleasant surprise. _The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant_ are basically about what happens when a Joe Abercrombie character gets plunged into a Tolkienian universe that's depending on him for it's survival

Karl Urban is who plays billy butcher and I’ve been picturing him as Ninefingers

Billy Butcher, Karl Urban, was Eomer in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Bones in JJ Abram's Star Trek reboot.

Daniel Greene.....the motherf---cking Needle Drop of Fantasy

Can you, or have you, done a review on shields in shadow (the silent champions book 1)? Looks interesting, but I've got so many books to read in front of it.

Kings Of The Wyld in the back n/

Karl Urban played Butcher, was also Dredd in the last movie adaptation. He'd be a great Broad or maybe Black Calder

So damn good...gonna kill me waiting for book 2

You don't have to read the three stand alone novels, but you should. All three are great, definitely keeping up with Abercrombie's high standards of story telling, with The Heroes being, I daresay, his best novel.

I also read ALH before the stand alones and enjoyed it a lot, you just understand what exactly is going on in other parts of the world as you go on. I actually started Best Served Cold before ALH came out, but I didn't realy like the characters so I decided to go straight into ALH

you really should read Best Served Cold, and The Heroes..the stand alones are not really standalones..they are a very necessary completion to alot of characters stories, while also giving it a standalonish arc. worth reading those two for sheer excitement, and reading Red Country is you want a specific characters resolution. very important and very much worth the time

I’m dying to read this!!!!! Should I stop reading (my first read through) WOT to read it?? I’m a huuuuge Abercrombie fan!!! But I’m also enjoying WOT. Thanks to you 😉😉😉

You can read the book without the standalones. But to view the picture fully I think you should read Best Served Cold and The Heroes. Especially to see what exactly happened to Shivers ans the north between the OG trilogy and the new one. Red Country and Sharp Ends you dont really have to read.

After the 1st trilogy i understood what i was getting into. I didn't want to be too attacked to any character. But Damn Luthars death hit me sooo hard. I FUCKING HATE BYASS WITH THE DEPTH OF MY HEART.

The Map's in "Sharp Ends" the last stand alone before "The Age of Madness" lol.

Hey Daniel, a question that maybe , you could address in a video. Is The Wheel if Time a grimdark fantasy series? I mean if it is then what level of dark cynicism should we expect from the TV series adaption.It would be nice if you could talk about this.

Gotta read the standalones...Red Country and Best Served Cold in particular

so guys i haven’t read any other joe abercrombie books and I was wandering if I can can just read this one before for example anything lese from the first law world and now when I saw that maybe the standalones from tthe first law should be read I am not sure if I should read it

Music in the credits was legit. Nice.

Loved it. Couldn’t put it down. Darkly hilarious, with amazing (AMAZINGGGG) characters, as always.

Read this before I read the First Law trilogy. Didn't know it existed. Making up for it now.

There was no map in any of the otherwise excellent hardcover editions of The First Law I've got sitting on my shelf either. That was really annoying, but fortunately Google had me covered.

Do I have to read the first law trilogy in order to get into this book or can I just start with this series a little hatred?

If you like audiobooks I can recommend the Joe Abercrombie audiobooks. Stephen Pacey is a fantastic reader and completely sucks you into the world. Paired with Abercrombie's writing it really is a wonderful experience.

A LITTLE HAT RED that space makes all the difference.

Daniel, Billy Butcher is played by Karl Urban himself! An excellent choice, my friend.

Oh, you mean Karl Urban. Fun fact, he played Eomer in the LOTR films.

On the second First Law book now. Sooooo good.

Just started the brade itself, im so excihed to read the rest!

Done reading this, yey. This is a character-mess book but ended in an Abercrombie-MAZING way!

What are the recommended stand alones to read before this? I have only read the First Law trilogy and Best Served Cold.

I finally got around to reading this and I knew going in that Daniel hadn't read the standalones, so I was on the lookout for standalone references and characters, and it seemed like there was at least one every other page, particularly towards the beginning! For as much as Daniel says he gets it through context clues, I feel like there's a lot more he's missing out on, like potential foreshadowing (There's more possibilities for Rikke's prophecy if you've read "Red Country," for instance). Personally, my only complaint (and it's a minor one) was that the climax felt like it happened a little too early. Also, for those interested in a map of the "First Law" world, there's a great website called "An Atlas of Ice and Fire" that does spectacular fantasy maps of various series. They've done "Wheel of Time," "First Law," and "A Song of Ice and Fire," of course. atlasoficeandfireblog.wordpress.com/2018/09/17/a-map-of-joe-abercrombies-first-law-series/

Have you read worm the parahumans web serial? It's free on word press and EXTREMLY long so you might wanna do chapter reviews if you start reading it. It's about superheroes/villains and as a comicbook fan who finds it hard to find good novels with super people I love it.

You doing any Lightbringer breakdowns in the lead up to Burning White?

I hated the ending but I am so excited to see how he uses it

How can I get in touch with you Daniel about possibly reviewing my book, Jeom?

Vic (Vick?) Is my favorite new character. Listened to the audio book so not sure how it's spelled.

Can somebody tell me what is the reading order before I should read this book? I really want to read it but I am a bit confused with the order

In which order should i read these books?

Which robin Hobb books you have read I’m confused which one to start with ?

The First Law books never had a map, or did I get scammed?

Reminds me of some good black library 40k novels

Whoopsies just finished reading this book without even knowing the first law trilogy existed.

Daniel, did you read 'Sharp Edges'? If so, did you enjoy it?

I want that music

Damn man you are dishing out reviews at a mad pace.