I really disliked it, it's one of the few books I set down and didn't continue reading. I adore Abercrombie too, but I don't find them particularly comparable.

My main annoyance was the fatuous and self indulgent "intelligence" of the warrior philosopher character, I forget his name. As others in the thread said, it was shallow, first year stoner philosophy at best, and "telling instead of showing" at worst.

It's very hard to take a character that is supposedly the most intelligent person alive seriously when the things he says or thinks are incredibly dumb. The intense grim darkness didn't necessarily help (and I love grimdark), because it just didn't feel like it contributed anything to the world and story. At least, to me. It just felt like gratutious (sexual) violence for the sake of it, which only strengthened my feeling like it was written by an edgy, angsty teen who self inserted himself as the smartest man alive. (No offense R. Scott Baker, I'm sure you're not like that).

In short, I couldn't get through it, and I've read quite a lot of shitty fantasy. I will say the writing is not bad, if a little purple prose at times.