There’s a sequence at the meeting of two rivers where the crew overcomes a literal barrier to complete their journey. With Yarvi propelling the narrative, this “on the one hand… on the other hand” is both obvious and darkly amusing.Īs before with the notion of coming full circle, this isn’t just threaded into the plot, it’s integral to the structure. Pursuing peace, the expedition finds violence. Thorn is driven by masculine traits, yet tempered by feminine realities. Thorn and Brand have to traverse it in order to discover themselves. Half the World is a critical examination of that world and the opportunities it affords. Half a King was a look at one child’s journey into adulthood. The final book will have three new perspectives of its own. Structurally, the doubled narrators increase the scope of the series. You probably know where this is going, but the journey there is real. Everything about them is set in opposition. Where Yarvi straddled the gender gap of his society, they grate against it. The narrative is split between the points of view of Thorn and Brand. So we receive the second installment through fresh eyes. While you still care about his journey and interact with him as a reader, the world has moved on. Unlike a lot of Young Adult fiction, the protagonist has been allowed to grow and secure a place in the world.Ībercrombie’s doing something different here. Here he’s dangerously cunning and reputed to be so throughout the world. First at the mercy of his body, his elders, and even to some extent fate, he turned a bad end into an auspicious beginning. Yarvi grew into the character presented here in the last book. Getland is on an inevitable path toward war with the High King and the cunning Grandmother Wexen, and won’t stand a chance without help. Yarvi, the young protagonist and point of view character of Half a King, now minister to his regal uncle, is on a mission to secure alliances. I’d only recently gotten in to Abercrombie’s work at the time, but was impressed with the structure of the book as much as the story.Īnd the story was excellent. The first, Half a King, was one of the first books I reviewed for the blog, courtesy of NetGalley.
Half the World is the second installment of Joe Abercrombie’s Shattered Sea Trilogy. Will Thorn forever be a pawn in the hands of the powerful, or can she carve her own path? Crossing half the world to find allies against the ruthless High King, she learns harsh lessons of blood and deceit.īeside her on the journey is Brand, a young warrior who hates to kill, a failure in his eyes and hers, but with one chance at redemption. She finds herself caught up in the schemes of Father Yarvi, Gettland’s deeply cunning minister. But she has been named a murderer by the very man who trained her to kill. Desperate to avenge her dead father, she lives to fight.
Sometimes a girl is touched by Mother War.
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