 Hey guys it's Liana and I'm here today with the much anticipated, probably not, review for The Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie. I will now say the thing that I have said in every video since the beginning of 2021. As you know, this year I am re-reading all of the first law books in anticipation of the release of the third and final book in the Age of Madness trilogy by Joe Abercrombie which comes out in September and is called The Wisdom of Crowds. When I read these books the first time and the second time I did not do standalone reviews for them so I'm doing them now. I'll cut up. This will be non-spoilery as much as possible. Yeah, like I'm gonna avoid spoilers like I may inadvertently spoil something earlier in the trilogy. I really don't think that I will have a need to. Kaushenayu just in case that does happen. If you don't already know and that's not clear from how I intrude it, this is the third and final book in the first law trilogy which is the first three books in the first law world after which comes some standalone. So this wraps up the trilogy arc but it's not the last book in the first law universe. This is the only book in the trilogy that I gave five stars to the first time that I read it. I have subsequently given all the books in the series or all the books in the trilogy five stars. This I gave five stars to the first go around and ever since continued to give it five stars because this book is the one where everything makes sense. Everything comes together. Everyone who was like confused or like is this going somewhere? Is there a point to anything that I've been reading? This is the book that makes you go oh oh shit. You mean to say that he and that that and that this like when I talked to my brother about it I mean when he finished this for this book the first time he was like well now I just want to immediately go back and reread the trilogy because like it turns out stuff was actually being foreshadowed and you had no way to be able to tell that. I've certainly read books where like it seems like the author is foreshadowing things and you're like oh that'll come into it later or like there's something suspicious going on over there or I bet this is gonna turn into this. Abercrombie's writing is so just like you know grim dark characters doing grim dark things just going about their lives which is why a lot of people picking it up are like this is meandering where's any of this going which is fair but for that reason then no part of you is thinking that any of these things are actually clues because they're not really like framed by the author as being clues for things. You're just like people are doing stuff that was crazy that was weird what is he up to what a guy and then when you finish last argument of kings you're like my god I need to go back and reread everything because it was yeah now that I'm thinking that was foreshadowed this didn't come out of nowhere this wasn't like a last minute pancer author being like well I gotta have a twist at the end so I guess this makes sense like no as soon as the twist happens it is out of nowhere and yet it is also definitely not out of nowhere because then you stop and think and you're like that checks out no that yep that definitely checks out oh wow wow wow wow wow wow wow so like this is a weird analogy but go with me on this last argument of kings feels like by the way I just discovered how horrible it is putting Ikea furniture together I've never before had Ikea furniture but like building any furniture really I've been building a lot of furniture you know that this is supposed to be a thing at the end but while you're going through steps a through zed you're like putting these pieces together that you think like is this going to be the word of the cabinet no is it the bottom of it I don't know but it says you know d3 to a7 needs to go like this so I'm scurn it in and nailing it and attach this piece in the middle why am I attaching this piece in the middle okay it says to do that so I'm gonna do that and then you pick up like the last few pages of the instruction manual and suddenly these pieces are coming together and fitting and forming a thing and you're like aha that wasn't like a pointless configuration of random pieces of wood this comes together to form a thing and I see it now oh wow like looking back at those instructions on the first pages how did I not see that those are actually the shelves oh wow okay this makes sense and what a sturdy freaking beautiful chest it is so what last time I said before they are hanged was like a road trip and I had an extended road trip metaphor well the metaphor for last argument of kings is Ikea furniture if you want to read the grim dark fantasy equivalent of putting it together Ikea furniture then you should read the first law trilogy put that on the cover that's the blurb for the cover uh so obviously I love the series obviously obviously but like the satisfaction that you get from reading the third book where stuff comes together because that's a lot of what this is and at the same time that's not to say there aren't like new things coming into it and new revelations and new developments it's not just like finally saying okay so this thing you've been wondering about that's what this means that's what this means like there's there's new revelations new connections new threads a lot of stuff happening a lot of stuff goes down in this book it's it's a thick I think it's the longest one I'm pretty sure it's the longest one it has a lot to wrap up I I don't know they're all pretty action packed I think it's safe to say this is the most action packed there's the most you know on screen like you know action scenes people fighting or violence occurring or stuff like that happening there are some truly earned and spectacular character interactions that like you've kind of been waiting for for all three books characters that like either knew of each other or didn't know of each other but you knew who they were and were like at some point those those courses have to collide so seeing them collide in the most epic ways possible there's a lot of payoff for character arcs that are not necessarily connections to the plot or anything just kind of like moments in this book that make you go oh my god to think where this character started to think how I was introduced to them and to see them where they are now what they're doing what they're thinking how far they've come and that's not to say that the farness of the coming was a positive turn of events but you know just that like wow like realizing that you've actually really watched them grow and change over the course of three books and I think we've all read books where like a character has in some way the author wants us to believe this character has progressed or changed but we haven't really seen it happen we haven't really seen anything to convince us that this character would have gone through such a change we just kind of have to take the author's word for it whereas in the first love books we spend so much time just with characters just like seeing them reacting to their world and to the people around them and seeing how that begins to shift over time how they knew like realizations and awareness of the world begins to color how they interact with the world so that by the time you