I'll admit, I was skeptical when everyone told me that Joe Abercrombie was one of the best authors when it came to writing characters after I read the first book in the trilogy. I'm not a skeptic any longer. While I loved the character work done in The Blade Itself the character work done in this novel blew me away. Th growth in the characters was amazing. This series so far has morally grey characters at their finest. The story pulled off grimdark without making it feel over the top. The world is grim and dark and bleak, and this book shows that, but it never felt like it was grimdark for the sake of being grimdark. It felt intentional. I'm still getting used to reading such a character-driven story, but I like how it's being done in this series so far. The writing is still phenomenal and again, every description and detail feels purposeful.

This book had everything I loved about The Blade Itself but more of it. More excellent character work, exciting action elements and some fantastic grimdark.