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[c0mputer-castle]

[leojurand]

The Devils getting so much promo and so many special and beautiful editions means it's becoming the first Joe Abercrombie book readers are picking up and that makes me so sad we Have to make it stop. The Blade Itself isn't perfect but it's still a much better first impression! Best Served Cold benefits from having read the og trilogy beforehand but it's still!! a much better first impression please please The Devils doesn't represent Abercrombie's skills please listen to me put that book down

[faitherinhicks]

Fanart of Vigga and Brother Diaz from Joe Abercrombie's The Devils. (Prose novel fanart disclaimer: This is my interpretation of these characters. If your interpretation is different, please do not tell me I'm "drawing them wrong" and let me enjoy my fanart. Thanks in advance.)

[teratodentata]

Vigga-Wolf I love you

[vera-dauriac]

Speaking of Joe Abercrombie, if you're in the US, his publisher is releasing the original trilogy in hardback for the first time ever this summer.

[doumekiss]

In which Brother Diaz becomes a monsterfucker

[true-deru]

Why I find the Grimdark genre inspirational~

This was kinda born because I keep seeing certain takes on the genre (some naive. Some just plain bad) and I want to throw out my two cents.

The common critical take I see from people who aren't fans of the genre is they believe that Grimdark is "Everything sucks. People suck. You shouldn't fight to make things better. Just give up" and I just find this to be both a naive and pessimistic way of seeing things in this genre.

Yes, in Grimdark there's usually never a happy ending and the bad guys end up winning, but from what usually take from that is "don't want to be like these people".

I'll use The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie as an example (because I love it so much).

The character, Logen Ninefingers constantly goes through the first two books saying that he wants to change. He doesn't want to be The Bloody Nine, he doesn't want to commit his life to violence anymore. He has a saying "you got to be realistic about things" and you think he's being wise. Until the third book comes along where Logen finds himself back in his comfort zone because, to him, change is too hard and that saying truly shows how much of a defeatist he is. He could've changed, he was at the point of changing but once one thing didn't pan out the way he expected, he decided that change was too hard and went back to his old habits (One of the things I took from The First Law was "If you want to change. You have fully commit to it").

So yeah, at the end of the third book, I ended up thinking, "I don't want to be a defeatist like Logen" (There are other characters I can go on about, like Jezal also wanting to change but ended up back as an entitled, pathetic, self-righteous brat for the most part... He's just fully aware of it now compared to before).

What it boils down to for me is unlike other fantasy genre where I get inspired and think "I should follow this example", Grimdark is the opposite and makes me think, "I definitely SHOULDN'T follow this example".

Anyway, that's my two cents.

[chel-tiaz]

Points well made.

Adding my two cents to this, there are also things in The First Law that are good examples worthy of following. Logen working up the trust between him and Ferro and him and Jezal, being a staunch traveling companion. West working like a dog to be a good major, colonel, and lord marshal. Glokta being the most resilient and stubborn fucker in the whole circle of the world. Edier choosing treason to save a city. Yulwei choosing danger to save Ferro. Dogman doing his fighting best in the shadow of greater, bloodier men, even if it means doing it scared.

What I like about The First Law is that Abercrombie doesn't think his readers are stupid. His characters are bad, and good, and everything in between. Logen is still The Bloody Nine, Jezal is still a fool, Ferro is still empty, West still beat his sister, the Dogman still chose wrong about Logen. Glokta is still a torturer.

The First Law has a lot of examples of what not to do, but also many of what should be done. And all within the same set of messy humans, just like in life.

[xserpx]

Jurand looked up and their eyes met, and Leo froze, his breath held, his face tingling. ‘I ... should have been there,’ murmured Jurand. ‘At Stoffenbeck. If I'd been there—’

‘I'm glad you weren't. Glad you ... weren't hurt.’ Leo thought of Antaup then, and Jin, and Bremer dan Gorst's boots crunching across the ruined square. ‘I can't afford ... to lose you.’

— The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

‘No one believes in you more than me!’ Jurand cleared his throat, glanced at the others, sat back a little. ‘More than us. But single combat … it’s a gamble. Anything could happen. I don’t … we don’t want you to get … hurt.’ His voice failed him on the last word and became a croak. As if he couldn’t quite bring himself to say ‘killed’.

