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The Trouble with Peace

The Gripping Sunday Times Bestselling Fantasy

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The Trouble with Peace

By: Joe Abercrombie
Narrated by: Steven Pacey
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About this listen

Second in the age of Madness trilogy, The Trouble with Peace is the next instalment of a series which is revolutionising fantasy....

Conspiracy. Betrayal. Rebellion.

Peace is just another kind of battlefield....

Savine dan Glokta, once Adua's most powerful investor, finds her judgement, fortune and reputation in tatters. But she still has all her ambitions, and no scruple will be permitted to stand in her way.

For heroes like Leo dan Brock and Stour Nightfall, only happy with swords drawn, peace is an ordeal to end as soon as possible. But grievances must be nursed, power seized and allies gathered first, while Rikke must master the power of the Long Eye...before it kills her.

Unrest worms into every layer of society. The Breakers still lurk in the shadows, plotting to free the common man from his shackles, while noblemen bicker for their own advantage. Orso struggles to find a safe path through the maze of knives that is politics, only for his enemies, and his debts, to multiply.

The old ways are swept aside, and the old leaders with them, but those who would seize the reins of power will find no alliance, no friendship, and no peace, lasts forever.

©2020 Joe Abercrombie (P)2020 Orion Publishing Group Dark Fantasy Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Historical Emotionally Gripping Thought-Provoking

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Critic reviews

"Joe Abercrombie is doing some terrific work." (George R. R. Martin)
All stars
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Great writing, brought to life by great narration. I have listened to the whole series of audio books by this pairing and have never been disappointed. An intelligent, funny, emotive and compelling look at the elements that bind and divide humanity.

Amazing and consistent

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Like all the best fiction, it’s full of horrible truth. Wonderfully written, believable characters and sublimely voiced.

Masterful

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Favourite fantasy writer read by my favourite narrator. Unfortunately, magic is disappearing from the world.

Abercrombie continues to write brilliantly

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if I could marry both abecrombe and pacey I would. I have listened to every book and if my ears fall off I will have no other option but to murder every person I see until I'm caught or my ears grow back... I still have ears so can't wait for not only the next but everything that follows... As long as I keep my ears.

cant wait for the next

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loved the development from the first book and the character arcs are superb. I first came across Steven Pacey reading the original Abercrombie trilogy, I now buy audio books because he is reading them.

Just keeps getting better

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I'm a fan of Joe Abercrombie and this story doesn't disappoint. Wonderful, well observed, believable, flawed, likeable characters and a plot with plenty of intrigue, humour, action and artful balance. Tour de force from Mr Pacey as usual. There's a large bit of me says always better reading the text and imagining the characters yourself - however, I'm just about prepared to make an exception to the rule for the Abercrombie/Pacey audio books. Simply fabulous.

As good as audio books get

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Joe Abercrombie is at his finest here with this book. A first class Audiobook.

Excellent!!!!

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Is it as good as the last? I think so, it continues the themes of the class-divide and automation, it has great twists that make a lot of sense, it also has great character development that wrapped up nicely by the end.

My problems with this sequel would be that maybe I felt the inqs daughter seemed a little too erratic, I might of appreciated a little insight into why she thought to do certain things. I also felt the swapping of perspectives to victims of circumstance in two instances went on a bit too long,

I consumed this quite quickly though and it is of course a matter of taste, and none of this spoiled anything.
Really great though, I'll be very sad when this is all concluded.

Another great one

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never yet been let down by any of the stories from the circle of the world. another awesome story from Joe Abercrombie and as always brilliantly read by Steven Pacey.

fantastic as always

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The Trouble With Peace is one of those books that I've been waiting on for ages and, fortunately, it didn't disappoint. I do feel it suffered from being massively over-hyped, but not to the extent that the awesome storytelling of Joe Abercrombie couldn't save it from that drawback.

I will say that, despite my love for the series, I do feel Abercrombie is somewhat flogging a dead horse with the whole 'war with the northmen' thing. They've been at war with the north more times than France tried to jockey for world domination. In this one, however, Abercrombie has set it up in a way that makes it feel like it will be going down a different route to some of the other times, at least. Some of the characters within the conflict are fairly unique, which makes it more bearable. Clover, Rikke and Shivers being favourites of mine. 

That slight 'meh' moment aside, there was some excellent character development, especially on the part of Savine, Leo and Orso as the path that life has set them on continues to alter who they are. I get the feeling none of them are currently who they would wish to be and that makes me look forward to seeing more development in the future from them.

Certain characters left certain roles in this book, which saddened me greatly. I can only hope that some of the occurrences might bring them back into the fold at a later date. 

The Trouble With Peace was a peculiar book in that it felt like if, for some unknown and unfathomable reason you did not wish to carry on with the series, there was enough ends tied up here that you could stop and just be content. There were, however, several ends that were unravelled by the end that leaves you eager to carry on. So it feels like a satisfactory stopping point for those wearied with the world of the First Law and sets up book three perfectly for those who wish to carry on and experience more Abercrombie goodness.

As with any Abercrombie work, the writing, turns of phrase, world-building and character work were all top notch. The only reasons I gave this a four instead of a five is that I kind of feel like some of the characters are just re-hashings of older ones. The one that leaps to my mind more so than anything is Orso. He feels like Jezal 2.0 That along with the ever constant of 'being at war with the north' just feels a tad tired and I wish that some new enemy would rear its head to breathe fresh life into this world.

The narration by Steven Pacey was flawless. His voices, the emotion he puts into the more emotional parts and just his work as a whole were top notch. I think he might also be picking up on the whole 'Orso is essentially his father' thing as the voice he uses for Orso is pretty much just Jezal's voice from the original books.

Fantastic, but not without its drawbacks

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