Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

62 reviews

garrpla's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Excellent read. If you like dark, high fantasy novels this is the book for you! I loved it and the audiobook experience was amazing too. Overall great plot, world building, and hugely diverse character crew that you get to follow throughout the book. I loved it!

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victoriaaurora's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

My partner loves this book and wanted to share it, so I read it but unfortunately it’s just not my thing. 

Objectively, the character development is great and the author is clearly a skilled and talented writer. The story is well-crafted and there are some truly witty humorous elements, but I found pretty much all of the characters fairly anbhorrent! It just didn’t pull me in, I suppose. It’s definitely not a bad book, it just wasn’t the book for me.

I recognize that it is part of a longer, complex series and there’s probably a lot more to come in later books but the magic system and social structure was very dense, particularly for those of us who are only occasional dabblers in fantasy literature! If you’re the type of reader that enjoys really complex world building and dark themes, you’ll most likely love it!

It’s incredibly violent and I found the number of inter-connecting characters’ storylines difficult to keep straight in my mind, but that may just be because I had difficulty truly relating to the characters.

Some pretty problematic behavior towards women in the book, too, in case that’s a personal trigger which it was for me.

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rheagoveas's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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tokaylamockingbird's review against another edition

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4.0


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joliebean's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0


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msawyer77's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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yaxzx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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spookyjord's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0


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krysley's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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gdwilliams019's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Solid characters. Not enough women though. 

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