Best Served Cold

Joe Abercrombie

A standalone story in the world of The First Law trilogy. While I was hoping that this would follow on some characters of the trilogy, filling out the story and giving what was lacking, alas no. While there are some overlapping minor characters, this is effectively a straight up revenge thriller that has no redeeming characters. Everyone is flawed and if the message is that vengeance does not bring closure, that message is hammered home... literally felt it hammered into my cold, dead, brain. The fun of the First Law was left behind, leaving only parts that need to be endured. I didn't.

1 star (out of 4)

Last Argument of Kings

Joe Abercrombie

Book 3 of the First Law Trilogy

The big finale does in fact wrap things up. Bayaz pulls all the strings he needs to pull, revealing that this entire trilogy is but a small part of a larger story. The puppet king is on the throne, the north and the south defeated for the moment, Ninefingers gets his freedom of sorts. We never really get to explore any character enough for a hero to develop. Yes, everyone is flawed. But the most heroic are secondary and left to stories untold. This world has so many possibilities, but left me flat. Sorry, can't recommend it. 

2 stars (out of 4)

Before they are Hanged

Joe Abercrombie

Book 2 of the First Law Trilogy

True to fantasy form, we are divided among disparate parts of the world. Glokta is in the south, defending a city under siege. The main of the union army is in the north battling the invading horde. And magi Bayaz has taken Ninefingers, Luthar and Maljinn (a demon-blood girl seeking vengence on the southern barbarians) on a jouney to find a hidden something (too secret to tell us). In the end, the plot is disappointing as each individual story is engaging, but nothing really takes you anywhere. Maljinn is perhaps the most intriguing character, but we will need to see if she becomes important.

2 stars (out of 4)

The Blade Itself

Joe Abercrombie

Book 1 of the First Law Trilogy

A fantasy world where magic is sort of in the background. In this world, the northmen are warriors who earn their name in battle. The fiercest of these is Logan Ninefingers - the Bloody Nine. He has the ability to speak to spirits, which makes him valuable down the road. The Union is basically a corrupt colonial power held together by violence and graft. Key to this is Inquisitor Glokta, former soldier who was tortured and crippled (but survived) in a battle in the south. The story keeps coming back to him as a weirdly central character, almost as a connective narrator with fingers in all parts of the story. Luthar is a union soldier, high born, entitled and perfect puppet. This first volume really sets the stage and develops the world. The most interesting is the story of the northmen, and the hints what the story is really about. We are not swept away, but kept interested.

3 stars (out of 4)

Network Effect

Martha Wells

Book 5 in The Murderbot Diaries

Network Effect is a full length standalone novel in the universe. Set immediately after the 1-4 novela storyarc, Murderbot is hired to support a survey team which includes Dr. Mensah's adolescent human as a member. Upon return, the survey ship is attached and Murderbot and Amena are both kidnapped, pulled into the pirate ship which immediately jumps into a wormhole. The pirate ship happens to be ART, that the kidnap is not random. We get to see the further developing relationship between Murderbot and ART, the reason why alien remnant technology is the one thing that all corporate entities agree should remain banned, and a fun dance between adolescent humans and adolescent constructs and their discussions of both human and bot relationships. No let up here -- Wells nails it. 

4 stars (out of 4)

Exit Strategy

Martha Wells

Book 4 in The Murderbot Diaries

This is the final entry is this 4 novela storyarc. GrayCris has kidnapped Dr. Mensah and paid off all kinds of station and corporation bribes to have pulled it off. Murderbot is reunited with his original Book 1 crew and works to free her. Lots of hacking and subterfuge. It is fascinating to participate in conversations or events from the perspective of the bot simply in terms of time cycles. Things happen so fast on the bot cycle and so slow on the human cycle and Wells does an excellent job of giving the reader a glimpse, feeling the impact on how events play out. Which is also why Murderbot has so much "free time" to watch telenovelas. 

4 stars (out of 4)

Rogue Protocol

Martha Wells

Book 3 in The Murderbot Diaries

Murderbot hears on the news feeds that Dr. Mensah is in a protracted legal battle with GrayCris. Dr. Mensah being his contracted employer in Book 1, and GrayCris the corporation that did the murdering. So it hitches a ride to Milu, another operation of GrayCris that is involved in a sketchy legal battle, hoping to get some evidence of wrongdoing to support Dr. Mensah. Along the way, it contracts with the reps for the corporation that is aggrieved by GrayCris, provides security for them on a fact finding trip to an orbiting planetary terraforming station, and (of course) saves their lives against ridiculous odds. Again, plot is space opera but the growth and development of Murderbot as a character is pure gold.

4 stars (out of 4)