Category Archives: Books


Tolkien and the Kabbalah

This post will be short. I seem to see the Kabbalah everywhere, but it must be because those patterns are quite powerful and universal, that they they end up being reused in some form no matter the mythology you’re dealing with.

Yet I was still surprised that at the core Tolkien’s mythology is a redress of Kabbalah fundamental idea. There are reflections here and there, but what is unmistakable is the concept of “desire” that evolves with the evolution of civilization. Creating a need for “more”. In Kabbalah this need is transcendental, the need for spirituality, while in Tolkien’s mythology it becomes a need for “Art”. But these two are intimately similar, because in Kabbalah the ultimate desire, stimulated by spirituality, is about “becoming like god”. Equivalence of form. And the idea of Art in Tolkien’s mythology is also intimately the love for Creation, or sub-creation through art. So it’s the Creation made manifest, which, as explained in the story of Númenór, can even become blasphemy and a threat.

But that’s not all. Even more, Tolkien’s “excuse” for why mortality is a “gift”, and his explanation of its purpose, coincide perfectly with the reasons given by Kabbalah:

The view is taken (as clearly reappears later in the case of the Hobbits that have the Ring for a while) that each ‘Kind’ has a natural span, integral to its biological and spiritual nature. This cannot really be increased qualitatively or quantitatively; so that prolongation in time is like stretching a wire out ever tauter, or ‘spreading butter ever thinner’ – it becomes an intolerable torment.

Which corresponds exactly to how Kabbalistic “hierarchies” work.

Tolkien’s mythology (part 2)

More like an update to the previous post, especially after I read that long letter where Tolkien himself writes a summary of his whole “legendarium” and explains what he truly intended to do with it.

The Elves aren’t actually those responsible for the ultimate demise of Morgoth. They simply realize that they spent a book trying to win the war and there’s no end in sight. So they decide it’s a better idea to suck it up and return home to knock on daddy’s door to call for help. You see, there’s a sort of hierarchy that works like this: gods -> Elves -> men. Gods are westernmost, literally off the page. There’s even a physical boundary that restrains Elves and men to cross. In the origin myth the Elves decide to come living in the eastern world and that brought consequences, since they were meant to stay in the city of the gods. Safe. But they decide to go, and so are banished (Tolkien literally describes this as “have a cake and eat it”).

So it’s ultimately those western gods that answer the Elves’ call for help and decide to “invade” the eastern world (Middle-Earth) and put an end to Morgoth. It was almost a smooth ride. But after this happened they returned to their own land, and left men and remaining Elves once again alone and to their own devices. That’s also why Sauron was spared. He was told to go back to the god’s land (where he actually belonged) but he was too ashamed, and so he disguised himself and lingered among men. His rise to power is almost a consequence of the gods “refusing responsibilities” and abandoning the world. And so Sauron took charge and actually started to resent the gods. And manipulate those feelings of legitimate resentment.

At some point, seeing no one in power around, Sauron declares himself King of Kings or something silly like that. This span of time, between the end of Morgoth and the “breaking of the world”, marks the rise of a fourth entity. Númenór and the Númenóreans. These were some sort of middle ground between men and Elves. They were actually men, so mortal, but they developed great knowledge and great technology. Númenór represents Atlantis in Tolkien’s myth, and geographically this island lies exactly between Middle-Earth and the god’s land to the west. When they hear about Sauron’s boisterous claims they face him. This happens after Sauron made the rings, started to take control of everything, but ended up waging war to the Elves that wouldn’t submit. When Númenór decides for intervention they already had known civil war. This internal war they had was caused because of a main theme that will then be exploited by Sauron and will cause the demise of Númenór itself. But when Númenór faces Sauron there’s no war. At its apex Atlantis was a too huge power, and so Sauron doesn’t try to resist, actually submits himself to them. He’s taken as prisoner into Númenór, but what he finds (the remains of their civil war) is fertile soil to root his subversion.

