Name: Last Argument Of Kings
Rating: 4.309859154929577 (142 reviews)
ISBN: 9780575077904

Joe Abercrombie

Last Argument Of Kings

Sunny

This series, this book in particular is so wonderfully crafted but it also ruined my life and destroyed all my emotions :^)

Michael Springer

Because, even after the first two volumes, every character will STILL surprise you. Because Glokta is the best fantasy character I've found since Tyrion Lannister. Because Logen is a mushroom-cloud-laying motherfucker. Because you should've seen it coming but you didn't. You really didn't. 

Because even "gritty" fantasy writers are usually afraid to go this far against expectations. Because you will laugh. You will get angry. Because you will hate the ending. Because the ending is perfect. Because the last surprise is on the last page. 

Because every combat sequence is spot on. Because every character's actions are spot on. (Despite the fact that we sometimes don't need quite as much explanation as we get.) Because we need more fantasy authors willing to give people like Terry Brooks, Margaret Weiss, Tracy Hickman and Robert Jordan a really good wedgie. (Giving dead people wedgies might be in bad taste, but it's occasionally necessary.)

Because worlds with swords and sorcerers are boring when they're perfect. Because people are boring when they're perfect. Because perfect things are boring. Because this series is totally not boring. Because in some ways Abercrombie's series works better than A Song of Ice and Fire (in some ways, just some, not all of them, please put down those rocks).

Because it's time to read something entirely made out of awesome. Because this is it. Because. Just because.

Prashanth Srivatsa

That's that with the First Law Trilogy. Can't say I enjoyed it thoroughly, but can't say there won't be parts and characters I will miss reading about through the night. Fantasy does that to you, I guess. But Joe has his style, like it or otherwise; and he sticks to it right till the end, ending it Jason Bourne style, dodging dangerous cliches and plot holes with an over abundance of action that could very well make Michael Bay wet in his bed. Things are still hanging in the balance, even after the last page is turned, and I might just give the standalone novels a try to see if the world gets any more bigger and interesting.
Read it if you like fantasy. For the rest, you aren't really missing much.

Last Argument of Kings

Celeste Richardson

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions. 

I’ve read some dark stuff in my life, but I believe that Last Argument of Kings is the bleakest, most brutal book I’ve read, ever. Joe Abercrombie undoubtedly earned his title as the King of Grimdark. If it wasn’t for the humor Abercrombie had been deftly layering into the story since The Blade Itself, I don’t know that I could’ve finished this final installment. I joked with my fellow Novel Notions bloggers that I felt like I needed to bathe in kittens and rainbows when I read the last pages, and that honestly wasn’t far from the truth. I started half a dozen or more books in the aftermath of this book, only to put them down again because they weren’t bright enough. I finally settled on rereading a Nora Roberts trilogy that I’ve read over and over since my teenage years. Nora’s charming descriptions of Ireland could not be further removed from the Union and the North and Gurkhul as Abercrombie detailed them.
“I have learned all kinds of things from my many mistakes. The one thing I never learn is to stop making them.” 
If Before They Are Hanged was a study in character development, in how people can grow dramatically in the face of adversity, Last Argument of Kings was a demonstration of how quickly those developments can be thrown by the wayside and how easily characters can slip back into old habits. People who had genuinely changed found that those changes weren’t strongly rooted enough to sustain. It felt like the plot was propelled almost entirely by one betrayal after another. I didn’t expect a happy ending, I really didn’t. I mean, you have to be realistic about these things, after all. But I didn’t expect to hate nearly everything about the ending, either. A scant few characters found themselves in a decent place as the book drew to a close, and even those endings were heavily tempered with disappointment.
“If you want to be a new man you have to stay in new places, and do new things, with people who never knew you before. If you go back to the same old ways, what else can you be but the same old person? 
Abercrombie also succeeded in crafting perhaps the single evilest character I’ve ever experienced.  The full extent of said evil was shocking to me, as it was in no way apparent when the character was first introduced. Their callousness in regards to the value of human life was appalling, though it’s a trait that I should’ve anticipated as I look back. Even though I was shocked by this revelation, I had to respect how elaborate and well executed their plan was. There was one character who managed to surprise me with their decency, but I’ll refrain from naming them.
“People would far rather be handed an easy lie than search for a difficult truth, especially if it suits their own purposes.” 
There were a couple of chapters that, though blood soaked, exhibited some amazing technique from the author. A duel scene, which is possibly the best such scene I’ve ever read, managed to be horrifying in content and almost breathtakingly beautiful at the same time. The language used was incredibly impressive and demonstrated that Abercrombie is not only a gifted storyteller, but a phenomenal craftsman. I was also highly impressed with a chapter entitled “Sacrifices.” Almost every perspective character was present in this single chapter, and Abercrombie made an artistic decision that I found delightful. Whatever line ended one perspective was also the opening line of the next perspective. It was a fun and thoughtful addition that I appreciated immensely.
“Rules are for children. This is war, and in war the only crime is to lose.” 
While this book was painful to read, I have incredible respect for what Abercrombie managed to do in the First Law trilogy. It might’ve been brutal, but it was engaging and suspenseful and, even when I was disappointed in the characters’ decisions, I still cared about them. That’s a difficult balance to strike, and Abercrombie did it was great finesse. There were also an impressive amount of surprises, though few of them were happy. I’ve heard that his standalone novels set in the same world aren’t quite as bleak. I very much look forward to reading these, though I’ll be giving myself a breather before approaching them. 
“Round and round in circles we go, clutching at successes we never grasp, endlessly tripping over the same old failures. Truly, life is the misery we endure between disappointments.” 
Oddly enough, I believe that the First Law trilogy is now among my favorite fantasy series I’ve read. But, unlike others in this category, I’m not sure it’s a trilogy I’ll be rereading, as most of the other series among my favorites have been or will be. I loved the characters and would definitely like to revisit them, but I don’t know if this last book in particular is one I could stomach a second time. While Last Argument of Kings was written and executed brilliantly, the difficulty I had in reading it kept me from giving it the full 5 stars I know it deserves. If you consider yourself a fan of the grimdark subgenre but have somehow never read this trilogy, that’s an oversight that undoubtedly needs to be remedied. But if you struggle with darker fiction, you might want to steer clear of the First Law. You’ve been warned.

Kayla Smith

That ending was so satisfying but I have to admit I missed the lack of plot. This installment had too many scenes of fighting and war for my own personal taste and enjoyment. Still a new favorite series overall, though.

Deborah Kerr

What an absolutely stunning conclusion to my new favorite series.

I thought I wasn't going to enjoy the fact out of all of these characters, not a single one of them is *wonderful and good*. Because let's be honest, even if you love them, you wouldn't actually like them in real life. The brilliance of Abercrombie is the fact that he doesn't shy from the realism in his fantasy; the good moments are only good because the bad moments are so damn bad.

... I don't care how terrible this makes me--I'd still die for Logen Ninefingers.

Ben Nathan

Wonderful ending to a really well done high fantasy trilogy. Every character is flawed. The ones I used to hate, I kind of love and the ones I used to love, I kind of hate. Definitely going to read the one off books from him.

Last Argument Of Kings

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