Best Served Cold

What happens when you combine Quintin Tarantino with Guy Gavriel Kay and Alexander Dumas? You get a low fantasy story of rip roaring revenge across a continent! We find these blended together in Joe Abercrombie's amazing Best Served Cold! This is hands down my absolute favorite book of Abercrombie's. I'm not exaggerating when I say it is possibly one of my favorite novels of all time either. 

From the First Law Wiki, Best Served Cold

I originally read this work back in the summer of 2017, and I immediately fell in love with it. By the time I had already read the First Law trilogy for the first time, and the book The Heroes so I happily jumped in to the events in this far off land of Styria. Naturally this is part of the 2020 re-read.

What is fabulous is that you don't necessarily have to know the First Law trilogy to read and enjoy this book. There's references to the former plot, the former cast (with one even showing up in the flesh) but the mentions are vague enough and with little real association to the former series that it really just serves as interesting background information to the story while informing readers well caught up on the meta-plot about things going on since the end of the original trilogy. It's nice and ambitious that way, but also won't turn off casual readers.

The new cast is largely fresh. We do have two characters we've seen before, namely Caul Shivers of the North and the infamous soldier of fortune Nicomo Cosca who was first introduced at the Siege of Dagoska in Before They Are Hanged. Both of them were sufficiently deep secondary characters they they manage to become wonderfully enmeshed in this story. 

Our main protagonist though is Monzcarro "Monza" Murcatto, Captain General of the Thousand Swords, the most feared mercenary company in all of Styria. She has fought her way to the top of the heap and is very determined to stay there. She's a new character, well actually mostly new. She's first mentioned offhandedly by Cosca in Before They Are Hanged as part of his backstory for how he fell from grace commanding the Thousand Swords. Betrayal runs deep in Styria after all. And sadly, that is precisely what happens to Monza. Despite having served loyally at the side of Grand Duke Orso of Talins for eight years, he fears her power and orders the murder of her and her brother Benna. Hurled off a mountain, crippled, and left for dead, Monza swears revenge on the seven men who were in the room when it happened.

She enlists the help of killers, mercenaries, poisoners and torturers to do this. First with Caul Shivers, and then with the numbers obsessed former prisoner the oddly named, taciturn Friendly. Padding out her merry band of assassins are the flame haired Shylo Vitari, and the preening, pseudo intellectual Master Poisoner Castor Morveer and his apprentice Day. Together they must kill seven of the most well guarded and powerful men in Styria in the middle of a war, or die trying.

The three main leads though, are Monza, Cosca, and Shivers. Shivers has set out to be a better man than what he was in the North, where he fought in wars and blood feuds. Unfortunately, he finds himself entangled in the mother of all blood feuds when Monza enlists his aid in killing her betrayers. Monza, who already had a dark reputation, has been twisted by her desire for revenge and looks at the world in a dark a cynical way. Cosca meanwhile, veers between being a genius or a madman who just loves to put himself in danger. Their different goals, becoming better, and seeking revenge, all play off one another as they attempt to change to either fit their circumstances or overcome them. Each one reaches new lows and soars to new heights. I'll leave to your imagination which that is before you read it.

At it's heart the story actually does have a pretty deep and complicated message on whether people can change, and whether revenge is worth it. As Monza leaves corpses piled up in her wake, she finds herself feeling very different, and it doesn't bring the dead back, but it makes her feel. The interplay of her conscience and that of Shivers, and Cosca's well...lack of one, is what makes this epic drama across a continent flow very smoothly and with a number of twists and turns in characters and circumstances which are deftly woven together needing to be seen to be believed.

Her foes are also interesting. Grand Duke Orso is playing for keeps across all of Styria, and that makes his role in this little drama all the more powerful. He is at the peak of his might, looking to make his sons rulers of a unified nation, and his subordinates and allies are no less powerful, but that doesn't mean their invulnerable. Our heroes, or villains depending on where you stand, go up against him and make it a very fun competition against great odds.

From the First Law Wiki, Styria

In fact, I think that the continent of Styria itself deserves to be seen as a character. It is a continent oft mentioned in the first trilogy, but never seen. Other than the land from which Grand Duke Orso and Queen Terez and a few minor characters, hail, it's only known for its wine, glass, treachery and mercenaries. If there's one thing which is not in short supply in Styria, it's treachery.

The continent has never been united, and it has been riven by the rivalries of the various city states. The greatest among them, Talins, Visserine, Ospria, and Sipani, having vied for position for centuries. In the current climate though, Talins has risen to be powerful enough to challenge them all for dominance, and in response Ospria and Visserine have declared an alliance with the other city states and formed the League of Eight to challenge the power of Talins. This has lead to the Years of Blood, two decades of continuous war. Steadily though, they've been ground down by Monza's military genius, and it seems Talins will reigns supreme over the whole continent with its first king ever.

These politics, and the changes in the world, are well woven into the plot. From comments on the old glory of Styria to commentary on printing presses, new inventions and new methods of war, the book deftly springs around any accusations of stagnation on the part of Circle of the World. Instead we find a very richly developed land in a renaissance fantasy which shows a changing world in terms of both technology and politics which our characters have to navigate. It's one which I hope more authors will follow.

I very much think that as a standalone book with a richly developed setting, characters, plots and motivations, it is hard to beat. I picked up many subtle details and plot points I missed in this reading, much like on my re-read of the original trilogy this year. It really made me love, revile, and revel in these characters and their story all the more.

Even if you don't think 'grim dark' fantasy is your thing, I would advise you to pick this one up and give it a try. Great story with a strong cast, and enough surprises that you definitely won't get bored!