A Little Hatred
Chapters - Joe Abercrombie
Part 1
Chapter 1: Blessings and Curses
Rikke wakes from a fit at the standing stones, where Isern has been helping her coax the Long Eye open. Her visions show folk falling from a tower, rows of hangings, Uffrith burning, and a wolf eating the sun. On the road home they encounter three of Stour Nightfall's warriors, and in the violent confrontation Rikke kills a young man with an arrow while Isern dispatches the other two. They emerge from the trees to find Uffrith ablaze, exactly as the Long Eye foretold.
POV: Rikke·On page: Isern-i-Phail·Mentioned: Stour Nightfall, The Dogman
Chapter 2: Where the Fight's Hottest
Leo dan Brock leads a cavalry charge against Stour Nightfall's scouting party and captures their standard, revelling in the glory of battle. Afterwards, his mother Finree tears into him for his recklessness, revealing that his friend Ritter was killed in the charge. Chastened and grieving, Leo emerges from the tent to find his men cheering his name, and struggles to reconcile his guilt with the adulation.
POV: Leo dan Brock·On page: Finree dan Brock, Jurand, Glaward, Antaup·Mentioned: Stour Nightfall
Chapter 3: Guilt Is a Luxury
Rikke and Isern flee through the boggy lowlands, dodging Stour Nightfall's warriors and his father Calder's men who swarm the roads and high ground. Cold, starving, and wracked with guilt over the boy she killed, Rikke struggles to hold herself together. Isern offers hard comfort - guilt is a luxury reserved for those still breathing - and reveals her selfish reason for protecting Rikke: she believes the Long Eye will guide them to a better North, free from Scale Ironhand and those who pull his strings.
POV: Rikke·On page: Isern-i-Phail·Mentioned: Stour Nightfall, Calder, Scale Ironhand, The Dogman
Chapter 4: Keeping Score
Savine dan Glokta collects a payment from the criminal Majir in the rough streets of Adua, her companion Zuri ever at her side. She then strong-arms the architect Dietam dan Kort into signing over a fifth of his canal enterprise, leveraging his desperate finances, her social connections, and the threat of gossip. Through a chain of investments and favours, Savine weaves together a web of profit connecting her mills, foundries, and slum properties across the city.
POV: Savine dan Glokta·On page: Zuri·Mentioned: Sand dan Glokta, Finree dan Brock
Chapter 5: A Little Public Hanging
Orso, Crown Prince of the Union, watches the public hanging of three Breakers with his entourage of Tunny, Hildi, and hired companions. He almost intervenes when a girl of fifteen is led to the noose, but Gorst arrives to summon him to Queen Terez, who subjects him to a parade of marriage candidates. Orso rejects them all and provocatively suggests Savine dan Glokta. The chapter ends with Orso and Savine in a secret sexual encounter, revealing their hidden affair.
POV: Orso dan Luthar·On page: Hildi, Corporal Tunny, Bremer dan Gorst, Queen Terez, Savine dan Glokta·Mentioned: Bayaz, Sand dan Glokta, Ardee West
Chapter 6: The Breakers
Vick, who grew up in the Angland prison camps after her father was condemned by the Inquisition, meets with her Breaker cell - Sibalt, Grise, Moor, and young Tallow - in a cellar. They learn three of their comrades have been hanged and plan to blow up the Hill Street Foundry with Gurkish Fire. Afterwards, in bed with Sibalt, Vick reveals a harder truth beneath her commitment to the cause: she trusts no one, having learned to lie flawlessly in the camps, and views the promised Great Change with deep scepticism.
POV: Vick dan Teufel·Mentioned: Sand dan Glokta
Chapter 7: The Answer to Your Tears
Rikke wakes beneath a hanged man after days of desperate flight through enemy territory with Isern. Starving, freezing, and mourning the loss of her home in Uffrith, Rikke breaks down in tears. Isern responds with two sharp slaps and a brutal lecture about how coddled she has been, provoking Rikke into punching her in the mouth. Isern is delighted by this flash of iron, declaring it exactly the hardness they will need to forge a weapon from.
POV: Rikke·On page: Isern-i-Phail·Mentioned: Stour Nightfall, The Dogman
Chapter 8: Young Heroes
Leo and his friends - Jurand, Glaward, Antaup, Whitewater Jin, and Barniva - chafe at the tedium of constant retreat while Northmen watch from the ridge. His mother Finree arrives to reveal the Northmen on the ridge are a trap set by Calder, with horsemen hidden in nearby woods, and that she has deliberately placed her shabbiest troops in the valley to bait the enemy. Frustrated but learning patience, Leo dismounts to march with the common soldiers, drumming to raise their spirits.
POV: Leo dan Brock·On page: Jurand, Glaward, Antaup, Finree dan Brock·Mentioned: Calder, Stour Nightfall, Bremer dan Gorst
Chapter 9: The Moment
Clover, a veteran swordsman turned lazy teacher, is interrupted by Calder who tasks him with keeping his son Stour Nightfall on the right path. Calder is frustrated that Stour burned Uffrith and cares only about his own fame rather than strategy. Clover joins Wonderful at Stour's camp and meets the arrogant young warrior first-hand as he returns from burning another village, confirming everything Wonderful warned him about.
POV: Jonas Clover·On page: Calder, Stour Nightfall
Chapter 10: Break What They Love
Rikke and Isern hide neck-deep in an icy stream as Stour Nightfall's warriors march past overhead. Nightfall stops to order Clover and Wonderful to hunt for the Dogman's daughter, describing in sickening detail the tortures he plans for Rikke if caught. After the enemy moves on, Rikke's terror hardens into a burning fury, and she silently swears to see Nightfall destroyed. Clover and Wonderful, clearly disgusted by Stour's depravity, appear to deliberately let the two women go undetected.
