I don’t really like reading Westerns. I don’t really like reading action stories. I don’t really seek out violent stories. And the last time Joe Abercrombie had a female protagonist (Best Served Cold) I was ambivalent about her, and that book in general. Red Country features all of those things, so I was a bit wary about it, to say the least. I probably wouldn’t have picked it up for a while yet, but I’d had such a fun time reading Half a King and The Heroes that when I saw it sitting forlornly on the library shelf, I just picked it up. Three Abercrombie books in one week, why the hell not?
I shouldn’t have been worried. In fact, I should have read it a long time ago, because if I had, I’d have had some resolution on a plot point that really upset me in Last Argument of Kings. As a warning, the rest of this review is split into two parts, one spoiler-free, and one that will spoil the hell out of you, because I really need to talk about a crucial plot reveal as it was so linked to my enjoyment of the book.
SPOILER FREE: Red Country has two protagonists, Shy and Temple. Shy is a prickly former outlaw who comes home with her stepfather Lamb one day to find that their home has been burned to the ground, their farmhand murdered and strung up, and her two siblings abducted by raiders. Since this story is set in the First Law world’s version of the Old West, law enforcement is scarce, and Shy and Lamb take it upon themselves to track down the abductors. Temple is a man of all trades with a dark past. As the story begins, he’s working as a lawyer for notorious mercenary Nicomo Cosca (previously seen in Before They are Hanged and Best Served Cold), but when he’s separated from the group, he finds himself part of the same caravan Shy and Lamb have joined, headed even further into the uncharted territory of the west. From there, Abercrombie delivers a story both reminiscent of Westerns, and full of surprises that turn traditional Western stories on their heads. He also does some terrific character work on both Temple and Shy, as well as the secondary characters.
And that’s pretty much all I have to say without spoiling you. Sorry, but all the interesting stuff to write about is spoilery. So if that summary above sounded at all intriguing, check this book out. The End for you.
CHOCK FULL OF SPOILERS: As for the rest of you who don’t care about spoilers, my other thoughts. At first, I dreaded Temple’s sections. He was a horrible person in the beginning, and compared to my extreme interest in Shy and Lamb (see below), pretty boring. But then a funny thing happened, as Shy and Temple got to know one another, Abercrombie actually allows them to affect one another positively, and what was once two characters I really didn’t like very much or find very interesting separately, together became very interesting indeed. Perhaps I only find them so interesting in that context because Abercrombie so rarely allows his characters to change for the better. Usually it’s more of a slow descent into awfulness, or deluded characters realizing what horrible people they are, or what an awful place the world is. And there is some of that, I grant you, but there’s also a lot of the other stuff as well. Is Abercrombie getting soft in his old age? I don’t think he’ll ever tire of writing the gore, but actually having characters who don’t make you want to bash your head in despair? Sort of happy endings? Positively cheerful, he is!
That was the first thing. The second thing, and I can’t emphasize this enough, THE SECOND THING IS THAT LAMB IS ACTUALLY LOGEN NINEFINGERS, aka The Bloody Nine and former King of the Northmen from Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy, thought dead by all (including me) at the end of the last book in that series. LOGEN NINEFINGERS IS ALIVE.
You guys, I don’t even know if I can explain to you how excited I got when I realized who he was. At first it was just inklings. Feelings of slight confusion because he seemed so familiar. And then, Abercrombie started slipping things in: his scarred face, his hulking physique, his taciturn nature. First it was the name of Lamb’s oxen. And then the clincher. In quick succession, Abercrombie has Lamb say two of Logen’s catchphrases: “Some men just like to burn,” and “You have to be realistic.” I SCREAMED IN GLEE WHEN THIS HAPPENED, NO JOKE. What was especially great about this (besides how happy I was Logen wasn’t dead like I thought–which, FYI, is the direct reason I didn’t give Last Argument of Kings five stars) is that Abercrombie never confirms his ID until the end of the book, so it’s like this great book-long in-joke between Abercrombie and his longtime readers. New readers have NO IDEA who he is.
That’s actually pretty interesting, when you think about it. It’s one of the few times where if you’ve read the previous books in the series, it significantly changes the shape of the story and what kind of tension you experience as a reader. The whole time I was just waiting to see when that Bloody Nine bomb was going to go off, and what would happen when it did. New readers would just be thinking, gee, I wonder who this Lamb guy is and who he used to be? What’s he hiding? And they have NO IDEA what they’re in for.
Anyway, happiness that Logen is alive aside, I’m not altogether satisfied with what happens to him here. Is it too much to ask for a happy ending for the guy? Is he doomed to be a slave to his violent nature for the rest of his life? Why couldn’t he have just kept his family, Joe? HUH? WHY!? WHY ARE YOU SUCH A DICK.
(Istilllikeyouokaybye.)