The Blade Itself

Title: The Blade Itself

Author: Joe Abercrombie

Genre: Fantasy

Series: The First Law #1

Pages: 515 pages

Synopsis:

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 Captain Jezal dan Luthar, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, 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.

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

The Blade Itself is a more grittier Fantasy that takes place in quite a unique world but focuses mostly on the Barbarian Logen Ninefingers, Glokta an Inquisitor of the government, and Captain Jezal Dan Luthar, a swordsman. As they navigate the complicated world, it’s magic and politics.

So I came into this book not quite expecting and while it started off being slow, I eventually found myself liking and enjoying this book quite a bit.

The book does a very good job at establishing it’s characters, their personalities and their motivations. We learn the characters behaviors and their internal conflicts. We have Logen Ninefingers, a Barbarian with a past that he’s trying to move away from. Glotka, an Inquisitor who has a disability and not a very friendly guy but does want to prove that he is still a strong person. Jezal, a rich kid who’s gotten everything he wanted but has to work in order to win a dueling tournament.

I also like the worldbuilding that goes on this novel. As there are quite a few countries that exist in this world and we do get a good glimpse of some of the countries in this book: We get to see the North, The Union (the main setting) and The Gurkish Empire. We do get quite a bit of lore for The Union, and we do get a pretty good grasp of how the government of The Union works. We also learn a bit of how The Gurkish Empire operates and Bethod who is the King of the North.

The Magic system, while I feel like it’s soft magic (I have no problem with soft magic), it does appear to have two clear rules: 1. It is forbidden to touch the “other side” direct. 2. It is forbidden to eat the flesh of men.

I liked the action sequences that went on in this novel. I had very little trouble visualizing the fighting that went on in this series.

Also for a supposedly grimdark fantasy series there were quite a few laughs I got while I was reading this.

While I do think there is good worldbuilding and lore in this story, I am disappointed in the lack of maps in this book. You are telling me that there are many countries, a sea, a continental island all in this world and no maps of this world? I’m sorry what?

I also found the first 40-50ish pages a little slow to begin but it does get better after that.

Just an observation but I found it interesting how it took over 400 pages just for a “party” to form in this book. Usually the “party” in these Fantasy books tend to be formed earlier in the book. Still I was excited when I realized the “party” was formed in the book!

Overall, The Blade Itself was a book that I really enjoyed with very memorable characters, an interesting soft magic system, and a very interesting world with politics mixed in! I ended up liking this much more than I was expecting it too. I enjoyed it so much that I quickly ordered the rest of this trilogy so I can read the rest of the series!

Rating: