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A review by vaporization
The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie
5.0
Review of whole series:
I think I should have read The First Law trilogy first but Mr. Abercrombie himself said that these books were designed to be able to be read without having any prior knowledge of the world. I still felt like some of the characters I needed more context on.
I actually liked Orso and honestly he weirdly had the most redeeming qualities (in my opinion; I think his relationship with his servants was pretty nice).
Savine was cool and cunning but economics is too much for my little brain. Also...corset slander. I don't think it's really a fault of the book; restricting corsets in historical settings are basically shorthand for patriarchal oppression when it comes to literature, and media in general. Personally, I think it was unnecessary because the series already tackles this in other ways, and much better ways.
Leo was just a dumbass. But I kind of felt bad for him because I clocked his little sideplot thing from like his second chapter. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be super obvious because the readers are just supposed to be in awe of how astronomically oblivious he is.
I feel like I was missing some context on Rikke and Isern-i-Phail but they were really cool. Rikke was a sort of bridge between the different stories and honestly her place in the story was something a little unique.
And I think I liked Clover the most because he was the most interesting. The true wild card. I don't know if I'm missing context on him; it kind of feels like it but also I know everything I'm supposed to? I'm not sure. This is what happens when you read series out of order.
Joe Abercrombie really takes morally gray characters seriously. There really are no good guys or bad guys, but they're not unlikable. And they make sense. Thank god finally we have characters whose bad qualities make sense. You know what the characters value, and you see exactly how those values and beliefs lead them down the paths they take. They're not horrible for no reason, they aren't corrupted for no reason. Everything makes sense. Maybe because I'm revisiting this after reading The Atlas Six, where no one makes sense. And he really shines writing violence.
I think I should have read The First Law trilogy first but Mr. Abercrombie himself said that these books were designed to be able to be read without having any prior knowledge of the world. I still felt like some of the characters I needed more context on.
I actually liked Orso and honestly he weirdly had the most redeeming qualities (in my opinion; I think his relationship with his servants was pretty nice).
Savine was cool and cunning but economics is too much for my little brain. Also...corset slander. I don't think it's really a fault of the book; restricting corsets in historical settings are basically shorthand for patriarchal oppression when it comes to literature, and media in general. Personally, I think it was unnecessary because the series already tackles this in other ways, and much better ways.
Leo was just a dumbass. But I kind of felt bad for him because I clocked his little sideplot thing from like his second chapter. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be super obvious because the readers are just supposed to be in awe of how astronomically oblivious he is.
I feel like I was missing some context on Rikke and Isern-i-Phail but they were really cool. Rikke was a sort of bridge between the different stories and honestly her place in the story was something a little unique.
And I think I liked Clover the most because he was the most interesting. The true wild card. I don't know if I'm missing context on him; it kind of feels like it but also I know everything I'm supposed to? I'm not sure. This is what happens when you read series out of order.
Joe Abercrombie really takes morally gray characters seriously. There really are no good guys or bad guys, but they're not unlikable. And they make sense. Thank god finally we have characters whose bad qualities make sense. You know what the characters value, and you see exactly how those values and beliefs lead them down the paths they take. They're not horrible for no reason, they aren't corrupted for no reason. Everything makes sense. Maybe because I'm revisiting this after reading The Atlas Six, where no one makes sense. And he really shines writing violence.