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Loading... The Blade Itselfby Joe Abercrombie
  
Books Read in 2013 (72) Books Read in 2023 (396) Books Read in 2017 (877) » 16 more Books Read in 2020 (2,265) Books Read in 2019 (2,168) SantaThing 2014 Gifts (113) Read in 2014 (60) KayStJ's to-read list (651) Antiheroes (9) Epic Fantasy (4) BookTok Adult (15) Unshelved Book Clubs (104) No current Talk conversations about this book.  acdha | Mar 21, 2023 |  This was a very intriguing start to a series that I will definitely finish. The author's characters are really interesting and fun to read about. The story is basically about the forming of a "Fellowship" for a quest...but instead of a fanciful world of good and evil, you get a morally grey world and a fellowship, many of whom, would rather not be there, or have no idea why they're their in the first place. The wizard character is a great, mostly because he is in many ways the antithesis of Gandalf. This is not to suggest that this book is base on LOTR. It is absolutely not. But the book does present classic fantasy characters and strikingly real people with their own agendas and desires. The author is also adds a flare of satire and wit to the world through his characters personalities and reactions. Can't wait to read the next one! (  ) wolfe.myles | Feb 28, 2023 | It seems Joe Abercrombie is responsible for two of the recent trends in Fantasy that I hate the most. Subversion for subversion's sake and the whole three or four characters viewpoints that we constantly switch between. Needless to say didn't like it and proudly didn't finish this one. (  ) RetrospectiveEmperor | Feb 24, 2023 | Damn did I like this book, specially Logen Ninefingers he became one of my all time favorites characters! I also loved that its a grey fantasy, meaning that many things are flawed and not everything goes all happy and rainbows. (  ) LedzMx | Sep 4, 2022 | All I have heard about this book before I read it was that it was dark and that all of the characters were terrible people, but no one told me it was funny. It has a lot of humor, mostly sarcasm, and that helped me enjoy this book more. It seems like the main point of this book was to introduce the characters and it did a fantastic job. I find them all complex and interesting. I still don't know that much about the world or the main plot, but I hope to know more about it in the next books. ( ) elderlingfae | Aug 11, 2022 | no reviews | add a review
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Inquisitor Glokta, a crippled and increasingly bitter relic of the last war, former fencing champion turned torturer extraordinaire, is trapped in a twisted and broken body - not that he allows it to distract him from his daily routine of torturing smugglers. Nobleman, dashing officer and would-be fencing champion Captain Jezal dan Luthar is living a life of ease by cheating his friends at cards. Vain, shallow, selfish and self-obsessed, the biggest blot on his horizon is having to get out of bed in the morning to train with obsessive and boring old men. And Logen Ninefingers, an infamous warrior with a bloody past, is about to wake up in a hole in the snow with plans to settle a blood feud with Bethod, the new King of the Northmen, once and for all - ideally by running away from it. But as he's discovering, old habits die really, really hard indeed... ...especially when Bayaz gets involved. 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 Glotka, Jezal and Logen a whole lot more difficult... No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92 — Literature English {except North American} English fiction Modern Period 2000-LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.05)
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I'm in favor of depicting violence as unpleasant rather than glorified but the author was inconsistent in this – while one character shows severe lasting effects in general you have the usual fantasy trope of people being some of the best fighters in the world rather than half-crippled from their past escapades. This works better in the high-magic fantasy worlds with freely available healing magic but clashes oddly with the attempt at a more realistic style.
That said, the world-building and writing are above-average quality and the story is entertaining, if not ground-breaking. I wouldn't spring for a hardcover but would definitely consider paperbacks the next time I'm heading to the airport particularly since this is Abercrombie's first book and I suspect subsequent efforts will benefit from increased experience. (