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1->''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.''
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3In the Near Country, [[ActionGirl Shy South]] has barely managed to [[RetiredOutlaw bury her past]]. She lives a happy life at her farm with her younger siblings and her stepfather, Lamb. An older, slow and big man, Shy thinks him [[ArcWords some kind of coward]]. She would be [[TheSoCalledCoward surprised]] if she knew [[DarkAndTroubledPast his past]]. And she will too, as soon as trouble comes.
4
5The past is also something Temple, lawyer for the [[PrivateMilitaryContractors company of the Gracious Hands]], is trying to forget. He is a coward known for taking the easy way out of every situation. Yet he never seems able [[LovableCoward to silence his conscience]].
6
7A series of coincidences will make their paths cross. Amidst a [[GoldFever gold rush]], the protagonists will take the road [[TheWildWest west towards the frontier and the Far Country]]. They say anyone can start a new life there. But who can really break the shackles of the past?
8
9''Red Country'' has Joe Abercrombie's delve into the WeirdWest, where the nods, homage, parodies and subversions to famous western tales - from the split city shown in ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' to the CattleDrive, from a desperate [[Film/TheSearchers search for missing loved ones]] to a RetiredGunslinger [[AxeCrazy who cannot change]] – are too many to be counted.
10
11While all the protagonists are at least [[AntiHero flawed]] and sometimes even [[HumansAreFlawed petty or despicable]], Abercrombie's talent is in conferring them a healthy dose of humanity and a faint hope for redemption.
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13As standalone sequel to ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'', it features several previous players from the series, often under different names or nicknames.
14
15----
16!! This work provides examples of :
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18* ActionGirl: Shy, who has some experience with violence that she'd rather leave in the past.
19* AffablyEvil:
20** Both Papa Ring and the Mayor are very friendly in spite of being ruthless crime lords. Shy notes how the Mayor puts her at ease. Papa Ring has a much more unwholesome feel, but he's still persistently polite in conversation.
21** Cosca, who is still as friendly and humorous as ever. His smile is said to radiate good humor and intentions in spite of being an proud opportunist of the highest order.
22* AfraidOfTheirOwnStrength: Lamb, who would rather be known as a coward than fight again.
23* AmbiguouslyBrown: Temple seems to be this in-universe. He professes to be half-Styrian (an Italian FantasyCounterpartCulture) and half-Dagoskan (vaguely MysticalIndia), but other characters wonder if he could be Gurkish (TheEmpire, which includes people of South Asian, Arabian, and African appearances), and one character refers to him as a "black bastard".
24* AntiHero: Shy is a former bandit who now is just trying to hold her family together.
25* ArmyScout: Sufeen is a former scout.
26* BarbarianHero: Lamb was once [[spoiler:Logen Ninefingers, the most infamous barbarian warrior in memory]].
27* TheBartender: Several populate Squaredeal.
28* {{Bandito}}: The Rebels, who rob in their efforts against the Union, are a sympathetic portrayal
29* BelligerentSexualTension: Temple and Shy's relationship, with Temple as the jerk (well, unscrupulous coward) and Shy as the {{tsundere}}.
30* BerserkButton: Don't harm Shy. You'll find out that Lamb isn't ''that'' nice.
31* TheBerserker: As in the main trilogy, Lamb is prone to letting his SuperPoweredEvilSide take over during fights, at which point he kills without prejudice. He smashes in the head of the referee after he kills Glama Golden, and nearly kills [[spoiler: Ro]].
32* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Shy and Temple are together and Pit and Ro are safe. On the other hand, lots of people have died, Ro has been alienated from her family and might never fully recover, and Lamb leaves, realizing he can't escape the past.]]
33* BrokenAce: Glama Golden, despite being TheDreaded is a sad, broken man who loathes his reputation.
34* ButNowIMustGo: [[spoiler: Lamb/Logen decides the best way to keep the ones he loves safe is to leave them.]]
35* CallBack: There are a few references to previous events:
36** When Temple describes how he fell into a river, Lamb says he knows what that's like. ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'' begins and ends with him falling into a river.
37** Lamb recalls sitting on a throne and having his friend steal it from him, recalling [[spoiler:when Black Dow betrays Logen and takes Scarling's throne]].
38** Cosca says that Temple could be a better captain than even Murcatto, the protagonist of ''Literature/BestServedCold''.
