Maybe I'm just burning out on Abercrombie. Maybe he rushed this book to the publisher. Whatever happened, it was disappointing. I love his style of writing but he went overkill on certain things like the little wisdom nuggets that I enjoyed in the past but tired of quickly in this read. 
 I call them Abercrombian Proverbs. It's where fantasy literature and wisdom literature get together and make a baby. Some of them are very clever but this time the majority seemed cheap - "The only way to conquer your fears is to face them." "A smile costs nothing." Etc. 
 Really? That's it? I think my Chinese food gave me the same advice last week. This was so chock-full of fortune cookie wisdom that I ended up hating everything else about the book because the hits just kept on coming. Every few sentences, and I hit a fortune cookie nugget that made me roll my eyes. 
 Bummer. I enjoyed the first two books of this trilogy plus all the stuff he wrote prior to this. Not this time, though.