Half A King by Joe Abercrombie

 

Yarvi's life has been bitter so far.  Although the youngest son of the king, he was born with a deformed left hand so was considered weak and useless.  He was ignored or condescended to his whole life.  Then when he was older, he was sent as an apprentice to the Magistrate and found his calling.  He was about to take the test to give his life to the service when his uncle burst in with news.  Yarvi's father and brother had been killed in a battle and Yarvi was now the king.

But what if you don't want it?  That wasn't an option and soon Yarvi finds himself at the head of the army, off to get revenge for his father's death.  But instead of victory, he finds betrayal and soon finds himself a slave, condemned to row on a trading ship full of vicious overseers, doomed to do that until he is used up and dies.

But maybe not.  Yarvi finds a way to escape with a group of others.  There are the two men who rowed with him, the ship's store master who took Yarvi's place on the oars, the woman who was the ship's navigator and a slave who had spent a decade scrubbing the ship's deck with a brick.  Can this group outrun those determined to hunt them down and can they find a way to get Yarvi's kingdom back?

This is the first novel in the Shattered Seas series and my first novel by Joe Abercrombie.  It is one of my favorite fantasy tropes, that of a group of ruffians and n'er do wells who band together and become like family.  Yarvi does a lot of growing up and the reader will be on his side all the way.  There are other interesting characters and lots of twists and turns that make this a fantasy classic.  This book is recommended for fantasy fans.