The causes of Númenór’s civil war and that will lead to the destruction of that civilization are embedded into Tolkien’s myth and seem to have a pivotal role in its central philosophy. So I’ll reprise Tolkien’s own explanation:

Anyway all this stuff is mainly concerned with Fall, Mortality, and the Machine. With Fall inevitably, and that motive occurs in several modes. With Mortality, especially as it affects art and the creative (or as I should say, sub-creative) desire which seems to have no biological function, and to be apart from the satisfactions of plain ordinary biological life, with which, in our world, it is indeed usually at strife. This desire is at once wedded to a passionate love of the real primary world, and hence filled with the sense of mortality, and yet unsatisfied by it. It has various opportunities of ‘Fall’. It may become possessive, clinging to the things made as ‘its own’, the sub-creator wishes to be the Lord and God of his private creation. He will rebel against the laws of the Creator – especially against mortality. Both of these (alone or together) will lead to the desire for Power, for making the will more quickly effective – and so the the Machine (or Magic). By the last I intend all use of external plans or devices (apparatus) instead of developments of the inherent inner powers or talents – or even the use of these talents with the corrupted motive of dominating: bull-dozing the real world, or coercing other wills. The Machine is our more obvious modern form though more closely related to Magic than is usually recognized.

Tolkien also explains the the magic of Elves expresses itself through “Art”, so realizing that ideal of sub-creation, opposed to “domination and tyrannous reforming of Creation”. The implicit conflict is brought up when men show up in Middle-Earth, especially with Númenór, representing men at the apex of their civilization and technology. A triumph of splendor (“Númenóreans grew in wisdom and joy”). Tolkien underlines how this desire for the creative side goes beyond biological functions, and it becomes a craving to be like god. Art as the ideal of sub-creation, but that feeds hostility toward death and the rules of the natural world. That’s the conflict that started the civil war (“the more joyful was their life, the more they began to long for the immortality of the Eldar”) and that Sauron grasps, convincing Númenór to wage wars against the gods themselves. That it was their right to defy death, demand immortality from those gods, and build their own heaven, on Earth. Tolkien explains clearly all this too:

The Downfall is partly the result of an inner weakness in Men – consequent, if you will, upon the first Fall (unrecorded in these tales), repented but not finally healed. Reward on earth is more dangerous for men than punishment! The Fall is achieved by the cunning of Sauron in exploiting this weakness. Its central theme is (inevitably, I think, in a story of Men) a Ban, or Prohibition.

They [Númenóreans] became thus in appearance, and even in powers of mind, hardly distinguishable from the Elves – but they remained mortal, even though rewarded by a triple, or more than a triple, span of years. Their reward is their undoing – or the means of their temptation. Their long life aids their achievements in art and wisdom, but breeds a possessive attitude to these things, and desire awakes for more time for their enjoyment. Foreseeing this in part, the gods laid a Ban on the Númenóreans from the beginning: they must never sail to Eressëa, nor westward out of sight of their own land. In all other directions they could go as they would. They must not set foot on ‘immortal’ lands, and so become enamoured of an immortality (within the world), which was against their law, the special doom or gift of Iluvatar (God), and which their nature could not in fact endure.

Sauron is brought in, but uses those desires to increase Númenór enmity toward the gods, he becomes counselor of the king and convinces him to build the greatest army ever, sail toward the west, and defy the ban of the gods to grasp immortality as it is in their rights.

But the Valar (those western gods) are pissed by all this and so they break the world. Atlantis sinks, and with it their threat as well as Sauron himself. The off-the-page west is removed from the world. The world becomes round and so the link to the gods’ world is severed, even if it’s said that the remaining Elves, being immortal and so still belonging to the old mythical world, would be able to find a way were they to set sail westwards. The survivors re-settle on Middle-Earth, and Sauron, in spirit form (the physical form sank with Atlantis), moves into Mordor.

The rest is known (in the previous post).

Brief glance at Tolkien’s mythology

Yesterday I found an old copy of The Silmarillion and skimmed a bit through it. I was mostly interested in the transition between Morgoth and Sauron and how it was handled. So here’s a little summary I use for myself.

The main Bad Guy in this mythology is Morgoth, the antagonist through almost the whole Silmarillion. But I was surprised to find out that Sauron didn’t simply took Morgoth’s legacy, but was actually there from the very beginning. He was the first that Morgoth seduced and corrupted. The difference between the two is that while Morgoth liked the great armies, great wars, the monsters and all that blunt, tangible stuff, Sauron instead was the sorcerer, the one more subtle, cleverer, who played with perceptions and tried to twist the will of the people. Yet, for as long Morgoth is around Sauron acts as something like a war General.

