Red Country: Book Review

I just finished reading Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. This is the ninth novel of Abercrombie's that I have read, leaving only the Sharp Ends collection remaining. And I'm not motivated to go to that one, so we'll see when that happens.

This book is inspired by Westerns. The premise is quite simple: Shy South returns home to find that her younger siblings have been kidnapped, their caretaken killed. So, she sets out with her cowardly stepfather to track down the man responsible. The largest appeal here is the character cameos, which I cannot mention without spoilers.

This book is definitely my least favorite of the nine that I have read. I found the characters to be less interesting except for a few, and the plot and setting did not compensate to my liking. Additionally, my reading experience was rather split. I was rather detached from everything in the beginning, but I actually grew to like everything as the story continued.

Despite the low ratings for Abercrombie, I still found this book to be enjoyable in parts. A bad Abercrombie is not a bad book, by any means.

Overall (No Spoilers)

I mentioned before that the reading experience was rather split—that I did not enjoy the first part, but did enjoy the second half. The interesting thing is that this was not simply because the story reached its climax. For some reason, all the characters and my connection to them was completely lacking. I remember reading a sex scene between two characters, and I felt nothing. It just felt so empty, and I don't know why. Strangely, even Temple fell flat for me.

All of that changed in the second half of the book. By the time that I finished the book, I was completely engaged again, and much of what I didn't like before, I was actually excited by. For example, I was actually invested in Temple's character, despite the unbridled meh at the beginning.

This might just be because of my general mood, but I'm also wondering if it had to do with how the story was written. I've mentioned before that I think characters are defined, in part, by their role in the plot. What makes a character compelling is how they influence the flow of the story. So, a story that sacrifices plot for character often fails, because the characters, perhaps well-defined, have no concrete way of making their character traits manifest in noticeable ways.

This might be the reason the characters were so much less interesting in the beginning. The plot was much less present, and the characters were less of an influence on the story. Either that, or I was just in a bad mood.

I liked all the cameos in the story, though I can't really talk specifics, here. I can't even mention who one of them is, though the other is Cosca (he's mentioned on the back of the book).

Probably one of the more important things in this story that did not work for me was the character of Shy South. I agree with the general sentiment of most readers that her character is not that interesting. Other than spiting through the gap in her front teeth, she does not have memorable quirks about her—and she fits too neatly into the tough girl stereotype. People also compare her to Manza, and there is some truth to it; except that Manza is much more interesting. Manza had complexity to her character that was revealed over the course of the story, and we did not get any of this in Red Country.

Overall, the book was okay. I will give it a 5/10.

Strides (Spoilers)

The first thing I want to talk about is Cosca. I love how his character was handled in this story. He is much less likeable than in previous installments, and this makes him all the better. Throughout Best Served Cold, Cosca was sober due to pressure from the group and the threat of Morveer. In this one, he is a full-on drunk, and he is basically at his worst. I know some people claimed his character was assassinated in the portrayal, as Cosca is basically a villain in this book, but I think the turn is deliberate and for the better. Cosca is a man who squandered everything and made himself into a monster through drinking and pointless greed.

I especially liked his death scene and the moments leading up to it, as his motivations are questioned, and he simply doesn't know why he is doing what he is doing; he's just mindlessly inflicting wanton cruelty on the world. And then his final words, or the lack thereof, was also perfect. Cosca was such a waste in the context of the story itself; he could have been so much more, but he wasted everything.

The next big thing is the return of Logen Ninefingers. Now, I am one of those bastards that did not think Logen was all that great of a character in the original series. He was good, but Glokta was the one standout POV character that I liked, the rest being alright. Even then, I really liked seeing Logen again. For some reason, I really like the trope of the old man with a secret past that is revealed slowly through narrative to the perspective of a younger character. Every time Shy learned something new about Logen, I got so excited.

Temple was another good character, all things considered. His tempestuous connection to God and the fact that he was a jack of all trades with no talent are both motifs that I don't think I will forget any time soon. And his arc from a cowardly scumbag to a kinda brave guy with something to fight for was fun and engaging. Your perception of the character completely changes by the end of the story, but not in a way that is so sudden that it feels contrived or naively optimistic. Basically, this is an Abercrombie redemption arc, if there ever could be one.

Finally, I liked how the dragon people were portrayed. They had sympathetic motivations, and had norms that developed for understandable reasons, even if it involved kidnapping children. Praising the moral ambiguity is repetitive, at this point, but I lap this shit up every time.

Stumbles (Spoilers)

For spoilers, I found that I did not think this story was as interesting in terms of themes. Something that made the rest of the stories interesting was how everything came together at the end, highlighting a particular theme. In The Wisdom of Crowds, everything came full circle, with them casting off Bayaz, all to replace him with Glokta; but with hints at possible change for the better, even if the hints only exist to torture us over what could be. And Best Served Cold is another example, where it turns out the man who betrayed Manza was basically justified and hardly any different from her.

I didn't really grasp any larger themes in this story. The themes that were touched upon were too vague and general (and repetitive, for that matter) to resonate with me. I guess the idea that the dragon people were a whole lot nicer than Cosca's band of mercenaries is part of Abercrombie's typical theme, but Cosca was hated by the main characters, and they were even forced to ally with him rather than really choosing to align with him, so this has none of the same impact as the reveal at the end of Best Served Cold.

The lack of Bayaz or any character related to magic was also a disappointing loss. These stories are best when they have these characters on the peripheries pulling their strings, but there is none of that here. This story is too isolated to fit into the larger narrative, and it really doesn't need to exist.

Conclusion

Overall, the book was okay. I will give it a 5/10.