Case Study: Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

Introduction

2025/04/03

Case studies are almost like my review of a book I recently read and is fresh in memory. Some of it will be impressions and other more elaborated, however it will be reviewed through the lens of a writer. Such that what I liked, learned and would avoid doing in my writing (as a personal preference not because there is anything wrong with it).

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR THE ACTUAL BOOK!

Setting, theme and tone

• Medieval grimdark fantasy
• Not a lot of magic
• Brutal, crude and explicit (violence and sex scenes)
• Revenge (obviously)
• War and the toll of war
• Cost of ambition and ruthlessness
• Morality

Well done aspects

• Character Voice (main reason why I bought the book)
• Multi POVs are exceptionally handled, none are ever labelled even if used in the same chapter
• Deep POVs that literally speak for themselves, amazing to see Joe's berth of character portrayal not only through dialogue, but almost each and every sentence from how the sentences are constructed to the word choices and tone of the characters.
• Interesting (very focused) characters
• Characters are generally well fleshed out, clear motivations, desires and flaws
• Tend to be very focused individuals (not too multi-faceted, but this is a standalone book so only so much can be done)
• Characters have a sense of 'worldliness unique to them', whether it be warfare, hard living, understanding of people/politics
• Enjoyed the strategic parts of the battles, strategy session and warfare

Could be improved aspects

• Too much violence and brutality to the point of becoming overbearing leads to heavy reading
• Characters slowly become irredeemable, which makes it not only hard to relate, but it feels like watching a train wreck happening (and I don't like that)
• Some overly lofty and long winded dialogue (though bearable)
• Descriptions seemed more concise at the beginning of the book and became progressively exhaustive rather than illustrative
• Strange book ending that was juxtaposed with overall theme and tone
• Not convinced that Monza would automatically be good at statecraft just because she is good at warfare
• Very little (not explained) magic
• Vitari has slit eyes (why? what is she?)
• Shenkt has slow-mo magic (why? how does he do that and where does he come from?) - especially seeing as reference to 'magic' is laughed at through most of the book

Lessons learned

• Deep character POV is not only dialogue, but literal narration to the point where it sounds like that person had written their section (and not the author or any other character)
• Exhaustive descriptions are exhausting, especially with very detailed step-by-step fight scenes that include descriptions of every tooth and bone fragment that is lost
• Blood, guts, bones, other bodily fluids and expulsions, losing of body parts, DIE DIE DIE! Rinse and repeat... for like 500 times with little variation
• This kind of Grimdark is not for me, too brutal and too crude - will likely not read Joe again regardless of his clear prowess as a writer, creator of characters and story crafter