The Heroes

by Joe Abercrombie

Info

Date Finished: 11/1/2026

First Sentence: 'Too old for this shit,' muttered Craw.

Last Sentence: 'Hardbread, wait up!'

Companion Album:

New Cover

A sepia photograph of tall, weathered standing stones against an overcast sky, with a pale half-moon above. The title is set in small white capitals at the top center. Below it is a small white emblem of three swords with a hare leaping through the blades. The author’s name is in white italic at the bottom center.

A Few Thoughts

The Heroes is classic Joe Abercrombie: (perhaps a bit too much) gore, flawed characters, a returning cast, subversions, and brutal violence as antiwar commentary. This time, Abercrombie focuses on one battle to take a hill called The Heroes.

At this point in my reading journey with Abercrombie, I can recognize his formula. It works for me. I can't get enough, to be honest.

One of my favorite aspects is seeing POV characters from previous books as side characters in others. The perspective of others adds tons of nuance to these characters we've been following for thousands of pages.

The Bloody Nine's terrifying reputation and Shivers' growing one. Jalenhorm's earnest incompetence. And Bremer dan Gorst's pathetic self-loathing.

I don't think Abercrombie or The Heroes is for everybody. But it is for me.

Related:

Cover Notes

I found this platinum print of the Callanish Stones, Callanish 6, Takeshi Shikama, 2013 and used it as the core idea. I pulled the rabbit illustration from this block I found on are.na. I figured it represents luck pretty well, which comes up a lot in the book.