Then there’s this big war where Morgoth is finally taken and then tossed literally out of the page into some no-world. In that last battle I didn’t see Sauron’s name coming up even once, but then when his story is resumed it is explained that Sauron was found too but ended up oddly spared since he explained he was sorry for all he had done and had nothing left to believe in. No one wanted to handle him and it’s said that Sauron was even honest now that he lost pretty much everything. So he ends up vanishing again. He could take different forms and appear as a beautiful man who could speak wisely. While the Elves usually didn’t buy this disguise and his deceiving ways, the men instead completely fell for it. It wasn’t even complete bullshit because Sauron indeed had great powers and knowledge and so the merchandise he was offering was truly appealing. And that’s how he gets one of the most telling names: “Lord of Gifts”.

Alas, that’s the principle of troubles. Sauron’s knowledge leads to the creation of the rings. He offered power, and at the same time he made sure he kept the Master Ring for himself so that he’d properly control the gifts he generously distributed. But since he still couldn’t fool the Elves, Sauron grasped his power, which means seizing all rings but those that belonged to the Elves, and started a war. For all the bluster on display, at the time the Elves were still too strong and even managed to capture Sauron once again. They bring him into their home and yet again Sauron does his thing, which is creating discontent among people till another war sparks up that somewhat creates some kind of cataclysmic event. Wikipedia makes all this slightly more plausible:

Hundreds of years later, the Men of Númenor decide to capture Sauron to demonstrate their might, unaware of the One Ring and the power Sauron wielded when he wore it. As it is described in Akallabêth, Sauron is brought to Númenor as a hostage and appears to show remorse for his deeds. However, he has taken on a beautiful appearance and his seeming goodness and persuasive tongue soon corrupts most Númenóreans and he becomes the chief adviser to the King. Sauron encourages the Númenóreans to cast aside their traditional reverence for Eru Ilúvatar and to take up the worship of Melkor, or Morgoth, Sauron’s former master, and make human sacrifices to him.

The world is torn apart and even Sauron is caught in the apocalypse. His pretty disguise is lost too, but Sauron’s spirit lives on.

He flies over to lava-land Mordor and builds his fortress called Barad-dûr. Here he starts gathering new power and makes himself a new body that this time is not pretty and deceiving, and more like the dark, twisted thing that you can see at the beginning of the LOTR movies. At this point Sauron decides it’s a good idea to launch a counter-attack before the other side gets too strong again. At first it seems to work and he makes some progress, but then the Elves organize themselves and once again show Sauron that they are too strong for him. They arrive at Mordor and keep it under siege for some seven years, also taking some great losses themselves, since fighting amidst lava wasn’t a good idea after all. In the end Sauron gets bored with these guys drumming on his door and comes out for a last stand. Here’s the battle shown at the beginning of the movies. Isildur manages to cut Sauron’s fingers, get the One Ring for himself, and Sauron crumbles into ashes while his spirit flies off towards sunset once again.

Here starts the Third Age and long years seem to pass. Isildur loves the ring, but he’s eventually ambushed by orcs, and uses the ring to make himself invisible so that he can flee. He doesn’t make too far, though, because while he’s swimming away the ring “betrays” him, slipping from his hand, and so making him visible to the orcs, who proceed to pin arrows in him. Isildur dies and the ring is lost in the river. Not much of Sauron’s power is left and there’s a period of relative peace beside some minor wars started from Sauron’s leftovers (like the Nazgûl). In the meantime Sauron prepares a temporary base in Mirkwood. During these years pre World War 2 the USA in the west of Middle-Earth decide to send over some secret agents, two of which codenamed Gandalf and Saruman. Their task is to keep an eye on how things develop, since they suspected that Sauron would eventually reappear, and, anyway, men weren’t really able to handle themselves without some guide. So these agents starts to scour the land for sensible information, and eventually Gandalf takes notice that Mirkwood is murky, finds Sauron, and Sauron is scared by the white beardy man and flees away once again. More peace. In the meantime the secret agents discover about the magic rings and take bets about whether or not Sauron will retrieve his own.

This is where Saruman starts having a different plan from Gandalf. He figures out that as long Sauron is hidden and his power unrevealed, the ring won’t find its way to him. But were Sauron allowed to rise and manifest, the chances to retrieve that ring of power would grow. Eventually Sauron returns to Mordor and rebuilds his tower. And Gandalf finds out the story about Gollum, Bilbo and the ring. Sauron too, and sends his agents. Here starts LOTR proper.

The rest, I guess, is known.

