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 …
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.
starting this immediately after Jitterbug Perfume gave me such tonal whiplash and my reaction within the first couple pages was “oh, this is Boy Fantasy.” I’ve read a lot of Boy Fantasy in my time, and it’s not a bad thing—just not something I would generally seek out myself. I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would in those first couple pages (and straight up just enjoying it, period), and I’m curious enough about where this series goes to have added the next book to my TBR.
It's a bugbear of mine to have half a story sold as a full book (and don't start me on television series). That's what we have here.
The fundamentals are really good. The characters are solid (if broadly unpleasant). The writing is atmospheric and immersive. The world building is good. I particularly like how magic is described from the perspectives of the non-magical characters.
But it took me a sprint to get through this without getting too frustrated. There are interesting things happening throughout, but no coherence to it, and it is only in the last 50 pages or so we really start to see what the contours of the plot will be. I'd prefer to see better construction than that - some kind of arc within each book not just across the whole series.
The First Law series has been recommended to me for a long time, and I finally decided to dive in.
Abercrombie's reputation as a great character writer is well deserved, but the first book in the series is a bit light on plot. I will continue with the rest of the series, as I've heard that the plot gets better after the first entry.
