The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

The first novel in the First Law Trilogy and debut fantasy novel from New York Times bestseller, Joe Abercrombie. 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. 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 Glokta 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. Unpredictable, compelling, wickedly funny, and packed with unforgettable characters, The Blade Itself is noir fantasy with a real cutting edge. First Law Trilogy The Blade Itself Before They Are Hanged Last Argument of Kings For more from Joe Abercrombie, check out: Novels in the First Law world Best Served Cold The Heroes Red Country

Warning, this is not a review, just some musings

I am late to the party with Joe Abercrombie. I don't know why, but I am. I wasn't going to write a review of this book. My intention was to just put up some stars and direct you to the much more accomplished reviews that are about this book.

However, I changed my mind and thought I would put some thoughts down on paper.

When it comes to Joe Abercrombie, and the amount of stars this bloke receives on review sites, he could literally throw them up in the sky and create his own universe. I mean the general consensus is that Abercrombie is such a good writer he could write a story that would convince a donkey it's a horse.

So needless to say, I had some pretty high expectations for this book. I expected this to be a masterclass in grimdark writing (I think you can see where this is going, can't you. There seems to be an unwritten ‘but' here doesn't there. However, before you all start howling at me that I don't know what the hell I am talking about, give me a minute!)
So, the book starts with Logan fighting a Shanka, or a flathead as they are also known. I am reading this. I think this is not a bad start, I haven't got a clue what a Shanka is, but I will go along with it and see where it goes.
The point of view then moves to Inquisitor Glotka. A member of the kings inquisition who is very good at his job of torturing people and has a severe dislike of stairs. His no.1 greatest enemy. Partway through his torture session, he suddenly has a job appraisal with his boss who gives him a secret mission
I've got to say, there's nothing grabbing me here. You know, it's just not doing it for me at all.
After Glotka, there's the introduction of another character, Jenkal. Now the book throws me because all of a sudden in my head it changes to a William Thackery type setting and reminds me of Vanity Fair.
Ok, we have a nifty bit of world building going on here. The barbarian north and Thackery's London.
Still a bit unsure about it to be honest with you , but I think I will plough on because this book is supposed to be like goldust.
Well, a few things happen in the first book and it keeps changing pov between these three characters. Logan is quite good, Glotka constantly tells you what is going on in his head and then there's Jezal, who, to be quite honest is a bit of a dick.
So for this first part, I an generally plodding along with the book, thinking ‘I might just give this a miss because its brilliance seems to be passing me by and I am not getting the hype at all. I mean seriously, I was thinking of ditching this book. It seemed to me there was no plot and it seemed to be just moving form POV to POV.
However, something weird started happening, in that I was laughing along with the prose. There seems to be some pretty dark humour running all the way through this book.
And then when Bayaz does his magic thing and starts blowing up the forest, the same way that Gandalf never would, I start to get really in to it. Then, I cannot put the book down and all of a sudden the pacing goes through the roof and I have finished it.
So, if you are just starting with Abercrombie, don't be put off. Stick with it, the payoff is ace. If you want a review, there are loads, with Petrik being the most notable, but other reviewers are available.

Thus book was a lot better than I thought it would be as a bought it by accident and well I'm glad I did! I will be buying the rest of it and all the spin-offs

Through most of my reading of this, I was deciding to rate this a 3. It was ok, but the dialogue and thoughts of the characters were so bad and so stereotypical. Yet once I had finished, I really enjoyed the story. I'm not sure why, but I really want to read the other books to see where this all ends up, and that warranted a higher rating.