I picked up A Little Hatred based on vague word of mouth, and I absolutely loved it. Never read anything by Abercrombie before. I tore through the whole thing in three days, and then jumped into The Trouble With Peace right away. I love it even more! I'm about halfway through.

I just got to the bit where Sulfur calmly steps into the aftermath of a boiler explosion and eviscerates a dozen burners with his bare hands and teeth, and sets one on fire with a calm shrug of his shoulders. Holy shit!!

I'd been seeing vague allusions to "Eaters." I knew that they were so horrible that the previous generation refused to talk about them, to the point where the current protagonists barely even believed they existed. All the foreshadowing was pointing towards mages actually having genuine powers, not just a fearsome reputation. So now I'm reading Orso's horrified reaction with the same shock and horror as him! It's absolutely brilliant.

I love these books so far. I don't particularly need to know exactly how Shivers lost his eye, or the precise details of Glokta's terrible past deeds. Savine knows that Glokta did... very heinous stuff, but she doesn't want to know the details. I love the unstated horror. Everybody in the older generations are scared shitless of Bayaz, but all the protagonists think that's just silly superstition and are brushing off the foreshadowing in a way that I find very satisfying.

Basically, I like experiencing these events through the eyes of protagonists who barely know more than me. Again, it's absolutely brilliant.

But uh. Every bit of reader advice I just googled says "under no circumstances should you start with Age of Madness, read First Law first." Whoops.

I don't know that I agree? But maybe I'm wrong?? Should I stop reading now and go read the first series??? I almost feel like it might be a letdown to read First Law at all, given how spoiled I am! In fact, I almost think that reading First Law first would spoil the suspense in Age of Madness! Try to see it from my point of view: a reader who is just as ignorant as Orso about what, precisely, an Eater really is. I'm having a "blast" (lol) finding out.