The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie – Review

Published: September 14, 2021

Publisher: Orbit Books

Series: The Age of Madness #3

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 528 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4.0/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
Chaos. Fury. Destruction.

The Great Change is upon us . . .

Some say that to change the world you must first burn it down. Now that belief will be tested in the crucible of revolution: the Breakers and Burners have seized the levers of power, the smoke of riots has replaced the smog of industry, and all must submit to the wisdom of crowds.

With nothing left to lose, Citizen Brock is determined to become a new hero for the new age, while Citizeness Savine must turn her talents from profit to survival before she can claw her way to redemption. Orso will find that when the world is turned upside down, no one is lower than a monarch. And in the bloody North, Rikke and her fragile Protectorate are running out of allies . . . while Black Calder gathers his forces and plots his vengeance.

The banks have fallen, the sun of the Union has been torn down, and in the darkness behind the scenes, the threads of the Weaver’s ruthless plan are slowly being drawn together . . .

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I have been looking forward to the finale of the Age of Madness trilogy, so when it came out I was expecting to pick it up and get sucked into the tale right away. WRONG. I was apparently in the wrong mood for dark books at that time and ended up putting it down for a bit in favor of something else. Fast forward two months – I decided to pick up the audiobook version (I love Steven Pacey’s narration) and got hooked! Sometimes, for me anyway, it really is the combination of the right book in the right format at the right time.

This picks up with Orso’s victory march back into Adua with Savine and Leo dan Brock in prison carts. Leo is terribly wounded, Savine is extremely pregnant, and the crowds aren’t quite as happy to see their victorious king as Orso might have hoped. The revolution has made it to Adua and the utter chaos of the Great Change is not far behind. 

This book is an interesting study in character development. Savine in particular has changed much since the first book and the birth of her children leads to a dramatic shift, though she still has that pragmatic coldness that has served her well for so long. With Leo it’s quite a different sort of change and one that makes you understand how Sand dan Glokta went from the nation’s golden boy to the twisted head of the Inquisition. Extreme loss and trauma changes everyone in different ways. Orso actually changes for the better, but it’s perhaps too little too late with the Burner’s arriving in the city. And how could I almost forget Rikke? She has made herself a leader, but she’s also betrayed those she called friend and seems to be making mistakes at every turn. This book is so, so dark but it’s utterly transfixing – an illustration of how horrific humans can truly be to one another and the lengths they will go to in order to survive. Such chaos, such madness.

Overall, this was a really solid finale to the series but it wasn’t my favorite of the trilogy. The plot majorly stagnated for a bit and people were just getting hanged left and right and everyone was scared. Perhaps this was intentional to instill the horror of the situation upon the reader, but damn, I wanted it to get on with the story already! That being said, it was good though I hesitate to say it was an enjoyable read given how dark things were. Excellent plotting and intrigue though and I was kept on the proverbial edge of my seat the whole time!