Stories from the World of The First Law (First Law Stories Collection)

Excellent set of stories by Joe Abercrombie. I longed for the First Law universe from Joe when I read the Half>>> first book. It was not very good in my estimation.
These are First Law stories Joe did over time loosely tied together. I enjoyed all of them but one that seemed out of place and slow.

Don't peak at the last one. Nice twist.

I am a huge longtime fan of Abercrombie, bought each hard cover as it came out and have read each many times. This work wasn't really great unfortunately. Some absolute gems such as the one with Cracknut and tough times all over but maybe I went into Bethod point of view and Glotka backstory with overly high expectations, characterizations seemed off and was overly heavily cameo for the sake of cameo heavy.

Abercromie tries to bring back some of the old characters in some of the short stories and it was pleasantly nostalgic. When he did several stories revolving around two new females, they were flat and unexciting. I ended up skippiong those stories

Joe Abercrombie has a reputation as one of the grimmest, darkest, most brutal figures in modern heroic fantasy. His debut effort, the First Law trilogy, opened up readers to characters with deep-seated psychological flaws, empires which were not so much led as jerked in varying ineffectual directions by competing political factions, and utter ambiguity as to who might be the hero or the villain. After a brief and mostly successful sojourn in Young Adult literature, he has returned to the world of his original fantasy novels, and seems to be seeking to make up for lost time. Sharp Ends offers up all of the sex and violence his YA Shattered Sea trilogy couldn’t, with a few dollops extra to spare. With Abercrombie, that’s very much a good thing.

THE GOOD AND THE GREAT:

*VIOLENCE!!! If there’s anybody writing who’s better at portraying graphic violence on the printed page, I don’t know who it might be. Abercrombie’s battle scenes are brusque, direct, and precise; the action is smooth and visceral, playing out in continually imaginative and surprising ways. His style is more hyper-realistic than strictly realistic, which is a bit of a surprise from an author who confines himself so rigidly to realistic motives in his descriptions of human behavior; his point of view characters have always had a capacity to absorb damage or evade blows that verges on the superhuman, and here he goes even bigger, with characters occasionally plucking arrows from midair and the like. The important thing is that it works. It works like all hell. Abercrombie is a very rare author in that he can alter his use of violence to suit the tone of the story, from horror to disgust to ennui even to outright comedy. If there’s an objection to be offered here, it’s that violence seems to be a lot more “fun” than used to be the case in Abercrombie’s work. Previous entries consistently kept careful track of the emotionally stunting effect of violence upon its practitioners; this time out, both old characters and particularly new ones seem to be pretty comfortable shrugging off the disembowelments they impose upon others, with the notable exception of old favorite Bremer dan Gorst, who appears to be headed in the opposite direction. In any case, readers who don’t care for violence should steer well clear.

*PSYCHOLOGICAL INSIGHT. Abercrombie’s point-of-view characters are consistently complex and intriguing. Every action that takes place in an Abercrombie story proceeds realistically from the motives of the participants; there is rarely anything forced or any need of a plot McGuffin. People don’t always know what they want, let alone what’s best for them, and even those who get what they want often find that maybe they didn’t want it after all. Abercrombie understands both at an intellectual and an intuitive level the many ways in which we disappoint both ourselves and others. And yet…for all that Abercrombie is celebrated for his grim, dark style, he understands joy and satisfaction equally well. His characters change and grow; they experience wonderful friendships, achieve impressive things, are celebrated for what’s best in them (though not perhaps as often as for what’s worst in them). Some may call Abercrombie grim; I call him insightful.

*DIALOGUE. I maintain that readers don’t want characters that talk like real people; they want characters who talk the way they WISH real people talked. Well, here are those characters, in great numbers, spouting quote-worthy quips left and right. Everyone will have a particular favorite, I suppose; of the members of the author’s rogue’s gallery represented herein, I’ll opt for the near-autistic henchman Friendly and the newly introduced Javre, Lioness of Hoskopp.

