Sharp Ends

This was a great collection of twisted short stories. It’s Abercrombie at his best. I’ve reviewed each one individually: A Beautiful Bastard- 5/5-I feel like I’ve been waiting for this story for a long time. If you’ve readThe First Law Trilogythen you’ll know what an ugly bastard Glockta is. He was captured by the enemy and tortured to the point of ruination. As a result, he reaps vengeance on the world, but still serves his country. This story is a glimpse of the Glockta we often hear [...]

Buddy read with the lovely one, Sarah3.5/5 StarsSharp Ends, the ultimate collection of Tales from the World of First Law by Abercrombie’s, is a great dessert to provide insights and more info for most of the previously established characters.Picture: My complete collection of Joe Abercrombie’s ‘The First Law’ seriesThere’s no way I’m missing any stories in the First Law world, it’s one of my favorite series of all time, especially the First Law trilogy.Unlike most anthologies, ther [...]

4/5Buddy read with my lovely friend; PetrikSo my phone kinda deleted all the notes I had written down to write this review. Clearly the world hates me right now.Also I see a lot of people starting their First Law journey with this Anthology or one of the standalones Why do they do this? Please read the series in order so you actually know what's going on.I'm going to do my review a little differently then I was going to: All novellas in this book apart from Made a Monster, gets a solid rating of [...]

I remember reading one of my friends' reviews for a short story collection where they updated the review as they read each story. Seems like a cool format and I good way to keep track of each story, so here we are. A Beautiful Bastard: 5 Stars.Really strong short story. The malicious "practice sessions" led by Glokta and cheered on by his sycophants while a military campaign was conducted (poorly) in the background created a real sense of unease and tension. The characters really stole the show [...]

This is a book about Shev and Javre, plus nostalgic episodes from other stories in First Law Universe.I think this book is mainly for telling the hilarious stories of Shev and Javre, but because the length is not long enough for novel length book, then book added some chapters of previous First Law stories. The additions have various quality but mainly are for comic relief or showing some characterization of a few characters. My personal favorites of course the appearance of Corporal Tunny.Maybe [...]

I NEED MORE GLOKTA!!!!!

3 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum bibliosanctum/2016/04/25/The full title of this anthology is actually Sharp Ends: Stories from the World of the First Law, so fans of Joe Abercrombie’s novels set in this universe should be in for a treat. All thirteen tales in here are set in the Circle of the World, spanning a period that starts about a decade before the beginning of The Blade Itself and ends a few years after Red Country, and some feature locations and characters that have appeared before i [...]

(Actualización: la colección ya está disponible en español y se titula Filos mortales).Reseña de todas las historias y de la colección en general en mi blog: Click aquí.One of my most anticipated reads of 2016 and it didn't disappoint! Joe Abercrombie returns to his dark, brutal and gritty world with thirteen stories that revisit some key moments narrated in his different books, providing detailed background for our old favourites characters: Logen Ninefingers, Glokta, Temple, Shy South, [...]

Sharp Ends revisits stories from the world of the First Law series. It's packed with a variety of tales from ones that have only been mentioned to some that no one knew happened. A slew of characters from The First Law series appear such as Sand dan Glokta, Curnden Craw, Whirrun of Bligh, Temple, Shy, Bremer dan Gorst, Nicomo Cosca, and many others. The book also includes varying stories about new characters Shevedieh the best thief in Styria and Javre the Lioness of Hoskopp.The stories vary for [...]

I wonder after reading the four singles if I would have liked the trilogy as much. I tend to think I wouldn't. JA's writing style was fresh for me then. It's quirky and interesting but not smooth by any means. I've bored over time of his story telling. It can be good in parts but then boring as hell in others. This 7th book reflected all of that. Some of the shorts I really enjoyed. Others I hated. Some like Glotka's story I wanted to see beyond where it ended. I found Shev and Javre's stories t [...]