39* CaptainObvious: Several characters state the obvious, and it's lampshaded each time. For example, when confronted by armed men with blue tattoos peaking from their collars and sleeves, someone uselessly announces, "It's the rebels!" which provokes an annoyed response.
40* ChekhovsGun: Subverted with the Dragon People's dragon, an ancient weapon of great power that is present in a climactic moment of the book. [[spoiler:It's still at least a few years away from actually working, so it just sits dormant as the Dragon People are slaughtered. Cosca's mercenaries flip it over to get at the treasure beneath it]].
41* ChekhovsSkill: Temple's previous professions include priest, architect and butcher. He uses all three skills in the course of the story.
42* CitySlicker: Temple comes from Dagoska and has no idea how to survive in the wild.
43* ClassicalAntiHero: Temple is one, being a humorously unlucky coward
44* ClockworkCreature: The Dragon People's dragon is implied to be one, given the faint internal clicking sounds it makes. However, it apparently needs some sort of additional power source.
45* CoolSword: Waerdinur carries a sword made by the Master Maker, just like the one Bayaz gave to Logen. [[spoiler:Lamb takes it after he kills Waerdinur]].
46* CynicismCatalyst: Temple started out as a student and surrogate son of the benevolent preacher Kahdia in Dagoska, but after [[TraumaCongaLIne his mentor was killed and his hometown destroyed, followed shortly by his wife dying]], [[FaithHeelTurn he lost his faith and some of his morals]]. [[spoiler: He eventually regains them]].
47* DarkAndTroubledPast:
48** Lamb. [[spoiler: The fact that he was once the feared Bloody Nine and the utter ''hell'' he went through in ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'' alone.]]
49** Shy. The reader quickly learns that she had a past as a outlaw, but left it behind her. We don't find out until much later that [[spoiler: it's because another woman was mis-identified as her outlaw persona and hanged in Shy's place]].
50* DeadpanSnarker: Very par for the Abercrombie course.
51* DoomedHometown. Squaredeal is sacked by bandits and children are hauled off, causing Shy and Lamb to set forth on their adventure.
52* TheDreaded: As ever, the Bloody Nine, Logen Ninefingers [[spoiler: AKA: Lamb.]]
53* DuelToTheDeath: Lamb and Glama Golden fight as champions to determine the fate of Squaredeal.
54* EvenEvilHasStandards: When Cosca orders Friendly to kill children, Friendly at first asks Cosca which to kill, then confesses that he would really rather not kill any of them.
55* EveryoneCanSeeIt: When Shy and Temple hook up for the first time, no one is that surprised, [[BelligerentSexualTension except for them, as they initially didn't think they liked each other that much]].
56* EvilIsEasy: A consistent theme of the series and very evident in the motivations of Cosca and Temple, who haven't [[BetterLivingThroughEvil prospered]] through doing bad, but have trouble changing (or in Cosca's case have stopped trying to), because being good is even harder.
57* {{Expy}}: Sworbreck is clearly a fantasy version of W. W. Beauchamp from ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'': both are nebbishy authors of pulpy tall tales who follow around a living legend to document the real story only to find that the wild frontier is a lot less romantic than they'd expected.
58* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The Ghosts/The Folk, who, appropriate to the Medieval Fantasy meets Wild West setting, are sort of Native Americans that look like Celts (pale skin, reddish hair, blue warpaint). They cut off ears instead of scalps.
59* FieryRedhead: Shy South has red hair and a bold personality.
60* {{Foreshadowing}}: "I believe my greatest performance is yet in front of me."
61* GoodFeelsGood: Shivers [[spoiler: opting to drop his feud with Logen Ninefingers and leave him in peace muses on how it feels nice to do the good thing some days.]]
62* GoodIsNotNice: Shy has a hard edge, but is a basically decent person.
63* 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.
64* HappilyMarried: Lamb and Shy's mother before her passing.
65* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Shivers shows up at the end, continuing his story arc from ''Literature/BestServedCold'' and ''Literature/TheHeroes.'' He's back to the attitude he had before he lost his eye, trying to be a better man. As his appearance in ''Literature/ALittleHatred'' illustrates, it doesn't last.
66* HeelFaithTurn: [[spoiler: Temple.]]
67* IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer: Right before Temple hooks up with Shy for the first time, Lamb tells him to be gentle with her. Temple replies that he's more worried about her being gentle with him. Lamb agrees, but comments that if the relationship goes bad, he won't be breaking ''her'' legs.
