Joe Abercrombie was recommended to me by a dear friend who is not only a world class professional musician but also a life long fantasy fiction reader. How could I not respond to so prestigious a prompt? When I subsequently discovered that this author has recently brought out his first novel specifically for YA it had to go onto my reading pile and quickly found its way to the top.
I was not disappointed. Half a King is a cracking good read.
However, originality of concept, or of the fantasy world created are not really this book's strong points. Its milieux is very much that of classic 'sword and sorcery', although with the emphasis almost entirely here on the 'sword' element. It centres on a 'Dark Age', loosly-bound confederacy of small kingdoms around the 'Shattered Sea'. The region is obviously rife with rivalries and border skirmishes although at the time of this story tenuously held in an uneasy peace. The feel of the broad civilisation is perhaps more Viking than anything, with raiders and traders reliant on oared and sailed wooden vessels. The dress of many, in what is predominantly a cold climate, is dominated by coarse cloths and furs. It is a divided society of owners and slaves, the latter usually the defeated in battle or the captive from raids. The closest to an element of sorcery is introduced with the 'ministers', a highly-trained and esoteric sect of prophets and healers, often the advisers of kings. However, their 'magic' is very low key and could be understood as little more than herbal medicines and jiggery-pokery. The iterative reference to an earlier, now lost civilisation, called by them the 'elves', but actually with its ruins of concrete and steel buildings clearly telegraphed as something akin to our own, is perhaps the nearest element of all to a cliché. This may have been a shockingly new concept at the end of the original Planet of the Apes, but is no longer anywhere near so. Of course it will be far less old hat to many of this book's younger readers, so may well be more of an intriguing element for them than it was for me.
The principal element of the story involves young king who is betrayed, sold into slavery and transported to the other end of his world just as he is coming into power. He then has to struggle his long way back for revenge. Much of this is far from new. It has certain elements of the biblical Joseph, and even more resonance with Ben Hur, especially with its long section where the protagonist is a galley slave. In more contemporary parallel, its plotting shares at least some elements too with the movie Gladiator. Again, though, these may well mean little to its young readers and, of course, each one of these stories is acknowledged as a very powerful one.
Indeed what Half a King lacks, perhaps, in originality it more than makes up for in the strength, engagement and truly visceral excitement of its story telling. This is a page-turner par excellence and both language and narrative structure are handled by the author with consummate skill. The whole story of this comparative weakling's betrayal and of his long struggle home, on the way finding himself as an individual and a king, are completely gripping. The characters too are wonderfully imagined and drawn. The motley cast with which the protagonist finds himself on the ship, many of whom then become his companions on the long journey back, are varied, vivid and very engaging. There is excitement and incident aplenty too, and of course fights, won and lost. But it is ultimately the many clever and often unforeseen twists in the tale that enthral and delight most. The double twist at the end (enough said) is one of the great triumphs of contemporary fiction.
Originality is wonderful when you find it, but it is not everything. Joe Anercrombie shows here how great story telling can itself be the making of a great book.
As an avid collector as well as reader of children's fantasy fiction I love the sensuous joy, the special feel and smell, of an attractive hardback - both old ones and brand new ones too. Half a King seems to have been more or less simultaneously published here and in the USA. I often find that US production values for the physical book are much higher than ours. They frequently produce truly beautiful hardbacks and I sometimes seek out the American editions in preference to UK ones. (Although I certainly don't neglect our own book shops either, particularly the independent ones; national treasures who so much need our support.) With Half a King though, the two editions are more similar than is often the case, and I admit I am torn. The predominantly white UK version has an evocative illustration and a wonderfully tactile dust jacket, whilst the more classic, black US version has considerable power and impact, just like the story. Perhaps I will have to get both.
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