Half a King by Joe AbercrombieReviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm glad I finally got around to reading an Abercrombie, as well as this particular fun adventure placed in a brutal world, which I'd heard so much about!
In Half a King a young, but wise prince is placed into a surprising circumstance that immediately turns upon its head. He must "come of age" real goddamn quick. It's sink or swim, baby!
Half a King feels serviceable. The plot and characters march forward with an inevitable predictability. Our prince hero kid goes through the paces, learning from this person and that experience, and growing a bit through each phase of the book. Regardless of the predictable path, Abercrombie has still created some fun scenes filled with rollicking action, as well as a colorful character or two. And yes, twists and turns do eventually spark the story a bit by the end.
I don't know if you'd mark this down as a complaint, but this is listed as a fantasy book, and I wasn't really feeling the fantasy. Aside from mention of elf ruins, there is nothing fantastical about this. It's just humans doing medievally type things. Swords and kings and battles and ministers and such, but no magic or monsters whatsoever. That's sorta fine, because I don't really enjoy it when everyone's flying about blasting fireballs or whatever, but there seems like there should be some non-human stuff happening and/or at least something slightly unfamiliar herein.
All in all, this was a good read and I'll be looking for more of his books in the future.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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