THE HEROES by Joe Abercrombie

THE HEROES by Joe Abercrombie

Narrated by Stephen Pacey

Old Friends—New Narration—Fantastic

This is now my favorite of The First Law World series of books; the follow-up to The First Law Trilogy. Strangely though, after my first listen I was less than impressed. (I have copied my earlier review below.) In fact, the nearly constant barbarism and crude characters had begun to grate on me to the point that I became a hostile listener. So after finishing I did not have much desire to repeat the experience, but the books lingered on in my memory, burrowing in for a long hibernation. Somehow during this gestation period, I began to appreciate Abercrombie’s sense of humor. A few years later, and the release of The Heroes and Best Served Cold with a different narrator prompted me to give it another go. And, just to be fair, I decided to listen to both the new version narrated by Stephen Pacey and the older version narrated by Michael Page; the version that I did not like very much earlier. (Sorry for those wishing to do a head-to-head comparison: with the new release, I don’t think the Michael Page version is available in this market any longer.) Both versions have much to offer and the voice actors are very well matched. At times I could swear they were the same person using different approaches to the material. As I learned some time ago when surveying the novel Dracula as read by several different people, each performer brings out something different in the novel. On this go-round, I found both Page and Pacey to be excellent.

Although this is a sequel to Best Served Cold, it seems that the narrators, too, were undergoing a reëvaluation of the text. One example will suffice: In The Heroes the character Shivers is transformed. In Best Served Cold he is a killer trying to be a better man. His transformation begins when he loses his eye and he comes to realize that he is a killer. In that novel his voice is quite normal with only the merest hint of the malice that is to come. And now in The Heroes he has become a larger than life menacing figure fully embracing his personal reality.  His voice in the mouth of Pacey and Page becomes an eerie stage whisper that pierces deeper than any scream. I really like the Shivers in The Heroes. His character is but one of many that seem to take on new life in this book.

Stephen Pacey is my favorite for the narration of this book. I am glad to have had the opportunity to have heard Michael Page (again) but you now have the opportunity to hear Pacey at his absolute best.

Original Review:

THE HEROES by Joe Abercrombie

Narrated by Michael Page

      Variations on a Gratuitous Violent Theme

 I found this follow-up to Best Served Cold to have a more straight-forward plot and action scenes that were easier to follow that Best Served Cold. There are some shared characters, Black Dow, Shivers, but they seem somehow recast in this tale, having altered roles to play.  Shivers, for instance, has become a sort of nightmare scarecrow of a man, with a whisper of a voice and a personality no one can get close to. This novel has the same overall feel as its predecessors but with slight variations on the theme. Again the characters are well presented and here the plot has more continuity than Best Served Cold.  The problem is that the story has no direction, no goal, no quest. There is just not enough attraction in following a group of amoral mercenaries as they fumble about in a medieval-style war. Unlike the First Law trilogy—which shows interesting character development and logical story unfolding—this follow-up novel seems aimless.  In the end, listening to the whole book left me unfulfilled and lamenting the paucity of story-tellers available for modern listeners. What I really want is some great Sci-Fi. This foray into contemporary fantasy is an experiment on myself. Most of which has been unfruitful for this listener.

Michael Page narrates and he is acceptable, but a narrator with a wider range is needed to portray the many different characters with distinct voices.

P.S. — Several Joe Abercrombie books have been reissued by a new publisher and the reviews for the older versions are no longer available unless you already own the title. There are literally thousands of ratings and hundreds of fine reviews on the original audio versions of Joe Abercrobmie’s First Law trilogy. If you are new to his writings, these are 

BEST SERVED COLD by Joe Abercrombie

BEST SERVED COLD by Joe Abercrombie

Narrated by Stephen Pacey

I Just Love a Happy Ending

As the title suggests this is a revenge tale—but a revenge tale like no other—with several different characters seeking to even the score with each other. But does the vengeance give the listener a sense of completeness? No, it is just like real life in that the deed leaves one feeling empty. Fortunately Abercrombie is not done; this book stands alone but is not alone. He has more sarcasm, despair and the futility of life to offer in the other volumes of this series.

Stephen Pacey is amazing as the narrator of Abercrombie’s First Law books. I can still hear him intoning the mercenary Captain General of the Thousand Swords, Nicamo Cosca’s sodden, yet still erudite, prose, “My friends, my friends!” Abercrombie has penned great characters and given Pacey many great lines to work with. This is a fine pairing: highly stylized writing and distinctive enthusiastic narration. The result is a fine Audiobook experience.

Original Review:

BEST SERVED COLD by Joe Abercrombie

Narrated by Michael Page

     I Just Love a Happy Ending

Set in the same realm as The First Law trilogy this book can be seen as a sequel of sorts in that it has some overlapping characters and contains events occurring after those in Abercrombie’s earlier work. The publisher is now marketing this book and two others (The Heroes and The Red Country as “The First Law World.) I hesitate to burden this series with the “Fantasy” label since magic plays such a small part in the proceedings. Neither does it fit in the category of Historical Fiction, despite being set in a pre-industrial society. It could be classified as a sub-genre of Sword and Sorcery majoring on the former. And while it is one of the bloodiest and crudest works of fiction that I can remember its chief attraction lies not in the abundance of gruesome action scenes—very well depicted I might add—but in the wit and wisdom of the various characters.  Joe Abercrombie is adept at inserting rapier wit into even the most frantic sword fight. It is the characters that keep the listener’s interest. I found myself being carried along with the narrative paying only loose attention and then a piece of dialog would rise up to the forefront of consciousness and make me laugh. This happens time and again in this novel and became the main attraction for me. It is one of the fine paradoxes of Abercrombie’s work, the characters are barbaric but the language transcends barbarism and enters the realm of the poetic.

Michael Page narrates this book. He delivers a journeyman’s effort with crisp diction that is easy to understand. It is during the more frantic scenes that he tends to raise his voice in a high-pitched manner making me wince and fumble for my volume-down button. When he is voicing the words of the Bloody Nine his voice reached a child’s high-pitched tone that is penetrating to the deepest recesses of the brain, almost causing an embolism. This novel has many, many different characters, unfortunately for us, Michael Page has only a handful of different character voices to spread around the cast. This, for me, often leads to confusion; hearing a voice from a previous scene but realizing that a different character is, in actually, in view. This is especially bad when the story flashes back to events taking place before the novel opens. These flashbacks are presented in the exact tome and same pacing as the balance of the book. More than once I found myself lost between the present day “now” in the narrative and the “then” of the flashbacks. In the main, Michael Page is more of an obstacle to be overcome rather than an enhancement contributing to the enjoyment of the story.

P.S. — Several Joe Abercrombie books have been reissued and the reviews for the older versions are no longer available unless you already own the title. So, if you wish to know what I thought about the earlier titles you can find them on my reviews page. In fact, this title is not currently available on Audible, so I am not sure who will be reading this. I am currently listening to The Heroes and will post this same PSA on that review.

Fictionados:

This title was originally released with Michael Page as the narrator. The older version is no longer available for purchase, but it is in our library so we can compare them head to head. I recently listened to both the Stephen Pacey version and the Michael Page version. These two narrators are so similar that at times I was convinced that it was really the same person working under two different names. But after extended listening I can say that they are not one and the same, although their voices have an uncanny similarity.  As usual repeated listenings provide much benefit that I have decided to listen to all of the Abercrombie books twice back to back.