Sharp Ends: Stories from the World of the First Law

…say he’s a sharp end. Joe Abercrombie, the self-styled “Lord Grimdark” took the fantasy world by storm in the mid-2000s with his First Law trilogy. Part epic fantasy, part satirical deconstruction of Lord of the Rings, and part black comedy, the trilogy introduced us to Abercrombie’s snarky, endearing, and at times utterly horrific menagerie of characters. It will make you laugh, it will make you blanch, and in the end it will leave you with complete emotional exhaustion. The term “grimdark” is a tricky phrase. It means different things to different people. Abercrombie writes a dark world, true, but the moments of genuine beauty and the goodness that human beings are capable of shine through that much brighter for all the muck and grit that covers things. The Circle of the World is a place where being a good man or woman is very hard. But people still try. Sometimes they fair, sometimes they succeed, but the struggle is what makes you root for them. Words like “good” and “evil” often have no place as value judgments in Abercrombie’s world. To paraphrase Logen Ninefingers, sometimes it’s just a matter of where you’re standing. In addition to the First Law trilogy, Abercrombie wrote three stand-alone novels set in the same world, bringing his unique Tolkien-meets-Tarantino flavor to the revenge story, war story, and frontier western genres. Sharp Ends is a collection of short stories that’s pans across his entire First Law timeline, the first coming before the beginning of The Blade Itself, and the last taking place after the end of Red Country. We see some old familiar faces, and are introduced to some new ones as well. These stories have the same combination of comedy, tragedy, violence, and brutality that makes Abercrombie’s other work so brilliant. The cast of characters is diverse, and real in such a profound way that I honestly don’t know how he manages to keep pumping them out. Sharp Ends is the best fantasy collection that I’ve read since George R.R. Martin’s cross-genre anthology, Rogues (which also featured Abercrombie’s Nebula Award winning story, Tough Times All Over). In addition to Tough Times All Over I also have to praise A Beautiful Bastard, Made a Monster, and Some Desperado, though all of these stories are worth the price, and all of them have their own sharp ends…

As a collection of stories this has its highs and lows. Some I really wondered exactly what was being brought to the table; others I loved every word of them! And let's just say it: This book is for already established fans, plain and simple. As a big Abercrombie fan I'm OK with that! How someone would take these stories on with no prior experience with the First Law world or characters, I'm not sure. The stories are at times uneven in there quality. Some seem like sketches for potential novels; others like leftover scenes from other novels (several of which I'd have loved to have inserted back in, if that were the case). There are some stories that are bit like novelistic experiments, and others are essentially backstories (the last one most of all with a "true" glimpse as to exactly how dark the Bloody Nine of the "old days" was. This story worked and it didn't. Bethod is a character that definitely could use a good backstory, but this one seemed a little flat. I kept thinking I was hearing exposition rather than a real person's thoughts. All the scenes with Logan of course are great- the author "knows" this character inside and out, so that's no surprise.. There is a running series of stories concerning two woman, one an expert thief with supremely bad luck, the other a sort of super amazon warrior, that seems to beg for a novel of its own. It's jarring that the author jumps sometimes about 5 years or more between these women's story-line, although at times I believe the idea was the humorous aspect of these big leaps. In any case, both characters are intriguing and funny, and travel all around, so there's plenty to like.

When I first read the first trilogy about the Bloody Nine, it was a completely new experience for me. The very dark and gritty, and sometimes hilarious, fantasy was like nothing I had read before. I absolutely loved it, and these short stories set in that same world really didn't disappoint at all. I love that we get to see some of the side characters fleshed out more, and it was a great read.

Joe Abercrombie is a masterful author. One of my favorite fantasy books of all time.

If you read these stories, you’ll want to get to the main course. My only objection? Abercrombie has a deft style, great characters, complex plots, and a talent for unique imagery and a creative turn of phrase; but he has a love affair with the f-word. In most instances its use does nothing to enhance any aspect of the story.

There was no need for this book whatsoever. Judging from the comments, I expected it to cover some story gaps or some interesting perspectives from some of the interesting characters from previous books or cover side stories of some new characters. I found the stories told in this book mostly incomplete when it came to the new characters, and lackluster for the rest. Hopefully, the last trilogy is as good as the first ‘cause I am disappointed by the short stories in this book.

