A Little Hatred, Review

A Little Hatred, The Age of Madness Book 1 by Joe Abercrombie

“War doesn’t change. Just the weapons.”

Joe Abercrombie has always been one of my favorite authors. If I ever sat down and actually ranked them, I’m sure he would end up in the top five. But ranking authors has never made much sense to me. They all bring something different to the table. Abercrombie’s strength is his voice. It is sharp, gritty, and brutally honest. His writing always cuts through the fluff and gets to the bleeding heart of things. A Little Hatred is no exception.

“Revolution, after all, is the child of desperation.”

What I appreciated early on is that this book takes place well after The First Law trilogy. You don’t need to remember every twist or character from the original series to follow along. The story stands on its own. If you have read the earlier books, there are subtle payoffs in the names, legacies, and echoes of past failures. You’ll recognize the world. It is just a little older, a little more broken, and maybe a little more tired. It works as a fresh entry point while also serving as a grim reminder that progress does not always mean improvement.

“The trouble with peace is that it rarely makes for good stories.”

Because in true Abercrombie fashion, the world is still a mess. The poor have grown poorer. The rich have grown more ruthless. The North remains locked in endless blood feuds. This is a world on the edge of industrial revolution, where innovation means bigger weapons, tighter control, and faster exploitation. The factories are running. The soot is rising. The people are breaking under the weight of change. The Age of Madness might sound like progress, but it feels more like the world collapsing in a new and more efficient way.

“There are no heroes. Only men who are lucky enough to be forgotten after they’ve done monstrous things.”

A Little Hatred is a book about power shifting hands. Sometimes it happens through revolution. Sometimes it happens through sabotage. And sometimes it happens through sheer indifference. Characters both old and new fight for scraps of control. No one really feels in charge. It is chaos with a bureaucracy attached. Abercrombie does not write about heroes. He writes about people trying to survive long enough to matter, and sometimes failing anyway.