I hardly ever read short stories, preferring my books to be long and full. However I was willing to make an exception for this author especially when I saw that one of his stories was about Glokta! As it turned out it was worth buying the whole book just for that one short story but then there was so much more.Writing really strong characters is one of Abercrombie's greatest strong points and his tales of Shy, Glokta and Nine Fingers were brilliant back stories. Then he introduced some new (to m [...]

Well I am going to keep this review short. Just like the stories in the book.Overall, pretty average I have to say. It was nice being back in that world, but the stories were pretty bland. There are a couple of stories that follow on from each other, which made the book tolerable. But it certainly showed me that I am not a fan of very short stories. There was really nothing to get your teeth into and felt more like adding some scenes to sell another book.This is NOT a book to buy to give you an [...]

Full review at: thequeenofblades/This book contains everything I love about Abercrombie and more. Gritty realism, vulgar language, dark humour, blood, guts, desperation. What more could you ask for? This has had the desired effect and now I feel like I need to go read everything by this author! This is a big problem for me because I've already got books waiting and books I've paused to read other books and now I can't keep up anymore! Dammit. *I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an [...]

Joe Abercrombie is back into amazing shape with an astonishing, superb, brilliant and uncanny set of short stories. There's not a single one I didn't lurve (well, ok to be perfectly candid, maybe "Freedom" isn't on the same level as the others, I said "maybe"). Also, the four stories featuring Shev and Javre are sort of a short novel of their own, and they somewhat remind me of Lansdale's Hap and Leonard (and that's a good thing, in case you're wondering).What I loved the most about "Sharp Ends" [...]

I'm having trouble rating/reviewing this book. On the one hand, yay! More Joe Abercrombie. On the other hand, I think I'm just not as satisfied by his short stories as I am his books. I totally think this is a personal issue rather than any fault of the anthology itself. I enjoyed the Shev/Javre stories the most and I think this is because they were the characters who reappeared the most throughout. The other stories felt more toss-a-way. Maybe if I had just come off reading the books, they migh [...]

Loved it. As expected with short story collection it is a bit of a mixed bag: most stories are good and some are awesome but inevitably there are a few that I didn’t care for. Hence the 4*.Highly recommend to Abercrombie fans and readers familiar with the First Law world. I wouldn’t recommend for the new readers – whilst some stories would work, majority would lose too much without the context.Here are few sentences about each story as I’ve read them:Beautiful Bastard - 3* Nice insight t [...]

Un momento, que me limpio las salpicaduras de sangre y vísceras y vuelvo.Un momeeeeeento…Ya. (Es que el último relato era de Logen Nuevededos. Costaba limpiárselo todo).A ver, sigo sin ser amigo de las historias cortas porque los personajes no están suficientemente definidos para mi gusto. Tiene que tener mucha fuerza en la historia para que por sí sola salve el relato.Pero si ya has leído el resto de libros de Abercrombie este no es sino leer alguna peripecia más de nuestros viejos con [...]

I’m a huge fan of Joe Abercrombie, especially of his “First Law” series. This anthology is set in this grimdark world of violence and treachery, and fleshes out many of the much-loved/much-hated characters from the original trilogy and the three stand-alone novels.My favorites out of the thirteen short stories were:“A Beautiful Bastard”, the story of Colonel Sand dan Glokta immediately before his was taken captive and tortured by the Gurkish army. My biggest complaint comes with this s [...]

Ha sido una alegría volver a reencontrarme con viejos conocidos como Whirrum, Shy, Gorst, Glotka, Cosca, Logen y los norteños y muchos más en estos relatos llenos de asesinos, timadores, traiciones, peleas, escaramuzas y filos de hachas y espadas.Mis relatos preferidos:Trabajos ridículos: Me ha encantado el humor negro que destila el relato. Craw y sus secuaces haciendo un trabajito.Lugar equivocado, momento equivocado: Revivimos desde otros puntos de vista de gente desconocida, los hechos n [...]

I have to have thisw!!!!!! I'm obsessed with the First Law series and the bloody nine! Oh yes, oh yes ohhhhhh yes!!!!!

