The Wisdom of Crowds (The Age of Madness, 3)

What an amazing final act to The Age of Madness trilogy. I freely confess to be a major fan of Joe’s work and this latest instalment in his canon of work builds further upon the great foundations already laid out in the first two books, as well as his previous other works. Threads are picking up from hither and yon to be drawn together and woven into a fantastic read. My only disappointment is that having finished this book, I now have to wait for something new of his to come out. If you haven’t read any of his books then you should get to it, now. Seriously. Stop reading this. Read Joe Abercrombie’s books. They are awesome.

Loved every page of this concluding Act in a trilogy of great depth and breadth, peopled with memorable characters and razor sharp writing. George RR could learn a thing or two from Abercrombie about bringing a satisfying conclusion to the threads of stories belonging to characters we come to love, to hate, and then love all over again. Yes, we are denied the upbeat version - for a heady chapter or so I really began to believe it could happen - but for the best of reasons: you have to be realistic. Thankyou Joe, this trilogy must have been years of painstaking work. It has been a joy to read and I know, like all his books, I will re-read while I wait impatiently for the next.

Abercrombie has made his last sale to me, this is a putrid addition to the first law trilogy complete and utter disregard for the reader, the plot changes so often I became bored very quickly it's shallow and lazy writing expected of a beginner but we should have seen this coming these book have slowly became less and less coherent over time the same characters with different names the same essential plot line regurgitate over and over he seems to have run flat and is now over charging us for the privilege of reading third rate garbage Never again that's the last time I will be conned into buying this garbage

Joe Abercrombie is my favourite author and I really dug the previous entries in this series a mix of flintlock fantasy, dark satire, and a homage to Discworld of a sorts albeit a Discworld for complete bastards. So does this Wisdom of Crowds stick the landing? Absolutely but in many ways this may be his bleakest work even if it does have some very funny moments in many ways this is about the aftermath of the revolution and how even as things change they stay the same. Basically this , like all Abercrombie novels , is a mediation on human nature and not a particularly favourable one. A send off for many characters we have come to love and loathe I suspect this book will be regarded as a love or hate it affair while also setting up the future of the first law series it’s not gentle or kind and that ending woah! Which is not to say it’s still not bitingly funny and also filled with the well cherographed ultra violence we have come to expect. I don’t really want to discuss the plot because while in many ways it’s very predictable, at least if your already a Abercrombie fan, there some delightful stings in the tail. If you didn’t like the previous entries in this series this won’t change your Mind it doubles down on the political manvauring the characters are even more venomous and while there is a lot of violence it does move farther away from its epic fantasy roots in the original series. However if like me you read Abercrombie for his subversion of fantasy tropes, his bleak humour, and above all his continuity and pay off of long held fan theories then this may be his best work to date.

I thoroughly enjoyed this third trilogy that commenced with the Book of Laws. The sarcasm and irony of the writing style is a delight and improves with each book. Some might see shades of the French Revolution in the story line? I am delighted that there are indications of yet further development of the fantasy world the author has created. I'm looking forward to the next books! I understand the disappointment of some critics in that we do not see some favorite characters of the previous trilogies; for example Logen Nine-Fingers. But, of course, the time-line marches on in the tale of The Union, The North, Angland, Styria and the Gurkish lands. Some of the new characters might lack the color of the ones in the previous books, but there is a definite attempt to create more interesting female characters. So, the books are perhaps a bit more even-handed in that women play powerful roles.