History Literature / RedCountry

* XMeetsY: The entire novel is one, being DarkFantasy meets [[TheWildWest Western]].
** The Ghosts are another example, and seem to be a combination of the savagest parts of the mid-19th century Native American tribes and Saxon hordes.

* ReliableTraitor: Cosca

* PragmaticHero: Lamb, sometimes verging on NominalHero. He ''tries'' to be a good guy, but his [[RetiredMonster dark past]] and SuperpoweredEvilSide cause him to pursue nasty methods in order to get his children back.* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Cosca's Company of the Gracious Hand.

* AntiHero: par for the course for Abercrombie's works.

* PreMortemOneLiner: "I've killed better men for worse reasons."

* RetiredBadass: Lamb.
** RetiredMonster: He used to be TheDreaded, and that side of him quickly comes out after he's called out of retirement.

* SacrificialLamb: [[spoiler: Sufeen]] dies pretty early on, but by the end of the story it seems his sacrifice was not in vain.

* StockholmSyndrome: [[spoiler: Ro]] readjusts very slowly and reluctantly to be removed from the Dragon People.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Brint, now a General, was introduced in ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'' as a lovable UpperClassTwit appears briefly here, and is described as having lost (during the events of ''The Heroes'') "most of his arm and all of his sense of humor" (in addition to having his wife kidnapped and experiencing a presumed FateWorseThanDeath). Brint behaves like a PoliticallyIncorrectVillain when he interacts with Temple, and is sort of the BiggerBad of the novel, since he is in charge of the soldiers, Inquisition Forces, and Cosca's mercenaries, who he tasked with brutally crushing rebels who don't want to be ruled by the Union.

* TookALevelInKindness: Glama Golden was TheFightingNarcissist and an ArrogantKungFuGuy in his previous appearance, but shows up here as a rather broken man who is considerably wiser and kinder. [[spoiler: In a HeelFaceDoorslam, he agrees to duel Lamb and dies a horrible death at the hands of The Bloody Nine]]

->Evil turned out not to be a grand thing. Not sneering emperors, with world conquering designs. Not crackling demons plotting in the darkness beyond the world. It was small men with their small acts and their small reasons. It was selfishness and carelessness and waste. It was bad luck, incompetence and stupidity. It was violence divorced from conscience or consequence. It was high ideals, even, with low methods.
-->RedCountry

* EvenEvilHasStandards: When Cosca orders Friendly to kill children, Friendly at first asked Cosca which to kill, then confesses that he would really rather not kill any of them.

* DoomedHometown. Dagoska for Temple and The Mayor. The events that made it doomed are detailed in ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'' trilogy.

* ActionGirl: Shy, certainly.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Shy and Temple are together and Pit and Ro are safe... but Lamb leaves, realizing he can't escape the past.]]

* AntiHero: par for the course for Abercrombie's works:
** ClassicalAntiHero: Temple is one, being a humorously unlucky coward
** GoodIsNotNice: Shy has a hard edge, but is a basically decent person.
** PragmaticHero: Lamb, sometimes verging on NominalHero. He ''tries'' to be a good guy, but his [[RetiredMonster dark past]] and SuperpoweredEvilSide cause him to pursue nasty methods in order to get his children back.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Well, Lamb once had one. [[spoiler: Logen Ninefingers, AKA: the Bloody Nine.]]

* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Cosca's Company of the Gracious Hand.

* BashBrothers: Briefly Logen and Savian

After a {{deconstruction}} of HighFantasy with TheFirstLaw trilogy, a take at a {{swashbuckler}} revenge story set against a backdrop of warring city states with Literature/BestServedCold, another take at the [[WarIsHell war novel]] genre with Literature/TheHeroes, RedCountry is Joe Abercrombie's tentative to crack open and end the [[SamuraiCowboy fantasy western genre]]. The nods, homage, parodies and subversions taking from both samurai films and the westerns they inspired – from the split city shown in ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'' to the CattleDrive, from a desperate [[TheSearchers search for missing loved ones]] to a RetiredGunslinger [[AxeCrazy that cannot change]] – are too many to be counted.

As standalone sequel to ''TheFirstLaw'', it features several previous players from the series, often under different names/nicknames.

** Lamb. [[spoiler: The fact that he was once the feared Bloody Nine and the utter ''hell'' he went through in ''TheFirstLaw'' alone.]]

After a {{deconstruction}} of HighFantasy with TheFirstLaw trilogy, a take at a {{swashbuckler}} revenge story set against a backdrop of warring city states with Literature/BestServedCold, another take at the [[WarIsHell war novel]] genre with Literature/TheHeroes, RedCountry is Joe Abercrombie's tentative to crack open and end the [[SamuraiCowboy fantasy western genre]]. The nods, homage, parodies and subversions taking from both samurai films and the westerns they inspired – from the split city shown in {{Yojimbo}} to the CattleDrive, from a desperate [[TheSearchers search for missing loved ones]] to a RetiredGunslinger [[AxeCrazy that cannot change]] – are too many to be counted.

* LovableRogue: Cosca was this. In the recent years, he's grown...considerably less lovable.

* MookHorrorShow: Jubair vs. Bloody Nine (‘God . . .’ whimpered Jubair, stumbling back towards the steps, and suddenly there were arms around him. ‘Gone,’ came a whisper. ‘But I am here.’)

** Lamb. [[spoiler: the fact that he was once the feared Bloody Nine and the utter ''hell'' he went through in ''TheFirstLaw'' alone.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Shy and Temple are together and Pit and Ro are safe...but Lamb leaves, realizing he can't escape the past.]]

After a {{deconstruction}} of HighFantasy with TheFirstLaw trilogy, a take at a {{swashbuckler}} revenge story set against a backdrop of warring city states with Literature/BestServedCold, another take at the [[WarIsHell war novel]] genre with Literature/TheHeroes, RedCountry is JoeAbercrombie's tentative to crack open and end the [[SamuraiCowboy fantasy western genre]]. The nods, homage, parodies and subversions taking from both samurai films and the westerns they inspired – from the split city shown in {{Yojimbo}} to the CattleDrive, from a desperate [[TheSearchers search for missing loved ones]] to a RetiredGunslinger [[AxeCrazy that cannot change]] – are too many to be counted.

* ThatManIsDead: Lamb and the Mayor are strongly implied to be, respectively, Logen Ninefingers and Carlot dan Ider. However, neither's old name is actually stated at any point, and the Mayor even comments that she'd lost everything, including her name.

* Foreshadowing: "I believe my greatest performance is yet in front of me."

* GuileHero: Temple is essentially one, falling back on his varied experience to do so. Probably, he's entitled to be called one for engineering the plan against Cosca in Crease.

* ThatManIsDead: Lamb and the Mayor are strongly implied to be, respectively, Logen Ninefingers and Carlot dan Ider. However, neither's old name is actually stated at any point, and the Mayor even comments that she'd lost everything, including her name.

* ThatManIsDead.

* EvenEvilHasItsStandards: When Cosca orders Friendly to kill children, Friendly at first asked Cosca which to kill, then confesses that he would really rather not kill any of them.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Lamb. [[spoiler: the fact that he was once the feared Bloody Nine and the utter ''hell'' he went through in ''TheFirstLaw'' alone.]]