Half a king I just finished this. I was quite pleased because I had low expectations but needed an Abercrombie fix, and gave it a go. It was quite a quick read coming in at under 300 pages, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It felt more like joe Abercrombie than the Devils did (which I also liked). It felt very proto first law. I believe it mentions that the shattered sea is in a circle like the first law universe, and a fun little Easter egg he mentions a constellation called stranger come knocking. Yarvi also felt like a first draft of glokta, a cunning cripple. It did lack the character depth and complexities that was signature in first law, but I think he did a pretty good job still with a moral ambiguity in that grey zone for our characters. I think these are really great palate cleansers in between longer more complex books and look forward to starting book 2 after song of Susannah.…