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  • Half the World

  • Shattered Sea, Book 2
  • By: Joe Abercrombie
  • Narrated by: Ben Elliot
  • Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (982 ratings)
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Half the World cover art

Half the World

By: Joe Abercrombie
Narrated by: Ben Elliot
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Summary

Sometimes a girl is touched by mother war

Thorn is such a girl. Desperate to avenge her dead father, she lives to fight. But she has been named murderer by the very man who trained her to kill.

Sometimes a woman becomes a warrior.

Fate traps her in the schemes - and on the ship - of the deep-cunning minister Father Yarvi. Crossing half the world to find allies against the ruthless High King, she learns harsh lessons of blood and deceit.

Sometimes a warrior becomes a weapon.

Beside her on her gruelling journey is Brand, a young warrior who hates to kill. A failure in his eyes and hers, he has one chance at redemption. And weapons are made for one purpose. Will Thorn forever be a tool in the hands of the powerful or can she carve her own path? Is there a place beyond legend for a woman with a blade?

©2015 Joe Abercrombie (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"Grips like a bear hug, warms like a bear skin" ( Daily Mail)
"My favorite Abercrombie book yet" (Patrick Rothfuss)
"Enthralling. An up-all-night read" (Robin Hobb)
"Joe Abercrombie is doing some terrific work" (Geroge R. R. Martin)
"Abercrombie writes fantasy like no one else" ( Guardian)
"Another great tale from a master" ( Sun)
"Joe Abercrombie is fast becoming my favourite writer." (Derek Landy)

What listeners say about Half the World

Average customer ratings
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

another instalment of grit

The next gritty instalment

Same characters from the first book, but the focus is on a new batch of heroes.. Exactly the same gritty tone as the first, although not quite the same twist to the story - still equally enjoyable for any Abercrombie fan.

These books are aimed at the YA market - I think probably great for teenagers, but not so much for my advanced reader 10 year old.....just a little too much grit, raw emotion and base human nature on display for the tender hearted. (I'll keep her on the Brandon Sanderson young adult series a while longer, I think!).

Narration is good. Not exceptional, but absolutely fine and doesn't detract from the story in anyway.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Shattered illusions...

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Audiobooks give you the opportunity to enjoy a book, whether you're working, driving or simply relaxing. As reading dominates requires your full attention, the time management boon of an audiobook over a printed one is obvious.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Abercrombie seems to have lost the magic prevalent in his earlier works. Three years ago, I would have said that he was a master storyteller, full of original ideas and great characters. These latest works don't have great characters and they are just drawn out along very predictable paths.

What about Ben Elliot’s performance did you like?

He's no Pacey, but he's certainly well above average.

Did Half the World inspire you to do anything?

It inspired me to not blindly follow an authors offerings, based on prior form alone.

Any additional comments?

Look elsewhere... I thought the First Law Trilogy was great... This series has been average at best and childish at worst.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

What happened to this guy

Such a disappointing decline in performance in comparison to his first novels. He needs to go back to the likes of Glokta and Nine-Fingers.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant Nothing more to say. ??????

Joe Abercrombie at his ver best, 👍 the man stands alone. Inventivness at its best
I bow before greatness

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not good at all!

Any additional comments?

I had read this was a different kind of story, aimed at a different target audience etc, and for a while I avoided this series, but eventually I was won over by all the good reviews and bought all three, now I wish I had just bought the first so I didn't feel obliged to suffer through all three. In a bloated fantasy market, these three novels are average at the very best, a million miles away from the brilliant First Law series, they lack in every department. The story plods and a lot of the time is downright boring. The speech is often robotic. The characters are so flat and uninteresting. After the genius of the First Law, of Inquisitor Glokta in particular, the depth of the characters and the great story, this trilogy was such a let down! Maybe it was my own fault, but my trust in an author let me down badly this time.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This is just excellent

What a follow up, just superb, this no middle "filler" in the trilogy. This book stands on its own as fantastic story, the fact it is part of a trilogy is just the icing on the cake. I am buying this and first instalment in paper format for my son to read and my daughter when she is a bit older. My favourite listen in quite some time and very high up there with my favourites of all time. I believe this book is in "Young Adult" category and I can see why possibly it is categorized that way, it has violence but is not gratuitous & it features teenagers as the main characters. Don't let that be off putting in any way, to me this reads more like a classic story of legendary warriors because of that, a lot of the most famous warriors in history had a lot under their belts as teenagers and the classic legendary tales are not overly gratuitous. Very very enjoyable listen, cant wait for next one!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A good story

An enjoyable read - I even went back to listen to parts I'd missed when I dozed off at bedtime. Excellent!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another winner

Another excellent story from Joe Abercrombie, characters, storyline, flow, all first rate, keep the coming Joe.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Better than the last one

This is a big improvement on the last book the first book was good but this one is twice the book that that one was

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Half way good

An amusing story - but not with the grit of Abercrombie's best. A pleasant read with some interesting characters and story lines and no doubt I will read the next book when it is probably produced. Ben Elliot's narration is excellent.

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1 person found this helpful