The interesting part was to realize that Sauron has always been there with Morgoth and while Morgoth had more direct power and control over everything, eventually Sauron compensated that through his subtleties and deceiving ways. Exploiting implicit weaknesses more than simply starting wars. The main theme, I guess, is that power corrupts. Even the secret agents belonging to the higher race are susceptible to the same corruption of power (see Saruman). And the moral is the one anticipated by Gandalf, that help shall come from the hands of the “weak”. The Hobbit, who are not immune to the corruption of power either (see Bilbo). Eventually Frodo makes the right choice, that is renouncing that power and banishing it. Which means not falling to the temptation of using that power. So also a theme of selfishness and personal gain.

The other theme running in parallel is some kind of mythology coming in layers. Tolkien explains that his myth is not “anthropocentric” since it focuses on the Elves, and men only come after, this is the running theme. His mythology doesn’t end because the LOTR books end, but because when that era closes it’s also the end of Elves. They sail off toward a mythical west, and the mythical west is once again off the page (and off the map). It does not exist. In the Silmarillion it’s actually explicit that the decline of the Elves is unrelated to Sauron’s deeds. And whether or not Sauron returned with his ring, the destiny of the Elves would have been exactly the same.

Yet many voices were heard among the Elves foreboding that, if Sauron should come again, then either he would find the Ruling Ring that was lost, or at the best his enemies would discover it and destroy it; but in either chance the powers of the Three must then fail and all things maintained by them must fade, and so the Elves should pass into the twilight and the Dominion of Men begin.

So this is a story of legacy and transition, between Elves and men. Between immortality and life, between myth and reality. Giving the Elves this lingering nostalgic aura of something that is vanishing, and maybe that dream-like apparition that Frodo has of the Elves is meant to put emphasis on this idea of Elves as if blurring out of reality. In the beginning of the Silmarillion the mythical “west” isn’t just the place where Elves dwell, but where the city of the gods lies. Off the page, so outside of the world (consider also that the world is “flat”, like a page, and it only becomes round in modern times, so again when history exits myth, and so a “west” was an absolute location compared to the relative one we have nowadays). So Gandalf and Saruman, as emissaries from the west, mark the last direct intrusion and meddling by the gods into the real world. I say this comes in layers because the more you move toward the “origin” the more things are mythical and unexplained. Wars are cataclysmic events that reshape the world. Ships can be flung up in the air by the waves, reach above the clouds and then fall back. There are dragons and Balrogs. The more instead you move toward the recent years, and the more the mythology is detailed, the more it becomes realistic and somewhat plausible. These two points, the origin, more fluid and magical, and the modernity, fixed, known and rather materialistic. I guess this is a theme that carries over to Malazan own mythology. After all, there are points in common.

P.S.
It should be noticed that Gandalf is a cheat. He actually kept one of the Elves rings (the ring of fire) for himself, even thought it’s never explicitly used and has probably only a metaphoric value:

For this is the Ring of Fire, and herewith, maybe, thou shalt rekindle hearts to the valour of old in a world that grows chill.

Anyway, he never told anyone he had that ring.

P.P.S.
I’ve just discovered that in the new edition of the book there’s a long letter by Tolkien where he explains pretty much all his mythology, right from when he started. Including that particular flavor of consistent worldbuilding. In fact, it seems it all started with the languages themselves:

To those creatures which in English I call misleadingly Elves are assigned two related languages more nearly completed, whose history is written, and whose forms (representing two different sides of my own linguistic taste) are deduced scientifically from a common origin. Out of these languages are made nearly all the names that appear in my legends. This gives a certain character (a cohesion, a consistency of linguistic style, and an illusion of historicity) to the nomenclature, or so I believe, that is markedly lacking in other comparable things. Not all feel this as important as I do, since I’m cursed by acute sensibility in such matters.

As the high legends of the beginnings are supposed to look at things through Elvish minds, so the middle tale of the Hobbit takes virtually a human point of view – and the last tale blends them.

Anyway all this stuff is mainly concerned with Fall, Mortality, and the Machine.

It seems you can read the whole letter through the Kindle preview. It’s very good.

P.P.S.
I guess one could see the evolution of this mythology as the adding of dimensions:
– Starts from a monodimensional whole -> then moving through the two dimensional, flat world of the Silmarillion -> moving into the three dimensional, somewhat “real” (and mortal) world of The Lord of the Rings -> to the fourth dimensional world, the fourth wall, the distinction between the story and reality, and between myth and history.

