Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

From The Week of December 26, 2010
Is it possible to enjoy being repeatedly punched, hard, in the gut? Until I first encountered Mr. Abercrombie, my answer was a definitive no, but now, infected by the masochism of this most noir of British fantasy authors, perhaps I can find pleasure in a story that leaves me wide-eyed and whimpering.

Best Served Cold returns the reader to the universe of The First Law where, on some godsforsaken planet, a series of city states have been, for 20 years, lurching towards barbarism. Providing the momentum for this slide into darkness is the egomania of Grand Duke Orso, a noble who, though he indulges in most of the seven deadly sins, reserves a special affection for avarice for power. His main instruments, the Murcattos, sibling mercenaries who have, through ruthlessness, risen up through the ranks of a mercenary army to find themselves commanders of its fickle fidelity. Monza, the sister and elder of the pair, is loyal to the duke until one too many victories in his name elevate her and her men just a shade too high up in the estimation of the city states for Orso's liking. His subsequent betrayal of Monza cuts so deep that she devotes herself to Orso's downfall, thinking of nothing else but the achievement of that one, bloody aim. Companioning her on her vengeful odyssey are a group of hired hands who count among them a master poisoner, a savage Northman, a lethal madman and a reformed drunk. And yet, for all that they are misfits, they each can lay claim to the kind of cruel talents that would make it unwise for anyone to trouble them in a dark alley.

Mr. Abercrombie specializes in pain and suffering. Few, if any, of his characters escape his nihilistic plots unscarred. But though this grimness can be off-putting, the resulting savagery charges his work with memorable explosiveness. Indeed, Best Served Cold, a novel that can be read without prior knowledge of The First Law is essentially a series of thunderous detonations which familiarize the reader with true shock and awe. But for as much as Mr. Abercrombie can lay waste to his world with biblical heartlessness, there's subtlety here as well, an understanding of human nature that brings his characters to life. Monza is so focused on the singular goal of vengeance that she gives no time whatsoever to its costs to her own soul, much less to the lives of her companions. More importantly, she gives no thought at all to the consequences of success, allowing Mr. Abercrombie to paint a vivid portrait of what life is like after the devil is dethroned without a plan in mind for the aftermath. The first 50 pages are exceptional; the remainder is solid enough to bring it home, bloody and unbroken. 4/5 Stars)