68* ImpliedDeathThreat: When Sweet asks for his share of the booty from Cosca's coffers, it inspires Grega Cantliss to demand his own share. Cosca has Friendly execute Grega on the spot, then innocently asks whether Sweet would like to continue their conversation about ''his'' share. Sweet backs down.
69* InjunCountry: The Far Country is still home to the Ghosts, a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Native Americans with some Celtish flavor. They attack settlers to their lands, but are fighting a losing battle.
70* IntrepidMerchant: Majud is a pioneer who plans to open up a business enterprise with his partner, Curnsbick.
71* InventedIndividual: Subverted. Majud always justifies his miserly attitude by unconvincingly stating that he'd like to be generous, but has to respect the interests of his (unseen) business partner Curnsbick, who is a stickler. Temple and everyone else assumes that Curnsbick is fictional. However, later on, Curnsbick surprisingly shows up, and turns out to be [[UnclePennybags a friendly and generous type]] who refers to Majud as a miser. At the end of the novel, [[spoiler: Temple opens up a general store and borrowing from Majud as an example, names it using his deceased mentor as an imaginary business partner]].
72* JackOfAllTrades: Temple has been, among others, clergyman, lawyer, and architect/builder.
73* KnightTemplar: Inquisitor Lorsen. His eyes shine with the zeal he has for stomping out all resistance to the Union. He butts heads with Cosca, who is employed for this purpose but is only interested in money.
74* LargeHam: Cosca, as always. One of the stories in ''Sharp Ends'' is him criticizing Sworbeck's already ''extremely'' hammy account of Glorious Hand falling on a frontier town for ''not being hammy enough.''
75* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Towards the end of the book, Iosiv Lestek, an actor with a long and distinguished career, says that he didn't care much for happy endings as a young man, but came to appreciate them more and more as he got older. Considering that ''Red Country'' has a much more optimistic ending than the previous books in the series, it seems like this is Joe Abercrombie himself expressing his personal experience through the character.
76* LighterAndSofter: Compared to the other books in the series. Sure, it's still pretty dark and cynical, but there are plenty of characters who are basically nice (or at least harmless) people rather than violent thugs, most of the good guys get mostly good endings, most of the bad guys get mostly bad endings, and just generally the world seems more realistically bleak than over-the-top [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack]].
77* LovableRogue: Cosca is still as witty and AffablyEvil as ever. However, because he's standing in the way of our heroes this time around, he's considerably less lovable.
78* MiserAdvisor: A pronounced trait of the merchant Majud and Shy, who is an expert at haggling. Both are willing to help Temple, but are very specific about the amount he owes, and make him WorkOffTheDebt.
79* MissKitty: The Mayor, a former madame.
80* 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.’)
81* MountainMan: Dab Sweet
82* NeverHeardThatOneBefore: When Temple first meets Shy and she introduces herself, he makes a pun on her name in an attempt to be charming, but then realizes she's probably heard jokes like that a lot.
83* NoDoubtTheYearsHaveChangedMe: [[spoiler:The aging and grey-haired Lamb is actually Logen, over a decade older]].
84* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Sufeen insists on giving the people of Averstock a chance to surrender before the Gracious Hand attacks. They attack while Sufeen is still trying to establish a dialogue, and the locals kill him.
85* NonIndicativeName:
86** Shy is certainly not shy, which people remark upon.
87** Lamb ''is'' very meek when we first see him, but as we eventually realize [[spoiler:he's Logen Ninefingers, the most brutal and dangerous man alive]].
88** Friendly is still not friendly, though he's not mean either.
89** Temple has become an unscrupulous nonbeliever since his days as a priest, though CharacterDevelopment makes his name more appropriate again.
90* NoOSHACompliance: Ashranc features long narrow bridges spanning seemingly bottomless chasms with no safety features whatsoever. Lampshaded by Shy:
91--> "You'd think they'd give it a fucking rail."
92* NotSoHarmless: Oh, that meek, gentle old man Lamb? [[spoiler: He's the ''Bloody Nine'' and more than willing to tear you apart if he slips into his SuperpoweredEvilSide.]]
93* OhCrap: Glama Golden when he realizes [[spoiler: he is fighting the Bloody Nine, and he is going to die.]]
