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Science Fiction & Fantasy |
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The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One)
written by Joe Abercrombie
Studio : Pyr
by Pyr
Publisher : Pyr
Released : 2007-09-06
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781591025948
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 80 reviews)
List Price : $15.00
Our Price : $8.01
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Product Description |
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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 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. Unpredictable, compelling, wickedly funny, and packed with unforgettable characters, The Blade Itself is noir fantasy with a real cutting edge. |
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Abandon Hope... |
There is a species of writer who use their skill the beguile the reader, much like a trout poacher reaches slowly into the water with his hand, "tickles" his prey, then abuses the hapless creature's trust. Joe Abercrombie is such a writer.
Abercrombie creates a world of compelling characters to seduce the curious reader into his narrative. The prospective reader should know that all those characters are made to suffer at the author's hands until, by the time we have reached the end of the third volume, we feel as though our time and sympathies have been quite thoroughly and deliberately wasted. There should be a government-mandated warning about this sort of thing on the book jacket.
If you like the kind of horror story in which the characters evolve from a condition in which optimism is at least thinkable, to attain bleak, abject failure, then this trilogy is for you. In truth, Abercrombie's characters don't really evolve, or even change, over the 1800 or so pages of this opus. Instead, the author carefully rations the information he gives us so that we are misled. We are misled into thinking that this character might have grown wiser, or that another has at last gained some maturity, only to have that impression destroyed by another fact that the author chooses to reveal. This does not happen only once or twice--autorial manipulativeness is the defining characteristic of this work. In the end, all the characters are still what they were at the beginning, before Abercrombie started tossing us crumbs of information about them. Logen the Barbarian is a crazed killer, Mage Bayaz is the Anti-Gandalf, Jezal a mooncalf, and Inquisitor Glokta a saintly torturer, who is at least a little bit funny.
To be sure, Abercrombie is skilled (as any fish-tickler must be). One can hope that he gets over his Gothic obsession and...well, lightens up. |
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Not without faults, but a great read all the same |
I had to dig quite deeply in a pile of praise before I could get my hands on The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie's debut fantasy novel in his debut fantasy trilogy. I had high expectations, both from critics and fellow fantasy enthusiasts, and while I can't exactly say I was blown away, I can't say that I was disappointed. The Blade Itself is an entertaining read that gives more than a few thrills, and is a great first work.
Despite some wonderfully imagined characters, Abercrombie seems to lose a hold of them for sake of the plot in some places. Areas which I felt should have been focused on were glossed over in lieu of snappy internal dialogue or sudden incomprehensible changes, while the reverse also remains true. In particular, the interaction between Collem West and Inquisitor Glokta near the end reeks of afterthought and poor execution; a previously bitter character has a sudden, bewildering change of heart, only to revert back to his former self within a few pages (it seems lost at the opening chapters of Before They Are Hanged). Otherwise, though, his characters are the heart of the story. Complex, dark and gray, Abercrombie is not afraid of showing true portraits of creations and letting the readers decide what to make of them, while at the same time making each one unique and likable.
The action is solid. Abercrombie concerns himself with realism - moments with characters outnumbered and surrounded hint at danger, and never is there a `clean' fight; wounds and blood abound, and no character escapes a bit of a pounding once in a while. That being said, the fights strike a balance between the predictable and the cliché, never quite falling off the deep end of super-heroic characters, but also never putting them into George R.R. Martin-like danger of being suddenly and brutally killed.
The overall plot is classic, but still remains fresh and unique, with Abercrombie's nose for sniffing out political turmoil really shining through in this volume. The Union in particular is well represented as a fetid organization nearing collapse from internal plots and counter-plots, the Old Empire to the west being forshadowed as the same, yet worse, and eventually the plot takes us to the North (where some of the most enjoyable scenes take place), where the Northmen under canny King Bethod grow bolder, and to the south, where fell armies surround Dogoska, a Union stronghold.
I didn't know what to think while I was reading it. I enjoyed it, but not nearly to the extent that I enjoyed The Lies of Locke Lamora or The Name of the Wind, both of which seemed to have been helmed by a writer less prone to rookie mistakes. So too, the world itself seems to lack the very distinct flavor and depth that both Rothfuss and Lynch bring to the table.
But Abercrombie has room to grow, and his is a book that should be well watered. An excellent debut that brings a new voice to the fantasy genre who I would like to see carve out a niche of his own. I recommend The Blade Itself with honest enthusiasm, and continue to read the series.
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The best I've read in a looooong time |
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Mature, fantasy readers must read this. If you haven't read The First Law trilogy, go buy it. Now. Abercrombie has an amazing style, characters and plot development, and more importantly...the entire series doesn't have a single character or word more than it needs. Absolutely the best I've read, in any genre, for a long time. |
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Revisionist Fantasy |
This entire series is a good read, it's a grimmer, grittier, dirtier version of the standard fantasy fare. I wholly recommend it, it
s very entertaining, complex without being obtuse, and plot driven.
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Still alive. |
This is a wonderful tale with a number of interesting characters and a great story. Logen doesn't say much and we're told he is a major force in the battlefield, but he is obviously intelligent and currently well meaning (The second part of the trilogy will give you more). Joe Abercrombie's writing is graphic when it needs to be and insightful when complexities present themselves.
"But a sword has a voice".
"Sheathed it has little to say, to be sure, but you need only to put your hand on the hilt and it begins to whisper in your enemy's ear".
Humor is never far away and Logen is watching Bayaz the Magi bent over the pot of boiling water stirring some strange conconction . "What is that? asked Logen.
"Tea. Leaves of a certain plant boiled up in water". Bayaz tells Logen that he's missing out on one of nature's greatest gifts to man.
"Calming to the wind, invigorating to the body. There are few ills a good cup of tea won't help"
*Logen put his pipe down and says, "How about an axe to the head?"
"That's one of them", admitted Bayaz with a grin.
After a fight Logen threw his sword down, point first. He had it mind that it would bite into the soil and stand there, swaying back and forth, but it toppled over and clattered against the dirt.
*It was that sort of day.*
The Bloody Nine (Logen) is watching Union men pratice in the distance, "....all that shining metal moving steadily in bristling squares,spears points glittering, like some great square hedgehog with two hundred legs". *Deadly enough, no doubt, but how would it work on those broken rocks, in the tipping rain, in a tangled wood....Logen was less sure.*
When Captain Jezal first spots Logen we get in great detail our Northern warrior's looks, but you get the feeling it's a distortion thru egotistical eyes.
Inquisitor Glokta once the pride of the Union is now a broken man in apperance, but pure evil in resolve.
Major West has a lot of baggage, but is honorable and is in for a life changing task.
The current situation , Bethod making war , back story and magic , Juvens, Kanedias and Khalul makes for a quick read. Nothing deep here, but a large amount of fun.
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