Customer Reviews

Red Country

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Red Country

Joe Abercrombie isn't just the average, run of the mill Fantasy writer that finds his niche and sticks firmly and unmoving to it, gripping with white-knuckles onto his past work by resting on his laurels. No. He expands. Re-evaluates. Reconfigures. Reinvigorates. Constantly searching for different genres to merge with the one he is quickly becoming masterful at. Fantasy.

His first stand-alone novel, Best Served Cold, after his brilliant and triumphant The First Law trilogy, bore witness to the fantasy genre meeting the hard-hitting bank job story, creating a heart thumping adventure that was a fresh vision on the world. Dutifully followed up by an epic book named, The Heroes, which depicts a hard-fought, three-day battle over worthless land which is all for fruitless purposes, shows Joe's gritty examination of war, and, it is as bloody as it is brilliant.

So, finally we move onto the fresh out the printers, brand new and sparkling work that is Red Country.

Red Country combines Abercrombie's already well established world with life on the harsh, western frontier. And it is as grim and gritty as it is exciting and addictive. We run into some familiar faces (one or two that are likely to please many fans) whilst at the same time adding a healthy amount of new, interesting and realistic characters into the picture, creating a fine balance of new and old. And what a potent mix it is.

A great story, mixed with great writing makes for some wonderful (at times funny) and enjoyable reading.

Abercrombie is one of the best writers around and I'd not only recommend his incredible backlog of work, but also the new, highly polished gem that is Red Country. Buy it, you won't be disappointed.

With George R.R Martin producing what at best can be described as subpar work every half decade or so, fans of gritty fantasy such as myself, must look elsewhere for our fix. Thankfully there are plenty of pretenders to the throne, and Abercrombie is not only the best of the bunch, he also manages to put out a new novel roughly once a year.

Red Country is his latest work and the quality is as high as we have grown accustomed to from him. All of his stand alone novels set in the same universe as The First Law trilogy, has had some kind of theme. Best Served Cold was a revenge story, The Heroes was a war story, and Red Country is a good old fashioned western! Long term Abercrombie fans will immediately notice that this time, the theme has a much stronger influence on the material. In fact, I was some times in doubt as to whether or not I was actually reading a fantasy novel, and only the lack of guns, and the inclusion of characters from previous Joe Abercrombie novels, convinced me I was indeed in a fantasy universe I know and love. This probably won't sit right with everyone, and I can see why. It really is a big stylistic departure and not all fantasy fans are necessarily western fans.

I however grew up on a steady diet of westerns and consumed everything from Sergio Leone to Terrance Hill and Bud Spencer, and anything in between. I also happen to be a huge Robert E. Howard fan, and my favourite short story of his is (you probably already guessed this, if you can see where I am going with this): Beyond the Black River. So I immediately felt right at home with Red Country and as good as The Heroes was, there is no doubt in my mind that Abercrombie continues to improve upon the perfect and this is his best novel so far.

A must read and definitely my favourite novel of the year.

Excellent story, starts off slow but is a great read with lots of sub-plots and action to enjoy. The characters that Joe paints are brilliant and of course any story with the Bloody Nine in it ensures that there is lots of action.

Perhaps, one day Mr Abercrombie will write a bad book, but it certainly isn't this one. Entertaining and compulsive reading from the first to last page.

I was lucky enough to get hold of a proof copy of this book so I have had time to read it and digest prior to release. And this is good, really good. Abercrombie was already my favourite author and I am constantly terrified that he will go off the boil as some others have, but he certainly hasn't with this book.

The previous standalone books sometimes beat you over the head with their themes of revenge or the pointlessness of war but Red County has the feel of a Western and this broader genre give the characters and story a bit more breathing room. The plot rattles along with twists and turns but as always it is the characters that make this book great, the two new leads are excellent and the large number of returning characters each sent a little thrill of excitement through me. Like Joe's other work this is bleak, cynical and brutally realistic in places with a large helping of black gallows humour, and I can't get enough of it.

Joe continues the world building and background mythology of the series, but always seen through the eyes of characters with more immediate concerns. If you have read all of his books then like me you will be enjoying putting pieces together as Joe never feels the need for pages of explanation about the world where his books are set.

Buy this.

It feels as if Joe Abercrombie has lost his momentum. The world he has created has so much potential, but this book let's him down. It was nice to see some of the old characters again. But his epic writing style that introduced us to Glokta is definitely missing from this book. 5/10

Great book, but less humour than his earlier works and more brutality. This book felt like an inbetween book leading from nowhere to nowhere, where the characters were painted in blacks and greys and there was no joy to be had.

if I'm honest this isn't even in Joe abercrombie's top 3 novels id put it 5th. that being said I still don't believe he has written a book that I don't love the character development is good and maybe more complex in some cases than in his other work. the action scenes are as ever well thought out and very dark. the story itself is set at a good pace but it just isn't as gripping as some others mainly I think this is because shy south the main character isn't as good as the other leads.
so overall id give this 4 out of 5 stars as it is a very good book but maybe not at the lofty heights of earlier work.

Ive read all his previous books and greatly enjoyed them.The first law trilogy in my opinion is the fantasy trilogy to read and anyone who asks me to recommend a fantasy to get into well the first law is top of the list.Of the standalones best served cold excellent the heroes good red country would between the two of them.Im not going to go into detail about the plot because thats what synopsis are for.I will say logan is back because that seems to be common knowledge.He is not a pov character and i must admit some disappointment at that since he was such good company before.Pros Hugely enjoyable entertaining novel with great characters great dialogue the story flows you wont be bored.Cons we dont see enough of logan in action the western flavour while refreshing doesnt exactly match the first laws world and at times it can feel youre reading a novel set in a world entirely separate from the previous books world.In summation a fantasy/western novel well worth your time and i hope to see logan again maybe in a first person story perhaps happy reading.

Read alot of books since I last read Abercrombie, just finished Red Country today and can honestly say its the best of the three stand alones.

Its pretty much everything you think its going to be, the characters and interaction between these characters being second to none, no other author even comes close... the banter is just fantastic. Cant remember laughing out loud anywhere near as much as through these six fantastic books.

Its fast paced, the two new main characters in Shy South and Temple are right up there with the rest, after being slightly dissapointed with Gorst in The Heroes im very happy with how Temple turned out, its bloody, its tense, its awesome!

Also if you have not read the previous five books, be sure you do before picking this one up - wouldnt have meant half as much to me this book if I picked it up as a stand alone.

Bring on this new trilogy!