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of Tolkien’s homo-erotic overtones. It is well-realised and populated with characters that are living, breathing, foulmouthed, scheming humans and not the cookie-cutter elves, dwarves and wizards that constitute the usual fare of fantasy books. His characters are men who fight for loyalty, gold, land, honour, titles, country, revenge, and out of sheer habit… The Heroes of the title are standing stones on a hilltop that has no strategic value and yet thousands will spill their blood to claim this insignificant piece of land. The battle itself plays out over 3 blood-soaked days and this book has that grim and predestined feel of men marching to their death (sometimes for a cause they neither believe in or support), but with some surprising twists along the way. The Heroes – by Joe Abercrombie Rating: 4 out of 5 Reviewed by: Moray Rhoda Genre: Sword and Sorcery/Military Fantasy Hardcover: 512 pages Joe Abercrombie takes a typical fantasy scenario of Renegade versus King and turns the concept on its’ ear by giving it a realistic spin and filling it with characters that talk, act, live and die realistically, and brain-splattered battle scenes so sexy the book should be sold with lotion and tissues. One could call him the Michael Bay of the literary world except that Abercrombie’s depictions of violence are great and actually serve a narrative purpose. Despite it’s fantasy trappings, The Heroes is less of a typical fantasy tale and more of a military adventure: a strange hybrid that will grab you by the throat (or balls to use the language of the book) and drag you to a world that is deep, vibrant and pulsing with blood and guts. The scale of this world is massive: this is a land that could rival Middle Earth for its’ complexity but has none The story is told from many perspectives on both sides of the war, but the focus is on 3 men who have their own reasons for going to war. The coward Prince Calder, son of a slain Northmen king, a schemer, liar, betrayer and despised by soldiers that served his father; Bremer Dan Gorst, master swordsman, broken, disgraced, former protector of the Union King, a man seething with hate and seeking redemption in battle; and Curnden Craw an old soldier who believes in honour, the right way of doing thing and surviving, a man aware of his mortality and fearful of death. The duality of the characters is very cleverly explored – these are men that in the final analysis are at war with themselves, denying what they are inside or in some case transcending it for the greater good, they are vibrant, engaging characters that the readers will either see as heroes or villains, but will definitely identify with. The Heroes is an imaginative and tautly balanced epic acid mash up of Tarantino and Tolkien that transcends its’ grimy hack and slash origins and scores some subtle hits about the stupidity of war, politics and life itself while keeping a firm tongue in cheek. Definitely not your dad’s fantasy tales, The Heroes is well worth a read. 79 KULTÜR NOVEMBER 2011