From the Bookshelf of Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"…

The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1)

Joe Abercrombie

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* February - March Groupreads - Anthologies
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What Members Thought

Feb 10, 2014 Athena Shardbearer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-of-me, fantasy

Epic/Dark Fantasy Buddy Read Robin, Alexa, Jessica, Kat, Jennifer, Ashley, Eon

There are no heroes here and I love it. Also, the narrator is awesome. Review to come soon. ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Jan 05, 2012 David rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-time-favorites

Revised after finishing the trilogy: Absolutely one of the finest stories I've ever read.

Original review: Good but maybe a bit flawed? Seemed to be lacked an main antagonist. Or a central thrust of plot. Perhaps if viewed differently as the first third of a single book. Not a first book of a trilogy. Doesn't really seem to want to stand together well on it's own. I liked bits of it a lot. Esp. the parts with Logan Ninefingers and Bayaz or even Major West. Still no idea what Bayaz is up to or why ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Aug 01, 2013 Vincent Stoessel rated it it was amazing

This is my first Joe Abercrombie book and I was happily surprised about how good it was. If I must compare his style to GRR Martin, I'll just say that while all the grit is there, Abercrombie does a better job of orchestrating the chaos. JA also does a better job of self editing and weaving individual threads in and out of the greater cloth of the novel. I haven't seen it done this well in a long time. The prose is delicious. There were times where I went back a few pages to reread a scene, not ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jan 07, 2019 Shawn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-collection

Yep, I finally read The Blade Itself. It's been sitting on my shelf since its PYR published days, but for some reason it took me 'til now to actually get around to it. I think it was due to all the high praise Abercrombie has been getting over the last few years, and I have to say a lot of that praise is warranted. I will admit though, I was expecting something a lot darker from what people say—maybe I'm just a psycho and it really is dark (I mean, people do magically explode and their meaty bit ...more

3 likes · Like · see review