2026 has unintentionally turned into a year of reading books from Joe Abercrombie. Historically this has been a losing formula for me. I read one book from an author, get excited, another, maybe another, and then I run out of steam. Not the case here, I am loving this run.
The first book in a new historical fantasy series that came out last year and I loved it. Think Suicide Squad, but a band of monsters employed by the Pope in 17th century Europe. I started here, but the next book isn’t coming till 2027, so I dug into his more recent work.
A fantasy series that released from 2019 to 2023. It picks up a generation after the First Law books. Fantasy world reckoning with industrialization and capitalism. An excellent series, but I made the mistake of reading it out of order. Still a great story, but now the prior series is reading a bit like a prequel.
I should have started here, but my cautious wavering on author deep dives got the best of me. The series came out between 2006 and 2008, and was his first work. Turns out I was 100% wrong. Start here and enjoy. Traditional fantasy that borrows and also introduces new ideas. Excellent characters and now I know which ones will be merely history or feature prominently in Age of Madness.
180 Lunches 
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