Title: Half A World
Author: Joe Abercrombie
Series? Yes, 2 of 3
Rating: 4.5/5
Note: Contains spoilers for Half A King.
I loved Half A King so I was so excited to come plunging back into The Shattered Sea series. Though the story in this book was driven by different characters, I still found the cast utterly charming in all their double-crossing and murderous glory.
1. Awesome Female Characters
Sometimes a girl is touched by Mother War, and put among the boys in the training square, and taught to fight.
One of the things I really enjoyed about Half A King was its treatment of female characters. The book featured ladies in position of political power, ladies who were physically strong, ladies who were mentally strong, ladies who never took a backseat to the dudes – despite the story being narrated by a male protagonist. Half The World go one step beyond that to give us more than half a book narrated by Thorn, a veritable badass.
Now, there are many a ‘warrior princess’ type floating around in fictional universe, but Thorn is different from them all in how unabashedly crude and vicious she is. Gone are the beautiful heroine who saves the day while conquering hearts all across the land, all the while leaving not a strand of hair out of place. Thorn will fight dirty, she will curse and kill, she will get stabbed in the cheek, all to get revel in the glory of battle.
‘Is Mother War herself not a woman?’ The king pointed up at the Tall Gods looming over them. ‘We only offer her the choice. The Mother of Crows picks the worthy.’
If Yarvi of Half A King was marginalised for his crippled hand – Thorn is brushed aside in this warrior society purely because she’s a woman. I enjoy how she navigates around these men and their labels, while meeting other awesome ladies along the way, Along with Thorn, we also have Skifr: a middle aged woman who can still beat young men senseless. Rin, a younger sister who carved her fortune from making the best damn swords in the land, rather than waiting around for her brother to save her from poverty. Even amongst the antagonists there are many fearsome female figures, who arguable drive the story along a lot more than the men did.
2. Revisiting Old Friends
They said he was cunning as Father Moon, a man rarely to be trusted and never to be crossed.
Though Yarvi is no longer the narrator of this book, I was glad to see he still played such a prominent role. I also really enjoy seeing him flourish and fully utilise his beautiful brain to scheme his way around half the world (see what I did there ;)) Gone are any mention of his ‘half a hand’, instead, all the characters we meet seem to agree that he’s a force to be reckoned with, by sheer intellect + political craftiness alone. I am so happy to see him fully grown and in a position where he can be appreciated, even though he was not made King – I think it’s so satisfying to see given all the ordeals he went through in Half A King.
We also got to see many other characters such as Laithlin, who I still love. As well as old members of Yarvi’s crew of misfits, and a load of new additions to this adventure. Another thing we got to see more of is older alliances and blood debts being called upon in this book. I love that even though the narrators are different people, the plot points from the previous novels still got propelled forward, albeit with a different perspective.
3. Bigger Scope, Bigger Action
‘Where do we find allies?’ Father Yarvi smiled. ‘Among our enemies, where else?’
As with Half A King, many things in this book took me by surprise and I love how the pacing never lets up. I loved that we got to see more of The Shattered Seas universe as Yarvi went around the world bribing, threatening and intimidating people into joining his cause. I loved that the action wasn’t just present in a physical sense, but also because the alliances were never clear, the constant shifts in loyalty made for an exciting read.
‘You must be quicker to strike and quicker when you do. You must be tougher and cleverer, you must always look to attack, and you must fight without honour, without conscience, without pity.’
I’ve mentioned many times that my brain don’t handle action scenes well, I can’t ever visualise them clearly – but Joe Abercrombie not only writes beautiful words – his action scenes are also riveting. I loved every single word in this book and devoured it in 3 hours flat.
Very excited to read Half A War now, which I’ll get onto sometimes next week! If you haven’t started this series yet, what are you even waiting for? *pushes you towards a bookstore*
Read at Midnight 
Aentee, you keep adding things to my wish list. It’s becoming a bit unhealthy for my bank account!
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Sorry Jenna! But this series is quite unique amongst YA fantasy, I promise 😉 and if it helps any, you also enable me to buy so many books haha.
