Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie, First Law World Series Book #7
Introduction
Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie has thirteen stories from the World of the First Law. The stories are arranged chronologically by the date the story was set. They are either novel chapter outtakes, scenes set between the novels, or part of the sequence featuring Shev and Carcolf. Six stories were first published in this anthology, four stories were first published in other anthologies, and three stories were published as extras in the author’s novels in this series. Will the protagonists in these thirteen fantasy action stories prevail or fail in their efforts?
Summary
Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie has these thirteen stories from the World of the First Law.
- A Beautiful Bastard whose main character is Sand dan Glotka from the main series.
- Small Kindness which features the first appearance of Shev the thief.
- The Fool Jobs feature Curden Craw and occur in the North.
- Skipping Town is another Shev story.
- Hell occurs in Dagoska and features Temple the beggar.
- Two’s Company is another story about Shev.
- Wrong Place, Wrong Time occurs in Styria during the events of the novel named Best Served Cold.
- Some Desperado features Shev.
- Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden… is an outtake chapter from the novel named the Heroes.
- Three’s a Crowd is about Shev.
Recommendation
Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie fills in the blanks between the six novels of the World of the First Law. The stories are excellent, but I enjoyed two of the stories the most. Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden… is an outtake chapter of the novel named the Heroes. The story shifts between six POV characters including Colonel Bremer dan Gorst resulting in a surprising ending. Tough Times all over was first published in the Rogues anthology. The story wraps up the Shev and Carcolf story sequence. It has fourteen different Pov characters. I like how both stories are constructed, connected, and build to a satisfying ending. Reading all the stories in this anthology will help the reader to understand the background of the First Law World better. Reading the six novels first will help the reader to put these stories into context.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie, First Law World Series Book #7
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26030742-sharp-ends
This is the link to my Book Review of the Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie, Age of Madness Series Book #3. They defeated the rebellion, but all is not well in the Union. Will the wisdom of crowds start a revolution and bring down the Union once and for all?