The Trouble with Peace (The Age of Madness, 2)

The Trouble with Peace marks the ninth installment in the First Law world as envisioned and scripted by the self-proclaimed Lord Grimdark, Joe Abercrombie. I know it’s nine books because I have just completed a wonderful journey for the last 12 months reading through all the currently published books with my now 15-year-old son, Josh. In fact, I read all the books out loud to him, averaging around 10-15 pages most days at about 3-4 minutes per page. Reading one book immediately after the one before created a wonderful larger narrative of nearly 4,500 pages, and allowed us to experience these tales together in a satisfying story arc full of rich characters and a completely developed world.

Before I go any farther, if you are reading this and considering The Trouble with Peace as your next book to read, please STOP. While I will spend the rest of this review trying to convincing you to pick up this grimy gem, I suggest that you first make sure to read all eight of the books that came before it. There is just way too much history that would be missed, way too much perspective missed with the depth of characters, and the current tome will not be nearly as satisfying. So, it would seem, I’m trying to sell you nine books, not just this one.

Before moving into the details on The Trouble with Peace, Josh and I both place this book (and A Little Hatred, the first volume in The Age of Madness trilogy) just behind the three books in The First Law trilogy. Honestly, The First Law books take a slight edge because of the prominence of Glokta and Logen in those books, two of our all-time favorite characters. While Glokta was again in this book, he is portrayed as only a fraction of the ruthless, heartless, vicious monster as he was before. He is still great, but the charisma is diminished.

The Trouble with Peace picks up largely where A Little Hatred ended. There isn’t exactly peace, or even a true cease-fire, it’s more like the losers are licking their wounds and plotting their next moves. Before long, unlikely alliances are brokered, and dissent is fueled to a frenzy. King Orso, who only recently was given the crown, and who is still dealing with a rejected marriage proposal, and who has lived a life absent of effort or cares, is dead center in the sights of those who mean to overthrow him. While much of their hostility is truly birthed out of a system that elevates the wealthy, the nobility and the powerful while oppressing the masses, more notably as influenced by the members of the corrupt Councils, he is nevertheless the representative and the target for their anger.

Written into this struggle is a form of commentary to the greater struggle that humanity faces in our modern day. We still face corrupt politicians, as well as rampant issues of inequality and prejudice. When we see how this book handles topics like politics and worker’s rights, they come across as believable because they have a familiarity to them. All of this follows a seemingly natural progression where injustice leads to debate and a sense of helplessness which escalates through private backroom deals and eventually can boil over into war. Every aspect of his world is diverse and expansively realized, far beyond socio-economic, geographic, ethnic and more, clearly showing a meticulous attention to detail.

These books, in our opinion, stand out because of the superbly crafted characters. Josh was even telling me, moments after finishing this book, how well written many of the characters are, such that he can practically picture them in his mind. He is already inspired to create some drawings based on those whose bodies have been more disfigured. Beyond just visually, the characters are so well portrayed as constantly wrestling with choices between bad and worse, between black and dark grey, and despite the probable unfortunate circumstances. Even more impressive is that all their choices fit who we have come to understand them to be. “Of course Savine would do that.” “That’s classic Shivers, right there.”

Many will point to the action in this book as its strength, and they will comment about the massive conflict that is inevitable given the posturing and positioning, not to mention the furor that is barely restrained. Abercrombie does not hold back in the mayhem and carnage, and the scale of the conflict here is equal to his previous offerings. All his works feel like a secret game of cat and mouse, in which the powerful use the hoi polloi as pawns, and this one is no different. They also feature plot twists aplenty, and we see it again here. While most of this book is not surprising, the last 20 pages sure are.

Suffice it to say that we are eagerly looking forward to the conclusion in The Wisdom of Crowds in 2021. If you love other Joe Abercrombie books, you will probably love this one too. It is as good as we hoped it would be. No actually, it was better. 5 stars!!!

Loved Abercrombie until these last 2 books.

Especially this latest one. Head-hopping lackluster and political bore fest.

I recommend any of Joe’s books for any reader. His humor and mix of characters are second to none. I would start with The First Law Trilogy which happens to include 2-3 of my favorite fantasy characters of all time Sand dan Glotka, Logan Ninefingers and Bremer Dan Gorst ( he plays a small part in The First Law, but in The Heroes he is an amazing point of view character). The stand alone books that are set in the same world and involve many of The First Law characters are the best in my opinion! Best Served Cold -revenge tale, The Heroes- 3 day battle ( which may sound boring but I promise it is the furthest thing from boring) & Red Country- A Western & my fav of the 3!

This trilogy has fallen so far from the gritty realism and adventure of the first two. The male characters are all pathetic and just get in the way of their perfect wives or mothers. The trash is full of little snipes at masculinity and pointed jabs at people who don't accept critical theory dogma. I wouldn't have forced myself to read this book if I hadn't already pre-ordered "wisdom of crowds"... Now, I'm just looking at that book with mild disgust. I doubt I'll be able to force myself to read it.

Abercrombie is one of my favorite authors, and this is an unpopular opinion but I found TTWP to be a very disappointing followup to the previous book and the series as a whole. The main plot really boils down to North vs Adua again. Leo takes center stage here and he seems like a completely different character from the last book. Previously he came off as a thoughtful Northman who inherited some of his mother's intelligence, but in this book he's probably the dumbest character in this series by far. Most of the situations that he finds himself in are caused by this sudden stupidity. Seems like anytime Leo is about to spend two seconds thinking about his actions it devolves into some variation of " but I'm the young lion!" Unfortunately Leo drags down a lot of characters that I enjoyed from the last book. The loyalty to his close friends that is so often spoken of in the last book seems thrown out the window here. The characters who are most distant from Leo plot wise are much better. It's also very easy to forget that this is supposed to be some sort of industrial revolution, except for one big scene, and there's very little action.

I LIKE JOE'S BOOKS. LOVED THE LAST TRILOGY HE WROTE(HALF A WORLD, HALF A WAR HALF A KING). BUT....SOME TEND TO BE SLOW-PACED. THIS IS ONE OF THOSE. NOT VERY INVOLVED OR INTERESTED IN THE CHARACTERS AND THE STOREY IS DEFINITLY SLOW! THE FIRST ONE WAS BETTER. LET'S HOPE THE NEXT IS BETTER ALSO.

Perfect condition. Was on sale at a very low price. I loved the first first law trilogy can’t imagine this being to far off.

My book arrived in near perfect condition despite saying used (i was expecting it to be in worse condition due to the "grading" not being higher) and it also arrived 2 weeks early. Not much else to say, i bought this one because it was cheapest but was blown away by the service will buy from again.

Another great novel from Abercrombie. I enjoyed this much more thn the first installment in the series, which was still good. As always, strong characters bring this tale to life.

I am on the third book so this was a good set up for that. It is slow moving up until the end but don't quit. It's pieces being moved into place for book 3 really. There are a lot of repetitious statements in the book. Characters consistently reflecting on the same moments. I just skip read through that. Joe writes his characters with purpose. If you are made to hate a character (I have one in particular) it's because you are meant to. Not because they are written poorly. Enjoy!