94* OneLastJob: Veteran fighter Glama Golden decides that his duel with Lamb will be his last fight, as he will be able to live comfortably off of his pay. [[spoiler: Once he realizes the true identity of his opponent, he knows it will be his last fight for a different reason]].
95* {{Outlaw}}: Grega Cantliss
96* ThePioneer: The Fellowship is a pioneer convoy into the Far Country.
97* 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.
98* PreacherMan: Temple was once a priest.
99* PreMortemOneLiner:
100** "I've killed better men for worse reasons."
101** "I’ve a better offer."
102* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Cosca's Company of the Gracious Hand are mercenaries, supposedly under the employ of the Inquisition of the Union.
103* {{Prospector}}: Some of the pioneers are after gold.
104* PyrrhicVictory: The Mayor, having beaten Papa Ring, finds herself presiding over a burnt-out ghost town. She's forced to hand Ring's side of town over to Curnsbick's coal operation to prevent Crease from completely vanishing.
105* {{Rancher}}: The Buckhorms are ranchers.
106* RetiredBadass: [[spoiler:Lamb, who is actually the infamous fighter Logen Ninefingers]].
107* RetiredGunfighter: Lamb fits the personality type, with the caveat that [[DisSimile there are no handguns in the setting]].
108* RetiredMonster:
109** [[spoiler:Shy was once a ruthless bandit called Smoke, but she's put that behind her]].
110** [[spoiler:Lamb is actually Logen Ninefingers, called the Bloody Nine for the litany of atrocities he's perpetrated over the years]].
111* RetiredOutlaw: Shy, an unusually young example of a former outlaw gone straight.
112* RogueProtagonist: Cosca, who while still a backstabber in his previous appearances in other books, had some moral standards, which he evidently lost in the intervening years.
113* SacrificialLamb:
114** [[spoiler: Sufeen]] dies pretty early on, but by the end of the story it seems his sacrifice was not in vain.
115** [[spoiler:Leef dies in a Ghost attack fairly early in the story]].
116* SaloonOwner: Papa Ring, though his headquarters is officially a general store.
117* TheSoCalledCoward: Shy grew up thinking of Lamb as cowardly because of his submissive and unambitious attitude. It turns out Lamb ''had'' to act that way, as doing otherwise would cause his [[SuperpoweredEvilSide nasty side]] to come out.
118* SonOfAWhore: Temple evidently is one and when someone calls him this, [[InsultBackfire he retorts that he has no shame in his mother's profession]].
119* StockholmSyndrome: Pit and Ro take to their new lives among the Dragon People very quickly. [[spoiler:Ro in particular continues feeling aligned with her surrogate family long after she's rescued]].
120* SuperpoweredEvilSide: [[spoiler:When Lamb is worked into a berserker frenzy, he's nigh unkillable, and kills just about anything in front of him]].
121* ThatManIsDead: Lamb and the Mayor are strongly implied to be, respectively, [[spoiler:Logen Ninefingers and Carlot dan Eider]]. However, neither's old name is actually stated at any point, and the Mayor even comments that she'd lost everything, including her name.
122* TokenGoodTeammate: Sufeen is the only mercenary with a conscience in the Company of the Gracious Hand. His idealism has an influence on Temple.
123* 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 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.
124* 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 Heel Face Doorslam, he agrees to duel Lamb and dies a horrible death at the hands of The Bloody Nine]]
125* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Temple's incredible plan to keep the Company of the Gracious Hand out of Crease.
126* VillainousValor: Sworbreck came to the Far Country to find heroism and courage, only to find both to be in short supply there. When he witnesses Shivers sitting in a restaurant, holding a mercenary officer (who has several hundred men outside) hostage with one hand while calmly finishing his breakfast with the other, he notes that while he has yet to see any heroism, he's at least found some undeniable courage.
127* WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: Lamb named his oxen Calder and Scale, after Bethod's sons, probably as a private insult against the pair.
128* WorkOffTheDebt: Temple finds himself in debt to Shy when she saves his life and buys him a space on the caravan, and spends much of the book working it off.
129* WretchedHive: Crease is a gold mining boom town of vice and gang violence.
130* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: When Grega Cantliss demands a share of the booty he helped lead the Company of the Gracious Hand to, Cosco immediately orders Friendly to kill him. Cosco then [[ImpliedDeathThreat innocently asks]] whether Sweet would like to continue inquiring about his own share.

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