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Best Served Cold

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Best Served Cold

By: Joe Abercrombie
Narrated by: Steven Pacey
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About this listen

Springtime in Styria. And that means war. There have been nineteen years of blood. 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.

While armies march, heads roll and cities burn, behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king. 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. Her victories have made her popular - a shade too popular for her employer's taste.

Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto's reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.

©2010 Joe Abercrombie (P)2010 Orion Publishing Group Limited Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction War Scary

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All stars
Most relevant
Steven Pacey! Steven Pacey! Steven Pacey!



I really enjoyed this, even more than the First Law Trilogy. The book has a great depth of characters, and the narrator brings these to life wonderfully. It's a great combination of a well written book and first class narration.



I recently reviewed The Painted Man (different author) and I wasn't kind to it, because I had no empathy for the characters and ultimately didn’t care what happened to them. In this book most of the characters are low down dirty double crossing villains, but you can't help enjoy them. The reason you warm to them is they aren't just plain bad, they have some depth to them and complexity. Joe Abercrombie has a wonderful way of building a story and getting you to care for the type character that most other authors would have cast as the villain. His world isn't black and white, there are people who just seem to get drawn into bad things … as well as those who just relish it.



The references to the First Law Trilogy were excellent and some of the characters from that appear and get expanded upon. A word of warning though - prepared for dark deeds, dark humour and a couple of occasions where you feel like you might lose your lunch.



Fantastic stuff

Low down dirty double crossing ...

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Best Served Cold indeed! As I said in my review of the First Law series I was going to leave these a while and now that I have what an absolute treat it is. If you take the words of Abercrombie and get Steven Pacey to give voice to them then you have pure audio gold. This is among the very finest audiobooks I have ever read.

Abercrombie takes some of the lesser characters from the fabulous First Law series and tells their story keeping the world itself alive. This is a tale of revenge and all of his characters are massively three-dimensional. A distinct part of his art is actually making you fall in love with characters who are driven by baser instincts. Somehow he instills a nobility into some of them making them real contradictions.

It's brilliant stuff and the homespun philosophy of some of them coupled with the delicious irony and sarcasm is a heady mix. The whole thing is a fast-moving cocktail of dark humour, cunning plans, strong violence and gore all set in a colourful world of vivid hues. And once again Abercrombie demonstrates his ability to write the most incredible, quotes, romantic scenes in literature . . .

Of course all of this could be brought somewhat down to Earth with a bad choice of narrator. But cometh the book cometh the narrator. Steven Pacey is so absolutely perfect for this it's almost like divine intervention must have brought these two together. He's a fabulous voice actor and you only have to look at what happened to the ratings in the Department Q series after he was dropped and read the reviews to see how important he can be. In these books the dialogue and character thoughts are absolutely key and he delivers them with absolute aplomb.

So, if you want to experience fantasy genre audio of the highest quality start with the First Law series and when you're ready take this one out of the fridge nice and cold. It's delicious.

Pacey and Abercrombie, Purveyors of the Finest!

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...and thanks to Paul of West Sussex for pointing out the change of narrator. Steven Pacey's readings of the "First Law" series were probably the most enjoyable audiobooks I have come across, and although I was enjoying this title, it inevitably suffered in comparison. Now, having eagerly downloaded the new Pacey version, I may well start again from the beginning! I wouldn't normally give 5 stars to something I haven't actually heard, but having listend to half the old version and all of "First Law", Pacey would have to be having a very off day for it not to deserve them.

Thanks Audible

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Don't get me wrong I enjoyed this serving, just not as much as the previous three, it's more philosophical and questions deeply the subject of revenge, it's pretty bitter in places.

Drawn in by the deeply flawed characters I was hooked in on how they resorted to to stay alive - the back stabbing violence, utter greed displayed all in the name of fame, fortune, revenge and survival... a book to remember though I did miss the abundance of
political machinations seen in the previous books....

Fine Fantasy...

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Would you consider the audio edition of Best Served Cold to be better than the print version?

Along with, Half a King, this is the only other exception, where I have merely purchased the audio book version only. I think these are the weakest novels within Abercrombie's collection and as such... I wouldn't want them clogging up my shelves. Saying that... Best Served Cold, is still a ripping yarn, when judged against the other multitude of fantasy fluff soiling the literary pool.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Murcatto has got to be one of the most dislikable leads in any book... As such, every other character, need only be slightly redeemable, in order to become a fan favourite for. Best Served Cold. Vitari, Morveer and Shenkt were among those individuals I wanted to hear more about. Cosca is a bore, but as he's an old soak, I can't help but think that Abercrombie (like me), has had to endlessly endure the verbal diarrhoea of drunks and this has left its scars. I may dislike the drawn out, amoral waffling, but it seems like the character is made more authentic by such tools.

There were so many characters I disliked in this book, that it's testament to the writers ability and the accuracy he employs when portraying the negatives of his cast, that a reader can still look past their own tastes and wade through the chapters.

Saying that... Part of me prayed (for the majority of the book) that justice might be suitably meted out to Murcatto (someone we should feel sorry for, but don't). Spoiler alert... I was left disappointed.

What does Steven Pacey bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

A myriad of voices and a sense of timing, that my imagination wouldn't naturally adopt.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me grind my teeth. I hate violence towards women, but by the end, I never wished harder for a heroine to die.

Any additional comments?

Considering the rest of his work, Abercrombie is generally a safe bet on ripping yarns rich with casts of three dimensional characters.

The First Law Trilogy was such an amazing debut (setting such a ludicrously high bar), I now tend to unfairly judge all the other novels he pumps out against the strength of that initial foray. This book may be his weakest alongside the laughably bad, Half a King. but unlike that steaming chod, this is still an Abercrombie novel.

Worth a listen, if not a read.

Not a heartwarming tale...

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