(Review from first reading in 2011. I have since re-read it and am even more impressed with the use of returning characters, particularly Bayaz, Calder & Marshal Kroy, as well as Caul Shivers, the anti-hero of all three stand-alones. As the middle part of the middle sort-of-trilogy between the First Law and whatever comes next, it's even more impressive than a stand-alone). 
 My first Abercrombie, after a year or so of reading his blog (which detailed the buildup to the book's publication, a great way of building anticipation). 
 Stating early on - in fact, in the cover blurb - that there wouldn't be any heroes, Abercrombie then launches into a three-day, 500-page battle between the Union and the Northmen over a fairly unremarkable, but moderately strategically useful, stretch of land. An enormous cast (I lost track, but there must have been 20-30 viewpoint characters and a host of other named characters ranging from key players to unfortunate soldiers who get a couple of lines before drowning in a bog or whatever) contains not a single hero (really not a spoiler, it's on the cover), although there are a couple of promising characters who look like they'll go that way, until they don't. Like I said, on the cover. 
 While the premise and themes are deliberately not terribly subtle, Abercrombie's characterisation is efficient and effective. All of the named characters are distinctive and most offer something to root for when it's their turn in the spotlight, but the most fun are some of the entertainingly strange non-viewpoint characters - enormous barbarian Stranger-Come-Knocking and slightly smaller barbarian Whirrun of Bligh (my favourite character) are both scene-stealers, as are bickering killers Deep and Shallow. 
 The marriage of sledgehammer themes and sly characterisation makes for an enjoyable, blackly funny book - the majority of the soldiers on both sides know exactly what a mess they're in and that they should keep their heads down, avoid trouble and try to make it through the battle without being killed pointlessly - in contrast to the wishes of their generals, variously delusional and cynical. And the switching viewpoints - particularly in the chain of command sequence, in which a set of orders goes astray - allows the reader to see the tactical cock-ups, and the misunderstandings of enemies and allies, that make war so bloody and futile.