Sharp Ends is a dozen short stories of the sword and sorcery
variety (more sword, less sorcery), set in a bleak, dark ages type setting. The
stories are bleak and brutal, but the writing is beautiful. I found, however,
that the action generally unfolds very slowly. The scenes are painted
exquisitely, but there is not a lot of urgency to the stories. This book was my
first introduction to Abercrombie’s work; it may be that having read his novels
would yield context that would make the stories more enjoyable. As a standalone
work, some stories are tied together by the recurrence of several characters, the
most memorable of which are Javre and Shev, a gritty modern feminist version of
Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser.
Despite the excellent wordcraft, I did not find the plots
particularly gripping, or the characters particularly compelling, or the
fantasy particularly illuminating. Perhaps if I had read the novels first I
would feel differently, but I’m not a huge grimdark fan to begin with, and
without the supersonic pace of a Harry Connolly yarn or the grand vision of
G.R.R. Martin I found the florid prose tended to drag.
No comments:
Post a Comment