An Overly Excited Opinion of... Half a King by Joe Abercrombie

Harper Voyager

As a person way too fond of puns I really wanted to say that reading Joe Abercrombie's Half a King was a tale of two halves, but that wouldn't be fair. It's a tale of around 85% fantastic fun and 15% that I didn't enjoy and found pretty annoying at times. It does seem as though I'm in the minority with this view as Half a King is doing very strongly for ratings on goodreads. Be that as it may, it didn't blow my socks off and here's why. 

Half a King follows the story of Yarvi a Prince of Getland, a fantasy kingdom strongly reminiscent of the Viking nations. The elves are long dead and the collection of Gods do not meddle in the affairs of mortals. This is a harsh world where a strong king must lead a strong people. However, Prince Yarvi is not a strong man, the youngest son of the King of Getland with a crippled hand, he is training to become part of the ministry who advise kings rather than swing a sword and lead a nation. A short time before Yarvi is to take the minister's test his honoured father and brave brother are killed by Grom-Gill-Gorm king of the Vansterland and the crown of Getland is thrust on to Yarvi's shoulders. To many Yarvi is but half a king, not worthy to sit on the black chair and soon he is betrayed, sold into slavery and unable to for fill his oath for vengeance on his father's killer. Half a King is an adventure story, strongly focused on the development of Yarvi during his enslavement and quest for vengeance. The plot is very strong, it has twists and turns, well placed and signposted reveals and is genuinely exciting. It's a book where you'll definitely want to see what happens next. The world building is exceptionally strong giving the reader a crystal clear impression of the lands of the Shattered Sea, its history, politics and religion and I would love to read more based in the same rich world.

Joe Abercrombie has written some strong supporting characters in the large cast of Half a King. Yarvi's old and new companions are vividly drawn with clear motivations and idiosyncrasies, In fact, the only character who falls short is Yarvi himself, and this was the source of most of my problems with the book. On paper Yarvi ticks a lot of boxes, he's a flawed protagonist and unconventional hero with clear goals. Yet, in the latter stages of the story some of what I believed to be his clear traits were shunned for drama. Yarvi is established to be clever and to be able to hold himself together in a crisis, yet there are times where he completely looses his head for reasons I can't work out. Also, during his travels Yarvi understandably grows, he goes from prince to slave, learning more about himself and gaining an appreciation for the struggles of others. Unfortunately, there are also times when it seems as though Yarvi hasn't been on this voyage of discovery and it's almost as though he is reset to before he left Getland. In the case of the rest of the characters, their growth and choices seem consistent and well shaped and where they face the consequences of their actions, I don't think Yarvi often does. These issues meant that at the climax of the story I was routing for Yarvi to fail. However, there came a point, at the execution of a significant plot twist, where I wondered if that was the intention after all. Perhaps in the end you were supposed to find Yarvi wanting. I still wonder if that is the case, although the conclusion of the story makes me doubt that very much.

Half a King may not be perfect, but it isn't half bad (oh the puns!) either. If you want an easy to follow fantasy story in an interesting setting Half a King is worth a read. It is a master class in unobtrusive world building and I can't help finding myself wondering what happened to Yarvi's companions, even though I'm not overly fussed about Yarvi himself. Half and King is worth reading, but I wouldn't bubble it to the top of my queue.

My rating: 7/10