Damn! Joe Abercrombie loves to end a trilogy in a dark, twisted way. The Wisdom of Crowds ties off the series so well and ended in such a way that I was sad, angry, and dying to read more. It is crazy how much Abercrombie’s universe has changed since those first books and in such a short amount of time. I think there will be some spoilers from here on out.
I do not know why I ever have expectations when it comes to Abercrombie. He is the master of the red herring (or maybe he plants a false Chekhov’s gun). For example, in the first book he makes us think that Prince Orso is a drunk and is not a good person and that he would definitely not be someone who has any skill at fencing. And then when practicing with his father, we learn that he is good and he likes to pretend to be worse than he is. Abercrombie makes it seem important that Orso will at some point fight Brock. And yet, it never happens.
It is the same with Broad and the way he is made to remind us of Logen. You expect there to either be a moment when he battles with Caul Shivers, or perhaps the Bloody-Nine will show back up and fight Broad. And yet, that does not happen. Why would it? It makes no damn sense, but when you hear about two people being big, scary fighters, you just assume they will have to meet at some point, right?
This is not a complaint. This is something I love about Joe Abercrombie. I think I know where the book is going and then it goes somewhere different (and usually in a much darker path) and it always ends up paying off. Although, one thing that happened that I totally saw coming was Glokta ending up being the Weaver. But again, it worked out and the story was better for it. Also, it fulfilled that moment from the end of the First Law Trilogy when Glokta tells Jezal that even though they are puppets to Bayaz, maybe they can continue to do some good without him noticing.
I am not going to lie, I may have shed a tear when I realized that Orso did not make it (I am holding out hope that Savine had Curnsbick build a hanging machine that would somehow keep Orso alive…but I highly doubt it). I thought for sure the king would find a way to survive. Even at the end, I thought he may challenge Brock to a sword fight, and Leo being cocky even without a leg and arm, thinking Orso is a fop would end up dying a satisfying death. But no, that is not the Joe Abercrombie way.
So where do things go from here? My guess is the next installment of this universe will see Savine and Leo’s son on the throne and he will be a young man. I wonder what Bayaz will end up doing. He is having Clover train Calder’s other son in the way of the sword (even though the kid is already really skilled, Clover is teaching him…the art of being like Clover) and it seems that he has Hildi working on numbers (will Hildi and May Broad be on opposite sides of a finance war?). Will Glokta (or Savine) be working at keeping the Union out of Bayaz’s hands? Or will we learn that something bad happened and Bayaz was defeated by another Magi?
What was Rikke’s vision about? I keep reading theories that Glustrod is going to return from the Other Side, which makes sense, but I wonder if it will actually be Juvens who returns. Remember, Bayaz said that Kanedias killed Juvens, but no one actually knows. What if Juvens returns and destroys Bayaz and the other Magi and instead of bringing magic back to the world, he completely ends magic in the First Law world…who knows, but it will be interesting no matter what.
A few other things…
-I was very angry when Tunny was taunting Orso and Hildi. I should have seen it coming that he would still be loyal and just be trying to get a message to his king, but for some reason it made me mad and I was very disappointed in Tunny. Then we learn the truth and I definitely gave a little cheer.
-Clover is one of my favorite characters of all-time and I am glad that Rikke allowed him to live.
-I loved when Rikke killed Stour.
-I have a weird theory that Abercrombie got the name for the city Valbeck from the name of a friend of the assassin of William McKinley. Leon Czolgosz has a friend name Valbeck (although I think it is spelled Walbeck, but if you hear it spoken, it sounds the same, so maybe there are multiple spellings). You may think this is a coincidence, but Czolgosz said that he was pushed to more socialist/anarchist ideas by his friend. Yeah, probably just a coincidence. Whatever.
