I finally finished Best Served Cold, Abercrombie's stand-alone swords and soldiers and revenge book, set in the same world of his more famous book series, of which I've read none. Cormacaroni gave me the whole series, so I will read it, because everyone seems to agree that it's better than this. BSC was not bad by any measure, but the characters were not, by and large, likable, and the whole thing is either humorless, or so dry in its humor that it sailed past me. Except for the poisoner and Cosca. I liked it, but I'm going to wait a bit before starting The Blade Itself.
Just wrapping up Monster Hunter International. After enjoying the alternate history in Hard Magic so much, I figured MHI would be a slam dunk for popcorn fare. Instead, I feel like I'm reading through some gun-fan, fantasy-geek libertarian's wet dream. It's the story of a large, angry man who was trying really hard to fit into normal society after a long dark history of fringe violence (illegal street fighting, bouncing) but turns out that he's not meant to be an accountant, and instead finds a group of licensed monster hunters (HENCE THE TITLE) who share his repressed need to enact violence, also love their guns (but he's just a little bit better than they are), and accept him for who he is! Also, dispersions are cast against the government at just about every turn. The main character also falls for a girl who is going out with the badass Camaro jerkface captain of his group, who she can't see is just a prideful asshole Who is Afraid of The Main Character.
Yeah... NONE of this was present in the Hard Magic book, which was a lot more fun and felt much less like one long Freudian slip. I'll continue reading the latter series, but I may be done with MHI.