“Listening to the Left Hand” by Frank Herbert

A couple of days ago Mark Charan Newton wrote on Twitter about “Dune”,

Why did no one tell me that DUNE was this good? I blame you all.

The ebook has a good 6,000 pages… Could be a while!

Of all the things about Dune, what strikes me as most impressive is Herbert’s then avant garde ecological thinking. Amazing for the time.

Systems theory, deep ecology, self-regulation; and as the basis for a narrative, too.

And in 1965!

The science is really sound and advanced for its time. More the philosophy of the science, but still ahead of the curve.

so that was enough to spark my interest. I added the series to my wordcount page (it’s 860k overall) and started looking for the usual stuff, like dates, structure (it’s two trilogies, with an open end and the “mother of all cliffhangers” because of the author’s death) and reviews.

It was quite interesting. I actually had a copy of Dune for a very long time, but never read it because I saw the movie and that for me always takes back something from the fresh experience reading a book. I guess now I’ll read Dune at some point if the world doesn’t end (I actually already started, but the italian translation I have is a bit lacking in prose). As typical of me I’m more interested in the sequels to Dune more than Dune itself, and I notice how pretty much every review complains about Herbert indulging too much in dense philosophy, making the books a struggle to read.

If you remove all the specific references they would work perfect as Malazan reviews. And I know that Erikson is a big fan of Dune and that it was a source of inspiration.

I post here a short essay by Herbert, because the link up on the wikipedia is actually dead, but I was able to retrieve it anyway through google cache. And because vaguely related to what I was writing in comments over at Bakker’s blog (continues up and down).

P.S.
All the other sequels and spin-offs that his son and the other writer have published, as far as I’m concerned, do not exist.

When I was young and my world was dominated by indestructible adults, I learned an ancient way of thinking that is as dangerous as a rotten board in a stepladder. It told me that the only valuable things were those that I could hold unchanged: the love of a wise grandfather, the enticing mystery of the trail through our woodlot into the forest, the feeling of lake water on a hot summer day, the colors (ahh, those colors) when I opened my new pencil box on the first day of school…

But the grandfather died, a developer bulldozed the woodlot, loggers clear-cut the forest, the lake is polluted and posted against swimming, smog has deadened my ability to detect subtle odors, and pencil boxes aren’t what they used to be.

Neither am I.

There may be a quiet spot in my mind where nothing moves and the places of my childhood remain unchanged, but everything else moves and changes. There’s dangerous temptation in the nostalgic dream, in the expertise of yesteryear. The nameless animal that is all of us cannot live in places that no longer exist. I want to address myself to the survival of that nameless animal, looking back without regrets at even the best of what was and will never be again. We should salvage what we can, but even salvaging changes things.

The way of this change is called “process” and it requires that we be prepared to encounter a multiform reality. Line up three bowls in front of you. Put ice water in the one on the left, hot water in the one on the right, and lukewarm water in the middle one. Soak your left hand in the ice water and right hand in the hot water for about a minute, then plunge both hands into the bowl of lukewarm water. Your left hand will tell you the water of the middle bowl is warm, your right hand will report cold. A small experiment in relativity.

We live in a universe dominated by relativity and change, but our intellects keep demanding fixed absolutes. We make our most strident demands for absolutes that contain comforting reassurance. We will misread and/or misunderstand almost anything that challenges our favorite illusions.

It has been noted repeatedly that science students (presumably selected for open-mindedness) encounter a basic difficulty when learning to read X-ray plates. Almost universally, they demonstrate an inability to distinguish between what is shown on the plate and what they believe will be shown. They see things that are not there. The reaction can be linked directly to the preset with which they approach the viewing of a plate. When confronted with proof of the extent to which preconceptions influenced their judgment, they tend to react with surprise, anger, and rejection.

We are disposed to perceive things as they appear, filtering the appearance through our preconceptions and fitting it into the past forms (including all the outright mistakes, illusions, and myths of past forms). If we allow only the right hand’s message to get through, then “cold” is the absolute reality to which we cling. When our local reality has attached to it that other message: “This is the way out,” then we’re dealing with a form of “holy truth.” Cold becomes a way of life.

Quotes from Darkness

More from “Forge of Darkness”. It is frustrating, because extrapolating quotes can diminish their power.

Haut nodded. ‘Listen well. You are right to not conflate the symbol with the meaning; but you are wrong in thinking that to do so is uncommon.’

