A Little Hatred

A Little Hatred is a fantasy novel by the British writer Joe Abercrombie, published in 2019. It begins a new sequence set in the world of his earlier First Law books.

The novel takes place in a world where the chimneys of industry are rising over the city of Adua and the old order is being replaced by something far less settled, while the grudges of the past continue to run as deep as they ever did. On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock is trying to win fame on the battlefield and to defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall, and he is hoping for help from a crown that has produced King Jezal's son, the feckless Prince Orso. Savine dan Glokta is a socialite, an investor and the daughter of the most feared man in the Union, and she intends to claw her way to the top of society by whatever means work, even as the slums around her boil over with a rage that no amount of money can control. A fourth strand follows Rikke, who is trying to control the blessing or the curse of the Long Eye with the help of a mad hillwoman called Isern-i-Phail.

Abercrombie's fantasy is known for its grim humour and for characters whose interests rarely coincide with anybody else's, and this book is the first of a second trilogy in the same world.