Joe Abercrombie “Half
a King” (Del Rey, 2014)
The news, some months ago, was that Joe Abercrombie was
going to write a Young Adult series.
There was an appropriate amount of gnashing of teeth, of swearing, and
of bold declarations of either love or hate.
Now months later, the release date is here. The mighty Joe Abercrombie has indeed
published the first in his YA series.
The world is still spinning on its axis.
Mighty nations have not fallen.
The question, then, is how is it?
And just what is a YA Joe Abercrombie story?
Let’s look at that second question first. Abercrombie’s YA is a lot like his regular
material. It’s a crapsack world. Bad things happen to everyone. All the time.
He does scale back some of the horrors.
Sexuality is removed. The
mutilations are gone. But it’s still an
awful violent world where terrible things happen to everyone. Even the characters that are sympathetic are
not traditionally heroic. And
thematically, this is a coming of age story that is well within the wheelhouse
of YA tropes.
Does it succeed? For
me it was a mixed bag. I’m a big fan of
Abercrombie’s book, liking each one a bit more than the one before. For me, this was a step back. There’s a gripping story and the plot rockets
you forward. But that wasn’t enough.
A couple of thoughts on why I was a bit let down. First, I’m not a big fan of coming of age
stories. So I never really found Yarvi
to be a compelling character. Now
admittedly, this is my own idiosyncrasy, so YMMV. Second, this was the least funny Abercrombie
book that I’ve read. I tend to think of
there being a certain type of black humour lurking in the depths of Abercrombie’s
books. I don’t think that I laughed once
here. And I realized that that humour
was necessary for me to enjoy a visit to his crapsack world.
If you’re a fan of Abercrombie’s, by all means check out Half a King. It’s got almost everything that you have been
enjoying in his books. If you are
looking for an entry point to his writing, then this would not be the first
book I’d recommend.