POV: Rikke·On page: Isern-i-Phail, Stour Nightfall, Jonas Clover·Mentioned: Calder, The Dogman
Chapter 11: It Was Bad
Broad returns home from the war in Styria, a broken man haunted by what he saw and did. He finds his daughter May grown up and his wife Liddy holding things together, but learns that Lord Isher has fenced their common grazing land by royal edict, forcing them to sell their flock. When Isher's enforcers arrive to buy them out with thinly veiled threats, Broad's violence explodes - he kills all three men in seconds, leaving his family staring in horror at the monster the war made of him.
POV: Gunnar Broad
Chapter 12: A Sea of Business
Savine attends the Solar Society meeting in Adua, where the great machinist Curnsbick celebrates progress and her mother Ardee is named as co-patron. In the foyer, Savine works the crowd of investors with Zuri's help, fending off rivals and meeting the mysterious Sulfur, who claims membership of the Order of Magi and hints at a connection to her father. King Jezal makes a brief appearance before being called away by news from the North, setting the whole room buzzing with speculation.
POV: Savine dan Glokta·On page: Zuri, Yoru Sulfur, Jezal dan Luthar·Mentioned: Ardee West
Chapter 13: Fencing with Father
Orso learns of Scale Ironhand's invasion and the burning of Uffrith, and for the first time feels a genuine desire to act. He fences with his father King Jezal, who explains that the Closed Council plans to do nothing due to empty coffers and enemies on every side. Orso argues passionately for an expedition and volunteers to lead it himself. The king agrees, on the condition that Orso raises five thousand troops on his own, offering Gorst, twenty Knights of the Body, and a battalion of the King's Own as a starting force.
POV: Orso dan Luthar·On page: Jezal dan Luthar, Corporal Tunny, Hildi·Mentioned: Bremer dan Gorst, Scale Ironhand, Finree dan Brock, Leo dan Brock, The Dogman, Stour Nightfall, Queen Terez
Chapter 14: Fencing with Father II
Savine fences with Gorst under the watchful eye of her father, Arch Lector Glokta. They discuss the war in the North - Finree dan Brock's competence, the opportunity to buy cheap Angland holdings, and Savine's expanding investments in armaments. Her father darkly hints that the Closed Council are mere puppets and warns her never to borrow from Valint and Balk. When Savine goads Gorst into fighting seriously, he demolishes her in seconds, delivering a brutal lesson about the difference between fencing and real violence.
POV: Savine dan Glokta·On page: Sand dan Glokta, Bremer dan Gorst·Mentioned: Finree dan Brock, Leo dan Brock, The Dogman, Scale Ironhand
Chapter 15: Promises
Broad lies awake in the squalid Valbeck cellar he shares with Liddy and May, haunted by what he did to Isher's men and tormented by guilt over Styria. He promises Liddy no more violence, then queues for work at Cadman's Ales brewery, where he nearly fights a man who bullies an old worker. A chance encounter with Sarlby, who served with him in Styria, gets him hired. Sarlby tries to recruit him to the Breakers, but Broad refuses, determined to keep his promise to stay out of trouble.
POV: Gunnar Broad
Chapter 16: A Blow for the Common Man
Vick and the Breakers attempt to blow up the Hill Street Foundry with Gurkish Fire, but the Inquisition is waiting for them in an ambush. Moor is shot dead by crossbows, Grise is captured screaming, and young Tallow is caught on the wagon. Vick drags Sibalt into the foundry, but cornered and knowing that the Inquisition will torture names out of anyone they take alive, Sibalt cuts his own throat rather than be captured. Vick sits in his blood until the Practicals find her.
POV: Vick dan Teufel
Chapter 17: Knowing the Arrow
Rikke and Isern are hunted through the forest by dogs and warriors. During a desperate leap across a ravine, Isern is hit by an arrow but still hauls Rikke to safety. The Long Eye opens fully for the first time - Rikke sees the absolute truth of an incoming arrow and deflects it with her fingertip. Cornered against a cliff with Isern wounded, Rikke takes up the spear to face their pursuers, only to find Shivers has come to rescue them, his sword already bloodied from dealing with Nightfall's hunters.
POV: Rikke·On page: Isern-i-Phail, Caul Shivers·Mentioned: Stour Nightfall, The Dogman
Chapter 18: Biding Time, Wasting Time
Clover and Wonderful lounge in camp when Stour Nightfall arrives in a fury, having lost Rikke during a chase through the woods after Shivers killed four of his men rescuing her. Stour's young followers bristle at Clover's casual insolence, but the old warrior deflects their hostility with easy charm, recounting how he held a shield when the Bloody-Nine fought Fenris the Feared. When Stour declares he wants to be the next Bloody-Nine, Clover can only shake his head at the folly of wanting what destroyed so many before.
POV: Jonas Clover·On page: Stour Nightfall·Mentioned: Rikke, Caul Shivers
Chapter 19: The Bigger They Are
Leo challenges the enormous Glaward to a bare-knuckle fight and takes a savage beating before using cunning to bring the big man down with a leg lock. Afterwards, Rikke appears at the camp with Isern, having escaped from Stour's hunters. Leo and Rikke reconnect from their shared childhood in Uffrith, and Antaup's open admiration of her convinces Leo he should be interested.
POV: Leo dan Brock·On page: Glaward, Jurand, Rikke, Isern-i-Phail, Antaup·Mentioned: The Dogman