We start Half the World with a slight disjunction, in that rather than take up exactly where we left Prince Yarvi of Gettland in Half A King, we begin with two new young characters, Thorn and Brand.
Sixteen year old Thorn (Hild) Bathu is a teenage girl, desperate to follow in her dead father’s footsteps and be a warrior – not easy in this male-dominated world. Brand is her counterpart – a young man whose desire to go raiding to support himself and his orphaned sister is as driven as that of Thorn’s.
Though them we gradually see the reappearance of characters from the first book and what has happened to them. Seeing these characters you may recognise from the first book but in a different way is quite interesting. Prince (now Father) Yarvi is a minister to King Uthil, the High King of Gettland. From Thorn’s perspective Yarvi has a touch of Gloktas about him: clever, wily, often grumpy. Queen Laithlin, Yarvi’s mother, is seen without the rose-tinted perception given by Yarvi in Half A King. In a further complication, and to Yarvi’s surprise, his ex-fiancé, Isriun, has now joined the Ministry. Once again, a spurned Abercrombie woman is someone to be dealt with carefully.
Both of our young leads are made outcasts in the first part of the novel. Had Thorn not been given a responsibility by Yarvi, she would have been killed due to a training accident under the harsh tutelage of Master Hunnan. Brand is demoted by Hunnan as a result of his standing up for Thorn in the trial afterwards, which causes Hunnan to be seen by others in a bad light.
Yarvi takes advantage of their plights. Going south on a mission to win allies against Gettland’s enemy, the King of Skekenhouse, Yarvi, seemingly realising their potential, takes both the pariahs, Brand and Thorn, as part of the diplomatic group.
Much of the middle part of the novel is about their long journey, both physically and metaphorically along the great Divide river to the Shattered Sea. Both of our young protagonists have much to absorb, with both learning valuable life-lessons along the way. The tale at this point becomes all-Viking, with characters generally building relationships and muscle, regularly fight-training and doing Viking-y things. We have characters running the oars and man-hauling ships over hills by hand, for example.
Whilst Thorn and Brand alternate between hating each other and fancying each other, their destinies soon become rather different from each other, though they complement each other well. Brand is the more contemplative of the two and begins to question the futility of war, whilst Thorn, under the guidance of weird ‘witch-woman’ Skifr, relishes the opportunities to learn and become more of a soldier. There are scenes in the book where her skills are tested.
As the journey continues, there are further revelations of this world too – we get more intriguing backstory of the mysterious elves by visiting a creepy, deserted elf-city and there are more places visited to fill in the historical details of this bigger perspective. The world-building of places, Gods, and cultures is as impressive as ever, skilfully intertwined throughout to give the world credence.
As we travel south from the Viking-esque lands of Gettland to the more Mediterranean-like First of Cities, half a world away, we also begin to glimpse that this place is bigger than we previously imagined it. Our characters in Half the World now seem to be just one aspect in a much bigger global perspective, which at times make the manoeuvrings of Half A King seem quite small and petty in comparison. Joe does well here to make our characters realise that the world outside Gettland is a much bigger and stranger place. Of course, some characters adapt to this and it may not be too much of a surprise to find that Yarvi now makes his Machiavellian moves on a bigger stage, and the end result is very satisfying.
Two-thirds of the way through the book, things seem to be resolving and our tale is almost done. However, (and a slight spoiler here) the ending, as you might expect from Joe, is another jaw-dropper. There is a battle that was genuinely exciting and that I couldn’t decide what would happen. I did not see the end of the duel coming, though I guess I should have expected it, as such things have become an Abercrombie trademark.
In summary, Half the World is as satisfying a read as I had hoped for: clever, exciting and unexpected. I really like Joe’s leaner, tighter prose in these books. I do think that you need to read Half A King first (though Half the World could be read as a stand-alone.) But for those who enjoyed the first, I’m pleased to type that Half the World goes to show that the story only gets better. I’m already looking forward to Book Three.
Half A World by Joe Abercrombie
Book Two of The Shattered Sea series
Published by Harper Voyager, February 2015
ISBN: 978-0007550234
496 pages
Mark Yon, January 2015.
