

I would have found a way.īest Served Cold is, as GRRM’s comparison suggests, a revenge plot chilled in the finest wine of the Italian-fictional-analogue Styria, where dukes and armies vie for supremacy backed by foreign powers and banks. I really want to give this book three stars, because it probably deserves it, but I’m going to stick with two for now just because, if it were really that good, it would have demanded my attention despite my Mass Effect addiction.


Embarking on a 650-page book while also playing my most-anticipated video game of the year was a silly decision on my part, but here we are. Secondly, I started reading this the same day I began playing Mass Effect: Andromeda, and I have spent my meagre free time this past week mostly playing Mass Effect: Andromeda, to the anomalous detriment of my reading time. I know that this one is a standalone, so that probably shouldn’t matter I just want to be upfront about my unfamiliarity with this world. Firstly, I haven’t read any of Joe Abercrombie’s other First Law books. I can kind of see why, but at the same time, The Count of Monte Cristo is a masterpiece and one of my all-time favourites, so that is a tough standard to live up to in my eyes.Īlso, I feel like I need to slap a huge disclaimer on this review. Martin praised Best Served Cold as a “splatterpunk sword ’n sorcery” Count of Monte Cristo.

And that’s all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her down and finish the job Duke Orso started.George R.R. Her enemies number the better half of the nation. Her allies include Styria’s least reliable drunkard, Styria’s most treacherous poisoner, a mass-murderer obsessed with numbers and a Northman who just wants to do the right thing. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto’s reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Her victories have made her popular - a shade too popular for her employer’s taste. War may be hell but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso’s employ, it’s a damn good way of making money too. While armies march, heads roll and cities burn, and behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white.
