Abercrombie is another level in my opinion - “What do the dice say?" Dice say nothing. They are dice." Why roll'em, then?" They are dice. What else would I do with them?”

They did my boy Orso so dirty. I'd be interested to see a future trilogy that covers Rikke's vision, some Bayaz retaliation that was missing from these books.

I completely agree with the couple gripes you had with the ending.

Orso’s arc was great. His self deprecating humor and one liners were so good. More Baez!

I loved every one of the first 3 books, and I can’t wait for the next 7 to come in the mail

What I love about this series is that i constantly switch my opinion on certain characters. I would hate and love a character in the span of a book. Specially Leo and Orso.

I love that you enjoyed Age of Madness! It's definitely a 5✨️ series for me too. I LOVED all of it. I definitely appreciated the First Law trilogy abd the stand alones more when I saw how Joe masterfully weaved all of the different character arcs together. I read them for the first time last year and I did a full reread this year because I was extremely excited to get back into the world - and I was in a reading slump which this helped me to get out of.

My only complaint about this trilogy is i found Gunner Broad less interesting with each book to the point I didn't enjoy his chapters that much even though what was happening was really well written. He wasn't my least favourite point of view at the start of the series but he certainly was by Trouble with Peace. ❤ Shivers, what an arc! Favourite First Law character, easily.

That's interesting. I loved "Best Served Cold" way more than Heroes. Looking forward for the movie and I am sold for Rebecca Ferguson's role there. Hope that Joe can keep her after the strike.

Great overview! Also, I’m realizing our top series overlap quite a bit with mine being Stormlight, Dandelion Dynasty, and Age of Madness so will definitely be keeping an extra eye out for future recommendations!

Yay I’m so glad you loved it!!! Agree on Leo and Jurand!

I agree with you about publication order being the best. 😊 I've only read First Law but hope to start Best Served Cold soon.

Yeah, it may be time for me to start in on the First Law trilogy.

Another great video. I’m also a publication order boy. Darn, doesn’t sound as good as saying publication order girlie.

I just finished the series myself. Great series. Best Served Cold is still my favorite book, thought it was perfect. The usual amazing characters and the ending were great. Minor Spoilers... maybe.... The new series is so topical in many ways. The absurdity of the masses is on full display. As far as your comment about Bayas, I can see your point but he excels at being the man behind the scenes. And it looks like someone can fill that role as well, from a wheelchair no less - this cerebral chess game was great. The lengths to go to remove people from power. Savine and Leo discussion at the Small Council was priceless. There were still a couple of good shocks at the end. Rikkie was an amazing character. Is Caul Shivers in the first book, The Blade Itself? Because if he is, this whole series could really be about him! lol

The scene that you're talking about at the end of TWOC/start of TBI - firstly fantastic. Secondly, it REALLY makes you wonder who certain characters were working with prior to TBI and what events (that we don't know about) led to where our characters are at the beginning of First Law. Also, Red Country forever ❤

Age of madness is so good. I agree with the Bayaz criticism

Im working to this trilogy and I cant wait.

I’d give this trilogy 5 stars on the stress meter too.😂

SPOILERS FOR AGE OF MADNESS... . . . . . I think he'll go back to First Law at some point for one bit of foreshadowing near the end during one of Rikke's visions... "I am returned". My theory is that it's Euz. There was something just before she had Black Calder killed too. She told him his father and brother were dead, his son was dead and he's the last. He smiles and says "So you don't see everything". I kinda disliked Bayaz before but then there was a line when someone (might have been him) said "It's not our job to right all the world's wrongs" and Orso asked what was their job and Bayaz turned from the window and said "To make sure we benefit from them". Brilliant bad guy line. Orso's last words to Leo took the edge off his death for me..."How's the leg?". Definitely should read the first trilogy before Age of Madness. For one when Orso starts his relationship with Savine you'd miss that (Uh-Oh) moment as you're reading. I was a few sentences into that when I went to myself "Oh cr*p, wait! Aren't they...?". The Heroes was my favourite until his last two books (which were perfect). Granted I'm a sucker for a good scrap but the whole book showed that a battle isn't just one giant skirmish. There's retreats, tactical meetings, lulls in the fighting where we see what's going through people's heads. That chapter Casualies was the best description of a battle I've ever read

So glad you liked it! I agree that reading in chronological order is the best way. Knowing Savine and Orso's backstory (because of their parents) makes A Little Hatred so much better. If I had to rate my favorite one-liners from books, I think First Law would have about 90 out of 100 of them. Also, can we agree that among all the amazing characters, Nicomo Cosca is the best?