read the last argument of kings if you think of the character as they are now meeting their prior self in the blade itself just how different those characters are and like what their present self would think of their past self that you got to see change you got to see this journey it wasn't like you know fast forward now they're a different person you've seen this this earned development in them and that's not to say that they're no longer at all the same person they are and that's the the magic of the character work that Abercrombie does we're like at their core this is recognizably still the same character but they're very different like they have changed a lot so it it's just like if for a character driven reader the last argument of kings like beyond all of the payoff in terms of oh it actually did have a plot oh actually this all does add up to something beyond that like just the character payoffs where you've seen this development in a character in and it's been explored so thoroughly and so satisfyingly in a way that you really get to feel like you saw it happen and like there's some excellent moments that just kind of like crystallize it if that makes sense like you've been seeing this happen and you've probably thought to yourself wow this character is changing but just these like moments in last argument of kings where something the character says or does and like it really just kind of like brings to the forefront how different they are now how much they have changed i'll completely switching gears this is something that i haven't brought up in any of the reviews which i mean it doesn't purposely not and i wasn't i don't know that i forgot about it i don't know that i planned the same thing but one thing that i really like about the titles of the trilogy is that they're all based on quotes that are somehow relevant to the book like the first book the blade itself is from the longer quote the blade itself incites to deeds of violence i should probably look these up i'm going to bring it up at all okay so the blade itself is the quote from homers the odyssey which is the blade itself incites to deeds of violence so i was correct about that and then the second book before they are hanged the title of that book references a quote by hindrick hind which is we should forgive our enemies but not before they are hanged and then the last argument of kings refers to words that um louis 14th hadn't described um on his cannons which is in latin ultima ratio regum i don't speak latin probably butchered that it translates to the last argument of kings meaning like war is the last argument of kings any hoosies i just like that little additional element um little flavor and he does like to he's the sprinkles in quotes at like the beginnings of like parts of the book um i know that in i think in a little hatred there's a terry project quote at one point it's just like fun little i just i just like stuff like that it's just like i don't know what it's like i just like it i'm telling you about it you're welcome now what is also interesting for me having read all of the books already coming back to this now so this is i guess me telling you uh whether or not these books are also deserving of a rereader what it's like to be rereading them having seen where the where he takes the world where he takes the series where he takes these characters in later in the standalone's and in now the new trilogy it's interesting to see seeds that were planted for that already so similarly to how this book offers like an insight or or it makes you realize that actually the blade itself and before they were hanged wasn't random stuff like it was actually planting a bunch of seeds that paid off in the last argument of kings and you didn't know it's happening similarly having now read the first two books in the japanist trilogy and seeing how the world has shifted and changed seeing how the groundwork for that shift was already being laid at the end of the last argument of kings seeing how it isn't like well what if in the in the 30 years interim what if the world just changed a bit and you just i mean if an author did that like i mean you would be like well yeah i guess stuff would happen in those 30 in that 30 year interim so that would change the world i guess but you see in the last argument of kings very easily how what has happened and where the where we leave off at the end of the last argument of kings how that could lead to the world that we see in the age of madness trilogy seems like the next logical progression of this world after what goes down in the last argument of kings so it's kind of hard to talk about this without spoilers because like it's all basically i mean i have to be vague so like characters doing things plots being revealed so like i i i can't really give specifics because any specifics would be spoilery for the first two books as well as this basically this book is fantastic and i think that if you have gone on this journey so far like if blade itself put you off and you never went further fair enough but if you did keep going on this journey but you kept thinking to yourself like i mean i like this like i do like this i like his writing sure do love locked up but like is there a point to any of this this is the book that makes you that there are awards you for having gone along on this journey and i would still love the trilogy even if the third book didn't pay off so well because i still think the character work is brilliant and i think that is the shining star of the series but having this like this moment where things come together in a way that makes sense and pays off does feel like it's a reward for having stuck with these ikea instructions oh so yeah obviously i recommend that goes without saying with before any of these reviews because i'm rereading all these books because i love them this is my third time reading the last argument of kings so obviously i'm a fan i'm hoping that through these reviews you can see and understand whether or not this is for you or not because like gushing all day about it makes it sound like this is for anybody and for everybody which is not the case but i'm hoping to illustrate why this works so so well for me and why these are like perfect books for me and for readers like me but if your tastes don't align with mine they would not be for you so helping you to understand what exactly it is that i'm getting out of these what it is that i love so much about them so that you can judge for yourself if that sounds like a thing that you would also gosh about i'm hoping in the very least that that's what i've been able to do for you so let me know in the comments down below if you are a fan of the first law and if you agree or disagree with me about my assessment of these books if you have also read them or if you're like i love them but like uh i don't know what you're talking about it's not what they're like at all feel free to let me know or um if you haven't read them you can let me know if i was successful in any way in kind of illustrating what these books are like and whether or not you should be picking them up whatever you want to let me know i post videos on saturdays other random times as well but definitely saturdays also have a patreon if you want to see me in between so like and subscribe and i'll see you when i see you bye