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Jun 5, 2009 · Best Served Cold is the first entry of three standalones set after the fantastic First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. It has dark humour, a vile cast and action so bloody and grim you can practically see the spouts of shooting blood on the pages.
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is Joe Abercrombie's fourth novel. It was first published in June 2009 by Gollancz in the UK, with an American edition following from Orbit Books. It is the first stand-alone novel set in the First Law world.
Springtime in Styria. And that means war. Springtime in Styria. And that means revenge.
There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white. While armies march, heads roll and cities burn, behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.
War may be hell but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso's employ, it's a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular - a shade too popular for her employer's taste. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto's reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.
Her allies include Styria's least reliable drunkard, Styria's most treacherous poisoner, a mass-murderer obsessed with numbers and a Northman who just wants to do the right thing. Her enemies number the better half of the nation. And that's all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her down and finish the job Duke Orso started...
takes place three years after the events of The First Law in Styria, a land of warring city-states reminiscent of Renaissance Italy, and is a tale of betrayal and revenge, plain and simple.
Monzcarro "Monza" Murcatto is the notorious leader of The Thousand Swords mercenary company. She has brought victory after victory to her employer Grand Duke Orso of Talins, and become wealthy and popular as a result. Perhaps too popular. Unfortunately for Monza, he has her and her beloved brother Benna thrown down a mountain. Unfortunately for Orso, she survives the stabbing, mutilating, garroting and a brutal fall.
Now the Snake of Talins wants vengeance against the seven men responsible; Orso's bodyguard Gobba, his banker Mauthis, the general of his armies Ganmark, her treacherous second-in-command Faithful Carpi, his sons Prince Ario and Count Foscar, and finally Orso himself.
However she can’t do it alone, so she enlists the help of an oddball carnival of psychopaths to aid her in her quest. This includes: Caul Shivers, a Northman looking to make a fresh start; Friendly, a number-obsessed ex-convict; Castor Morveer, a self-congratulatory blowhard of a poisoner, and his constantly-eating apprentice Day; Shylo Vitari, a former Practical; and last, but by no means the least, the lovable scoundrel and drunkard has-been Nicomo Cosca.
Across Styria, they systematically work their way through Monza’s list. On the way, they not only kill their targets, but poison an entire bank full of people in Westport, burn a bordello to the ground in Sipani, and play no small role in the fate of Styria as a whole. Before Monza finally kills Duke Orso himself, he reveals that his fears were well-founded, and Benna was indeed planning to usurp him without Monza's knowledge.
Meanwhile, various subplots interweaver Monza’s bloody-minded violent revenge. Bayaz and Khalul continue their machinations on the grand chessboard in Styria. Caul Shivers’ moral transformation from a likable optimist to a cold-blooded killer. Through Monza’s flashbacks we learn that her reputation as a butcher of the innocent, may not be as simple as all that. And a mysterious assassin called Shenkt who has his own plans for Monza, and his own desire for revenge … against Bayaz.
•“You were a hero round these parts. That's what they call you when you kill so many people the word murderer falls short.” Sajaam to Monza Murcatto
•“You should laugh every moment you live, for you'll find it decidedly difficult afterwards.” Nicomo Cosca
•“My name is Nicomo Cosca, famed solider of fortune, and I am here for dinner.” Nicomo Cosca
•“He was less and less sure with every day that being a better man was worth all the effort.” Caul Shivers
•“When God means to punish a man He sends him stupid friends and clever enemies.” Kantic Scriptures
•“When men say things used to be better, they invariably mean they were better for them, because they were young, and had all their hopes intact. The world is bound to look a darker place as you slide into the grave.” Caul Shivers
•The title of the book comes from the proverbial saying "Revenge is a dish best served cold". The quote is attibuted to Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, 1782. However, this is a widely held myth. The phrase doesn't appear in the novel, or any other work by de Laclos. Historians are not sure where the saying originated. One of the earliest uses of the text is the 1845 French novel Mathilde by Joseph Marie Eugène Sue, where it was implies that the phrase was already in common use when the novel was written.
•Shivers' loss of his eye is heavily foreshadowed in earlier parts of the book. When breaking into the bank at Westport, Shivers remarks that he nearly puts his eye on the spikes that guard the roof. Later in Sipani, he similarly remarks that he nearly loses his eye on his own sword when he falls.
A bloody and relentless epic of vengeance and obsession, praised by George R. R. Martin and other critics. Follow the adventures of Monza Murcatto, a former assassin who seeks revenge on the men who betrayed her.
Jul 24, 2012 · 4.4 9,028 ratings. Book 1 of 3: World of the First Law. See all formats and editions. Springtime in Styria. And that means war.There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white.
Jun 1, 2010 · Best Served Cold is a classic revenge novel focusing on mercenary Monza Murcatto's efforts to avenge her betrayal at the hands of her former employer, the Duke of Orso.
- (9K)
- Joe Abercrombie
Jul 24, 2012 · Her victories have made her popular — a shade too popular for her employer’s taste. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto’s reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.
Best Served Cold is a stand-alone novel that takes place in the same world as Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series, to be precise, a few years after the end of Last Argument of Kings.
- Joe Abercrombie