Woohoo! Glad you enjoyed it, as did I!

hoping to finish Red Country this week and am excited to jump into this series next

Getting to the First Law universe is definitely at the top of my priority list for next year!

Subscribed and will return to this once I finish the trilogy. I can say that at half-way through the second book in the trilogy; I couldn't sleep last night over my irritation at what some of the characters were up to. I'm not sure a book has ever done that to me before.

New to your channel, and already a big fan because of this video lol. I have a lot of friends who like or love first law but stopped there, and I try to get them to read age of madness (and the stand-alones lol) because I think age of madness is a whole level better than the first trilogy. And it saddens me that people are missing out on these three books. Amazing characters and great twists. Thank you again for a great video!

Decided to finally read this, just got the first one from the library

"Publication order can never be wrong." Terry Pratchett: "Challenge accepted."

i love that Rikke didn't tell the others about her vision because it was a delicious subversion of expectations by laying out that really intense premonition scene and just not saying anything about it 😂 also, it really works on a character level as well because she doesn't wanna put her ppl through the same cycle of violence and bloodshed she worked so hard for them to escape from. That's a true leadership moment

I liked this trilogy...up until the middle of the last book. It felt so much like we were just retreading the same ground as the Last Argument of Kings. I don't mind grimdark or things going poorly for the protagonists but I despise how Leo went from a dummy to a 5-D playing chess master all of a sudden? I also just HATE him so much so that doesn't help. And the plot twist reveal at the end of Wisdom just felt so...what? It was like a poor copy of the reveals at the end of the LAoK. I dunno. I loved The Trouble With Peace SO much and there was a lot to love, but I think it felt like Abercrombie was just revisiting the same tropes he always does?

I absolutely enjoyed the age of madness trilogy way more than the first law trilogy Abercrombie totally step up his game can't wait for best served cold adaptation

Loved Shivers - and the entire serious

Damn I’m very hyped to get to the Age of Madness trilogy since the only thing I know about it is that everyone says it is exceptional My case is more or less one you described. I finished the blade itself like 3 or 4 months ago and liked it but didn’t really understand what it was going for or what it was trying to tell (I also read it at a very slow pace with a lot of stops so that didn’t help) and now I’m about to start before they are hanged but don’t know what to expect. My biggest issue was that the book has very little to no plot or at least very little content in terms of events, but I heard that is resolved with book 2 so I’m excited to see what happens Though I’m going to have to look for a recap on the first book since my memory is a awful and don’t remember what happened lmao

BSC was my introduction to Abercrombie and I still hold to it being a great introduction to him. The characterization that everyone loves from First Law is there and it has a tight plot. It's his best book.

Abercrombie's work summed up as a song lyric: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Me clicking off the video before spoilers, even though I can't stand grim dark vibes and will probably never read this.😂

(Spoiler) The fact that Orso could be a decent king made my heart ache more than anything else.

The Age of Madness trilogy is excellent. On a purely technical level, it's some of Abercrombie's best work: line-for-line it's the sharpest his writing has ever been, and the structure and pacing of the whole thing, The Wisdom of Crowds in particular, is masterful. I still say, however, that The Heroes is my favorite. For anyone uncertain about jumping into the whole series, I'd recommend either Best Served Cold or The Heroes as starting points. They are both mostly stand-alone, and if you like what you read there, you'll enjoy almost everything else Abercrombie does.

I definitely agree with the bayaz point, but think it may have been tough to keep the weaver reveal and show behind the scene bayaz. Also was totally expecting a scene between leo and jurand at some point, feel like there has been this gradual tension between them since early in a little hatred and just never really comes to fruition. But overall what an incredible trilogy, cant stop thinking about it. Orso’s final scene hit me so hard. Same with the owl scene. All these characters were just so brilliantly written. Do you have any recommendations for series similar to this?

