The Blade Itself (First Law Trilogy #1) by Joe Abercrombie
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Web ID: 4135025A Strong Hook
This story sets out a vast new world in which Joe Abercrombie creates around an incredibly diverse set of characters. This book has reeled me in, investing me in each of these unique individuals in a way that leaves me wanting to learn what happens next. I’m so excited to read the next in the series! I promise the slow start to the book is worth what it builds up to in the end.
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Hooked on this series
Got this book as a gift and I loved it. I now have all 10 books in this world, I'm currently on book 8. I highly recommend, but be sure to read in order starting with The First Law Trilogy.
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Promising Start
Very promising start to the First Law Trilogy. This first entry slowly brings together the three key characters: a barbarian, who is actually pretty reflective intellectually; a gifted swordsman, with shallowness to match his ego; and a torturer who, unless you can't let go of your Amnesty International credentials just a bit, is surprisingly sympathetic. Then there's a strong second tier of supporting characters who, as I'm halfway through the middle book now, take on increasingly prominent and interesting roles. There's political intrigue, a bit of magic, lots of violence and swordplay, and hints of a world-saving adventure to come. It moves quickly and sets up the 2nd novel so nicely that I had to roll right into "Before They Are Hanged"; it was only with the greatest discipline that I could pull myself away for this review. And, now, gotta go - "Before..." isn't going to read itself!
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Dark and Gritty
Abercrombie dumps you straight into a gory, gritty, and absolutely gruesome world from the get-go. And it was so refreshing. I can safely say that I have never quite read a book like this before. The world and the characters feel so real because Abercrombie does not pull back and does not portray a world of heroes. He demonstrates how there may not even be such a thing as "heroes" because there are always innocents and horrible people on all sides of a conflict. I would also highly recommend listening to the audiobook read by Steven Pacey because he brings these characters to life in a whole different way. I'll say one thing, Glokta's voice still makes me uncomfortable in the best way because Pacey somehow makes him sound like he's missing a whole bunch of teeth and it took a really long time for me to hear his voice and not feel some level of discomfort (which you should feel considering what Glokta does). Abercrombie lays out war in how it would be in reality: bloody, full of people who don't truly know what they are fighting for, and horrifically gory. The way he described the smells of corpses was delightfully disturbing because it touches on something that almost no authors address, the true horror of bodies and battles. I also love that pretty much all of the people in charge have little-to-no battle experience and have no regard for the lives lost as long as they are victorious or at least gave it a good shot. - Spoilers for the entire series - Now that I've read all of The First Law, I loved that all of the characters I liked at the beginning of this series I hated by the end (minus Logan, who is my favorite despite his... control issues). I would never have guessed that the person I cared the least about and thought was rather nice, Bayaz, I would desperately hate by the end of the series.
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Grim Dark subgenre at its finest.
The subgenre of grim dark came into prevalence after Game of Thrones came out and shook up the fantasy genre in a much needed way. Joe Abercrombie manages to take elements from the grim dark subgenre and use them to make a gripping tale from memorable characters. The whole time you feel like no character is truly safe and the world building that is happening but not in large info dumps is done perfectly. Glokta - the torturer - Logen Ninefingers - a savage barbarian type character that wants to find his place in the world after some tragic events - and Jezel - a pompous, rich, highborn character that reeks of arrogance - make up the main perspectives. They are great characters with moral greyness leaks into the vibe of the story itself. The Blade Itself is the start of a great trilogy and world and is worth picking up if you liked Game of Thrones and are looking for something as good (or better).
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Getting to Know the 'Good' Guys
The Blade Itself is the opening to Abercrombie's First Law world where magic is leaving the world and leaving all the messiness of humanity behind. The crew we follow is a diverse group all in differing positions in this land plagued by war and ancient beings all threatening the old Laws of the natural order. While not as sprawling and complex as the current figurehead of grim-dark, The Song of Ice and Fire series, the world of the First Law lets you spend more time with all of these terrible people and really get to love-to-hate and hate-to-love them in a just as mysterious plot as they try to fight bloodshed with bloodshed to get what they want, and possibly decide the fate of the their world.
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