As always, Abercrombie's writing is dark, brutal, and somehow hilarious at the same time. Many of these stories appeared in various anthologies , which was something of a disappointment to me as I was looking forward to all-new material. That said, I love some of the new characters and the fleshing out of some familiar characters, as well as the unexpected links made between characters that had never met before. It did give me some new questions, though. Mainly, there's a point where it says that Bethod "created" the Bloody-Nine but it doesn't say how. Glokta's story was frustratingly short...I was REALLY looking forward to details about his time on the Girlish dungeons :( But at the same time, I was ridiculously excited to see the reappearance of Murcatto, even if only as an aside. One of Abercrombie's "failings" is that he has so many characters that are so interesting and so well fleshed out that I want to know the backstory of all of them. For example, I am dying to know the story behind Shenkt and his relationship with Vitari, and why he despised Bayaz so much. But c'est la vie. This collection was entertaining, if far too short. I can only hope that Abercrombie keeps writing in the world of the first law now that he's done with his young adult series. He is still far and away my favorite grimdark author along with R. Scott Bakker (for entirely different reasons). Bravo! Write on.

Book arrived quickly and was in perfect condition as if I bought from a bookstore.

Disappointing compared to other works by Abercrombie and feels like a lazy attempt to cash in on the success of The First Law novels. Would have been better if Abercrombie had just written a new novel

Hervoragendes Buch, bestehend aus Kurzgeschichten die teilweiße aufeinander aufbauen. Wir lernen einige neue Gesichter kennen treffen jedoch auch viele alte Freund/Monster wieder. Mann erlebt einige in den vorherigen Büchern angeteaste Erlebnisse und es ist toll einfach nur toll. Natürlich aber nach Abercrombie manier blutig dunkel und mit einem happy end kann man natürlich auch nicht rechnen. Alles im allem es lohnt sich wenn Ihr Fans seid, vorallem wenn Ihr die anderen Bücher eh schon besitzt.

Es como comes unos pinchos. Algo ligero pero que cuando llevas varios es como si hubieras comido. Si eres fan de Abercombrie te gustará.

A very good book with good stories that complement the view around the main characters in the First Law series. Some of the short stories are a bit boring, but most are enjoyable. However, is a book only for hard fans of First Law fans.

Joe Abercrombie can do little wrong for me and I've really enjoyed all of his books so far, So I picked up Sharp Ends expecting it to be just like other collections of short stories that I've read; unsatisfying snippets of bits of material not used in the main stories and, really, just a mechanism for getting the reading fans to fork out extra cash but, hey, it's a Joe Abercrormbie so what the hell? I can't begin to express how wrong I was! This collection of short stories is like nothing else that I've ever read. Each piece is a proper and complete story in its own right and there are no 'fillers' here. Those stories containing favourite characters from other JA books fill in gaps in the back-story of those characters in a fulfilling style. But it's the other pieces that are, in my experience, unique. Bear with me while I try to explain. Everyone has seen the John Wayne film 'Stagecoach' and will draw to mind the classic scene of the JW cowboy hero leaning over the roof of the stagecoach, using his trusty Winchester rifle to pick off some of the hoard of attacking Indians. The camera follows one Indian who manages to get right up alongside the stagecoach and looks as though he's going to board and attack The Duke but, just in time, John Wayne shoots him and the Indian falls away. The audience never know how that Indian came to be there and he's so incidental that he never gets a thought. But what if someone wrote a short story exclusively about that incidental Indian? A story that follows the dreams and aspirations of the Indian and his soaring hopes as he's about to board the stagecoach, only to be dashed away at the last possible moment. That's what some of Mr Abercrombie's stories do. And, masterfully, each incidental character is someone that the avid JA reader might recognise from the main books. Not all of these stories end tidily and they are all the better for that. As always, the characters are drawn with exquisite detail and the reader is captivated. There's always some grim humour in Mr A's work but, here, it's ramped up wonderfully. Also, some of the main characters are portrayed at an earlier time in their life span and the reader's sympathies and opinions are challenged. This is never more evident than in the last story which portrays Logen Nine-Fingers (The Bloody Nine) in a very dark light and Bethod as a sage leader. My only regret having read this book is that it ended; I could have carried on reading these episodes for much, much longer. Satisfying, informative, gripping, challenging and altogether pretty damn good; thanks Mr Abercrombie for producing the best book of short stories that I've ever read.