A Little Hatred: Book Review

I just finished reading A Little Hatred, which is the first novel in The Age of Madness Trilogy, by Joe Abercrombie. Abercrombie has also written The First Law Trilogy, which I rather enjoyed. This book is a continuation of that story thirty or so years later, with that gap bridged with three standalone novels that I have not read yet. This new trilogy has a new cast of characters to replace the old, though many of the older characters are mentioned or even appear as side characters. The backdrop of this series is the advent of the industrial revolution, where big business is thriving. And in true grimdark fashion, the advent of the factories led to rampant abuse of commonfolk, with overpopulation and consequent low wages and widespread unemployment.

Overall (No Spoilers)

Overall, I enjoyed the book. At the same time, after reading many reviews and seeing other people's thoughts, I stopped to reevaluate things and I do have a number of problems that I are not major enough to ruin the story for me (because I've chosen to jump straight to The Trouble with Peace, instead of waiting), but which I think are still worth mentioning.

The best parts of this book are the usual things that you expect to be good for Abercrombie.

The first thing I will talk about are the characters. There are a lot more than there were in The First Law trilogy. There is Rikke, Clover, Leo, Orso, Vick, Savine, and Broad. (And I might have missed one, lol. But that's my own fault.) I liked the characterization, overall. Each of the characters stand out in relation to the rest, and they are more interesting given their relationships with each other and with side characters. I think I have mentioned this before: characters are not just interesting as individuals, but are augmented by their relation to one another (Zuko would not be nearly as good without Iroh at his side). I think this book stands out because of that. Rikke, Clover, Orso, Savine, and Broad are my favorite characters. I can't mention the relations, due to spoilers, but I will talk about those in the relevant section.

Abercrombie's character voice is the primary thing that makes these characters stand out. The characters, themselves, are not the most interesting (though they aren't bad); I think the character voice just carries them so well. Making the reader feel as if the character were a real person is ultimately what matters, the way to do this is through voice.

I also like the violence. It's visceral and vivid, and it is communicated in the perfect way. There isn't too much to say, especially because I'll probably just repeat this for every violent book I read. I just think it's worth mentioning.

I also enjoyed the tone. Abercrombie's style is the perfect balance of grim and humorous. He expertly blends the dark elements with a kind of humor that doesn't make light of what is happening, but simultaneously doesn't not take itself too seriously. I want to mention one scene in particular, but you'll have to check out the spoiler section for that.

Tightly related to the humor are the witty one-liners that are dropped throughout the novel. From beginning to end, people drop these aphorisms, and while the dialogue is not exactly realistic, it is fun to read.

The fights scenes, or the action scenes in general, are also great. They are very engrossing, and when shit starts to happen, it is impossible to put the book down.

Now, there are negative things that are worth mentioning, as well.

The main thing is that the book honestly just feels like a very long prologue for what is to come. And this problem is something that The First Law Trilogy suffered, as well. I don't remember how much it annoyed me when I read that trilogy, but I vaguely recall that it did not matter that much. That said, I am giving less credit here. I've heard people praise this book, and this series, to the heavens, claiming that Abercrombie listened to his critics and managed to fix the lack of plot that hurt in the first trilogy, but I think this was only a slight fix, honestly. The plot in this book is not that eventful, and what does happen just seems to be reversed to the status quo, with tensions still boiling underneath. So, it merely hints at more substantive things happening in the future. In other words, it is a prologue for the next book.

I am excited to get to the next book. At the same time, that's only because this book simply hypes up what is the come.

Another thing I want to comment on is the handling of gender. In The First Law, I know that Abercrombie was criticized for his female characters not being very good (or as plentiful), and it is clear that he has acknowledged the criticisms. At the same time, I think he might have overcorrected in some ham-fisted ways. I saw some reviews saying that this book has gone woke and is feminist propaganda, which made me laugh—the cringey political takes are always entertaining—but it's not that bad. I should also mention that the handling of women in The First Law did not annoy me, and I liked Ferro and Ardee. (I'm also a guy, so take that how you will.)

In this book, we are still talking about a patriarchal society with the first signs of change coming along. The story acknowledges that sexism is still around, which makes sense, but he rather bluntly throws in comments from numerous perspectives, talking about how women are either better than men, or are a least fawning over them in a weird way. The "reverse sexism" does not annoy me. People like that exist. And there's obviously a kernel of truth to some of it: men absolutely are more prone to arrogance than women. At the same time, I don't think these based feminist attitudes would be as widespread as they are portrayed. And the repetition and the exaggerated perspectives go well beyond simple asides and it just makes me wonder how many people are actually thinking this. I think Abercrombie tried a bit too hard to correct his prior "faults," if that's how you want to call them.

That said, it's not cartoonish either. There are places where characters' actions often contradict what the characters say. For example, after a man comments on how useless and arrogant men are compared to women in military matters, a woman is then given a reality check after being too arrogant. And there are some women who are aspiring to be as vengeful as the worst men are (and I'm not thinking of Ferro). There is even a scene where a woman comments on men's violence, while another comments on her hypocrisy, as that woman had killed multiple people right before then. Finally, it's not as bad as the Game of Thrones show, where the characters gradually forgot about the patriarchy after a certain rape scene in season five.

I also think some other related criticisms are not fair. Some critics suggested that all the male characters are buffoons, and all the women are clever and reasonable. This is not exactly true, with characters like Rikke, Orso, and Clover breaking that mold for their own reasons. I also reject some suggestions that characters like Savine are Mary Sues. I reserve that term for characters that distort the structure of the story because the author is not able to humble them. This does not apply to Savine. She's a very interesting character, and I can't wait to see how she develops.

