Joe Abercrombie concludes the "Age of Madness" sequel trilogy to "The First Law", tidily delivered over the span of two years (take note, GRRM!). If the original trilogy was fairly standard historical Medieval fantasy, the sequel trilogy from the outset built on occasional hints in the standalone books of a new age of technological advancement, taking things into more of a late 18th century setting. And in this case, that includes Abercrombie's own version of the French Revolution. The standard take on the French Revolution depicts an idealistic new era gradually descending into ideological tyranny and later counterrevolution, and that template is largely adhered to here, but since this is Abercrombie the idealistic beginnings are barely there to begin with (the early meetings of the revolutionary assembly are mostly satirical depictions of ineptitude). It's not too long before Abercrombie's own version of Madame Defarge is running things, all the while our various POV characters struggle for survival, advancement, etc.
I've long thought that this sequel trilogy was in dialogue with many aspects of the original, and that becomes particularly apparent in how this wraps up, which strikes a fine balance between showing some patterns repeating themselves but also some things actually moving forward in ways that the ending of the original trilogy made a firm point of quashing. For instance,
the first item on Savine's agenda is the tax reform that Jezal briefly suggested at the end of the first trilogy only to have it quashed by Bayaz. This was a much more magic-light trilogy than its predecessor, but
based on the final vision that will definitely not be the case for the next trilogy, whenever Abercrombie gets around to writing it. A lot of the key twists in this are ones that longtime readers had guessed based on the first two books, but it's largely well-executed, and there are at least two turns that I didn't see coming.
