Orso dan Luther, the compassionate, clever prince-turned-king who has hidden behind a foppish mask his entire life, pretending not to care or to only care about beautiful women, drugs and other creature comforts.

When that relationship is suddenly broken off, Savine finds herself pressed into an unlikely union with Leo dan Brock, the young Lord Governor of Angland. Savine dan Glokta, the daughter of torturer and tyrant Sand dan Glokta and Ardee West, though in The Trouble With Peace we learn she is actually the bastard daughter of the now-dead king Jezal dan Luthar, an awkward revelation given that she has been lover to Jezal’s natural born son, Orso. Once again we follow the misadventures of a handful of complex characters, most of whom are the First Law trilogy’s “next generation”-the sons and daughters of characters from the first trilogy and its subsequent stand-alone novels. They’re not all out for themselves, but those who aren’t will likely suffer for it. His revolutionaries are corrupt and stupid and bloodthirsty, but then so are his nobles and his wizards and his business tycoons. Abercrombie’s exploration of human nature is wonderfully cynical. Then again, it’s not as though the elites do a much better job. Crowds-or mobs, if you will-are often short on wisdom and long on barbarism and savagery. Recall, by the end of The Trouble With Peace events were set in motion with the revolutionary Breakers and Burners and the big “reveal” of the true Weaver? Well it’s not a spoiler to say that this plays a very big part in The Wisdom Of Crowds, and the wisdom of crowds is used here with more than a little sardonicism. I haven’t read it, but I wonder if the choice in title on Abercrombie’s part is intentional-and purposefully ironic. “In this fascinating book, New Yorker business columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea: Large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant-better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.”

(For those of you who could use a “previously on” recap of the past two books before diving into this one, Joe has you covered at his blog).Ĭuriously, the novel shares the title with James Surowiecki’s non-fiction book of the same name. The Age Of Madness trilogy begins with A Little Hatred, continues with ever more surprising and galling twists and turns in The Trouble With Peace, and reaches its raucous, bloody conclusion in The Wisdom of Crowds.

The wisdom of crowds by joe abercrombie