Shattered Sea
 First editions (UK hardback) | |
| |
| Author | Joe Abercrombie |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher |
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| Published | 2014 – 2015 |
| Media type | |
Shattered Sea is a young adult fantasy series written by the British author Joe Abercrombie. The trilogy was published by Del Rey in the United States and Harper Voyager in the UK.
Novels
[edit]| # | Title | Pages | UK release | UK hardback ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Half a King | 384 | 3 July 2014 | ISBN 978-0007550203 |
| 2 | Half the World | 496 | 15 February 2015 | ISBN 978-0007550234 |
| 3 | Half a War | 512 | 16 July 2015 | ISBN 978-0007550265 |
Plot
[edit]Half a King
[edit]King Ulric of Gettland and his oldest son are killed by soldiers from Vansterland. Prince Yarvi becomes king. Yarvi was training to be a King's minister under the tutelage of Mother Gundring. However, he has a malformed hand and is considered to be a weak ruler. His mother Leithlan is a brilliant economist; many believe that she would be the true power behind the throne. Yarvi is betrothed to Isrien, his dead brother’s fiancée, to shore up his political station. While on a raid against the Vanstermen who killed his father, Yarvi is betrayed by his uncle Odem, who usurps the crown. He escapes assassination by Odem’s men, but is captured by Vanstermen and taken as a slave.
Yarvi is sold to the ship “The South Wind” as an oar slave, despite his crippled hand. When captain Sherem leaves the ship, Yarvi and the other slaves revolt. The ship sinks, and a group of survivors reaches land. Yarvi’s companions include Nobody, a warrior, and Sumael, the ship’s navigator. Together, they travel back to Gettland. Sherem and her surviving soldiers pursue them, but Yarvi kills her in combat. As they are recovering from this fight, Yarvi and his surviving companions are captured by Vanstermen. Yarvi reveals his identity and promises to make Gettland a vassal state of Vansterland in exchange for passage home.
In Gettland, Odem is trying to get rid of Leithlan by marrying her to the High King, but she is delaying. Yarvi and his companions enter the palace and kill Odem. The swordsman Nobody is revealed to be Uthel, Odem’s older brother who had previously been captured. Uthel becomes king. Yarvi gives up his claim to the throne in exchange for forgiveness for his earlier actions.
Yarvi realizes that Mother Gundring and Odem had conspired with the High King. The High King was afraid that Leithlan’s economic policies would take wealth from him, so he contrived to have her husband murdered and marry her himself. Yarvi poisons Mother Gundring and takes her place as minister to King Uthel.
Half the World
[edit]Thorn Bathu hopes to become the first female warrior of Gettland in living memory. During a training exercise, she accidentally kills a fellow trainee and is named a murderer. Brand, another young warrior, intercedes on her behalf to Father Yarvi. Yarvi pardons Thorn and she accompanies him to meet the High King. Meanwhile, King Uthel of Gettland organizes a raid in defiance of the High King’s orders.
Yarvi travels with Brand, Thorn, and a host of warriors to seek out allies for Gettland in the political conflict with the High King. Thorn is trained in combat by Skifr, a woman who steals elf relics for a living. As Thorn and Brand journey across the world, their mutual dislike slowly grows into friendship. They are interested in each other romantically, but a misunderstanding shatters their friendship.
The crew journeys south to the Empire of the South, only to find that its empress has died and the city is in the midst of a succession crisis. Thorn saves the new empress Violine from an assassination attempt, which allows Gettland to form an alliance with the Empire.
The crew returns to Gettland. Brand’s sister confronts Thorn over the falling out. Thorn realizes that she has made a mistake and reconciles with Brand. They make love. Thorn becomes the chosen shield of Queen Leithlan. Brand is given the opportunity to become a warrior of Gettland, but as he doubts the morality of war, he declines.
King Grom Gilgorem of Vansterland challenges King Uthel to single combat. Despite his poor health, Uthel accepts. Yarvi tries to avert war, as even a victory will weaken Gettland substantially. As Leithlen’s chosen shield, Thorn stands for Uthel and fights Grom in single combat. Grom barely defeats her but does not kill her. He decides to defy the High King and forge an alliance with Gettland.
Brand learns that Yarvi poisoned Uthel in order to manipulate the duel between Grom and Thorn. Yarvi administers the antidote to Uthel, who recovers. Thorn begins training girls for war with the High King.
Half a War
[edit]In the third book, three new point of view characters (Princess Skara, the Vansterland warrior Raith and Father Yarvi's apprentice Koll, who features throughout the second book also) are introduced.
Setting
[edit]The trilogy is set in what is at first glance an epic fantasy world, but is later shown as a Dying Earth-type post-apocalyptic Scandinavia, seemingly thousands of years in the future. Society has regressed to a medieval-equivalent level after a cataclysm of some kind, and the remnants of past are known as "elf-ruins".[citation needed]
The map of the Shattered Sea tallies closely with that of the current day Baltic Sea, the main three countries of the book, Gettland, Vansterland and Throvenland seem to make up most of what is a modern-day Sweden.[1]
Reception
[edit]Book 1
Ryan Lawler and Jo Fitzpatrick of Fantasy Book Review both gave the novel a rating of 9.5/10. Lawler notes that "this is not just a story for teenagers" despite being marketed as young adult literature. Fitzpatrick praised Yarvi's character development from a "weakling" into a strong leader.[2]
Book 2
Publishers Weekly called the novel "a splendid second installment" and wrote that Abercrombie "has a knack for building characters with pathos and wit."[3]
Book 3
Luke Brown of SFF World wrote that the final novel in the trilogy is "the book in the trilogy most like previous Abercrombie novels." Brown wrote that "I enjoyed it immensely" while still feeling that it was weaker than the previous two installments and somewhat predictable.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ Adam Whitehead (4 March 2015). "Decoding the map of Joe Abercrombie's Shattered Sea". The Wertzone. Retrieved 10 August 2015.[unreliable source?]
- ^ Ryan Lawler; Jo Fitzpatrick. "Half a King by Joe Abercrombie". Fantasy Book Review. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
- ^ "Fiction Book Review: Half the World". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
- ^ Luke Brown (16 September 2015). "Half a War by Joe Abercrombie (Shattered Sea #3)". SFF World. Retrieved 7 October 2019.