The Union army may be full of bastards, but there’s only one who thinks he can save the day single-handed when the Gurkish come calling: the incomparable Colonel Sand dan Glokta.

Curnden Craw and his dozen are out to recover a mysterious item from beyond the Crinna. Only one small problem: no one seems to know what the item is.

Shevedieh, the self-styled best thief in Styria, lurches from disaster to catastrophe alongside her best friend and greatest enemy, Javre, Lioness of Hoskopp.

And after years of bloodshed, the idealistic chieftain Bethod is desperate to bring peace to the North. There’s only one obstacle left – his own lunatic champion, the most feared man in the North: the Bloody-Nine . . .

By the dead, it always feels so fucking exciting starting a Joe Abercrombie book, no? I mean, nobody does this better. It’s always hard to pick a favorite, but I’ll still go ahead and pick Joe Abercrombie every time!

Sharp Ends is a collection of short stories from his First Law world. Some of these were previously published, some are new to this book, and ALL OF THEM were new to me!! Going into this, I really had little to no awareness of the content of these stories, other than this collection featured a Shy South story! After reading Red Country, Shy definitely became one of my favorite Abercrombie characters, and her short story, “Some Desperado” is as fucking sweary & delightful as she is!

“Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden…” was another favorite of mine. It sort of felt like a mini version of The Heroes in some ways, and featured lots of Abercrombie’s trademark humor. This one also heavily featured Bremer dan Gorst, who I think is one of Abercrombie’s most fascinating creations.

But where Sharp Ends really soared in my eyes is with the Shev & Javre stories. All the stories in this book (with one exception) are arranged chronologically, not in terms of publication date, but in terms of the chronology of the First Law world. And this proves to be a really clever way to put this collection together, as we get to see these two amazing new characters over a long span of time. It almost feels like a Shev & Javre short novel, with other stories breaking it up. I’m honestly tempted to go back & read just the Shev & Javre stories sooner rather than later.

I guess Shev (short for Shevediah) and Javre are Joe Abercrombie’s tribute to Fritz Leiber’s characters, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (I’ve never read a word of those stories). But goddamn, these two became favorites of mine straight away.

Shev is a thief, and a very good one at that. But she’s opened a smoke shop & she’s trying to live on the straight and narrow. Kind of. A little bit. Sometimes.

One day Shev finds a very tall woman, bloodied & unconscious in the doorway of her smoke shop. This turns out to be Javre, the Lioness of Hoskopp, and one of the fifteen Knights Templar of the Golden Order. She’s on the run from her past, and from a life she feels ill suited to. Javre is just…fucking outrageously badass!! She legit seems indestructible, and is also hilariously forthright & plain-spoken.

I just could not get enough of their adventures over the course of this book. Their friendship is this living, breathing, constantly-evolving thing…they are an extremely unlikely and memorable duo. Shev & Javre travel far & wide, and run into more than a few familiar faces from the First Law books.

I’m so glad to have finally read this collection! It was really awesome (and a little scary, in at least one instance) seeing some very well-loved characters in their younger days…”Made a Monster” in particular left a big impression on me, and I loved getting to take such a close look at a pre-trilogy Bethod.

I just love Abercrombie’s writing so fucking hard…these stories were every bit as good as I had imagined they’d be…the First Law is truly my favorite series in fantasy, and these stories filled in some gaps, introduced some amazing new characters, and will go a long way towards tiding me over until A Little Hatred is published!!