For me it's that everyone feels like a real human. Their motivations feel legit, their flaws make sense. I like every one of his characters in some way. There's never one that I'm like "oh no a bran chapter."
I also think that they just have a lot of personality. I think a real problem with fantasy characters is they can be quite bland / predictable. But you get the epic tales and badass battles, etc. With Joe Abercrombie, for me at least, I actually stick around for the characters. The stories are cool, don't get me wrong, but I legit will laugh at their jokes and shit while I listen, these people are interesting. Can't say I ever laughed at a character's joke in wheel of time or LOTR.
I really liked First Law but his later books are even better and definitely worth a read if you even moderately enjoyed First Law.
RespectableRedditor_ t1_j1c139s wrote
Reply to Understanding Abercrombie's character hype by Aplakka
For me it's that everyone feels like a real human. Their motivations feel legit, their flaws make sense. I like every one of his characters in some way. There's never one that I'm like "oh no a bran chapter."
I also think that they just have a lot of personality. I think a real problem with fantasy characters is they can be quite bland / predictable. But you get the epic tales and badass battles, etc. With Joe Abercrombie, for me at least, I actually stick around for the characters. The stories are cool, don't get me wrong, but I legit will laugh at their jokes and shit while I listen, these people are interesting. Can't say I ever laughed at a character's joke in wheel of time or LOTR.
I really liked First Law but his later books are even better and definitely worth a read if you even moderately enjoyed First Law.