*FRITZ LEIBER LIVES! Abercrombie’s newest revelation, and the best reason to publish this book, is the partnership between the aforementioned Javre, a human wrecking machine and creature of insatiable appetite, and Shevedieh, a master thief who’s never happy unless she’s miserable. The two of them have a distinct Fafhrd/Grey Mouser vibe going, and a series of short stories is EXACTLY the right manner in which to keep them moving forward together; we’re presented in Sharp Ends with a series of adventures spanning fourteen years of common history, and there’s plenty of room for Abercrombie to fill in blanks with more stories later on. Two of the Jav/Shev stories, “Skipping Town” and “Two’s Company,” run neck-and-neck for the best thing in the book. This is fun, fun stuff.

THE MEH

*POUNDING CONCEPTS INTO THE GROUND. Yes, Shev, we get it, you’re a lesbian. It’s not necessary to remind us every third page. By the same token: the “sidekick” gag is very, very funny when it’s first introduced, then gets worn out through repetition (although, in fairness, Abercrombie uses it to suggest that Javre may be a bit subtler than she lets on).

*INACCESSIBILITY. There is some stuff in here that fans of Abercrombie’s early work will absolutely ADORE but which will completely confuse anyone who hasn’t read the antecedent work. Notable on this score is the opener, “A Beautiful Bastard,” which provides some very, very revelatory context for the relationship between Salem Rews and Sand dan Glokta (the single greatest character Abercrombie has ever created, and one who I’d love to see get more attention). It’s impossible to imagine, though, that people who haven’t read the First Law trilogy will get anything out of the story. The same is true of the last story, “Made a Monster,” which explores the history of Abercrombie’s most popular character from the perspective of an antagonist. For those familiar with how their relationship ends, the story makes sense. For an outsider, though, I have to think that there’s not much satisfaction to be gained here. If you’re having a banquet of Abercrombie, treat “Sharp Ends” as the dessert rather than the appetizer.

*TOUGH TIMES ALL OVER. This worked, mostly, as a stand-alone story in George R. R. Martin’s “Rogues” anthology. It doesn’t work here. It PARTICULARLY doesn’t work in that it rewrites the dynamic between Shev and supporting character Carcolf which Abercrombie has spent the past hundred and fifty pages establishing. And no, an “unreliable narrator” isn’t sufficient to explain the differences as they’re presented here. I’m guessing that Abercrombie wrote this story first, had second thoughts about who Shev was, and wrote her team-ups with Javre later on, then felt compelled to include this story in the volume anyway. It was the wrong decision.

*COLLECTIONS OF TICS MASQUERADING AS CHARACTERS. This isn’t really a weakness in Abercrombie’s writing so much as an offshoot of his strengths. We see so much depth in his point-of-view characters that some of his less developed secondary characters come across as more two-dimensional than they otherwise would. Carcolf falls into this category. If we’re being completely honest, Javre does as well, at times, but Abercrombie is clearly having so much fun writing her that the reader won’t care.

OVERALL: It’s Abercrombie. It’s the First Law. Nobody else does the stuff he does as well as he does it. Of COURSE you’re gonna want to read it. My advice, though, is to read it last. If you haven’t already, go buy “The Blade Itself” and work your way in the direction of this book. You don’t, after all, begin at the Ends.

I am a huge fan of Abercrombie, and short of getting a new novel set in the world of the First Law, this was a very welcome appetizer. With over a dozen short stories, you get a taste of the bloody action and wry humor and wonderful twists Abercrombie is so adept at.

The tales splash all over the timeline of the First Law world, from the imagery of what Glokta is doing right before his fateful attack on the Ghurkish to how Logen "The Bloody Nine" ended up at odds with Bethod King of the North. While I do think anyone picking up the book could enjoy the hell of out of them - you would definitely be enriched by already being familiar with the world and characters. I'm not saying its an absolute must for enjoyment but it would help.

