Book Review – Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

Author:  Joe Abercrombie
Publisher:  Orbit
Binding:  Hardcover
Publication Date:  July 2009

Since the books in the First Law trilogy cannot stand alone, I consider them to be one work.  One super-massive-red-giant, thousands-of-pages-long, split-into-three-volumes work.  That makes Best Served Cold Joe Abercrombie’s sophomore effort–which is not to say it’s sophomoric, despite the copious amount of f-bombs. 

    In fact, Best Served Cold is a testament to how much Abercrombie has grown as a writer since he smashed onto the fantasy scene two years ago.  All the elements that made the First Law so enjoyable (the wit, the superbly rendered action, the cynical realism about humanity, the different voices for different narrators, and, yes, the frat-boy language) are in place, but the rough edges have been sanded down to a finish smoother than a sun-bleached skull.  Abercrombie’s voice has become polished and sharp as a mercenary’s blade, and he moves the story between the various narrators with utmost confidence in the characters and his story. 

    I had high hopes for this book–it was possibly my most-anticipated book of 2009–and Abercrombie delivered everything I wanted and more.

    The novel is meant to be a stand-alone book–you definitely don’t need to have read the First Law to understand or enjoy Best Served Cold.  If you have read the First Law, you will encounter so many of the minor characters from that series that this book starts feeling like a sequel.  Abercrombie had mentioned on his website that a few of the minor characters make appearances; in my opinion, it’s more than a few, and their roles are more than appearances.  But they are rendered complete here.  The events they were involved with in the trilogy have no bearing on the story at hand, and their treatment here actually sheds more light on their part of the trilogy rather than the reverse.  So, what I’m saying is, if you haven’t read the First Law but like the sound of this book, give it a try, you don’t need to have read the others.  This is not a sequel; Abercrombie is not writing a series.  Simply, it is set in the same world and therefore some of the same folks people this story.

    The story, in a nutshell, is about the mercenary general Monza Murcatto, whose employer gets suspicious of her ambitions for his throne and kills her and her brother.  Except that Monza doesn’t actually die.  When she recovers enough to walk, she has one thought on her mind:  revenge.  So she cobbles together an unlikely band of assassins and sets off to kill, one by one, each of the seven men who had a hand in her downfall….

    On the technical side, this book shows that Abercrombie has really come into his own as a writer.  This story could easily have spanned several volumes (then again clocking in close to 700 pages could arguably be considered several volumes), but yet there isn’t really a lot of wasted space.  The events chronicled pertain only to the task at hand–killing Monza’s enemies.  All manner of adventures and mishaps could have been had on the road between each of the seven cities, and perhaps were, but all we hear about are the culminations of those journeys.  He struck the right balance between character exposition through action rather than narrative voice, and discussing only the salient points of the history.  Including short scenes at the beginning of each section that slowly reveal how Monza came to the place she is, and by the last two, begin to twist about the reader’s perception of who she is and who her brother was. 

    One of the more brilliant ways the characterization was approached came through careful use of metaphors and similes that are not only not cliché but also indicative of the worldview of the character using them.  Monza, for example, sees everything as it relates to mercenary fighting:  sunsets are bloody battlefields, metal gleams like her sword, jingles sound like money.  The fight scenes are described with breathless immediacy; writing interestingly detailed, adrenaline-filled action is definitely one of Abercrombie’s strengths.  Another is his ability to created distinct voices for the different characters he follows from a narrative point of view.  There is never confusion as to whose eyes we are seeing the world through, and the perspectives range from the straightforward lines of Monza’s tunnel-vision to the bizarrely logical number matrices of Friendly to the strangely sympathetic master assassin who has no idea how to speak to his own children. 

    In broader terms, the book was not predictable but also not disjointed; everything fit comfortably together at the end and concluded events in a satisfying way.  It explored the nature of revenge–playing with the questions like does it really satisfy the pain and is it worth the cost, and also toying with the idea of pursuing vengeance but being unable to exact it when the moment comes.  Monza is not the only character in pursuit of revenge;  there are parallels between her quest and that of several other characters.  At times it seems like every character who is self-motivated is after revenge on someone.  Most of them come to ironically karmic fates, which in a way fits Abercrombie’s MO:  his work embodies the criticism of fantasy that it is about “maintaining the status quo” in a hilariously cynical way. 

Best Served Cold is as entertaining as it is bloody (I thought about keeping a body count but quickly gave that up when the second section ends with a riot), and yet is flavored with a surprising amount of introspection.  Don’t be intimidated by the size; it is best savored as slowly as the dish it refers to.  If you like your epic fantasy gritty, well, it doesn’t come any sandier than this.  Best avoided by those who need happy endings and sterling heroes, but highly recommended to anyone who thinks they might like it–you know who you are, and I think you will.

Buy it now at Amazon!

About Elena Nola

Elena Nola reads things, watches things, and edits things. She writes her BSC Review column, Elena's World, to tell you all about it all and mixes business with pleasure over at Gestalt Mash. She also shoots her mouth off about movies with Indie Angle and plays Sunday morning quarterback with Texas Girl in an SEC World.