A Little Hatred Joe Abercrombie
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The chimneys of industry rise over Adua and the world seethes with new opportunities. But old scores run deep as ever.
On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield, and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes for help from the crown. But King Jezal’s son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specializes in disappointments.
Savine dan Glokta – socialite, investor, and daughter of the most feared man in the Union – plans to claw her way to the top of the slag-heap of society by any means necessary. But the slums boil over with a rage that all the money in the world cannot control.
The age of the machine dawns, but the age of magic refuses to die. With the help of the mad hillwoman Isern-i-Phail, Rikke struggles to control the blessing, or the curse, of the Long Eye. Glimpsing the future is one thing, but with the guiding hand of the First of the Magi still pulling the strings, changing it will be quite another…
A Little Hatred follows many conflicts throughout the book, from straight up wars to civil revolts and uses a wide cast of characters to showcase each of them in detail. It’s reminiscent of many of the politcal warring you see in ASOIAF, although this fantasy is more historical fantasy than magical fantasy overall.
The choice of characters that we follow allows you to route for each of them in some way (despite some of them being direct opposing characters). For example, we follow Cloverr and NOT Stour Nightfall, because Clover has aspects of his character that allows you to feel for him. Even characters like Savine, who are immediately dislikable for reasons, have redeemable qualities that make you want to continue reading.
The characters also have very different backgrounds, which helps the world building too. I enjoy that Broad was lower class and contrasts so much with characters like Savine and Orso who are wealthy. There’s a scene where Savine realises just how naive she’s been about what the lower class live like, and how she’s not as strong as she thought which helped her overall character.
On top of the differences between characters, Abercrombie allows situations they face to mirror each other strongly. For example, both Savine and Rikke are high class women who will be expected to marry (although don’t particularly like that they must) and they’re vastly different, but often find themselves in similar situations which they find their way out of in different ways. This is the same for Leo and Orso as a prince/heir as well as Stour who isn’t a POV character have similar mirrors as you continue reading.
The Age of Madness leans heavily on world building that has already been created in previous books, but as we move into the industrial revolution of this world this helps re-build the world for new readers. The world building is shown through the different view points of the characters. We learn of the noble class and the lower class, and how these two worlds inhabit the same space and cities in different ways.
I personally liked the stark differences in cultures shown by our characters meeting. Rikke and Leo are treated very differently by their parents and people, but are hierarchically in the same position. I enjoyed reading these two cultures collide, and whilst this example wasn’t opposing sides, it allowed us to better understand characters and factions in this world.
Rikke’s long eye, which allows her to see the future although this means having seizures, is the closest thing to magic we see in the book. I loved that she was treated as both “this happens” and also “that’s different” by the characters around her, and I’m intrigued to see how this develops in the next few books.
Whilst A Little Hatred is based on a world Abercrombie has wrote about before, you don’t need to have read Abercrombie’s other books to enjoy it. The book also nicely wraps up the conflicts in this book, but leaves certain aspects open for the second book to continue. Overall it’s an exciting new series to get stuck into.
Positives of A Little Hatred
- Amazing new characters and development
- Great political tension
Negatives of A Little Hatred
- Those who love magical fantasy may be disapointed
I received A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie from the publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review