[xserpx]

Leo felt the sting of tears in his eyes. He hadn't realised how badly he'd wanted to hear it. He wanted to say he was sorry, too. Take her hand. Kiss her cheek. Be her friend. The dead knew he needed one. The way they had been long ago, sitting up in the rafters of her father's hall.

But those children were long gone. Leo hadn't chosen to make himself fearsome, but that was what the times demanded. For the sake of his country, his family, his wife. Whether they thanked him or not. Softness was now weakness. Weakness was now death. He could see no way back.

— The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

‘My turn to hide!’ shouted Leo, and he dashed off, slipped and fell, rolled in a shower of hay dust, then scrambled up and disappeared through the barn door. Made Rikke sad, for some reason, to see him go. So sad. ‘No,’ she said to herself, closing her eyes. ‘This happened long ago.’

[lifblogs]

"But Jurand... that image floated up again, of him and Glaward, bent over the bed, their gasping faces pressed together--

Leo clenched his teeth."

-- The Trouble With Peace, Joe Abercrombie, pg. 352

JEALOUSY

[xserpx]

“Some people, Orso supposed, can never forgive being forgiven.”

― The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

[xserpx]

“You know the trouble with a pretty face?” Judge was saying. “People get used to its advantages, and when it’s took away, they lack the wherewithal to make a success of themselves. Nothing sadder’n a person who used to be beautiful. They have this desperate smile. Like me, it says. Like me, even though there’s nothing left to like.”

— The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

"Which side do you think they'll come down on?" Leo asked.

Jurand looked almost puzzled. "What does it matter?"

"Just curious, I suppose. I mean, we all want to be liked."

[xserpx]

When he left Angland his mother had warned him he was no general. He saw now how right she'd been. Rash and indecisive at once, and so horribly sentimental. Losing everything, and seeing his friends dead before his eyes, and months of pain ever since had cured him of all that. Perhaps he had half the limbs, but he reckoned he was twice the man he used to be. He'd a harder head, a harder heart and, most important of all, a far stronger stomach.

— The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

[xserpx]

‘You’ve done the right thing.’ She made herself meet his eye, made herself sound sure. ‘You’ve done what you had to.’

‘Can I trust Isher?’

Savine would not have trusted him to carry her night-pot. ‘Of course you can, he’s bound to us, Leo, he has no—’

‘Can I trust Stour?’

To call Stour a wild dog was unfair. Wild dogs were at least capable of loyalty. ‘He respects you. And it’s a little late to be—’

‘Can I trust you?’

Silence.

— The Trouble With Peace by Joe Abercrombie

She clapped a hand to his head, twisted her fingers in his hair and dragged his face towards her. ‘Stop. You’re not just a warrior, or a leader, or a general, you’re a hero.’ Heroes are defined not by what they do, after all, or why, but by what people think they have done. ‘The cause is just.’ She would be a wonderful queen. ‘We have strong allies beside us.’ A circle of self-serving snakes. ‘We are going to win.’ They had fucking better. ‘And the people of the Union will win with us. They need us. They need you.’ It did not matter whether she believed it, only that she made him believe. She had to blow him up with hot air until he towered over the battlefield. ‘I need you,’ and she pulled him close, and gave him the softest kiss.

[xserpx]

"Leo, please." She caught him. Held him. Laid her firm hand on his face. "I know I pushed you. I know I lectured you. I know I was too hard. I'm sorry for all of that. Perhaps you'll see now you have children of your own... being a parent... there is no plan. It's just a set of mistakes you hardly notice making. Please believe me..." She winced at his iron leg, as if she felt the pain of it. "All I ever wanted was for you to be happy."

He swallowed, tears burning at the back of his nose. He found his balance again, pulled free of her, tugged his uniform straight. "I wish you'd fucking said so."

— The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

[xserpx]

Leo smiled, relishing his moment of victory, and a hundred reflections in the great mirrors smiled back at him. Was there something horrible in that? Given the price? A hundred reflections of Savine looked on in adoring triumph, but she could see the pale worry hidden in those copies of her own bruised face. She was not sure she had ever really loved him, but there had been plenty to admire, once. He had been generous, honest and brave. She had wanted him to be more ruthless. More ambitious. More calculating. She had moulded him into her image. Now she found she had much preferred him before.

— The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

[xserpx]

"The thought of standing terrified him, but there must still have been some stubborn remnant of the Young Lion, hidden deep inside. Better to do it than live with the fear of it, the Dogman used to say. Leo might have lost a leg and an arm, but he'd show these bastards he still had his heart."

— The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie