Well written but disappointed with the ending. Could it be the limits of Young Adult? I haven't read enough young adult to compare. I'll be honest, I read The Blade Itself and finished it a week ago. That was his first novel, his first, and I was blown away. This is his seventh novel and while three-quarters of it was good, a lot of it was predictable including the big twist at the end. What was most disappointing was the fate of the main character at the end, it felt so anticlimactic. In the end, Yarvi suffered the worst fate of all characters in a novel, I didn't care about him anymore.

EDIT 2015: The quality of Half the World, and Yarvi written in that book has changed my mind about this one now that I've re-read it. I can't recall another series where the second book has improved my opinion of the first but there you go.

2025: Ten years later and I understand Yarvi and Joe’s choices for Yarvi much better now. This is better written than a lot of YA but still, in my opinion, Joe Abercrombie’s worst book