The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie (Age of Madness # 3)

 The Genius has done it again! Joe Abercrombie, a master storyteller with his pulse on the bleeding dark heart of our society, has given us yet another masterpiece in the rousing, heart-wrenching conclusion to the Age of Madness, the new trilogy series set in the same world as the First Law trilogy - with this book, The Wisdom of Crowds. 

So for readers catching up new on this series, this review contains obvious spoilers of what has transpired before and I would advise, not to continue but to go pick up the whole trilogy which, in my humble opinion, is another crowning achievement in the epic fantasy genre. So, the Civil War ravages through the country and our newly appointed King Orso, has to contend with a bloody revolution in the Capital Agriont, led by the Burners. Leo and Savine, despite having suffered a humiliating defeat at that battle of Stoffenbeck, find reasons to cling to their life and scanty ambitions even as the tides turn. Back in the North, Rikke also has reasons enough to fear another war with the always cunning Black Calder. having gathered allies to storm her bastion. 'Fire, Chaos and Destruction' are the themes highlighted on the cover and this rings true, throughout the book as raging ambitions are throttled and well laid plans set to fire, friends become enemies and the backstabbings and deceits turn the tides of war time and again. It was a heady, rousing finale and my heart was in my throat as I feared for some of my favourite characters' fates. But Joe brings it all together in a spectacularly tall act and ties together all the different threads that have now been running for close to nine books.  

It was always going to be a tough act to follow through, with about six books already set in that same world, filled with some of the most memorable characters ever to live and breathe off the pages - like Logan 'Bloody' Nine-Fingers or the shrewd strategist Sand Dan Glokta. But Joe pulls it off in style, giving us yet more truly fascinating characters who have etched themselves into my heart and into that pantheon of the greatest characters ever written in the grim dark fantasy scene. His books, filled they are with the most realistic bone-crunching close-combat scenes or replete with black humor, yes. But for me, they have always been about the characters. And in this trilogy as well, Joe gives us more than just a couple. 

There is the wayward prince Orso, now the reluctant High King of the Union, whose self-deprecating humour hides a heart of gold and is the closest thing to a "good" man in this series, where pretty much everybody else have their hearts made of stone. He really puts his characters through the emotional wringer and what comes out, is often a changed man/woman. Take Savine, for example. As someone in the Royal Society who started off as a highly ambitious businesswoman, her ambition knows no bounds. But she is dealt a cruel blow by fate, not once but multiple times. And yet again, she rises above the odds to carve out what she thinks she is owed. One hell of a character, just as I had come to despise the bottomless pit of greed that personified her, she redeems herself. Again. and again! it's like watching a magician at work, pulling one rabbit after the other from inside that hat. Joe does it, time and again with her character. In this book, Savine becomes a mother and this transformation is perhaps the most striking, the most lasting one. 

On the non-royal side, we also have the view points of Inspector Vick Tuefel, an inquisitor hired by Glokta himself whose loyalty is always suspect. But Joe paints out her inner struggles in a compelling fashion and we finally come to understand what Vick has always wanted. Then there is Gunnar Broad, the ex-soldier recruited yet again into a war of not his choice. A man who rues his fate that he never gets to pick peace. And that second book, aptly titled Trouble with Peace, is that it never lasts. Broad is a man given to fearsome violence once he lets that demon inside him off the hook, this is yet another realistic portrayal of a man torn by duty and desire, a man shackled to his fates and trying to desperately outrun the same. 

In the far north, Rikke has finally united the whole of North but has problems aplenty, including the fearsome Black Calder's threat outside her walls. In Rikke, a young innocent girl before she was afflicted by the 'Long Eye' that gives us the visions of the future, we see a fascinating character arc. The young woman comes of age, takes up the reins and responsibilities of what her respected father, Dogman, had always wanted to achieve. And in that, she goes toe to toe against some capable foes and creates her own set of loyal allies (Caul Shivers! with his metallic eye, the fearsome blade of the Bloody Nine and his deadpan sense of humor.) Rounding off the perspective of the North is also Jonas Clover, an older man who has realized his follies of the youth and wants nothing more but to avoid the violence. His chapters were fun, especially the banter of his young followers and of course, the nuggets of truth about life from a man who claims to have seen it all. 

The narrative starts on an intense note, as we readers are thrown straight into the melee, with the riots breaking out. We get a "Little People" chapter right in the beginning, so effectively employed by Joe, that gives us a ringside view of the horrors unfolding within the Capital as the burners start a bloody revolution against the Royals. We are swept along and there is no stopping after this momentum. There are multiple action scenarios, where Joe immerses us deep into the bone-crunching close-combat scenes with the blood and innards spilling. Again, no comparison to the Lord of Grim-dark. But it's in the plotting, the counter-wheels spinning furiously and the alliances and the constant politicking within the Councils, that this novel the Wisdom of Crowds, really excels at. 

Ultimately, this could also be Joe's most political novel to date, as he toys with the idea of "Freedom". The Great Change that is promised by the revolutionaries is frittered away in the middle of all the blood and chaos and mindless mockery of the justice system by those in power. Joe's brutal writing brings to light and questions this theme as countless innocents are collateral damage to the idea of 'freedom' - maligned by the greed and power-mongering of the few at the top. There is also the running theme that the society never learns from its past. And these black lessons are not spared, even for the all-powerful Magi as they continuously stumble from one error-strewn strategy to the next. There is only one thing that is constant. And that is the wheel of change that keeps rolling. It's a Circle, and in this Circle of the World, I am sure, that wheel has still miles to roll on. I will be waiting, for however long it takes for a next book to drop.

The Wisdom of Crowds is perhaps, one of the best standalone books that Joe has penned till date. With the exception of maybe, Red Country. If you had to rank this series, I will still rank it # 2 behind the First Law trilogy but this comes damn near close. Easily one of my top five books of the year.