Going south on a mission to win allies against Gettland’s enemy, the King of Skekenhouse, Yarvi, seemingly realising their potential, takes both the pariahs, Brand and Thorn, as part of the diplomatic group. Brand is demoted by Hunnan as a result of his standing up for Thorn in the trial afterwards, which causes Hunnan to be seen by others in a bad light. Had Thorn not been given a responsibility by Yarvi, she would have been killed due to a training accident under the harsh tutelage of Master Hunnan. Once again, a spurned Abercrombie woman is someone to be dealt with carefully.īoth of our young leads are made outcasts in the first part of the novel. In a further complication, and to Yarvi’s surprise, his ex-fiancé, Isriun, has now joined the Ministry. Queen Laithlin, Yarvi’s mother, is seen without the rose-tinted perception given by Yarvi in Half A King. From Thorn’s perspective Yarvi has a touch of Gloktas about him: clever, wily, often grumpy. Prince (now Father) Yarvi is a minister to King Uthil, the High King of Gettland.

Seeing these characters you may recognise from the first book but in a different way is quite interesting. Though them we gradually see the reappearance of characters from the first book and what has happened to them. Brand is her counterpart – a young man whose desire to go raiding to support himself and his orphaned sister is as driven as that of Thorn’s. Sixteen year old Thorn (Hild) Bathu is a teenage girl, desperate to follow in her dead father’s footsteps and be a warrior – not easy in this male-dominated world. We start Half the World with a slight disjunction, in that rather than take up exactly where we left Prince Yarvi of Gettland in Half A King, we begin with two new young characters, Thorn and Brand.

Half the world by joe abercrombie