Best Served Cold

A First Law Novel

By: Joe Abercrombie

Narrated by: Steven Pacey

Springtime in Styria. And that means war.

There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white. While armies march, heads roll and cities burn, behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.

War may be hell but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso's employ, it's a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular - a shade too popular for her employer's taste. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto's reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.

Her allies include Styria's least reliable drunkard, Styria's most treacherous poisoner, a mass-murderer obsessed with numbers and a Northman who just wants to do the right thing. Her enemies number the better half of the nation. And that's all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her down and finish the job Duke Orso started...

Springtime in Styria. And that means revenge.©2009 Joe Abercrombie

Critic reviews

Highly recommended - a funny, finely-wrought, terrifically energetic work of high fantasy. Seek it out (Joe Hill)

Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold is a bloody and relentless epic of vengeance and obsession in the grand tradition, a kind of splatterpunk sword 'n sorcery Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas by way of Moorcock . . . The battles are vivid and visceral, the action brutal, the pace headlong, and Abercrombie piles the betrayals, reversals, and plot twists one atop another to keep us guessing how it will all come out. This is his best book yet

Overall this is an immediately rewarding experience. There are reveals in the final third that are unexpected yet satisfyingly logical . . . Best Served Cold? Modern fantasy doesn't get much better than this

fantastic

this book was absolutely amazing.i like how it has ended ..it seem's now that there will be a third major power in the citcle of the world

Continuation from "Last argument of kings"

Continuation from "Last argument of kings" with a little side step. At firs I was little lost what to read after "Last argument..." but after little Googling figured out this was the way to go.

Its a side step from the first law trilogy. But it deepens the lore and bring new characters to it.
Absolutely recommend.

Outstanding

Just wonderful. Though I have to read my Abercombies with some time between them for how depressing they can be, this is just superbly written with lovely character. The plot does get a little overly complicated at times, but that's the genre for you.

Superb, best one yet, Steven Pacey, give him the equivalent of an Oscar. Writing fantastic. More please

Superb, best one yet, Steven Pacey, give him the equivalent of an Oscar. Writing fantastic. More please

Recommended!

Wonderful, colorful language. Thrilling story. Full of characters with depth. Couldn’t get enough of it! Recommended!