I think my favorite tale was "Tough Times All Over" relating how an item is being transported/stolen etc all over the city one night. The dark humor is what gets me and what I think Abercrombie's such a master at - along with his surprises.

I highly recomend this for the sake of quick witty tales set in a fantasy world I get such a kick out of. And if you haven't read the previous books, there is still a lot to enjoy here - the impact is simply greater if you have read at least some of them.

This is the first Abercrombie book I have read, I wanted to see if I liked his writing before diving into a 500+ plus page novel. Take this review as a person who is not a gushing fan. I am glad I picked this up at the library, it did not disappoint. I am fan of what is considered 'Men's Adventure' books, gritty, bloody, and violent stories told from the pulp days. That said, I feel this is a fantasy version of many of those books. If you have read any of Max Allen Collins "Quarry" series, that seems like a solid pairing to this. In any case, I highly recommend this book.

I know there are bits of these stories that deal with characters from the trilogy and clearly some of it is missed upon by me. For example, everyone and their mother loves Glockta but honestly the first story did little for me. It was good, but I have no connection to this character, whatever was awesome about seeing him in glory days went directly over my head.

A handful of the stories are interesting but just snapshots of life in the nasty, horrible place, much dealing with what seems to be an ever-present war that wages throughout this world. Good, but not great, and nothing to write home about. I am assuming some of these are stories to flesh out characters found in the other novels set in this world, so that could have made their impact more profound.

Now, about a third of the stories have two characters weaving through them. Shev and Javre, and they are simply fantastic. That's them over on the left. One of the stories is available online for free here: [...]However, I almost recommend getting the book and reading it as this is not the first story with Shev and Javre in the book and you might miss out on some of the fun getting to know them as their story progresses through the book.

I loved every single one of the stories and enjoyed their silly banter as they struggle to survive this hellish place and we pick up bits and pieces from their past and the events between each of the stories (some are set more than a decade apart). I actually reread the Two’s Company story because it was that good. I would like an entire novel with these two characters please. Remind me somewhat of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser but women and my are they hilarious. Probably one of the best character pairings I have read in a long while.

Good stuff, and it did it's job, I immediately went and picked up The Blade Itself, the first book in his trilogy. I guess that means I liked it.

Although Half a War brought Joe Abercrombie's YA series to a satisfying end, I was looking forward to his return to adult novels and was eager to read his collection of short stories, Sharp Ends. Oddly enough, this newest Abercrombie title did not cause much of a stir within SFF circles when it was published. Which may or may not be that surprising given that fans habitually prefer novel-length projects and seldom get excited by short fiction works. Still, we're talking about one of the biggest names in the grimdark subgenre, so I expected more of a buzz regarding the author's latest.

I had already read "The Fool Jobs" and "Tough Times All Over", initially published in the anthologies Swords and Dark Magic and Rogues respectively. The same thing goes for "Two's Company", a free short story posted on tor.com a while back. All the other pieces were new to me, though, and I was excited by the prospect of seeing familiar faces from the First Law books getting more exposure. And therein lies this collection's biggest shortcoming, in my humble opinion. Although a few characters that made Abercrombie's books such memorable reads make appearances, about half of Sharp Ends focus on Javre and Shevedieh. When the blurb implied that we'd get more on Glokta, Craw, and Logen Ninefingers, well one can't help but to be a little disappointed. . .

Here's the blurb:

The Union may be full of bastards, but there’s only one who thinks he can save the day single-handed when the Gurkish come calling: the incomparable Colonel Sand dan Glokta.

Curnden Craw and his dozen are out to recover a mysterious item from beyond the Crinna. Only one small problem: no one seems to know what the item is.

Shevedieh, the self-styled best thief in Styria, lurches from disaster to catastrophe alongside her best friend and greatest enemy, Javre, Lioness of Hoskopp.

