The Blade Itself

by Joe Abercrombie

527 pages

Published July 11, 2007 by Pyr.

ISBN:: 978-1-60751-229-5

(4 reviews)

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.

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 …

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.

13 editions

V171 reviewed The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (The first law. Book 1)

Review of 'The Blade Itself' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Wow, this ended up really surprising me. I walked into this book having heard some of the more common criticisms, namely the almost complete lack of plot. I'm more of a character reader myself, so I wasn't terribly worried. But even though interesting character work is important to me as a reader, I also really REALLY don't like it when the first book of a series exists solely as an introduction without its own story to lean on, so I started this off This book expecting to be really critical of that. However I knew that Abercrombie's character work was very well regarded, so I was curious to see how that tension panned out. And I have to admit, the characters won me over hard.

We follow several different POV characters as they move about their own individual adventures without any real consistent through line or story. There are hints of a larger conflict brewing, but it's kept hidden away from the reader for the most part. Each character is dynamic and interesting in unique ways: a pompous noble-blooded soldier who starts to grow a heart for "commoners", a mutilated and discarded war veteran turned cold blooded investigator, a violent one-track minded brute, a frenzied rage fueled former slave, and a cryptic and cynical wizard. Each have their own motivations and goals which rarely overlap with each other. But each story was so compelling on its own that I found it really fascinating to follow, even without a strong connection between them. While the book didn't have a compelling story alone, each of these characters had a compelling, fully fleshed out story, lending to a satisfying reading experience. The ending I also found compelling enough that I am now motivated to jump right into the sequel. Maybe I'll resist that urge to push through some of the rest of my TBR, but maybe not!

Chungledown Bim reviewed The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (The first law. Book 1)

This is now a The Bloody-Nine fan account

4 stars

ahaha, yes! What an absolute treat! We're getting the party together & settling into the world. Can't wait to see how the adventure unfolds

Kevin Guertin reviewed The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (The first law. Book 1)

Review of 'The Blade Itself' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Not boring, but not much happens. It's not a story that stands on its own. It doesn't have an ending. Though the last couple of chapters finally saw some kind of progression. You really have to go on to book 2, otherwise you don't really have a story.

The characters are great, though. Not a lot of world building. I sure hope it improves in the next books.

jiewawa reviewed The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (The first law. Book 1)

Enjoyable but feels too much like setup

3 stars

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.