The Heroes (Joe Abercrombie)
25 February 2015
They say Black Dow's killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the throne of the North up a hill of skulls. The King of the Union, ever a jealous neighbour, is not about to stand smiling by while he claws his way any higher. The orders have been given and the armies are toiling through the northern mud. Thousands of men are converging on a forgotten ring of stones, on a worthless hill, in an unimportant valley, and they've brought a lot of sharpened metal with them.
Average Rating:
Sinclair Manson (29 May 2015 12:32)
It had its moments but overall the story seemed to be enjoying itself far too much for the credibility of any pacifistic sentiments. That the battle amounted to a draw was a nice touch. While there were some predictable moments, I did find myself sucked in to a few more, wondering what would happen next.
Graham MacDonald (5 March 2015 20:33)
At the end of Zulu, in the aftermath of the battle of Rourke's Drift, Bromhead says to Chard: "I feel ashamed... is that was it was like for you the first time?" to which Chard replies "First time? Do you think I could stand this butcher's yard more than once." - If the previous 2 hours of battle over a pointless river ford haven't drilled home to you the absolute futility and horror of war then nothing will.
This is a much more powerful moment than any conjured up in The Heroes which, perhaps mirroring war itself, flips and flops between moments of genuine excitement and moments of sheer tedium. The message too flips and flops between "War is terrible" and "Isn't war amazing" which leaves you wondering at the end what exactly the point of it all other than to showcase some, at times, genuinely excellent writing of the battle scenes.
But good battle scenes don't really make for a good 650 page novel. You need good characters too and unfortunately the characters in this are all highly clichéd to the point where you can almost predict the plot from the very start. They all talk the same, all act the same and all end up exactly where you think they're going to end up. It is possible that all of this is deliberate in order to convey the true sense of war and battle but it doesn't exactly make for a great read.
But my main problem with this was the lack of a moment like the scene in Zulu. Only the character of Beck came close but some of the other characters fates and decisions at the end gave much more of a message along the lines of "War is pretty horrible but can be beneficial at times and, though it's not for everyone, some people are genuinely born to it" which seems a bit of a cop out.
War... what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.