Joe Abercrombie's "The Blade Itself: A Gritty Fantasy Adventure"

Eric Brody: Great characters. Solid prose and a genuinely interesting story. The fantasy aspects are just enough and not overwhelming and it is the story and characters that keep it moving. Looking forward to contrite series very very much.

United States on Dec 04, 2023

Ali: It’s weird. I really liked the book. I’m glad I finished it.m but it was just a bit hard to read. Got this on a recommendation from the Tim Ferris Show but i dragged my heels reading it.

The characters and world building were excellent but for some reason I just wasn’t as excited to pick it up like I have with the past few books.

Canada on Nov 14, 2023

Joel Distefano: about half way through and I am loving it!!!

Germany on Oct 29, 2023

Joanna: I don't even like fantasy, but I liked this trilogy much, and believe me, that's something. I've tried many best selling authors labeled as 'the best' in the genre, and I swear I enjoyed none. This one is the first typical modern fantasy book I encountered that truly feels as written for adults. No Mary Sues and Gary Stus, no black and white characters, no banal moralizing, no cheesy pompousness, no soap opera-like storylines, no easy answers, no 'from zero to hero and he is so awesome' trope. Finally!

It's low fantasy. Magic exists in this world, but hardly anyone believes in it. The plot is mostly about the military conflict, the intrigue that underlies it and, last but not least, the relationships between characters. And these are SO good! At first they all seem pretty cliched: you get a scary, sadistic Inquisitior, a handsome, dashing young knight, a husky barbarian, a tough female warrior wanting her revenge, a wise mage and his clumsy apprentice, a sassy, fearless lass... And in the end it turns out that NOTHING is as simple as it initially seemed. The characters are so well fleshed out, their struggles feel real, they evoke real emotions, and the relationships...

United States on Sep 08, 2023

Rashmit M.: So i have decided to delete my last review and write a new one , coz my 2nd read has left me even more flabbergasted.

WHAT I LIKED :

Lord Grimdark , as Joe Abercrombie is known as on twitter (or X) , set out to write this novel , his very first to create a world which was dark and in the process of doing so he created one of the best Grimdark fantasy to date .

And sure many would complain that it's not dark enough, fair enough, there's a lack or murder , Rapes , etc in comparison to something like A song of ice and fire , but whats dark in these books are it's characters and their actions , there's no hero here .

The characters and how they develop through out the book is marvellous to witness , you cab have your pick of diverse and fun character to call your favourite and yet none of the characters are actually good guys/gals .

But character and their darkness aside , Abercrombie's world is unique and so alluring , he puts you as a reader in the world and doesnt force feed you pages upon pages of information about his world like most fantasies , he instead acts as if the readers are already aware of the world and keeps pouring information...

India on Jul 31, 2023

The Fantasy Review: I’ve been watching book reviews, hauls, TBRs and more on BookTube for over 8 years now. I first heard of The Blade Itself and Joe Abercrombie 4 years ago, around the time fantasy book review content creators such as Daniel Greene, Murphy Napier and Elliot Brooks started putting out their videos.

After 4 years of ignoring everyone’s advice and insistence that The First Law trilogy (and everything else) by Joe Abercrombie is worth reading, I finally started reading The Blade Itself. I should have read it sooner.

Everyone Talks About the Characters

And there’s a reason for that. Actually, I think there’s a second, but I’ll get to that. Jezal, Glokta and Logen are all incredible characters. Their points of view feel completely different, to the extent that you know who you’re following even without being told.

Jezal is an arrogant, selfish nobleman who I hated from the start and still don’t like him. That’s the point! Just because I don’t like him doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy his scenes. Seeing the world through his eyes was interesting, especially when he seemed to have conflicting opinions on people and things, his arrogance and...

United Kingdom on Sep 30, 2022

C.T.: The Blade Itself is the first volume of the First Law Trilogy, a collection of low fantasy novels which helped bring the concept of grimdark to mainstream attention. While very few authors willingly admit to writing grimdark, this trilogy is generally one you can point to and say, "This is what the genre is supposed to be about." For those who want to avoid the question of what grimdark means in regards to this novel, I'll instead say The Blade Itself is an excellent, easy-to-follow novel with vividly-realized characters engaged in a variety of interesting interactions. The actual plot, a budding war between three nations, is less engaging than simply watching the novel's protagonists stumble into each other's narratives.

If I were to summarize the appeal of Joe Abercrombie's style, it would be that he creates extremely memorable personalities. There's Sand dan Glokta, a once-handsome and dashing swordsman who has been mutilated to the point of being a cariacture of his former self. Now an Inquisitor, he uses his intimate first-hand knowledge of torture to break the Empire's enemies. There's Logen Nine-Fingers, a barbarian on the run from his former king who is a great deal...

United States on Aug 18, 2015

AmazonKundin: Die Welt, die Abercrombie in seiner "First Law"-Trilogie geschaffen hat, ist mittelalterlich angehaucht und hat mich ein bisschen an G.R.R. Martins "Song of Ice and Fire" erinnert. Es geht ziemlich rustikal zu und allzu zart besaitet sollte man nicht sein, wenn man die Lektüre genießen will. Es gibt jede Menge kriegerischer Auseinandersetzungen, Intrigen, Machtkämpfe, Morde, Folterungen und ähnlich Unappetitliches mehr. Bei seinen Beschreibungen konzentriert sich Abercrombie dabei hauptsächlich auf die Mann-gegen-Mann-Kämpfe; die Folterungen werden größtenteils nur angedeutet und der Fantasie des Lesers überlassen - zum Glück! Apropos Fantasie: Natürlich gibt es auch allerhand genretypische Elemente - Zauberer, Geister, bösartige Fantasiegeschöpfe, Untote und einiges mehr. Das alles ist geschickt in die Handlung eingebaut, wirkt nicht aufgesetzt und ist absolut stimmig.

"The Blade Itself" ist der erste Band der Trilogie, und es dauert eine Weile, bis die eigentliche Geschichte so richtig in Fahrt kommt. Etwa die erste Hälfte des Buches dient dazu, die Figuren vorzustellen, ihre Vergangenheit ein wenig zu durchleuchten und Abercrombies Welt mit all ihren...

Germany on May 29, 2014

J. Matthew Casperson: The Blade Itself is part of the "gritty fantasy" movement which has recently come to the forefront of adult fantasy literature, thanks to the highly publicized works of George R.R. Martin. Unlike "high fantasy," which is embodied in Lord of the Rings and its many clones, "gritty fantasy" doesn't follow the common formula of the unlikely protagonist versus an evil dark lord. In addition to containing lots of violence, "gritty fantasy" tends to discard simplified notions of right and wrong, favoring a more complex world where moral decisions are often muddled in shades of gray. Heroes and villains aren't easy to distinguish in these stories since everyone seems to have reasons for acting in the manner that they do. Another hallmark of gritty fantasy is the concept that "no one is safe." Because there's no single protagonist bent on saving the world, any character is expendable - adding an element of uncertainty to the story. If what I've described doesn't sound like your cup of tea, then it's unlikely you'll enjoy what author Joe Abercrombie has to offer here. However, if this type of format intrigues you, then you will likely appreciate (and very much enjoy) what you...

United States on Jan 24, 2012