And after years of bloodshed, the idealistic chieftain Bethod is desperate to bring peace to the North. There’s only one obstacle left – his own lunatic champion, the most feared man in the North: the Bloody-Nine . . .

Sharp Ends combines previously published, award-winning short tales with exclusive new short stories. Violence explodes, treachery abounds, and the words are as deadly as the weapons in this rogue’s gallery of side-shows, back-stories, and sharp endings from the world of the First Law.

All the short fiction pieces contained in this collection are set in the Circle of the World. They are arranged in chronological order, with the earliest occurring years before The Blade Itself and the most recent taking place a few years following the events chronicled in Red Country. As a big Abercrombie fan, I was expecting these stories to allow the author to flesh out some of the protagonists that we have come to love. However, with so much of the focus being on Javre and Shevedieh, I felt that Sharp Ends left a little to be desired. Based on the quality of Abercrombie's First Law titles, I was expecting more out of this collection. But in the end, only a few of the stories resonated with me. Most of them, though fun and entertaining, were, for the most part, a bit forgettable. I finished this book two days ago, and yet I had to go back and reread portions of nearly all these tales in order to write this review.

As mentioned, the problem is that Javre, Lioness of Hoskopp, a sex-crazed warrior-priestess the store, and Shevedieh, lesbian thief of some renown, take center stage too often. Their misadventures are amusing and the back-and-forth between the two hilarious. But overall, it's nothing that stays with you. "Small Kindnesses", "Skipping Town", "Two’s Company", "Three’s a Crowd", and "Tough Times All Over" follow them, from when they first meet to the time they finally part ways, through the good times and the bad. These stories essentially form the backbone of Sharp Ends and these two women simply cannot carry the bulk of this book on their shoulders.

Like most Abercrombie fans, I was eager to read more about Sand dan Glokta. Unfortunately, he only appears in "A Beautiful Bastard" and it only provides a very brief glance at the way he was before being crippled by the Gurkish. Cameos by Tunny and West were interesting, but in the end this one was rather lackluster. The same can be said of "Some Desperado", which is a backstory for Shy from Red Country. "Freedom!" was some kind of anomaly and didn't deserve to be part of this book.

Curnden Craw and Cracknut Whirrun made "The Fool Jobs" one of the best stories of this collection. Another strong tale was "Yesterday, near a village called Barden". Abercrombie shows both sides of a raid gone wrong and features characters from The Heroes. The very best piece is doubtless "Made A Monster", in which Bethod realizes that he made the Bloody-Nine into a weapon he can no longer control.

"Hell", featuring Temple from Red Country, and "Wrong Place, Wrong time", in which some not entirely innocent bystanders are drawn into the chaos that is Monzcarro Murcatto’s vengeance, are good and compelling tales in their own right. But nothing that really makes an impact and stays with you afterward.

All in all, like most SFF short fiction collections, Sharp Ends features some strong stories, some okay tales, and a number of uninspired pieces that only serve as filler material. Having said that, it's still a fun read for anyone who loved Joe Abercrombie's The First Law and its sequels.

Can't wait to discover what comes next!

I’m a great fan of Abercrombie’s adult-level novels -- six so far, the original trilogy plus three more set in the same bloody-minded world. (He’s done a YA trilogy, too, but that’s a very different sort of story.) If you’ve read those books, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy these thirteen shorter pieces. But if you’re new to Joe’s work, these really won’t mean much to you. First, only about half of them are really “stories” in the usual sense. The rest are vignettes, extended anecdotes, scenes from untold back stories, and scraps of narrative. High-quality writing, certainly, but still scraps. You’ll meet Glotka here in his bravo days, still a champion swordsman, not yet the post-torture inquisitor, and Shevedriah, the petite lesbian thief, and her partner, the lusty Javre. Curden Craw from _Heroes_ is here, and Monzcarro Murcatto from _Best Served Cold,_ and Shy from _The Far Country,_ when she was still a wanted woman in the Near Country. But Joe doesn’t tell you anything else about them, so only the established fan will really understand who they all are.

