Same goes for Mark Lawrence's Prince of Fools. I recently finished reading Mistborn, and I must say that, in my humble opinion, many parts of Half a War were far more emotionally complex and multidimensional. If The Shattered Sea is a Young Adult trilogy, then so is r/fantasy 's beloved Brandon Sanderson. They are more optimistic overall and have what some might call 'positive' outcomes, but to me that is not a measure by which I would recommend a book to an adult vs a teenager. These books feature killing, physical struggle, rape, betrayal, love, war, in complex, multifaceted contexts. I would have never assigned any Abercrombie novel, Half a King included, in that particular section. As far as fantasy is concerned, I would have considered Eddings, Brian Jacques, Piers Anthony, and others to be in a similar niche. When I was growing up, young adult literature was Jules Verne, Mayne Reid, Dumas. But is that really a measure of the book's quality? Are we now assigning books to be read by adults and children by how evil and depressing those books are, how much gore and graphic sex they have? The only other book of Abercrombie's that I've read was The Blade Itself, and admittedly, the world painted in Half a King and its sequels is not as bleak and oppressive. To be honest, before I stumbled upon some of these discussions, I have never even considered this trilogy to be anything but standard SF&F faire. This idea has been repeated many times, so it doesn't seem to be an isolated opinion. When I decided to search some of the discussions here on r/fantasy regarding this series, I have discovered that people consider this to be part of the YA genre.

I've recently completed reading Joe Abercrombie's Half a War.

The shattered sea series