Hello to all of you keen readers! I must admit that I have only finished one book this week – but what a book!!!

You may remember that Joe Abercrombie is one of my most favourite authors of all time. In fact, I believe that I have read just about all of his books to date and this one, The Wisdom of Crowds, is his latest…

The book is the final part of his The Age of Madness trilogy. Here is the blurb:

”Chaos. Fury. Destruction.

The Great Change is upon us . . .

Some say that to change the world you must first burn it down. Now that belief will be tested in the crucible of revolution: the Breakers and Burners have seized the levers of power, the smoke of riots has replaced the smog of industry, and all must submit to the wisdom of crowds.

With nothing left to lose, Citizen Brock is determined to become a new hero for the new age, while Citizeness Savine must turn her talents from profit to survival before she can claw her way to redemption. Orso will find that when the world is turned upside down, no one is lower than a monarch. And in the bloody North, Rikke and her fragile Protectorate are running out of allies . . . while Black Calder gathers his forces and plots his vengeance.

The banks have fallen, the sun of the Union has been torn down, and in the darkness behind the scenes, the threads of the Weaver’s ruthless plan are slowly being drawn together . . .”

I really took my time to read this as I love Abercrombie’s work so much. None of that “skipping through to get to the good bit”  – all of the “bits” are good! This is my review as posted on Goodreads:

The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

OMG! Wow! Amazing! I simply can’t believe it! Phew!

Right, now that my first reactions are out of the way, what can I say about this book? Well, it was certainly packed full with brilliant writing, as I have come to expect from Joe Abercrombie. I love his dark and gritty humour, his beautifully written settings, his clever plot twists and his well-drawn characters. Reading the Kindle edition, it was so interesting to see other people’s highlights of particularly witty sections. But amongst the humour there is always tragedy and some of the worst traits of human nature.

For once, some of the plot twists had me gasping with surprise. With other authors, I usually spot them coming long before they arrive. In this book, there are some really shocking and, yes, bleak moments, but always leavened with that tone of sardonic amusement.

The characters are interesting and well-developed throughout all three books. I like the way that Abercrombie rarely writes wholly evil or totally good characters. Most are leavened with opposite traits, so that they appear like true human beings, flawed as we really are. Some of his characters may surprise the reader with unexpected good actions or, more often, the total reverse!

Now that I have finished the book, I am going to look through the list of Abercrombie’s work and make sure that I have read everything published to date. When I have done that, I will have to occupy myself with lesser writers until he gives us his next work.

I can’t wait!

View all my reviews

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I am so fortunate that there are so many other fantastic books to keep me busy! My life seems very dark and grim these days, so fantasy, thrillers and science fiction really help to take my mind away from my troubles. I have already started a new book and I will tell you which one next week (or you could just have a look at the Goodreads widget in the sidebar, which tells all!).

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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