‘The older you get,’ she said, in a tone that made her seem eye to eye with his grandmother, ‘the more you discover the truth about the past. You can empty it. You can fill it anew. You can create whatever truth you choose. We live long, Orfantal – much longer than the Jheleck, or the Dog-Runners. Live long enough and you will find yourself in the company of other liars, other inventors, and all that they make of their youth shines so bright as to blind the eye. Listen to their tales, and know them for the liars they are – no different from you. No different from any of us.’

‘But dear, we are its eyes. Here atop the Old Tower. We are the city’s eyes just as we are the world’s eyes, and that is a great responsibility, for it is only through us that the world is able to see itself, and from sight is born mystery – the releasing of imagination – and in this moment of recognition, why, everything changes.’

A promise of depth and distance, yet one in which the promise remained sacred, for neither depth nor distance could be explored.

to look upon oneself in this mirror-world was to witness every truth; and find nowhere to hide.

‘A will crumbled helpless to the assault of revelation. When we are driven to our knees, the world shrinks.’

Behind them T’riss spoke up, her voice carrying with unnatural clarity. ‘In ritual you abased yourselves. I saw it in the courtyard, many times. But the gesture was rote – even in your newfound fear, the meaning of that abasement was lost.’

‘Please,’ growled Resh, ‘explain yourself, Azathanai.’

‘I will. You carve an altar from stone. You paint the image of waves upon the wall and so fashion a symbol of that which you would worship. You give it a thousand names, and imagine a thousand faces. Or a single name, a single face. Then you kneel, or bow, or lie flat upon the ground, making yourselves abject in servitude, and you may call the gesture humble before your god, and see in your posture righteous humility.’

‘This is all accurate enough,’ said Resh.

‘Just so,’ she agreed. ‘And by this means you lose the meaning of the ritual, until the ritual is itself the meaning. These are not gestures of subservience. Not expressions of the surrendering of your will to a greater power. This is not the relationship your god seeks, yet it is the one upon which you insist. The river god is not the source of your worship; or rather, it shouldn’t be. The river god meets your eye and yearns for your comprehension – not of itself as a greater power, but comprehension of the meaning of its existence.’

consider this: it is only when opposed that some things find definition. Few would argue, I think, that Darkness is a difficult thing to worship. What is it we seek in elevating Mother Dark? What manner of unity can we find circling a place of negation?

Erikson being playful

A short, playful and “meta” quote from “Forge of Darkness”:

‘I yield the meaningless secrets, Setch, to better hold hidden the important ones. Think of prod and pull, if you like. Explore the concepts in your mind, and muse on the pleasures of misdirection.’

Sechul Lath studied Errastas, lying there propped up against a boulder, beaten half to death. ‘Are you truly as clever as you think you are?’

Errastas laughed. ‘Oh, Setch, it hardly matters. The suspicion is enough, making fecund the soil of imagination. Let others fill the gaps in my cleverness, and make of me in their eyes a genius.’

Before They Are Hanged – Joe Abercrombie

“No point crying about it. You have to be realistic.” -Logen Ninefingers

I admit I read this book probably in the worst possible conditions. It’s been too many years since I finished reading “The Blade Itself” (the first in this trilogy), and too many months since I started reading this book. My impressions have suffered for this excessive stretching out and this series is best read in a compact amount of time. Too much time passed for me, but not because the first book made a bad impression on me. On the contrary, I loved that book and I still remember it fondly. The reason is that I knew what to expect in a sequel, I had a good idea of Abercrombie’s writing, and so kept delaying the rest of the trilogy in favor of books that were more mysterious and novel. In fact “The Blade Itself” marked the second or third book in my rediscovery of the fantasy genre after many years. That’s one reason why I prefer to reach out for what’s different than reading deep into a single series. And I have to admit that reading now “Before They Are Hanged” is different from a few years ago. I know much better all the different flavors the genre offers and Abercrombie for me doesn’t feel as fresh and innovative as it was at the time.

Another reason why I kept delaying the reading of this book is that it was widely acknowledged that this was a trilogy of increasing success. The consensus (that includes the author) was (is) that each book is better than the previous and now Abercrombie is not anymore the new writer fighting to find space in the market. He’s actually one of the strongest names, and has arguably surpassed both Rothfuss and Lynch, whose production was severely limited (personal choice in one case, uncontrollable events in the other). Abercrombie, Rothfuss, Lynch, the three bigger new names that, some years later, continue to monopolize the same space (well, Lynch put himself out of the picture, at least for the time being) and have not yet been replaced by anyone else (beside Sanderson, who picked a different path to success). All of this oddly diminished my interest, since there wasn’t much else to unearth. It was a safe bet. I knew the style, I knew what kind of stuff these books were made of. The group of fans was growing and it didn’t need another to repeat how cool Abercrombie was.

