Half the World (Shattered Sea, #2) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Dec 05, 2015 Chompa rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, 2015, grimdark, young-adult

I enjoyed this even more than the first book. I absolutely loved Thorn as a character.

This is a sequel to Half a King, but doesn't focus on Yarvi, which threw me a bit at first. Yarvi is there and directing things as the minister to the king. It instead focuses on two young adults, Thorn and Brand and their relationship and growth. Thorn and her mentor, Skifr are by far my favorite part of the book. Skifr's training of Thorn is just great.

What I didn't like was the "does she/he like me?" crap ...more

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Jul 15, 2014 AH rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: magic, young-adult, fantasy, sos-bookshelf-bingo, alpha-males, blue, zzread-feb2015

A fascinating tale and a wonderful addition to the Shattered Seas series. I fell in love with the first book and Half the World did not disappoint. In this installment, the focus is on two new characters Brand and Thorn. Both are learning how to be warriors under the tutelage of Master Hunnan. It was nice to see a fierce female lead character. And Brand is a wonderful "sidekick" to Thorn as his skills complement hers. Characters that we've grown to love in the previous book like Father Yarvi are ...more

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Aug 21, 2016 Katyana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: epic, fantasy

Took me a little longer to get into this, mostly because Thorn was fairly unlikable until the last third, imo, and I desperately wanted more Yarvi.

Thorn had the potential to be a character I loved, and I could see that, which is why I stuck with her. But she was such an asshole, at times it was tough - every comment or glance directed at her, she took offense to. She was constantly sneering, sniping, or disdainful... all directed at people who had done nothing to earn her scorn. And her treatmen ...more

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Dec 01, 2014 Christal rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: magic, arcs, ya-and-na, multiple-leads, fantasy-aka-swords, pirates, military, 2016-challenge

Mini review originally posted at Badass Book Reviews

When Half a King came out in 2014, I absolutely devoured it. Joe Abercrombie's story was a breath of fresh air in the YA fantasy genre; I couldn't wait to read more! Enter Half the World and I jumped right in... and then put it down... picked it back up... put it down... and then finally finished it almost a year later. I found this second entry to be so much slower than the debut and it just was not holding my interest. As much as I liked ...more

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Aug 22, 2021 ~♥*Marianna*♥~ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, romance-subplot, five-stars

“Sometimes a girl is touched by Mother War, and put among the boys in the training square, and taught to fight. Among the smaller children there are always a few, but with each year that passes they turn to more suitable things, then are turned to them, then shouted and bullied and beaten to them, until the shameful weeds are rooted out and only the glorious flower of manhood remains.”

I liked it! Yes it doesn’t focus on Father Yarvi’s POV but it follows two characters, Thorn and Bran, that are ...more

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Apr 24, 2015 Deidre rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, series, fantasy-swords-and-socerey, young-adult-teens

Yesterday, I read the first book iN this series. I was impressed that Abercrombie had written a YA. I said in my review of book 1, that "I wondered how he would handle a YA. I'm guessing that the difference is that he doesn't use "fuck" in every sentence and blood, guts and treachery are only every other page. Plus, DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE READ EVERY SINGLE OTHER BOOK JOE ABERCROMBIE HAS WRITTEN!!!! (view spoiler) Yesterday, I read the first book iN this series. I was impressed that Abercrombie had written a YA. I said in my review of book 1, that "I wondered how he would handle a YA. I'm guessing that the difference is that he doesn't use "fuck" in every sentence and blood, guts and treachery are only every other page. Plus, DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE READ EVERY SINGLE OTHER BOOK JOE ABERCROMBIE HAS WRITTEN!!!! (view spoiler)."

Now I've read this one. Excellent writing, world building blah blah, just like the first. The spoiler is still accurate. There is still no batch of obscenities every other word, although a bunch of farts crept in. The blood, guts, treachery level fell even more. Whole chapters went by without arms being cut off, peoole being enslaved and tortured, etc etc. Shockingly, evil doers got punished (??? What's that about?) and some good was rewarded. It was not pretty.

But, and this is huge, there is no doubt that this was written for the teen part of YA. Broke my heart. Of the first book I said: "The boy who would be king, no he wouldn't etc. takes the place of the usual boy meets girl, they fall in love, no they don't, yes they do, they act stupid, part, fall in love, ad nauseum of many YA books. Because this IS Joe Abercrombie, and not a pretty vampire book, I'm thinking this is pretty adult stuff for teens looking for the usual."

Guess what reared its ugly face. Boy and girl meet, they hate each other, then they don't, then they do, he's sure he's ugly and stupid, she's sure she's ugly and stupid. And on and on. Blech. I wanted to stab them both most of the time, except when I wanted to jump on their heads. Where is the guy from the above spoiler when you need him?

The boy who would/wouldn't be king did turn into an adult, treachery and trickery abounded when he was on stage. But it wasn't enough. The lovelorn children kept getting in the way, and the rest of story kind of got lost to their long ramblings and mental idiocies.

I'm not even going into the plot etc, since others have. Suffice it to say I put this down and whimpered, "Say it ain't so, Joe." ...more

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