The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie.
Abercrombie, much like Martin, has taken a buzzsaw to the normal conventions of heroic fantasy. Even more than Martin, Abercrombie is a DEEPLY cynical writer who seems to be quite interested in the evil that people do. Few of his characters are good and those that try to be good usually wind up in a bad spot. He dialed this up to 11 in his last book, Best Served Cold, and it was a bit too much. Too ugly.

He backs off his trademark cynicism just a tad in his book The Heroes, which is set in the same universe as Best Served Cold and The First Law trilogy.

The Heroes is about a three day battle between the forces of the North (think 10th century Vikings, Scots and Celts) and the Union (think 16th century England/France/Holy Roman Empire) at a hill known as , what else The Heroes.

Who started the war is not important. The fact that both sides are being manipulated by shadowy wizards isn't important. What is important is Abercrombie's meditations on the nature of violence, the randomness of war, his examinations of what it means to be a good man, and his questions about whether man can really change.

After a particularly brutal day of fighting one person asks the wizard on their side why he doesn't use magic to bring the battle to a conclusion. The wizard contemptuously responds that magic is the art of making something act against its nature but that there is nothing more natural than men killing each other so why should he lift a finger.

It was a good read-long but moved quickly.