Reviewed by Joshua R Parker

Joe Abercrombie’s debut First Law Trilogy earned critical acclaim for its grittiness, fast paced combat, and sharply drawn characters. His newest novel Best Served Cold continues to serve up delightfully flawed characters in a tense and dangerous environment where the consequences of conflict damage the victor almost as much as the vanquished.

The focus of the story is Monzcarro Murcatto, a mercenary general who, along with her brother, has strung together victory upon victory in the employ of the ambitious Duke Orso. Abercrombie opens with the Duke’s betrayal of Monza in a brutal attack that leaves her broken and her brother dead. A mysterious benefactor helps Monza limp back to health, but the damage she has sustained marks her both physically and emotionally. She seems incapable of conceiving a life without her beloved sibling, at least not while his killers continue to draw breath.

What follows is a revenge quest where Monza sets out to kill the seven men responsible for her betrayal. She has money; she has a lifetime of knowledge in the arenas of war, politics, and treachery; and she has the advantage that her enemies believe she died. Collecting a disjointed band of disreputable conspirators whose motives are anything but clear, Monza sets out across the continent of Styria to wreak bloody havoc.

Styria is an inspired setting filled with petty would-be despots, idle gentry whose sense of entitlement borders the insane, and a host of criminals, miscreants, and villains. The politics of Styria are rich with strife, and any who rise too high are swiftly cut down. The cities of this continent are characters in themselves, feeling lived in and familiar despite their obvious dangers. Canals shroud a city of cutpurses and courtesans in mist, ancient architectural triumphs show how far Styria has fallen from some long ago golden age, and banks are housed in fortresses more impressive and impenetrable than any lord’s castle. Each new set piece further reinforces the notion that war and violence only serve to drag everyone down, no matter the motive.

The road to revenge is not straight, nor is it smooth. As Monza kills her way through her list, she becomes increasingly aware of the toll this is taking on her and those in her employ. Her main romantic interest is Caul Shivers, a man from the north who came to Styria to seek a better life for himself. A warrior who wants to put killing behind him, Caul finds that violence is the only work that he is suited to. Over the course of the novel Caul shifts from hopeful to resigned to fatalistic, all of it handled with a deft and humane touch.

The violence of Best Served Cold requires a special mention. It is kinetic, the crunch and bite of axes and swords colliding with flesh palpable in the reader’s mind. Battles can last for a long time, but rarely will two individuals get more than a few passes at one another before some irreparable harm has been levied. Damage also leaves scars, and Abercrombie uses this as a counterpoint to the internal turmoil of the protagonist and those around her.

Each new task seems to require more of Monza and her band, to the point where they cross lines and become the people they despise. Betrayal is not confined to any one arena, and lovers are used and discarded in the pursuit of an increasingly elusive goal as though they were no more important than money or tools. Wedges are driven between friends, and the characters are often asking themselves what is the point of it all.

Abercrombie’s point may well be that the act of revenge is utterly selfish and pointless. The revenged become targets themselves in an increasingly bleak spiral of reversal, paranoia, and suffering. Those left standing at the end of Best Served Cold are changed people, rarely for the better. They see this end long before its arrival and continue to press on toward it. It is frustrating, stubborn, realistic, and a hell of a fun time.

Best Served Cold is fantasy without races, and mostly absent of magic. Joe Abercrombie still manages to make Styria a wondrous and vibrant place peopled with real bleeding, suffering, greedy, selfish, fascinating characters. This is a fantasy for adults written about adults, and as Monza steadily progresses through her list of dead men it becomes increasingly difficult to put down. It takes a deft hand to make people this brutal and despicable so much fun to read. Abercrombie makes it look easy.