Glokta’s daughter, Savine is the most prominent player in A Little Hatred while Jezal’s son Orso’s story takes up a major portion of the novel. While the mage Bayaz is still a major player in the world along with Glokta whose name still is intimidating, Joe focuses on “The Next Generation,” if you will.

Glimpsing the future is one thing, but with the guiding hand of the First of the Magi still pulling the strings, changing it will be quite another… With the help of the mad hillwoman Isern-i-Phail, Rikke struggles to control the blessing, or the curse, of the Long Eye. The age of the machine dawns, but the age of magic refuses to die. But the slums boil over with a rage that all the money in the world cannot control. Savine dan Glokta – socialite, investor, and daughter of the most feared man in the Union – plans to claw her way to the top of the slag-heap of society by any means necessary.

But King Jezal’s son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specializes in disappointments. On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield, and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. The chimneys of industry rise over Adua and the world seethes with new opportunities. Though many years have passed, magic is not something that goes away easily.

Three decades separates A Little Hatred from Last Argument of Kings (the finale to The First Law Trilogytrilogy) and about half that between Hatred and the brilliant Red Country. His world is going through something of an industrial revolution and the old ways of sorcery are very much at odds with the new age of machines and mass production. A Little Hatred picks up the world of the First Law Novels (and much of us adult fantasy) at time of change. When he releases a new novel, it is an event, especially a novel that features many of his most popular characters as well as their offspring. Joe Abercrombie needs little introduction to fantasy readers at this point, the man who dubbed himself on Twitter is at the forefront of modern fantasy and dark modern fantasy. Mark Yon reviewed the book here at SFFWorld recently, too:

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