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wjbc t1_j1bew8e wrote

Reply to comment by Aplakka in Understanding Abercrombie's character hype by Aplakka

Abercrombie is the most nihilistic fantasy author I know. In the end he doesn't offer a glimmer of hope or heroism. West is the most heroic character in the trilogy, so of course Abercrombie gives him a random and meaningless death.

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Aplakka OP t1_j1bgp9q wrote

Makes sense... Maybe this kind of "no glimmer of hope" stuff just isn't for me.

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wjbc t1_j1bi6sg wrote

I recommend the three standalone novels. I may like them even better than the first trilogy.

But you might want to skip the last trilogy. It really doubles down on the lack of hope.

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Aplakka OP t1_j1biq3k wrote

Thanks for the recommendations!

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arkaic7 t1_j1gnlfn wrote

I think "nihilistic" is a little much. He's not that dark of an author. Reading the first trilogy, I find he does pull some of his punches. There were some places he could have gone, but didn't. In the end, I felt the tone was YAish with R rated violence.

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wjbc t1_j1hhoja wrote

Have you read the second trilogy?

Also, what author is more nihilistic? Maybe that’s not an author I know.

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arkaic7 t1_j1iu8r4 wrote

I was thinking more along the lines of tone. Like brutality of song of ice and fire or Bakker's Second Apocalypse. I find Abercrombie more cynical and darkly humorous

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wjbc t1_j1iui47 wrote

I haven’t read Bakker. But I don’t consider aSoIaF to be nihilistic. There’s a definite sense of good and evil in George R.R. Martin’s work. It’s brutal, but not nihilistic.

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arkaic7 t1_j1v2e27 wrote

In asoiaf, for me, the nihilism comes out of the realism in the events of the story, just like the randomness of real life, which makes me think there isnt anything behind the scenes. Things just play out regardless and you can never expect a happy ending that doesn't get paired with the most evil of things.

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