Last Argument of Kings is the last book in The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie (my reviews of the other books here).
This review contains SPOILERS for all books involved, but before the break only for the previous books.
Plot:
So, things are going downhill. That’s pretty much the overarching plot of this book.
Bayaz and his travellers have returned from their journey to the edge of the world, only to split up again. Logen goes North to fight against Bethod, together with the Union soldiers and Colonel West. Ferro is stuck in Adua, still thinking about revenge on the Gurkish. Jezal has to decide whether the trip actually changed him, or only gave him a scar.
Glokta has also returned from Dagoska and is now left with a mysterious hint that the Gurkish plan to attack Adua. But that is not his biggest problem, since both his masters – the Archlector and the Bank – want opposite things from him.
Last Argument of Kings does not disappoint. After the excellent first two books, this is a glorious finish for the series. Though I was surprised by the bitterness of the ending.
Do you see how the paper is burning? Seriously, the person, whoever it is, I couldn’t find out, who designed these covers should get a prize. Or five.
[Now the SPOILER-business really starts.]
As I pointed out above, the end was rather bitter. Not only does Bayaz turn out to be even more of an asshole than I thought he would be, but not one of the main characters can be said to be a good person anymore. I mean, they were all kind of bad, in different shades, to begin with – Logen is a multiple personaltiy disordered killer, Glokta is a misanthropic torturer, Jezal is a self-absorbed arrogant little coward, Colonel West is abusive and can’t control his temper [although he’s still the best of the lot, imo, he’s also the only one to get sick and will presumably die in the near future], Ferro has left all warm emotions behind and is filled with rage and revenge, Ardee is drunk and irresponsible, Bayaz is a manipulating, lying control freak etc etc. But you kind of forget these things when you’re reading the book because somehow you really get into these characters. So the ending, although very in tune with the rest of the story, is still surprising.
Abercrombie circles a lot of big themes, most notably the questions whether people can really change and whether people get what they deserve. [Which he both answers with a resounding, “Are you fucking kidding me? OF COURSE NOT!”] Though there have been many life-changing events in all the books, in the end, the whole situation is still the same. The system has not changed at all, the only thing that’s different now is that the persons in power changed.
It’s also interesting that the Seed Bayaz finally found in this book, in the end makes most people sick – and showing the same symptoms as radiation poisoning. Draw your own conclusions about parallels to the atomic bomb.
So, I guess what I’m saying is that the Last Argument of Kings is an excellent end for a very good series, but don’t expect it to be uplifting or anything. Although there are a few jokes, it’s not enough to get rid of that bitter taste of despair in your mouth.
Makes me rethink this tattoo:
kalafudra's Stuff 
I liked the books, but the plot twists were very obvious.
I knew Bayaz was behind everything from the very beginning. I was also pretty sure that he would *not* be the lesser evil. Jezal as his token-king and Glotka as his second in command were obvious choices, too.
Characters: Well, the book could do with someone a little bit less dark-grey.
… West is also my favorite character (and I think it was so unnecessary for him to be abusive).
I greatly liked how Jezal developed into a responsible king who wants to do good things. I loved him standing up to the Council and to Bayaz, I loved him touring the hospital. :)
I must say I grew fond of all POV characters somehow, despite the constant evil-doing.
I’d have liked to read more of Justice Marovia, but he was of course doomed to die, with his ideas of democracy and all. ;)
I don’t think that those things were meant to be surprises by this point.
I think that it’s kind of the point (or at least one of the points) of the book that all people behave like assholes, even if they don’t actually mean to. That there are no heroes. That there are only normal people who often fail to be good, no matter how hard they try. So less dark-grey characters wouldn’t really work.
But yes, I think it’s amazing too how you start to really like all of them anyway.
True… your “are you f*** kidding me? Of course not!” sums it up nicely. :D