Shattered Sea

Shattered Sea is a young adult fantasy series written by the British author Joe Abercrombie. The trilogy was published by Del Rey in the United States and Harper Voyager in the UK.

Half a King
King Ulric of Gettland and his oldest son are killed by soldiers from Vansterland. Prince Yarvi becomes king. Yarvi is was training to be a King's minister under the tutelage of Mother Gundring. However, he has a malformed hand and is considered to be a weak ruler. His mother Leithlan is a brilliant economist; many believe that she would be the true power behind the throne. Yarvi is betrothed to Isrien, his dead brother’s fiancée, to shore up his political station. While on a raid against the Vanstermen who killed his father, Yarvi is betrayed by his uncle Odem, who usurps the crown. He escapes assassination by Odem’s men, but is captured by Vanstermen and taken as a slave.

Yarvi is sold to the ship “The South Wind” as an oar slave, despite his crippled hand. When captain Sherem leaves the ship, Yarvi and the other slaves revolt. The ship sinks, and a group of survivors reaches land. Yarvi’s companions include Nobody, a warrior, and Sumael, the ship’s navigator. Together, they travel back to Gettland. Sherem and her surviving soldiers pursue them, but Yarvi kills her in combat. As they are recovering from this fight, Yarvi and his surviving companions are captured by Vanstermen. Yarvi reveals his identity and promises to make Gettland a vassal state of Vansterland in exchange for passage home.

In Gettland, Odem is trying to get rid of Leithlan by marrying her to the High King, but she is delaying. Yarvi and his companions enter the palace and kill Odem. The swordsman Nobody is revealed to be Uthel, Odem’s older brother who had previously been captured. Uthel becomes king. Yarvi gives up his claim to the throne in exchange for forgiveness for his earlier actions.

Yarvi realizes that Mother Gundring and Odem had conspired with the High King. The High King was afraid that Leithlan’s economic policies would take wealth from him, so he contrived to have her husband murdered and marry her himself. Yarvi poisons Mother Gundring and takes her place as minister to King Uthel.

Later books
Initially, Yarvi is the main point of view character; the second book moves to two new characters, Thorn and Brand, while Yarvi remains as a central character. In the third book, three new point of view characters (Princess Skara, the Vansterland warrior Raith and Father Yarvi's apprentice Koll, who features throughout the second book also) are introduced.

Setting
The trilogy is set in what is at first glance an epic fantasy world, but is later shown as a Dying Earth-type post-apocalyptic Scandinavia, seemingly thousands of years in the future. Society has regressed to a medieval-equivalent level after a cataclysm of some kind, and the remnants of past are known as "elf-ruins".

The map of the Shattered Sea tallies closely with that of the current day Baltic Sea, the main three countries of the book, Gettland, Vansterland and Throvenland seem to make up most of what is a modern-day Sweden.

Reception
Book 1

Ryan Lawler and Jo Fitzpatrick of Fantasy Book Review both gave the novel a rating of 9.5/10. Lawler notes that "this is not just a story for teenagers" despite being marketed as young adult literature. Fitzpatrick praised Yarvi's character development from a "weakling" into a strong leader.

Book 2

Publishers Weekly called the novel "a splendid second installment" and wrote that Abercrombie "has a knack for building characters with pathos and wit."

Book 3

Luke Brown of SFF World wrote that the final novel in the trilogy is "the book in the trilogy most like previous Abercrombie novels." Brown wrote that "I enjoyed it immensely" while still feeling that it was weaker than the previous two installments and somewhat predictable.