Because once picked up, it’s quite hard to put down again. Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie arrived last night and threw all my (admittedly vague) plans for doing something constructive into disarray.

I very much enjoyed The First Law trilogy. It wouldn’t be going too far to say that it restored my faith in fantasy (along with Scott Lynch’s Lies of Locke Lamora). But there’s always the worry that the next book won’t be as good. It’s happened before.

Happily, Best Served Cold was as good and I spent yesterday evening curled up on the sofa reading. If you don’t want to take my word for it, here’s an extract. I didn’t dare bring it to work to read at lunchtime.