It was inevitable that I would read this book. I've put it off for years. How do I approach a science fiction award winner when the author despises the genre. She uses the most twisted verbal acrobatics to deny what sits on the end of her nose. She masks it in 'speculative' fiction.

To qoute the master, "A rose by any other name..." Her denial is a sad statement of her prejudices which she so deftly writes upon her pages. That her style lifts the form to mass literary acceptance can still not mask the SF skeleton and soul.
As to the novel itself, the world building is extensive and the plot lacks the strength of a strong protagonist and instead gives us a depressed and oppressed woman to excoriating depth. She does nothing to propel the plot--and it works.

The technique exquisite, the world deeply developed, and the characters are gentle glimpses of every day people in extraordinary circumstanes, and most definitely science fiction at its best, denied by the author or not.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1038725218?book_show_action=false

Half a King is a huge disappointment bordering on fan fic

This will be my shortest ever review. See Goodreads review for longer version.

If I want GRR Martin, I will wait for his next. Even the series title is ripped from another author.

What was Abrocrombie's was cliche. I give him credit only for his mimic  abilities in the fashion of a TV series rip off.

Reading a favorite character out of another author's pen was disgusting and offensive.