Logen Ninefingers, the barbarian with a bad reputation, in the end found that luck changed its mind. He got pulled into so many feuds that he’s about to become a dead barbarian—leaving behind nothing but bad songs, dead friends, and a great number of happy enemies.
Honorable Captain Jezal dan Lufar is a brave officer and the embodiment of selfishness. The most risky thing he wants in his life is to rob his friends at cards—and all he dreams of is glory within a fencing circle. But war is coming, and on the fields of the icy North he’ll have to fight by far harsher rules.
Inquisitor Glokta—an invalid who became a master torturer—would most like to see Jezal end up in a box. But on the other hand, Glokta hates everyone: when you knock out one confession after another to cleanse the Union of state treason, there’s no time for friendship. And a chain of corpses can lead him straight into the rotten heart of the government—if only he manages to live long enough.
And here’s the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temperament and a miserable assistant. He might be the First of the Magi, or he might just be a talented fraud—but whoever he is, he will make life much harder for Logen, Jezal, and Glokta.
Deadly conspiracies surface, old scores are settled, and the line between hero and villain is so thin you could cut yourself on it.