Joe Abercrombie
1 universe2 series10 books
Reading Orders
Universes (1)
Series (2)
The Age of Madness
The First Law World
A sequel trilogy set a generation after the events of The First Law and the standalones, in a world undergoing industrialisation. The mills are changing who has money, the dispossessed are organising, and the Union's political structures are straining under pressures they were not built to handle. New characters carry the story - Savine dan Glokta, an investor and social climber who has inherited her father's intelligence and ruthlessness; Leo dan Brock, a celebrated war hero with political ambitions; Rikke, a young woman from the North with the Long Eye, the ability to see the future at considerable personal cost. Characters from the original trilogy and standalones return in diminished or transformed roles. The Age of Madness is Abercrombie at his most politically engaged - a trilogy about revolution, its causes, its violence, and the dispiriting reliability of its outcomes.
The First Law
The First Law World
The trilogy that established Joe Abercrombie as one of the defining voices in contemporary fantasy. Three characters - Logen Ninefingers, a barbarian from the North trying and failing to leave his violent past behind; Sand dan Glokta, a crippled Inquisitor who was once the Union's finest swordsman and now extracts confessions with methodical self-awareness; and Jezal dan Luthar, a vain nobleman who wants glory without cost - are drawn together by the wizard Bayaz, First of the Magi, whose purposes are not what they appear. The trilogy spans a war with the Gurkish Empire, a journey to the edge of the known world, and a siege of the Union's capital, but its real subject is the gap between who people think they are and what they actually do. The First Law established the template for grimdark fantasy and remains its clearest expression: the world is not fair, people do not change easily, and the powerful stay powerful regardless of who wins.
Books (10)
The Blade Itself
The First Law
2006
The first novel in Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy, and one of the most assured debuts in grimdark fantasy. Three storylines converge on the city of Adua: Logen Ninefingers, a barbarian from the frozen North with a reputation for survival and a darker secret he tries not to examine too closely; Sand dan Glokta, a crippled torturer for the Inquisition who was once the most celebrated swordsman in the Union and now extracts confessions through methods he applies with equal parts professionalism and self-loathing; and Jezal dan Luthar, a vain, lazy nobleman coasting on his looks and his talent with a sword. The wizard Bayaz arrives claiming to be the First of the Magi and sets events in motion that none of them are prepared for. The Blade Itself is largely a novel of introductions, but the characters are so precisely drawn that it barely matters.
Before They Are Hanged
The First Law
2007
The second novel in the First Law trilogy splits the cast across three campaigns, none of which go as planned. Bayaz leads a small group - including Logen, Jezal, and Ferro Maljinn - west across the edge of the map in search of a weapon from the Age of Heroes. Glokta is sent to hold the besieged city of Dagoska against an overwhelming Gurkish army, with insufficient troops, uncertain loyalties, and the usual bureaucratic obstructions. And West marches north with the Union army to relieve a fortress under siege, discovering that military command bears little resemblance to military theory. Abercrombie's middle volume is where the series' moral complexity fully emerges - characters change, and not necessarily for the better.
Last Argument of Kings
The First Law
2008
The conclusion of the First Law trilogy, and one of the more ruthless endings in fantasy. The threads converge back on Adua as the Gurkish lay siege to the city, the King lies dying, and Bayaz's true purposes become clear. Logen confronts what he is. Glokta is given a choice that defines him. Jezal discovers that getting what you want is sometimes worse than not getting it. Abercrombie lands every character arc with precision and refuses the consolations that epic fantasy traditionally provides. The final chapters reframe everything that came before. Last Argument of Kings is the rare fantasy conclusion that earns its cynicism.
Best Served Cold
2009
A standalone set in the same world as the First Law trilogy, following Monza Murcatto, the most feared mercenary general in Styria, who is thrown from a cliff and left for dead by the Duke she served. She survives. The novel is a revenge story - seven names, seven deaths - structured like a heist, with Monza assembling a crew of specialists as morally compromised as she is. The tone is darker and the setting more Italian-Renaissance than the trilogy, with city-states, condottieri, and political intrigue replacing the North and the Union. One of Abercrombie's tightest constructions.
The Heroes
2011
A standalone set during a single three-day battle in the North between the Union army and the Northmen, structured almost as a military procedural. The Heroes is Abercrombie's most formally ambitious novel - the battle is the plot, and the focus shifts between characters on both sides as the fighting develops. Bremer dan Gorst, a disgraced duelist reduced to royal observer, provides the most sardonic point of view. Calder, a Northman chief's son who doesn't want to fight, provides the counterpoint. Characters from the trilogy appear, aged and changed. The novel is a meditation on heroism, war, and the gap between legend and reality.
Red Country
2012
A standalone that transplants the First Law world into a Western - wagon trains, frontier towns, and the slow encroachment of civilisation onto lawless territory. Shy South is trying to build a quiet life when her farm is attacked and her younger siblings taken. She goes after them with her stepfather Lamb, a quiet, gentle man with scarred hands and a past he won't discuss. Readers of the trilogy will recognise Lamb. Red Country is Abercrombie's most emotionally direct novel, and the one that earns its sentimentality most honestly.
Sharp Ends
2016
A short story collection gathering Abercrombie's shorter fiction set in the First Law world, spanning the full timeline from before the original trilogy to after Red Country. Some stories feature familiar characters, others introduce new ones. The collection is particularly useful for filling gaps between the main novels and for seeing familiar events from unfamiliar angles. Quality is consistently high - Abercrombie's compression in shorter form is impressive.
Little Hatred
The Age of Madness
2019
The first novel in The Age of Madness trilogy, set a generation after the First Law and the standalones, in a world undergoing industrialisation. The mills and factories are changing everything - who has power, who does the work, and what the dispossessed are willing to do about it. New characters carry the story: Savine dan Glokta, an investor and social climber who is her father's daughter in ways she doesn't fully recognise; Leo dan Brock, a war hero who wants to be more than the Union allows; and Rikke, a young woman from the North with the Long Eye - the ability to see the future, unreliably and at cost. Several characters from the original trilogy and standalones return, older and not noticeably wiser.
The Trouble with Peace
The Age of Madness
2020
The second novel of The Age of Madness. The peace that ended the previous book is already fraying - the nobles are restless, the new industrial class is demanding representation, and the people doing the actual work are organising. Savine navigates an increasingly unstable social landscape. Leo is being pulled toward something he may not be able to control. Rikke consolidates power in the North through methods that would have seemed unthinkable to her father. Abercrombie tightens the political screws methodically, and the sense of inevitability building toward catastrophe is one of the trilogy's great achievements.
Wisdom of Crowds
The Age of Madness
2021
The conclusion of The Age of Madness and, so far, the final novel in the First Law world. Revolution arrives. The violence is overwhelming and the aftermath is worse - the novel is unflinching about what revolutions actually do to the people who make them and the people who get caught in them. Every major character is tested, and Abercrombie's refusal to exempt anyone from consequence extends to people the reader has been following for three books. The Wisdom of Crowds is the bleakest entry in a bleak series and also, in its way, the most honest.