Sean Gursky reviewed The Trouble With Peace by Joe Abercrombie (The Age of Madness, #2)
Review of 'The Trouble With Peace' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Trouble with the good fight, I find...once the fight starts, the good stops.
This book took a while to get through but not for lack of interest. My blasé sentiments from The Age of Madness #1 are gone and I was on board with everything in this book. Unfortunately my former self didn't do me any favors as some Northmen, regions and allegiances across borders that were mentioned initially were a bit of a blank for me.
That's the thing about blood. King's or commoner's, everyone's looks much the same.
There are definitely nuances and subtleties that I didn't pick up on because of this knowledge gap but that didn't deter me from enjoying the book and am eager to see how the finale plays out. These books demand to be read at a steady pace and my few chapters a day wasn't enough to keep things moving, but the …
Trouble with the good fight, I find...once the fight starts, the good stops.
This book took a while to get through but not for lack of interest. My blasé sentiments from The Age of Madness #1 are gone and I was on board with everything in this book. Unfortunately my former self didn't do me any favors as some Northmen, regions and allegiances across borders that were mentioned initially were a bit of a blank for me.
That's the thing about blood. King's or commoner's, everyone's looks much the same.
There are definitely nuances and subtleties that I didn't pick up on because of this knowledge gap but that didn't deter me from enjoying the book and am eager to see how the finale plays out. These books demand to be read at a steady pace and my few chapters a day wasn't enough to keep things moving, but the occasional time I could read for an hour or more I felt more engaged in the story.
It's easy to scream about the fence when you're on the wrong side of it. Some mad twist of fortunate lands you on the right side, though, the fence starts to look like it might not be such a bad idea.
Abercrombie is a wonderful author and crafts the fantasy world so well that he can craft a complex political story and make it look effortless. The power struggles between the have's and have not's continue to build off the prior book and there is no way any of this story can resolve peacefully.
Sitting in it's nothing special. It's staying in it that's the trick.
There are some chapters where the POV is handed off like a rugby ball. At first this was a little confusing but it was a wonderful narrative perspective as we saw events from multiple angles and didn't need to have a known character provide the story. There wasn't any indication this was going to happen so the first perspective bounce made me go "huh?" and then realized something big was brewing.
A ladder is of no use if all the rungs are at the top
The book deserves to be rated higher than a 3 but my stumble with A Little Hatred did influence my enjoyment and while I know it's worth a 4 or 5 I can't rate it that high at this time.
