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apiecalypsejen's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The First Law trilogy is my favourite of the two trilogies that take place in this world. The characters are definitely flawed, each of them in their own way with not one of them being clear or free of some kind of barrier or encumbrance to you calling them your "favourite" without some reluctance or guilt (aside from possibly Brother Longfoot ). This story sets up the next two books, which means it is a lot of establishing of relationships, characters, and the basis for the journey/war that comprises the second book. It's a great story about men in their 20s, and how they can be hardheaded and too arrogant, and where that can take them, as well as has two excellent and deep woman character in Ferro and Ardee.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Xenophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Colonisation
Minor: Rape
btrz7's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
bookbelle5_17's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Review of First Law: The Blade Itself
By: Joe Abercrombie
I’m new to Grim Dark fantasy and I loved this one. There are two sides, Northerners and Southerners, who are war with each other the once the new king Bethod has inherited the throne from his father. We have a handful of main characters who are brought together by the first Magi Bayaz and he has plans for these people who has brought together. Logen “Ninefingers’ is known as the “Bloody Nine” and is trying to run from his violent past, but it’s about to catch up to him. Jezal dan Luthar is arrogant and selfish made a captain in the army just because of his status. He desires glory and accolades, but will his ego be enough for him to be a good soldier. Glokta, the inquisitor can only find pleasure in doing the dirty of government, rooting out traitors, but his faith in his work is shaken and he starts question things.
The threat of war is a shadow looming over the characters as they go about with their lives. A slow building of tension happens throughout the novel though the characters are unaware and just want to meet their personal goals. The hatred between the Northerners and Southerners provides a look at prejudice. Both go by their narrow-minded beliefs The narrative spends most of the time having the reader learn about the main. We go back and forth between Logen, Jezal, and Glokta seeing how each think and what they’re experiencing. I enjoyed Glokta and Logen’s parts the best, especially since it is hard being in the head of Jezal. He is just such an ass believing he is so much better than everyone else. Glokta follows orders, but what he thinks is the opposite. He’s sarcastic and mocking of everyone but keeps to himself. I’m curious as to what lead to him getting to him losing all his teeth and why his leg was injured. The writing is blunt and doesn’t shy away from the gory details. It is very graphic with Glokta’s torture scenes and the fencing scenes with Jezal. Even though, I didn’t like being in Jezal’s head the fencing scenes were cool. Bayaz creates an intriguing dynamic, because I feel like you don’t know if he has good intentions. I don’t know if I trust him, but he’s charming. He’s also a character that you can sense is dangerous.
By: Joe Abercrombie
I’m new to Grim Dark fantasy and I loved this one. There are two sides, Northerners and Southerners, who are war with each other the once the new king Bethod has inherited the throne from his father. We have a handful of main characters who are brought together by the first Magi Bayaz and he has plans for these people who has brought together. Logen “Ninefingers’ is known as the “Bloody Nine” and is trying to run from his violent past, but it’s about to catch up to him. Jezal dan Luthar is arrogant and selfish made a captain in the army just because of his status. He desires glory and accolades, but will his ego be enough for him to be a good soldier. Glokta, the inquisitor can only find pleasure in doing the dirty of government, rooting out traitors, but his faith in his work is shaken and he starts question things.
The threat of war is a shadow looming over the characters as they go about with their lives. A slow building of tension happens throughout the novel though the characters are unaware and just want to meet their personal goals. The hatred between the Northerners and Southerners provides a look at prejudice. Both go by their narrow-minded beliefs The narrative spends most of the time having the reader learn about the main. We go back and forth between Logen, Jezal, and Glokta seeing how each think and what they’re experiencing. I enjoyed Glokta and Logen’s parts the best, especially since it is hard being in the head of Jezal. He is just such an ass believing he is so much better than everyone else. Glokta follows orders, but what he thinks is the opposite. He’s sarcastic and mocking of everyone but keeps to himself. I’m curious as to what lead to him getting to him losing all his teeth and why his leg was injured. The writing is blunt and doesn’t shy away from the gory details. It is very graphic with Glokta’s torture scenes and the fencing scenes with Jezal. Even though, I didn’t like being in Jezal’s head the fencing scenes were cool. Bayaz creates an intriguing dynamic, because I feel like you don’t know if he has good intentions. I don’t know if I trust him, but he’s charming. He’s also a character that you can sense is dangerous.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Misogyny, and Classism
Moderate: Domestic abuse
coulro's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and War
13octopus's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Alcohol, and Colonisation
Minor: Infidelity, Rape, Excrement, Trafficking, Cannibalism, and Death of parent
bibliophilicwitch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder
blakethebookeater's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book is nasty and brilliant and I loved it.
The perfect example of how to do a grim dark fantasy novel: dark and also funny as hell.
The Blade Itself follows three main POVs (with some other minor ones sprinkled throughout): Logen, Jezal, and Glotka.
Logen is a warrior who formerly fought for the newly declared King of the North, Bethod. Now he’s on the run from Bethod’s men and dealing with the creatures encroaching on the North known as the Shanka. As he finds himself wandering, he’s drawn to the First of the Magi...the mysterious man known as Bayaz.