Wow! I love this series and all Joe's books as well! I am surprised you liked them so much. I was thinking based on your aversions to GRRM that you wouldn't like anything in this vein or come near my books. I had asked you softly about reading my series a couple years ago and wasn't sure you would like them. Now I think you might. I have a free code for the first audiobook if you're still interested? I can email it to you

I thought it was just OK, since I have a soft spot for the first trilogy.

I read the first trilogy. I liked the blade itself, the other two not so much. Hearing you talk about circles, have you seen the TV show 12 monkeys? I love it, to me it's the best scifi series ever made.

Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie. Say he is a hell of a writer.

Man wish I liked it like everyone else seems to 😢

I´ve finished the standalones, just need an opinion on should I or do I have to read sharp ends before age of madness?

Loved the first law trilogy, I just finished Best Served Cold but thinking about skipping to the second trilogy. I would essentially skip 3 books, what do you think? Ok to do so?

I do wish we got more Bayaz in the Age of Madness. And I'm almost miffed that we never got a final scene with Leo and Jurand. Leo is such a shithead lol I think the reason this "grimdark" series hits different is because there's so much humor in it. Not every character is SUPER SERIOUS about everything. There's that gallows humor to it that a lot of "dark" stories don't really use; at least not to the extent that Joe does. The series is more like a "grimdark comedy" to me.

I quit series all the time. I read first book in the first trilogy "The Blade Itself" and was firmly in the camp of this has no plot. I then decided to push through and read until the end of the series because of all the huge amounts of praise. By the end of the trilogy I still felt the same, not really much plot of which is super important to me, but for some reason I couldn't pull away from the world. I then read all three standalones and LOVED "Best Served Cold", Liked the heroes and didn't like Red Country. The second trilogy is amazing, you are right without the first trilogy there is so much you would miss and such clever writing that you just wouldn't appreciate.

Spellmonger by Terry Mancour; great high fantasy it’s 16 books in. Oh and Terry Mancour is the best Terry fantasy writer, and history will remember it that way 100 years from now.

No one writes wrestling matches as good lord grimdark. Also Leo sucks and Jurand is best boy and he honestly deserves soooooooo much better

"Publication order can never be wrong" except in the case of Discworld

I just bought the first law trilogy thinking it was 3 books. Now I’m learning there are 10 books?! What order do you read these in?

I really liked the first two AoM books, but the third book was a disaster for me and made me fall out of love with Abercrombie. Maybe I am tired of the whole thing of setting up good characters only to have them lose or die. The third book destroyed what the first two set up and I felt manipulated by it.

Joe Abercrombie is the greatest living fantasy author. I said what I said 😤

I didn’t really understand why Celeste Dan Hugen was put on the closed council? Other than that she’s a woman it was lost on me

I loved the first law trilogy, but I agree that age of madness was far superior. I also didn't care for best served cold and heros was my favorite of the stand alones. I loved the symmetry of Gunnar in age of madness and how he ends his arc the same way it began. I didn't even know about sharp ends and plan to buy it tomorrow. Thanks!

Oh, also, LISTEN to the books. Steven Pacey is the GOAT.

Personally as a dude, i liked hanging out with Logan, jezel, glokta, and Dogman and his crew more than all the ladies in AOM.

Pour moi, elle est mieux écrite, plus dense et les personnages bien plus intéressants que la première trilogie. Plus ça va, et mieux sont les meilleurs de cet auteur. Les Héros et Servir Froid étaient déjà très bons mais ceux-là.... Et il y a Rikke !! et Stour ! et Savine ! La sagesse des foules, pfff, quelle claque. Les premiers chapitres, la chute du régime, ça tient en haleine.

I'm just so fucking confused about how you can be ambivalent about Best served cold.

«I knew Orso would die».. what? Like you «knew» Leo would die? Orso is Abercrombie’s best character yet, but his arc in Wisdom of Crowds is so drawn-out and pointless…

Am I really the only one who thought the Age of Madness is a gigantic step back and really boring. Every time I say this people get angry but I just don't see the appeal.

Wisdom of Crowds was so underwhelming and disappointing..

Really seemed like he was heavy handed with his current political bullshit. Feminist crap is just so lame in this trilogy. Sad