On another note, some of the messaging was a bit too on-the-nose for me. The greed of capitalism during the industrial revolution was at the center of scrutiny, so I thought I would just mention that people continually underestimate just how awful life was before the evil factories came into being. Working in the hot sun, out in a field, from sun up to sun down every day, with no guarantee of the crops that you desperately need to survive, is horrific—and many people preferred the factories. In fact, there are vestiges of this even today, with people in third world countries preferring sweatshops over the alternative, even as these sweatshops are heartstoppingly awful compared to the first world.

Additionally, it was suggested that the wages were low merely because of profit motive, which is nonsense. In capitalism, there is competition, which acts as a counterincentive against the pressure to lower wages. If you have to attract workers away from competitors, that incentivizes you to raise the wage. The wage is determined by these two countering incentives. Now, Abercrombie shows that there is overpopulation and unemployment, which fits neatly with the idea of low wages, but it doesn't really get around the economically illiterate suggestion that wages (even low wages) are not systemically determined but are simply determined by the mindless greed of the employers. This is mainly just the usual problem that grimdark faces: the cynicism is too on the nose.

Another thing that is worth mentioning is the setting. There is another war brewing in the North. I didn't really think anything of it when I read the book, mainly because that's what happens in the North, but I did see some criticisms over the recycled plotlines. And it really does seem like it has all been done before. And in one criticism, it was suggested that the story could have been set in the anarchy of the post-Gurkish empire. And it really does strike me that the empire collapsing is much more interesting. Then again, maybe something similar will happen later in the story, here. But that only brings me back to the prologue criticism.

A small thing that occurs to me is that I did not think the schemes were as interesting or complex as I would like them to be in a political intrigue story. I think I mentioned this in my review of the original trilogy, as well. I guess I can't expect things to be as intricate as ASOIAF.

Finally, I thought the falling action of the story went on for too long. The ending should not drag like this, with most of the action happening well before the final pages.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. I think I will give it a 7/10.

Strides (Spoilers)

The first thing I want to mention is the court scene where the Burners try and convict the nobility during their revolution. The whole sequence is absurd, ridiculous, and hilarious. The whole idea of having naked nobles defend their fellow nobles just cracks me up. This is the one scene I mentioned in the section about humor. It also resonates, because the scene is also incredibly dark, given that countless people are killed without a true trial. But the humor and the grimdark feelings are not at odds.

The character relations were also great. The best one was Orso and Savine's relationship. I was amused when the cold-blooded Savine realized that she was in love with Orso, and when their relationship seemed to take off, I just knew there would be something to throw it off. And I never expected the incest reveal, though I probably should have. Savine's confession to her mother of her love, with her girlish fawning over Orso, all leading up to the realization that she has been sucking her own brother's cock is just hilarious. It's perfect grimdark, and the Abercrombie twist is the humor, making it much better than the Cersei and Jamie incest.

I also really enjoyed the relationship between Savine and Glokta. They are both vicious people, but they have a genuine constructive relationship with one another that I really enjoy. Glokta puts her through the ringer, but it is also clear that he wants what is best for her.

The relationship between Leo and his mother was also compelling. It didn't stand out to me, and I guess it's not exactly new, but it was still well done.

In fact, I think I should just highlight all the parent and child relationships, because they all worked.

Stumbles (Spoilers)

In the beginning of the book, on the first page, a prophecy is presented. A wolf eats a sun, a lion eats the wolf, a lamb eats the lion, and then an owl eats the lamb. Barring subversions, which I'll admit are likely, this prophecy is suggesting that Stour will crush the Union in some way (probably killing the Dogman and maybe going further), and Leo will then crush Stour. Orso is suggested to be the lamb in the end, so he will crush Leo. And then some unspecified owl will then crush Orso. Regardless of whether there are clever subversions to come, you would expect that at least part of this epic chain of events would have transpired in the course of this novel. But none of them have. Unless Leo beating Stour in the circle counts, but Stour has not eaten the sun, so to speak, so I don't think that's what is being referred to. This is just a more specific way of communicating how this whole book is just a prologue.

I also think I should mention the rather obtuse response that Rikke has to this prophecy. It should rather obvious how to interpret this. In fact, she interprets the lion and the wolf in the circle of blood prophecy just fine. Yet, she simply claims she has no idea what this one means, and never even tries to understand it. Which is just dumb. She doesn't have to be introspective, but she can't be this obtuse.

Finally, I want to talk about Savine's time during the rebellion. She mentions after the fact that they were starving, and I think it was also mentioned when the rebels were forced to surrender, but we did not really get to experience that fact. We were simply told that they were near starvation, but we were never really shown. I just remember thinking, did that happen? When it was recounted, it made me wonder why we didn't get more detailed accounts when Savine was actually there. It touches on it a little bit, but not nearly enough.

Prediction

I want to make a prediction based off what I have discussed above. I think Stour will go much further than killing the Dogman. I suspect that he will invade Adua and maybe even drive out (but not kill) Orso. This would be in line with the prophecy, but also a subversion, because the book will probably hint at rebellion of the common folk, only to have the Crown fall to the North.

This one is not really a prediction, but I just want to mention that Rikke told Bayaz about the prophecy that was given in the very beginning of the book, which makes me wonder how Bayaz is going to respond to it. Hype!

Conclusion

Overall, I liked the book, even if I have some criticisms. I will give it a 7/10.