Jezal is a pretentious prick. And everyone knows it except for him. He is a fencing prodigy and is training for the big tournament where he’s expected to win for the Union. His balance is thrown off however, when his good friends Major West’s sister Ardee arrives and begins to challenge everything he thought he knew.
Glotka is an Inquisitor. And he’s very good at asking questions. Having survived his own torture as a prisoner of war, Glotka is familiar with how to make someone talk...with the right instruments of course. When he’s tasked with uncovering a mystery in the Union, Glotka and his two Practicals must follow the clues to its bloody end, no matter how many twisted bodies they have to leave in their wake.
Joe Abercrombie is absolutely masterful with his character work. Each character has such a distinct voice (this was helped by the stellar audiobook whose narrator literally crafted a unique voice for *every* character), and this was one of the few books where almost every character on the page felt fully fleshed out and realized. I felt like I had truly stepped into a fully formed world and was excited with every single chapter that I read.
This is primarily a character-driven book, but that doesn’t mean it has a plot. The plot unfolds slowly and steadily; there wasn’t a single moment where I wasn’t invested in what was going to happen next. I would go on long drives just to fit in another chapter, or two, or three.
And yes this book is obviously setting the stage for what is to come in the next two books but the setup was enjoyable as hell. I’m so impressed with this book and so invested in these characters and this story. These characters are all pretty much various shades of awful, terrible people...but they are so relentlessly entertaining to read about that I was rooting for them even so. I cannot wait to see where Abercrombie takes these characters and their stories next!
*quick note as to why I gave this 4.5 stars instead of a full 5: so because these characters are bad people, and we’re in their heads for their POV chapters, it can be uncomfortable at times. Something that I did notice happen quite a number of times was the way that fat characters were described. It made me very uncomfortable to see these characters all be shamed for their weight, how much they ate, and other terrible stereotypes about fat people. Now I believe this is because of the CHARACTERS’ prejudices and their descriptions and NOT the author’s. But it happened enough times to make me uncomfortable. I really hope that in the rest of the series there might be other POVs that aren’t so harsh in their judgment of these characters and it will be able to reinforce that it was just these few characters’ prejudices and not the author’s.*
The perfect example of how to do a grim dark fantasy novel: dark and also funny as hell.
The Blade Itself follows three main POVs (with some other minor ones sprinkled throughout): Logen, Jezal, and Glotka.
Logen is a warrior who formerly fought for the newly declared King of the North, Bethod. Now he’s on the run from Bethod’s men and dealing with the creatures encroaching on the North known as the Shanka. As he finds himself wandering, he’s drawn to the First of the Magi...the mysterious man known as Bayaz.
Jezal is a pretentious prick. And everyone knows it except for him. He is a fencing prodigy and is training for the big tournament where he’s expected to win for the Union. His balance is thrown off however, when his good friends Major West’s sister Ardee arrives and begins to challenge everything he thought he knew.
Glotka is an Inquisitor. And he’s very good at asking questions. Having survived his own torture as a prisoner of war, Glotka is familiar with how to make someone talk...with the right instruments of course. When he’s tasked with uncovering a mystery in the Union, Glotka and his two Practicals must follow the clues to its bloody end, no matter how many twisted bodies they have to leave in their wake.
Joe Abercrombie is absolutely masterful with his character work. Each character has such a distinct voice (this was helped by the stellar audiobook whose narrator literally crafted a unique voice for *every* character), and this was one of the few books where almost every character on the page felt fully fleshed out and realized. I felt like I had truly stepped into a fully formed world and was excited with every single chapter that I read.
This is primarily a character-driven book, but that doesn’t mean it has a plot. The plot unfolds slowly and steadily; there wasn’t a single moment where I wasn’t invested in what was going to happen next. I would go on long drives just to fit in another chapter, or two, or three.
And yes this book is obviously setting the stage for what is to come in the next two books but the setup was enjoyable as hell. I’m so impressed with this book and so invested in these characters and this story. These characters are all pretty much various shades of awful, terrible people...but they are so relentlessly entertaining to read about that I was rooting for them even so. I cannot wait to see where Abercrombie takes these characters and their stories next!
*quick note as to why I gave this 4.5 stars instead of a full 5: so because these characters are bad people, and we’re in their heads for their POV chapters, it can be uncomfortable at times. Something that I did notice happen quite a number of times was the way that fat characters were described. It made me very uncomfortable to see these characters all be shamed for their weight, how much they ate, and other terrible stereotypes about fat people. Now I believe this is because of the CHARACTERS’ prejudices and their descriptions and NOT the author’s. But it happened enough times to make me uncomfortable. I really hope that in the rest of the series there might be other POVs that aren’t so harsh in their judgment of these characters and it will be able to reinforce that it was just these few characters’ prejudices and not the author’s.*
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Fatphobia, Slavery, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Ableism, Child death, Racial slurs, Vomit, Cannibalism, and Religious bigotry