Fans of Martin and Mieville will find the trilogy of which this is the final volume well worth a try. Last Argument rushes relentlessly to its conclusion, with seperate threads of tangled intrigue and spectacular violence. The plot comes neatly, viscously into its own and all the characters, some of whom were damn near likeable by the end of the second volume, start to curdle a little as their true natures come to the fore. The main surprise is that the cynicism is actually slightly less bruising than the battles, of which there are a few, all more or less running together. Nobody gets what they deserve, only one person really gets what he wants and we all get a glimpse of how power is truly exercised. There’s no ambivalence about the ending, though it’s not as bleak or hopeless as it could have been if the author was just being a thoroughgoing bastard purely for the sake of it, which leads me to suppose that though Abercrombie is clear-eyed and honest about cynicism, he is not necessarily himself a cynic. One possible lesson to take from the book is that the only happy cynics are the sociopaths, and they’re the ones to truly watch out for.