The Trouble with Peace

E-book, 506 Pages
Adult/ Grimdark/ Fantasy
By: Joe Abercrombie
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

“You can’t change the fact the world’s full of arseholes. You can only change how you deal with them.”

The Blade Itself ★★★ 3/4
Before They Are Hanged ★★★★
The Last Argument of King ★★★★
Best Served Cold ★★★★ 1/2
The Heroes ★★★
Red Country ★★★ 1/2
Sharp Ends ★★ 1/2
A Little Hatred ★★★★
The Trouble with Peace ★★★★ 1/4

I had the same feelings toward this book as I had with the first book, I think it is very good but not perfect that it would receive 5 stars from me! I have to be completely transparent here and say that I am to blame for the most part for not enjoying this book to the max due to getting distracted and slightly finding it hard to keep up with all the characters. I decided that I will focus more when I read book three and try to absorb everything!

I love Abercrombie’s prose, the man certainly knows how to write and I keep saying this again and again but I will never get tired of saying how the dialogues are my favorite part in these stories! Abercombie writes some of the best dialogues ever and there is always wisdom hidden there between all the darkness that these books entail.

My problem is that there are many characters and I am interested in some of them more than the others. I think that’s why I kept getting into the story (I really enjoyed these parts) and out of it (Was a tiny bit bored) depending on which character we were following. There is a glossary with all the characters at the end of the book but the problem is that I read a kindle book and jumping forward and backward was not a realistic thing for me so I ended up mostly relying on my memory and I think it wasn’t the best idea. I do care about Savine and Leo and Orso and Rikke who are the main characters but the secondary characters less so. I will approach book three a bit differently and try fixing that!

“Winning teaches you nothing,” said Tunny. “You see what a man really is when he loses.”

Although this can be read without reading the original trilogy, it would be a much experience if the original books are read beforehand. I mentioned this also in my review of A Little Hatred but I feel a bit like a hypocrite because I tend to forget books and characters easily. Of course I remember characters like Glokta and Bayaz and Jezal and Shivers! But some of the less important characters were omitted from my brain by my brain!

Also as mentioned in my review of book one, I am enjoying this series because I think it has a solid storyline and Abercrombie always build up for wars and try to explore the psychology and circumstances and make them more interesting than the war itself which was the case here. The book can be slightly slow and I felt it was a bit long (I feel it is taboo to say stuff like this) but for the most part it flowed well.

Summary: I enjoyed this book as much as I did with the previous book Abercrombie wrote. He has excellent characterization and dialogue abilities, the plot is interesting and the ending was explosive again! I am glad that I caught up with this series just in time before book three is released in a couple of weeks!