Last Argument Of Kings: The First Law: Book Three (original 2008; edition 2009)

Nos, fiam, adok egy kettest, mert néhol határozottan szórakoztatóan adta elő, hogy nincsen mondanivalója. ( )

As another book in the series, I enjoyed this. It was good to see that things approached an end without it being too happy -- I was almost expecting Logen to become king and have everybody love him, all of a sudden, but the book avoided that pitfall. And I was expecting him and Ferro to resolve their issues in the end, but that didn't happen either. Nor did Jezal get everything, or Terez suddenly fall in love, or anything like that. In fact, I read someone somewhere complaining that it was too much of a happy ending, but... I don't see much happy about it. No one is entirely satisfied, really.

The trouble as, as the final book of a trilogy, it doesn't satisfy me. There's no real resolution. We don't know where Ferro goes, how she finishes up. We don't know what happens to Logen. We don't know what happens to Bayaz, or whether Jezal finally gets control of his kingdom. And despite everything I said about nobody getting an ideal end, I could've predicted most of it from book one.

I certainly found this trilogy a good read. I'd recommend it. But a couple of people were hailing it as a brilliant change, and... I'm not sure I agree. The writing style is refreshing, as is the realism among the fantasy elements, but I found the plot predictable. The characters, too, are extremely well done -- another reason it was recommended to me -- but they all have big flaws. There's not one single character I unashamedly liked -- though I did, of course, find myself liking characters who didn't entirely deserve it.

(Although, actually, I have to say -- the Dogman might well have been one character without flaws. At least, not flaws on the scale of Ninefingers, Jezal, the Wests, Glokta, etc.) ( )

This was a fine finish to the trilogy. There were some great battle scenes (graphic--but the other two books were this way as well), several plot twists (a few that I didn't see coming) and an interesting ending. I would compare it to some episodes of Law and Order which don't totally resolve everything. If you like your stories wrapped up neatly, this one might disappoint. I really enjoyed the series.

I'm going to repeat a bit of what I said about the previous book: I wish I had read all three books back to back.

This is a case where I feel like it's not three books, just one long story divided into three books. In fact, in this book, there's at least one character that you haven't seen since the first book, and you either need to have a phenomenal memory (I had to dig in my brain to remember) or have just read the book not long ago to have it fresh in your head.

So yeah, if you want to read this book, go read it immediately after the second, which you should have read immediately after the first.

I do love this series. It's so dark, so gritty. There are no truly happy endings anywhere, and shit just goes down and feels more real than in happy-fantasy-epics where everything ends up OK, the hero gets the girl, and unicorns fart rainbows and crap gold and everyone is happy. Not so much here, and I appreciate it.

It gives us decent endings for all of our main characters - some of them more open-ended than others (Ferro, Logen). I really liked seeing how the main characters in the Union ended up (like Luthar, Glokta, and West).

The whole series was about interconnected power plays, and it was nice to see how the whole thing had been orchestrated by a small number. It was also great how some characters were just played by others.

I'll even admit to laughing out loud to some of the fun twists in the series. I think an overly optimistic and positive person might not like the series - it does get down and dirty (not just literally, either), but someone who appreciates the darker, more cynical side of life should love it. ( )

I'm going to repeat a bit of what I said about the previous book: I wish I had read all three books back to back.

This is a case where I feel like it's not three books, just one long story divided into three books. In fact, in this book, there's at least one character that you haven't seen since the first book, and you either need to have a phenomenal memory (I had to dig in my brain to remember) or have just read the book not long ago to have it fresh in your head.

So yeah, if you want to read this book, go read it immediately after the second, which you should have read immediately after the first.

I do love this series. It's so dark, so gritty. There are no truly happy endings anywhere, and shit just goes down and feels more real than in happy-fantasy-epics where everything ends up OK, the hero gets the girl, and unicorns fart rainbows and crap gold and everyone is happy. Not so much here, and I appreciate it.

It gives us decent endings for all of our main characters - some of them more open-ended than others (Ferro, Logen). I really liked seeing how the main characters in the Union ended up (like Luthar, Glokta, and West).

The whole series was about interconnected power plays, and it was nice to see how the whole thing had been orchestrated by a small number. It was also great how some characters were just played by others.

I'll even admit to laughing out loud to some of the fun twists in the series. I think an overly optimistic and positive person might not like the series - it does get down and dirty (not just literally, either), but someone who appreciates the darker, more cynical side of life should love it. ( )