Search for characters or series


13 stories - View chapters and summaries
| Name | Aliases | Role |
|---|---|---|
Monzcarro Murcatto The most feared mercenary general in Styria, commander of the Thousand Swords, who is thrown from a cliff and left for dead by the Duke Orso she has served loyally and made very rich. She survives, barely, and the entirety of Best Served Cold is her working through the list of seven men responsible. Monza is not a hero - she is driven by revenge, capable of considerable ruthlessness, and honest about both. Her arc is about what vengeance actually costs and whether it delivers what it promises. She is one of Abercrombie's best protagonists: a woman in a man's world who got there through genuine ability and is not interested in being liked for it. | Monza, The Serpent of Talins, The Snake of Talins | Protagonist |
Sand dan Glokta A crippled Inquisitor who was once the most celebrated swordsman in the Union - winner of the Contest at eighteen, celebrated throughout Adua, the kind of young man who expects the world to keep giving him things. Then he was captured by the Gurkish, spent two years in their prisons, and came back unable to walk properly, unable to eat solid food, in constant pain, and in possession of a very clear understanding of what people will say under sufficient duress. He applies the same methods to his work for the Inquisition with a mixture of professional efficiency and caustic self-awareness that makes him one of the most compelling POV characters in fantasy. Glokta knows exactly what he is. He just can't see a way to be anything else. | Superior Glokta, The Cripple | Protagonist |
Shy South A young woman trying to run a farm on the frontier and build a quiet life, who is forced back into violence when her younger siblings are taken. Shy has a past she has spent years running from - she was not always a farmer - and the journey to find her siblings in Red Country puts her back in exactly the situations she has been trying to avoid. She is Abercrombie's most emotionally direct protagonist, less armoured against feeling than most of his characters, which makes her arc in Red Country both more painful and more earned. | Protagonist | |
Friendly A former convict from Safety - the Union's prison island - who counts everything and has strict rules about how things must be done. Friendly is one of the most consistently surprising characters in the series: apparently simple, actually precise, occasionally terrifying. He appears first in Best Served Cold as part of Monza's crew and recurs across the standalones. His comfort with violence and his discomfort with social interaction are presented without judgment and without explanation, and the result is one of Abercrombie's most original supporting characters. | Supporting | |
Nicomo Cosca A Styrian mercenary captain of considerable charm and negligible reliability, Cosca appears across nearly every book in the First Law World. He is funny, self-aware, genuinely skilled when sober, and almost never sober. His arc is one of Abercrombie's long games - a man whose capacity for self-destruction is matched only by his capacity for survival, and whose final trajectory is deeply unpleasant. | Friendly Face, The Most Feared Man in Styria | Major |
| Date | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
26 April 2016 | Publication | Sharp Ends arrived in 2016 as a collection of short stories set in Joe Abercrombie's First Law world, aimed squarely at existing fans rather than new readers. Reception was warm within that established audience, who welcomed the chance to spend time with familiar and peripheral characters in compressed form. Critics noted that Abercrombie's mordant wit and moral greyness translate well to shorter fiction. It was never going to be an entry point to the series but it performed its intended function well - rewarding loyal readers while demonstrating that the First Law world had plenty of room left to explore. |
2017 | Award Nominated | British Fantasy Award Collection category |
2017 | Award Nominated |
Locus Award Collection category, 10th place |
5 November 2017 | Award Nominated | World Fantasy Award Collection category |
Sharp Ends arrived in 2016 as a collection of short stories set in Joe Abercrombie's First Law world, aimed squarely at existing fans rather than new readers. Reception was warm within that established audience, who welcomed the chance to spend time with familiar and peripheral characters in compressed form. Critics noted that Abercrombie's mordant wit and moral greyness translate well to shorter fiction. It was never going to be an entry point to the series but it performed its intended function well - rewarding loyal readers while demonstrating that the First Law world had plenty of room left to explore.
British Fantasy Award
Collection category
Locus Award
Collection category, 10th place
World Fantasy Award
Collection category