En Filos Mortales el autor de Lancaster nos lleva por trece relatos ambientados en las distintas épocas de La Primera Ley, encontrándonos con personajes habituales y queridos así como la presentación de otros nuevos que utiliza como protagonistas de varios relatos. Trece relatos que sirven para profundizar un poco más en el Circulo del Mundo y algunos de los sucesos acontecidos, trece relatos para conocer a Joe Abercrombie en su vertiente adulta o en su defecto, volver a ella.Una colección [...]

1. 'A Beautiful Bastard' - 5/5A great little prequel to the First Law series, featuring a pre-crippling Goska in his glory days2. 'Small Kindnesses' - 5/5Abercrombie introduces two new characters in this short story and I already want to read a whole series of novels about them3. 'The Fool Jobs' - 4/5On a raid with some of our favourite Northmen (and women)4. 'Skipping Town' - 5/5Ah, I see! We have a framing sequence. Excellent!5. 'Hell' - 3/5That one was a bit 'meh'. Perhaps because I hadn't be [...]

FULL REVIEW ON MY BLOG, TOTAL INABILITY TO CONNECTThere are few things I love more than Joe Abercrombie's writing, specifically his First Law works. I was excited, after getting a short-story collection from Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire series last fall, to get back into Fitch's series as well.Anyone who's read my reviews and blog knows that I'm a big, BIG fan of novellas and shorts. Love them. A collection of shorts is a great thing as well, especially a novel containing something like 12 new [...]

So, take this review with this caveat - I am not really a fan of short stories and this is a book of short storiesI loved the glimpse into the life of a pre-tortured Glokta. I liked the stories with Shev and Javre all of those were good except the last one which I didn't care for (the one where the stolen package changes hands about 10 times). I also didn't like the story with Costa in it. The rest of the stories were just OK.I have a hard time getting into short stories and I didn't remember wh [...]

In Wheel of Time units, this book is "Traveling Circus" level pointless.

This is a solid 3.5 star anthology collection. Most of the stories were good, not great, and a few were wonderful. I'm thinking particularly of "The Beautiful Bastard," which shows us a pre-Gurkish torture ruination Glokta, and the very entertaining "Two's Company," which takes two characters that form the backbone of this collection, and pairs them with my personal favorite Abercrombie character, Whirrun of Bligh, aka Cracknut ('cause his nut is cracked).Even though all of these stories could b [...]

Hay algún relato más flojo que otro, pero en general son todos excelentes, sobre todo los nuevos, destacan sobre los antiguos. Abercrombie demuestra que no ha perdido el ritmo que la trilogía The Shattered Sea ha sido un descanso para volvernos a tirar a la cara su gritty más oscuro. Porque el grimdark no se trata solo de mostrar la faceta oscura de la humanidad, el sarcasmo, la ironía y los dobles sentidos son parte importante de este género, y Abercrombie es el rey.

Once I got over Glokta being in this book for only about fifteen pages, I . . . well, actually I'm not over that at all. Having somehow ignored the numerous places where the contents of this book are referred to as "short fiction," including the inside cover, I understand that I have only myself to blame for thinking I was going to get some sort of pre-First Law-era novel, but dammit if I don't need more Glokta in my life than what's here. The teasing taste of what a miserable, talented bastard [...]

This review can also be found on my blog:thetattooedbookgeek.wordpressI received a free copy of this book courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.Joe Abercrombie is one of my favourite authors, I absolutely loved The First Law trilogy and the three individual books set in the same world after but I've never read his The Shattered Sea trilogy as the YA tag put me off as the things I really like about his books aren't YA, the dry wit, the dark flawed characters, bloody and bruta [...]

In a genre plagued by gamergate bullshit and rabid puppy idiocy and mad NRx fedora hatters and #whitegenocide stupid, this author stands out as a class act. Readers should be aware that Abercrombie was targeted for abuse by ROH, regarding the handling of a non-heteronormative character in The Last Argument of Kings, and instead of nuking the vitriolic presentation, engaged the underlying criticism and accepted it in part on aesthetic grounds (that all occurred in a thread at asoiaf.westeros).Thi [...]