From the Bookshelf of The Sword and Laser…

The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1)

Joe Abercrombie

Start date: June 14, 2010

Finish date: July 8, 2010

Discussion: 2010 Reads

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Jul 29, 2009 Justin rated it did not like it

Shelves: fantasy

Hmm. This book is fine for what it is, I guess, but I found it to be somewhat of a disappointment.

The Blade Itself follows the paths of a notorious warrior from the northern mountains, a violent ex-slave from the southern empire, a spoiled city guardsman, and a bitter, crippled torturer from the kingdom's Inquisition, as they find themselves drawn together through the machinations of a mysterious old man claiming to be the First Magi, Bayaz.

Normally I give a more detailed synopsis of the books I Hmm. This book is fine for what it is, I guess, but I found it to be somewhat of a disappointment.

The Blade Itself follows the paths of a notorious warrior from the northern mountains, a violent ex-slave from the southern empire, a spoiled city guardsman, and a bitter, crippled torturer from the kingdom's Inquisition, as they find themselves drawn together through the machinations of a mysterious old man claiming to be the First Magi, Bayaz.

Normally I give a more detailed synopsis of the books I read, but, uh... that's really it. That's all that happens in this book. These characters walk around, do some stuff, meet each other under interesting circumstances, and then prepare for the second book. I realize that almost all modern fantasy novels are usually springboards for a potential cash-cow series, but this one really had no pretentions at being anything else. Literally nothing of consequence happened in the book until the last thirty pages or so.

Okay, so, I'm a big fan of character study and development, and I can deal with there not being much in the way of forward-moving plot if the characters are nicely textured. Unfortunately, Abercrombie isn't all that consistent here. Logen Ninefingers, the rustic and even-keel barbarian warrior, is the most interesting and likeable of the bunch. Well, he is if you ignore the melodramatic, eye-rolling reveal for him that comes at the end of the book. The Inquisitor Sand dan Glokta is a particularly complex character, and definitely the most original, but he isn't very sympathetic. Jezal dan Luthar, the rich fop masquerading as a soldier, is even worse; I grew tired of reading his chapters very quickly, and was particularly irritated that Abercrombie chose to not have him change at all after enduring a couple of mettle-testing situations. In fact, all of the characters kind of suffer from this; nobody really deviates far from their personal quirks and established traits of general badassery, and while this is pretty common among rank-and-file fantasy books, it still irritates me.

My biggest complaint, though, is with the writing style. Positive reviews and blurbs pegged Abercrombie's narrative voice as funny and confident, but I found it to be distracting. He peppers the narrative with one-liners and aphorisms, and while some of them are fairly amusing, they don't seem to mesh well with the overall tone of the story. A couple of the characters are sardonic enough themselves that it didn't seem too out of place, but overall the "humorous" narration only worked to bring me out of the story, since the content itself is actually supposed to be gritty and epic. And though this is a little snobby, the grammar bugged me. Abercrombie apparently has a grudge against prepositions; dramatic, list-style observational passages that are rife with comma abuse abound (to the point that I was noticing and being annoyed by them as early as thirty pages in). I'm not sure if that's a British English versus American English kind of thing, but they were coupled with enough awkward sentences and mangled grammar to bug me. The dialogue is also problematic, and executed without much imagination. Luthar's love scenes are painful, and a few quotes from the ex-slave Ferro Maljinn are laughably horrible. This is another place where the narrative tone Abercrombie sets becomes distracting, since many of the characters seem to think and/or use the same turns of phrase, making them less distinguishable despite the trademark mannerisms of each.

With as much nitpicking as I'm doing here, it sounds like I hated this book, which I really didn't. It's a standard pulp fantasy, and is solid and fun to read when taken in that context. I just kind of feel that it is weirdly misrepresented. Glowing reviews abound for this "noir fantasy" book, heralding it as the second coming of George R. R. Martin, and that seems to be the result of a generous helping of wishful thinking. While I appreciate that nobody is casually raping a servant, noblewoman, or table leg every couple of chapters, and the female characters are only very shrewish instead of extremely shrewish, writing a fantasy story with mostly human characters and lots of gore does not automatically make you the next George R. R. Martin. In fact, a more apt comparison comes to mind. I have done a lot of roleplaying in various online games and associated message boards, and The Blade Itself reminds me forcefully of what a reader will see in those environments: vast passages of mediocre writing that exhibit how totally powerful, tragic, and interesting the characters are, even though most of them are amalgamations of overwrought and oft-repeated clichés. Once introduced, all of these characters spend so much time demonstrating their supposed awesomeness (indeed, competing with each other over who is the most awesome) that no cohesive story ever actually emerges.

Honestly, if this book would just stop frontin' and sport an axe-wielding barbarian and a sly-looking wizard on the cover, I'd probably be more forgiving and enjoy it more.

Anyway, this one is worth checking out if you want a nicely paced, fun, somewhat guilty fantasy read. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm sold enough to check out the next two books. ...more

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Mar 18, 2010 Matt Piechocinski rated it really liked it

Great stuff ... all of Abercrombie's characters are assholes, and yet, they're compellingly fascinating. It's not your prototypical sword and sorcery book, but it's a whole hell of a lot of fun. ...more

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Jan 18, 2025 Neil rated it it was amazing

I was instantly sucked in with the outstanding characters. Had a hard time finding a plot in the middle. Was fully invested by the end and ready for the ride ahead.

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