Best Served Cold is a great standalone entry into the First Law Universe, and on par with any of the books in the original trilogy. Joe Abercrombie continues to show why he is one of the best character writers in fantasy, with memorable personalities all across the board.

I  found the way the book was structured very cool. It's almost episodic in a way, with every area having its own dedicated section. Abercrombie manages to explore Styria without compromising on the story, and the decision to structure the story this way pays off massively, because with every city/

person assasinated

, we get closer and closer to the final act, and the buildup to the ultimate showdown is elevated tremendously.

Anyway, coming to the meat of the story, at its core, Best Served Cold is a revenge story, and a pretty badass one at that. Monza is a excellent character and her arc throughout the story is a rollercoaster ride. But, even better than Monza's arc, for me, is the journey of a returning character: Shivers. Without delving into spoilers, let's just say that he evolves a lot throughout the book and you won't want to miss his story. Nicomo Cosca is also probably one of my favourite characters in the First Law universe, and he is just a blast to read. What a legend. His antics, and this book overall, had me laughing in almost every other chapter. Abercrombie's humour hits you right in the fruits, as he would say.

Also, can we just talk about that final act? The backstabbing, the combat, the trickery...this is what makes First Law so good. The references to the original trilogy were also fun to spot and theorise about, and without saying too much, it's very cool to see what some familiar characters are up to.

So yeah, that's about it I guess. It's very hard to develop such amazing characters in a standalone as compared to a series due to the shorter time span, but Joe Abercrombie pulls it off, and in spectacular fashion. This definitely makes me hyped to read the other standalones in the future.