The book is long. It’s as long as least three different books intertwined with each other. It ends with a full novella after it seems to be already over. The characters drop memorable wisdom, full of logic, all the time. I don’t remember them exactly, but you get the idea—those kinds of insights. About the right moment, survival, and common sense in everything.
The revolution is vividly described, resembling the Bolshevik Revolution, the purges after World War II, and the Great Bourgeois Revolution from a more distant past. There is a lot of bloodshed, and it’s tragic. Somehow, the inquisitors from the previous regime are at the heart of it because the big change can’t go that deep.
I recently published a post which featured Savine dan Glokta as one of the most badass female fictional characters. She’s the only likable person in The Wisdom of Crowds. She would try to make the right things, although not too hard. After all, according to almost everyone in the book, survival is more important than fairness. Those who believe otherwise tend to leave the series quickly.
I’d say Joe Abercrombie managed to surprise me with his long-term planning because the seeds of this story were planted thousands of pages earlier. The format breaks away from the pattern of the previous ten or so books. In my opinion, this final installment—at least for now—is the best. Leaves a lasting memory and makes you think.
5*/5
Veselin.blog 
New book out in about a week. I’m not sure if it is part of the First Law books in a different timeline (I haven’t investigated that far), but it looked interesting.
For some reason, I liked the first six books in that world, but I struggled enjoying the first two of this trilogy. Maybe it is missing the optimism of Logan from the first series. The stand-alones are some of my favorites (rereading The Heroes for no particular reason right now). I might have to go back and finish the second trilogy off.
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The Devils? Seems to be a new series.
Logan is a superhero. I don’t like superheroes. Yes, he’s very likable but the later books have much more refined warlords that are not protected by deus ex machina.
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Good point. Perhaps that’s why I prefer the stand-alone books and shorts. No one is safe.
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The series suffers from the overall Discworld direction – the modern times are coming and there’s no room for magic or big heroic battles. Abercrombie seeds the plants for another and final confrontation between the lagging North and the modern South.
Rikke is no match for Bayaz though.
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