I said that my impression of this book changed a lot now that I have read so much more stuff than what I knew at the time, but not my overall appreciation of Abercrombie’s writing strengths. This series and this book remain for me the easiest to recommend in the genre, along with Martin. A type of work that has a wide accessibility and can be appreciated by a different, broad public. That it is generous and that repays the reader’s attention with fun and charisma, page by page. If we consider a type of work that has to be widely accessible and enjoyable, Abercrombie is probably one of the best choices (if not the best, since it’s less heavily handed, literally and figuratively, than Martin), matching that accessibility with cleverness and a modern, fresh style of writing. It’s perfectly balanced, and at the same time it’s sharp and lively. Nothing of the dullness of conformity that often comes with broad accessibility.

I also think, though, that it doesn’t reach very far when it comes to “ambition”. This is probably the one aspect where my idea of this book is different than what the majority thought of it. While my memories of the first book aren’t crystal clear, I found this sequel a bit less lively and creative. Maybe too polished, because I often felt that the characters and events were on a leash. Forbidden to stray in order to tightly lock with a predetermined plot. The story felt more like a funnel than a natural expansion of the events of the first book, and I think it was too restrained and more limited. Some of that spark of positive foolishness was kind of missing in this book compared to the first, and some characters painted too plainly as caricatures to be thought fondly of or appreciated.

Even in the first book Abercrombie’s writing was emphatic, especially in how it handled characterization. But the parody worked because it was balanced by a sharp vision. As if the superficiality was in fact superficial. While in a few occasions in this book I thought things were handled superficially and as a “best effort” that didn’t exactly shine in execution. This is even more evident for me because Abercrombie always tries to entertain in every page and every scene. Always try to add a clever spin even if describing a mundane situation, and in this case sometimes I felt as if he was trying too much, as if the effort was stronger than its efficacy. Then I think this may be also due to the fact I was reading Glen Cook at the same time, whose prose falls at the opposite of the spectrum, and so highlighting the emphatic features of Abercrombie’s writing. This emphasis can feel as somewhat fake, fabricated, but for me this was compensated by characters that are plenty of fun to read, written cleverly, but that specifically in this book suffered from some predictable development (and Glokta is Too Much Tyrion), following events that, as I already said, were more driven by hand than developing in an organic way.

So this time I’ll be the voice out of the chorus. My appreciation of Abercrombie didn’t fall after these years, what I think of his work is essentially unchanged, but I wouldn’t rate this book better than “The Blade Itself”. Too controlled, “stifled” and predictable, less creative and lively, contrasting with the promise full of possibilities of the first book. What was carved out of all that potential fell a bit shorter than the hinted picture. Too much time passed for me to compare directly the writing in that book and this one, but this time the result was for me less effective and engaging. I’ll continue to remember “The Blade Itself” fondly, and this book just a step lower. Beside these issues “Before They Are Hanged” remains a pleasure to read. The different PoVs are organized so that they walk in line, build-up matched by build-up, so that every change of scene isn’t interrupted by a lapse in the tension. The banter remains excellent, mixing the witty with the serious. I’m a bit puzzled about the point where Abercrombie decided to close this second chapter, it’s a bit off-putting even if probably intended, but as a whole I think it works and the problems in the flow of the story I perceived are probably more due to my irregular reading than the nature of it.

It would be silly to conclude these comments with hyperbole since I think specifically this book was one step lower, but at the same time I focused on what I felt was different, which in this case was all about negative aspects. Abercrombie does remain in my opinion a perfect representation of a modern take on the genre that isn’t so subversive or revolutionary, that doesn’t fight for “literary” space, but that is still plenty fun to read while keeping a high qualitative level. An excellent compromise that retains plenty of qualities, and that deserves to be recommended. Good enough to make a strong impression, and not too pretentious and demanding to be condemned to a smaller niche (and that, in my opinion, deserves exactly the success it got).

Hopefully it won’t be too long before I finish the trilogy and move to the other three books he wrote (that I already own).