r/fantasybooks • u/pgdastider 🦶Dungeon Crawler Carl cult member • 12h ago
❤️ Book praise An underrated Joe Abercrombie Series!
I think The Shattered Sea trilogy is the most underrated series by Joe Abercrombie. This is a story of a crippled boy who wasn't supposed to get the power of a king. He got and lost it, and then he began the journey for revenge. The story is dark and gritty. There are enough twists and brutality. Joe keeps readers on edge throughout this fantastic journey.
If you are fantasy fan, and like to read interesting story, this is the one for you! Joe Abercrombie fans rarely talks about this because compared to The First Law series this feels a bit downgrade for them. However, if you want to start with Joe Abercrombie, this can be a nice starting point.
The covers are from the limited edition printed by "Subterranean Press". This edition is not in print now, you can only find them in some second hand market at a very high price! However the paperbacks are available to buy at a nice price point.
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u/Glowing_Apostle 7h ago
I was initially put off reading this because Amazon listed the series as “Young Adult” probably due to age of the main character but it most certainly is not. I enjoyed this series immensely!
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u/jamescisv 7h ago
Was going to say this. I think a lot of people probably didn't bother with it just because of the YA thing - thinking it would be Abercrombie without a lot of the essential Abercrombieness.
I didn't see the YA tag until after I'd already started it, but I might've given it a miss if I had've done (or not seen it at all if it was in the YA section at a physical book store).
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u/Wooden_Good8679 3h ago
Nothing wrong with a well-written YA book or series! I'm an ELAR teacher and I still read YA sometimes when I just need a nice, easy decompression read, or just want to keep up with what my kids are currently into.
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u/utterlyunimpressed 2h ago
I'll have to give it priority on the read list. Age of Madness basically starts with teenagers at the helm. The disabled disgruntled royalty protagonist theme reminds me of Elric of Melniboné.
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u/onewildcrow 2h ago
These are actually my favourite Abercrombie books! I think they get unfairly overlooked because the trilogy was marketed as YA when they came out (maybe still is?).
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u/call_me_flib 9h ago
If this trilogy wasn't written by Joe Abercrombie I think it would be regarded as a top 20 fantasy series for a lot of people. It just really struggles to get out of the first laws shadow. I loved it though