Half a King Review

Truth is, I had to battle with myself to get through Half a King.  Some of my most respected reviewers gave this book high praise, but there were long stretches during my reading where I was not feeling it.  However, I'd been seeing absolute raves over the second book in the Shattered Sea series — Half a World.  I resolved to work through Half a King, because forgoing its sequel seemed foolhardy.  As it turns out, Half a World was, indeed, so worth it.  I gobbled the book up and already have an itch to re-read it.  I'll get to that review in a bit.  For now, I'm going to parse out the strengths and weaknesses of Half a King.

The book has a single narrator — Yarvi, the younger son of the king of Gettland. Yarvi has a nasty attitude, which stems largely from his insecurities over his badly deformed left hand.  He's training to be a minister, a sort of jack-of-all-trades advisor to royalty, but the murder of his father and older brother forces him onto the throne.

At this point, I would have expected Yarvi to stumble through his first months of kinghood, making terrible blunders and chafing under his newfound responsibilities, but gradually getting his legs under him, and slowly winning the respect and admiration of his guard, his ministers, and his people, ultimately becoming a triumphant, if unorthodox king.

The book... does not go in this direction.  That is not to say that Half a King defies all well-worn plot lines.  But it does have an unexpected twist at the onset of the narrative that sends the book spinning into a more unexpected direction.  I won't get into the details, because spoilers!  But we do get to meet a great cast of characters and experience a number of diverse settings.

My main complaint with Half a King has to do with my dislike of our main character, Yarvi.  I've read enough reviews of the book to know that many readers disagree with me.  I totally understand where they're coming from.  I typically love a good underdog hero as well.  Yarvi, however, got on my nerves.  Abercrombie is fond of dirty realism, and lingers over Yarvi's human weaknesses — Yarvi shirks, whimpers, whines, and cries aplenty.  Abercrombie toes the line between making Yarvi realistic and making him a hero readers can get behind.  It's a thin edge, and I fell on the side of disliking the little bastard for his failures.

Fortunately, there were enough good elements in Half a King to distract me from my distaste for the protagonist.  The supporting cast was great.  Abercrombie, although a man, can write some seriously compelling female characters. (Thank you, Joe Abercrombie!)  There were great heroes and villains, as well, and even more in-between characters.  Near the end of the book, there is a totally unexpected and thrilling twist.  It was so much fun to read; my mouth hung open in delighted shock for a good while.

All in all, I can't see myself re-visiting Half a King, but I'm so glad I read it because of its sequel.  Half a World rests on all the world-building and plot set-up of its predecessor and far surpasses Half a King.  I can honestly say that I can't wait for Abercrombie's next installment.  Count me hooked.