Best Served Cold was the book that stole my wallet.
– What now? Was it that expensive?
– Well, no, it wasn’t exactly expensive or anything. Heck, it’s so cheap that I even bought two of ’em.
– So what’s your point, then?
– If you can just shuddup a second, I’ll get to it:
When I visited Oslo in June, it was solely so that I could get a copy of Best Served Cold by Joe Abercombie. I go in to greater detail about what happened next in this post right here, but the gist of it is that on my way to the signing, my wallet got nicked.
– Huh, that’s unlucky. So what did you, then?
– I got my damned book signed, that’s what I did! And then then I went to the police.
But enough about me, let’s talk about the book. ‘Cause it damn well deserves it.
Best Served Cold is fantasy novel set in the same world as Abercrombie’s debut trilogy, The First Law. If you want to, you can read my reviews of the books of that trilogy by pressing the links to book 1, book 2 and book 3, but the long and short of it is that The First Law fuckin’ rocked.
So the question becomes, does Best Served Cold rock equally hard? And the answer is: Kinda, yeah.
But not quite.
Here, let me elaborate:
Best Served Cold is – surprise, surprise – a story of revenge, heaped with revenge and some similar tasting side-dishes of betrayal, disloyalty and a good helping of old fashioned backstabbing. The book begins with introducing the main character, a very successful mercenary captain called Monzacarro, and then we get to find out why (and how) she wants to exact revenge on some very powerful people.
So bascially it’s a medievalesque version of Kill Bill, only the story is told with a motley crew of fascinating side-characters. Some of these characters are old favourites, like “Shivers” and “Nicomo Cosca”, others are people only referenced in the First Law trilogy and some are, of course, factory fresh.
Best Served Cold is without a doubt an enjoyable book, and was well worth getting my wallet stolen over (well, not really, but you get my point). Abercrombie has a knack for coming up with entertaining characters that keeps the book pumping way, and the dialogue is fine as well. It’s also very dark and humorous, and I never felt like putting the book away, which is a rarity.
However. And yes, there is a however. In fact, there are many.
I was expecting more, and I was expecting something a little more daring.
That may be unfair to Joe Abercrombie. His first books were fairly successful and critically lauded, so he came up with a new enough theme and setting and went to work. And that’s fine, really. It’s just that I had hoped to see this book try to stretch his storytelling abilities even further than it did ( though it’s by no means a simplistic book). I wish he could’ve found a way to make the “vengeance” theme new again, in stead of writing a helluva good, but seemingly a bit run-of-the-mill variant on what we’ve so often seen before.
But that’s wishing for a different book, and is most certainly unfair to Joe, so I’ll quiet down now. It’s not his fault that I have no great affection for a good vengeance story, especially if they’re done in such an earnest manner as here. I love Kill Bill vol. 1, but that’s because it feels like romp, even though it’s incredibly dark and twisted. Kill Bill vol. 2 lost some of that charm, and made a go for earnest, and that’s why vol. 1 is the superior movie.
I also question whether the secondary world setting for such a story is optimal. It no doubt works, but I can’t help but feel like it would’ve carried more punch if set in the Real World. Fantasy & Science Fiction are genres often best utilized when used to tell stories that translate back to what we see around us, but the stories are often of such a nature that they require a different world to be told. Not that you can’t tell any story short of epic in SFF – that’s not what I’m saying – it’s just that I don’t see why Best Served Cold is a fantasy book. It would’ve carried much more punch if it wasn’t.
But make no mistake; this is a good book. Best Served Cold is about a woman who needs to kill some powerful men, and if you want to read Abercrombies iteration on that, I heartily welcome you to. It’s the best fantasy book of 2009 so far. Not that that says as much as you’d think.
8.0/10
Jon Octavius Kleiven
a Slight Apocalypse 
Ok, Kill Bill vol.1 is the first half, it’s not “the superior movie”. Might be the superior HALF, if that’s what’s to your liking, but it’s not its own movie. They even share ending credits, both including the cast of the other one. Clearly not two movies.
I love a good vengeance-story, by the way. Vengeance is, indeed, possibly the motivation I feel is the most powerful of all in fiction, because it holds elements of everything else. It holds elements of romance, because clearly the character’s lost something or someone he or she cared deeply about, and this will need to be somewhat explored. It holds elements of mystery, because usually you need to discover what and why the revenge is considered necessary by the protagonist – and also often why the antagonist did whatever he or she did at all. It holds elements of action, obviously, but it also holds elements of on-the-run-stories, as the antagonist, as you say is the case here, is usually vastly more powerful than whoever’s hunting him. And, often, a ton of other elements as well.
All driven by this one motivation that you never really get to pursue in modern society. Revenge is not the way of the civilised anymore, and I love getting to see it exacted in fiction instead. And fantasy is the very pinpoint of the type of fiction that can serve you what you can’t find in real-life, thus I feel it being set in a fantasy-world sounds appealing. I think the only thing I’ve read along those lines before was “Talon of the Silver Hawk”, by R. E. Feist, but that one doubled as the first book in a more typical fantasy-trilogy, and such served two masters.
So, basically, when you’ve said the book is good and a revenge-story, I think you had me hooked.
By the way, chronologically, geographically and cast-wise, how related is the book to the trilogy?
Kill Bill vol. 1 was released seperately from vol. 2 both on dvd and in cinemas, so saying that they’re the same movie cut in two is like saying LotR is a film cut in three parts. To some extent, it’s true, but it’s also possible to judge them seperately, and that’s what I’v done.
Chronologically it’s set some time after book 3. Geographically it’s set on a different continent / country (hard to say because it’s got no map, but there’s obviously some room between ’em). Cast-wise is like I described in the review; some old, minor playors, some people you’ve only heard of once or twice and some totally new characters. And yes, it does kind of spoil what happens in the First Law (some of it, anyway), so I wouldn’t recommend picking this up before you’re done with the trilogy.
Judging them separately is silly. Seen separately, vol. 1 has virtually no plot-resolution, and vol. 2 is strongly lacking in exposition. They’re both way weaker seen like that. The whole makes the parts stronger by far than any individual part is on its own. But sure, if its your preference, you can do so.
I’m reading the trilogy this spring. (Leaving them in Montreal when I go home to save luggage-space, so thus the wait). If I like it as much as I expect to, I’ll pick up this one later. Thanks for the reply. 🙂