Description via Amazon:

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, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, Captain Jezal dan Luthar 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 enough to follow it.

I’ve heard amazing things about the First Law trilogy. It’s dark and gritty and there is very little magic in the world; what’s left is fading. There is an ineffectual monarch on the throne and a very threatening ruler uniting the North against them. The book alternates between these three men’s viewpoints as we both get to know them and things start to heat up in their world. I think this book could turn out to be as amazing as people say, but I will be continuing the trilogy before I can really decide that.

The Blade Itself is definitely an exciting read. It opens with one of the main characters hanging off a cliff and after that, it’s hard to turn away. The three characters are so different and full of flaws, but I think that’s part of their appeal. There are no spotless good guys here. A few other characters are introduced and at the end of the book, they’ve all finally drawn together, which is why I’ve reserved judgment for the next volume.

What is interesting and different about this world is the lack of magic in it. There is still a little bit, but the characters who can use it to their advantage are few and far between. Overall, though, the world-building is a little sparser than I’d have liked, but I think the author has sacrificed that in favor of a very active plot. It is a grim world, but it isn’t particularly detailed and could be a variety of other fantasy settings. Perhaps a bit more differentiation will come in the next volume.

Basically, I’m going to wait to pass judgment until I’ve read more from Joe Abercrombie. This book has enticed me enough to return to the series, but I haven’t fallen in love with it yet. ( )

The beginning of the book was easy yet a little hard for me. There is a lot of background work done here on the characters and the status of the world. You are introduced to all the characters in their elements, places, and world before they are introduced to each other. It can get a little confusing, but if you can keep it all separate it is worth it. One of the best parts here is having your characters separate and seeing their views on what they know or see, then seeing them actually meet and how the knowledge of that one character could help the other they just meet-if shared. Seeing how they get into the conversations to share the information or even when they don't share the information because they don't know who they have been in contact with or what they are involved in.

Through out the book you really get a feel of how unstable the three Empires are and the contempt they feel for each other. There are the Northmen, the Union and Angland, and the Gurkish. The Northmen and Gurkish seem to have leaders that are very ruthless and blood thirsty to take over as much land they can and rule all they take. The Union is stuck in the middle of both these places, yet doesn't seem to be as barbaric as the other two with killing. Angland is the place, in the North but is part of the Union, in which the Union sends all their guilty parties of treason agains the crown or toward the government (and in this time it could be a small thing or a large doing that could land you here - even working with or looking at the wrong person could hurt you). They have shared borders all these years?!? If you ask me I don't know how...

Just when you think you have all the characters details down a few more are added. All these people from the different areas of the world are pulled together to save their worlds from a bigger threat than the Northernmen or Glukish navy or Unions soldiers. What is this greater thing to be defeated by these specially selected few? That answer seems to be only known by the First of the Magi, Bayaz, and his brothers.

There seems to be a magic that surrounds each character in their own way. Yet the characters don't seem to be aware to the fact they have something special about them. These characters don't even realize the enemies they make and the bigger enemies they upset. In this book the story only begins, the adventure only starts.

I am sorry to add here that you will have to read the next book to see where they go after this story. What about the war? Who is this greater threat? I too have to now go get the second book in this trilogy. I have questions and can not let them go unanswered. There is just too much scheming and bribing and underlying meanings in things said or not said that I just have to keep going with the trilogy. I hope you enjoy it as well.

http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2008-1... ( )

Summary: Logen Ninefingers is a war-battered barbarian whose only real goal is to stay alive. Jezal dan Luther, however, is a young nobleman and officer in the army, whose days consist of drinking, gambling, and training for the all-important fencing contest. Inquisitor Sand dan Glokta was once like Jezal, but war and torture have left him crippled, broken, and bitter, and his occupation as torturer for the Union's Inquisition leaves little room for the niceities of court life. These three men may seem very different, but their lives are about to be thrown together. For their kingdom is on the brink of war, a war which has attracted the attention of Bayaz, a cheerfully brash but powerful old man who may or may not be the First of the Magi.

Review: I'd heard from a number of sources, both on the internet and in real life, that this series was great, a fantastic new voice in high fantasy in the same vein as Scott Lynch and Patrick Rothfuss, and that I was absolutely going to love it. I was so sure I was going to love it that I actually bought all three books in the series right off the bat. And, unfortunately, and disappointinly.... not so much.

The story is certainly ambitious in its scope, with multiple well-drawn POV narrators, and the world that Abercrombie creates certainly does have potential. My problem was that, for the life of me, I just could not get into the story. As good as the characterization might have been, I never really cared about the characters, and so never got particularly invested in what happened to them. I'd pick this book up, meaning to read for half an hour before bed, and get three paragraphs in and decide I'd rather be sleeping. The story never really grabbed me until about a hundred pages from the end, and I'm sorry, but 440 pages in is not where you want your best hook.

A large part of the reason why this book was such a struggle for me was almost certainly the writing style. Abercrombie spends a lot of time focusing on elements that didn't seem that important to the overall plot, while skimming past descriptions and information that would have been useful to have. (Like, for instance, for a book about wars and territories and politics, it really needed but was sorely lacking a map.) Combine that with a seeming inability to properly use commas (seriously, what happened to his editor? I'm not talking about stylistic usage, either, but necessary grammatical commas.), and you've got a writing style that is clearly aiming for "gritty" but winds up landing on "unpolished".

The Blade Itself is the first part of The First Law trilogy, which was originally supposed to be published as one novel (but at 1500+ pages, it's clear to see why it was divided). The result is that this book reads like an extended introduction to the characters and to the world, which may have accounted for how slow I found it in parts. And, while the pace may pick up and the storylines may get more interesting in later books, this one didn't pique my interest enough to make me want to go find out. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: There are plenty of people out there who really love this series, and if you like darker high fantasy that isn't all glowy elves and sparkly magic, you might be one of them. However, it just wasn't to my taste, despite how badly I wanted to like it. ( )

Amazing book. I love the twist on the traditional type characters from within the fantasy realm. I am glad I had the two sequels before I started this book, as I need to know how this one ends. ( )