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Title: The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One) |
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Review of The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One)
- Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he's on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian - leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies.
Nobleman, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, Captain Jezal dan Luthar has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.
Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.
Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glotka a whole lot more difficult.
Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood. Unpredictable, compelling, wickedly funny, and packed with unforgettable characters, The Blade Itself is noir fantasy with a real cutting edge.
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Comments for The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One)
- Posted on 2008-07-13
good read...
I really enjoyed this book, currently waiting to receive the follow-up. Nicely written for a debut novel
Score: 5
- Posted on 2008-06-27
Starts a little slow, ends with a big bang
This book started a bit slow and I have to admit I put it down a few times. Each time though was harder, as it moves toward the end the story and character development rolls into full swing. It reached a point where I looked up and was surprised to find that I'd been reading for 3 hours.
It is a book that just took a while to get moving, but once it did it is one heck of a great read.
Score: 5 - Posted on 2008-06-19
A winning fantasy debut!
"The Blade Itself" is a worthwhile debut full of hard-edged, brutal dialogue and worldbuilding, nasty and anti-heroic characters and an overall gritty and stark tone. I admit I have a taste for this type of dark fantasy and gallows humor, so the book really works for me in a refreshing new way. These are not your normal epic fantasy type of characters. That said, I imagine some more traditional epic fantasy readers may be turned off by the hard-edged nature of the storytelling.
Logen Ninefingers is a Northman who has worn out his welcome in his homeland due to his bloody, corpse-littered past. He now finds himself escaping from the new King of the North, an old acquaintance who no longer wishes to keep the Bloody Nine around. Logen's only recourse is to travel to the south to the empire called the Union. Inquisitor Glokta is a Union torturer of extraordinary abilities working in the House of Questions. Glokta, who once was a dashing, skilled warrior before he was captured by the Gurkish and tortured, is now a shell of a man, in constant excruciating pain and crippled. Captain Jezal dan Luthar is a young, arrogant swordsman and debutante who basks in his nobility, and strives to make an even greater name for himself in a highly publicized fencing contest. Logen, Glokta and Jezal are probably the most important of the major characters int the novel, and the majority of the story is told through their perspectives.
Abercrombie successfully writes a style for each of his characters. Glotka, for instance, is much more cerebral in his chapters, his thinking process alway in overdrive as he works out the political angles and consequences of his situation. Refreshingly, he thinks the smartass things people would love to say, but don't have the courage to. However, much of this subject matter is dark and brutal considering it revolves around his occupation as Union torturer. On the other hand, Jezal doesn't exhibit much in the way of cerebral gymnastics, and this adds greatly to the perception of his character as mindless twit.
Into the lives of these disparate characters, the wizard Bayaz is injected, a man who embodies mystery and appears to have his own agenda. If anything, "The Blade Itself" is a setup novel. We get an introduction to the characters, get a familiarity with the situation, tone and worldbuilding, and by the end the pieces finally seem to have been placed on the chessboard for the real story to begin. Therefore, not many questions are answered in this novel, and the story is far from self-contained, so if you dislike books without some sense of completeness to them, you may wish to wait until Abercrombie finishes the trilogy.
Abercrombie's writing is simple and not heavy on detail or description. It is straightforward and a hard-boiled type of prose, almost a fantasy noir, that is used effectively to move the story along. As far as technical writing chops, "The Blade Itself" appears very much to be a debut novel which seems more focus on story than prose. There is a good amount of profanity and explicit, brutal violence and torture in the book, so if those things bother you, you've been warned.
Last Word:
If you enjoy a gritty and brutal type of dark fantasy loaded with a plethora of nasty characters, then look no further than Joe Abercrombie's "The Blade Itself", a crackling debut novel that holds a vast amount of promise for the ongoing series.
Score: 4
- Posted on 2008-06-14
The Fantasy Itself
I hadn't read Abercrombie before and I only picked up this book because I heard very good things about it. All in all, I really liked Joe Abercrombie's style. The way that he distributes the story among different characters and places helped me in being immersed in the book. I also found that the characters were well created, they were easy to impersonate.
Furthermore, the way "The Blade Itself" ends suggests that the second book (Before They Are Hanged (The First Law: Book Two)) is going to be even better.
Score: 5 - Posted on 2008-06-13
Random encounters and pointless subplots
I would normally not judge a book from series harshly, but this one simply did not work for me. I read the whole thing and would not buy the next installment simple based on this one.
-A ton of completely random battle encounters with bandits, soldiers, assassins, that are simply there for the author to put in some action.
-Pointless swearing. Does not add to the book's themes at all.
-"Huh" "Ugh", etc, are only funny the first few times. Totally overdone.
-Little to no conflict. Some empire and some barbarians are doing stuff, while the good guys prepare for the defense. Who the empire people, or the barbarians are, we have little to no insight. Your generic conquer without much reason plot device.
-No likeable characters. Glokta is interesting/original but annoying. Overall, the worst problem here is that none of the main characters are driving the story. They are pawns, while non-POV characters are the players. Not a good choice there.
-Your basic superpower magic is also present. Thankfully none of the POVs wield it.
What did I like about the book? I could not really say. 2 stars because I am nice.
Score: 2