But I had loved his trilogy "The First Law": Its surprisingly humorous writing, complex characters that swing between good and evil so poorly defined border, sometimes funny situations often cruel and multiple twists leaving reader breathless, disoriented and not knowing who has the last word of these colorful characters. In "Serve Cold" I have not found that magic. We recover the writing of Joe Abercrombie but it seemed flat magic was only part humor was always present even if I found it much less crisp. The characters lack depth, are superficial and despite numerous reminders to the previous trilogy. When the twists they seemed farfetched. The end of the novel is not surprisingly a real surprise! The author showed us much better! That I bought in stride "The Heroes" I confess I fear a little reading now, we'll see.