Still, there are several very good actual stories here, too. The best is probably the previously published “Tough Times All Over,” featuring Carcolf when she was a young, high-risk courier (she turns up as Shev’s highly untrustworthy lady-love in several of the others), and the convoluted plot is delicious. Also first-rate is “Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden,” set during the Union’s invasion of the north, a consideration of what war is like from the POV of the guys in the baggage train. Unsettling at the very least. The writing style throughout the book is highly visual. The off-center humor is also what we’ve come to expect from Joe, the sort of humor familiar to soldiers and the downtrodden and those who must constantly look over their shoulders. Still, this would have been a more successful volume if more care had been given in seeing that each piece was actually a fully-formed *story*.

I've read (or listened to, thank you audible - and Stephen Pacey) all of the books by Joe Abercrombie set in the completely and utterly immersive and entertaining (and incredibly bloody) world of the First Law. As a stand alone, this collection of stories slaps you in the face immediately with that Grim Dark grit that sets Abercrombie's writing into a league of its own in the dark fantasy/fantasy genre. The dark and unforgiving world that Abercrombie merciless places his characters into is as harsh as it is enjoyable. I find myself applauding inside for even the smallest victory for the "good guys" (The term good guy in this world is very much open to interpretation. Through each short outing, the flow of the book, narrated by Stephen Pacey (YES) is perfect. Each story quickly sets up the familiar (and unfamiliar) characters into settings that we are all too familiar with, and leaves you wanting more as each chapter ends. As I finished the novel via audible, I was utterly surprised to hear Joe narrating the final chapters himself, I began quickly to feel the pangs of want for the follow up trilogy to the first law series. I am completely, and utterly hooked. I've listened to all 6 books 3 times now during my hellacious commute and they never get old.

Here's to waiting for the next book. I may not have fingernails left by then, but the wait will most assuredly worth it.

And remember, you can never have too many knives. The next book will come when Joe gets around to it I suppose. You can't rush genius. After all, you have to be realistic about these things.

Happy reading! (Or listening!)

- L

It has been far too long! The First Law books are amazing and Sharp Ends is no exception.

Several of these stories have been published in other anthologies but this is the first time they appear together.

Honestly it reads like deleted scenes from the First Law series; with the exception of a few stories that seem to build and lead into a new series perhaps? Maybe? Lol, time will tell.

Recommended!!

4.5 Stars. I love Joe Abercrombie's "First Law" books, and this one is no exception. It has everything I want in an Abercrombie book: riveting characters, amazing action scenes, a very blurry line between good and evil, and yes, humor (love Javre!). I must admit I was a bit heartbroken to see what has become of The Bloody Nine, but I guess it was inevitable. Also, I loved seeing the return of Murcatto, if only on the sidelines.

Abercrombie does it again. This is a great collection of some minor and major characters from his best works. They help fill in the gaps of things we didn't know or show the perspective from a different character. You'll definitely want to check this out if your a fan of his previous work!

I used to be a HUGE Abercrombie fan. The First Law books and the amazing Best Served Cold are among my all time favorites. Then he did the Shattered Sea series. I can't blame him for wanting to take advantage of the YA cash cow so I patiently waited. Then Sharp Ends comes along. While some of the stories are great, I don;t understand the focus on Shev and Javre. Is it a new fascination with lesbianism? or is Abercrombie doing like most other fantasy writers today trying to capitalize on the "Girl Powah!" angle? Before you flame me fro being misogynistic, anti-woman, bah blah blah.... Best Served Cold is one of my favorite books of all time, of any genre. It's ane xample of how strong, powerful women can be portrayed without diving into the 13 year old boy fascination with lesbianism or 13 year old girl dreamy time of "GFirl Powah!".