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You made me interested in Half a King, and now I’m equally as interested in excited to read this series! Why do you do this to me? ;D
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You should definitely get onto this series, Jesse – September should be you back onto the fantasy genre? No?
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Surprisingly I have only read one book from my TBR this month! 😛
I’ve been stuck reading Netgalley books that are due for Sept 1! T__T
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Gah, I loved this book so much. Will be reading the third one soon!
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I hope we both enjoy the third one!! I love Thorn and Yarvi so though I know the POV switches again, I’ll get to see them!!
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Ah I still need to get to Half a World. I loved Half a King though which is surprising because I usually hate those types of fantasy. I find them a bit melodramatic. I really like Yarvi! I think he’s my favorite :3
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Half The World is AWESOME as it has so much lady power. Highly recommended, I love this series, it’s so much fun 🙂
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Awesome female characters, you say? I already have book 1 in my TBR, but this review got me really excited for it. The praise is strong! Fantastic review, as per usual. 🙂
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Book 1 is really awesome as it centres on a protagonist with a disability! But this book brings out all the ladies. I hope you enjoy it Vane!!
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“Sometimes a girl is touched by Mother War, and put among the boys in the training square, and taught to fight.”
Love that quote! Nice review btw. You are helping me find some really great books out there!
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I also love that quote!! Hope you enjoy this if you get a chance to read it 🙂
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This was a great sequel, and I loved Thorn as a protagonist. Now I’m curious what you’ll think of the third one.
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I am curious too as I usually like multiple POV but in this book I ended up ignoring Brand a bit oops. He’s a tad bland compared to Thorn. So I’m not sure how I’ll feel about splitting the narrative three way, but will be interesting to see!!
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I’m halfway through the same book! I just love Abercrombie’s writing, I enjoyed the bickering and the dry humor of the South Wind’s crew. ❤ I better go back and finish it now 🙂
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Can’t wait to hear what you think of it! Eagerly awaiting your review 🙂
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Oh, I thought this was the best part of the series. I loved Brand and Thorn, they were such an unlikely match! And yes, Abercrobmie writes great action scenes, it’s easy to imagine being there and he doesn’t sugarcoat anything. I really liked Skifr, she’s a great mentor for Thorn.
I wonder what you’ll make of book 3, I finished it last month.
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Yes this book has so much love. I thought Brand is a bit bland compared to Thorn- but who wouldn’t be haha! I really enjoyed them together. I will try start on Half a War this week!!
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Holy wowzah!! That cover is so gorgeous! And your graphic! AMAZING!
OK this book and series sounds amazing. I love it features all these strong women that I know I’m going to enjoy especially they seem to be characters who aren’t afraid to be brutal! I need to meet them obviously!
And more action and more plot? That’s what every sequel should be about!
I’m adding this to my list of books to check out, Aentee!
Fantastic review! 🙂
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Yes Thorn is the embodiment of a badass haha I love her so much!! I hope you’ll enjoy it Nick, it’s definitely quite different from other YA fantasy.
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Ohhhh now see, this type of genre usually isn’t my style but the way in which you described it, it’s just like: I HAVE TO HAVE THIS BOOK, but I’m also a romance junkie and I didn’t see you mention any romance or lip locking in your review. I think this book would have had EVERYTHING if romance was in it. 😉 The heroine DEFF sound bad a%^
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But there is also plenty of swoon Keionda!!! I just forgot to mention. There’s another POV here and he’s the opposite of Thorn in the most delightful way. And we get a steamy scene. Do itttt.
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Yeah? Because Aentee, I NEED TO SWOON. I’ll give it a try out then because I trust you girl. 😉
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I don’t know how I haven’t gotten to this series yet with all the hype and glowing reviews it has, but you’ve definitely convinced me to give it a try. How could anyone say no to wonderful female characters and a swoony romance? Thanks for sharing Aentee and, as always, fabulous review! ❤
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The first book doesn’t have many female characters, but this one definitely brought all of them out of the woodworks. It has been such a fun series, I hope you enjoy it, Zoe ❤
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