The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1) in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Aug 01, 2013 Vincent Stoessel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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

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Mar 23, 2013 Derek rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery

It's appropriate that my copy is a battered library discard, taped and dog-eared and smelling a bit.

Abercrombie has picked his targets carefully. Worldbuilding narration is whittled to the minimum--the reader never learns what the "Agriont" is until someone explains to Logen Ninefingers what he is seeing--and instead this is all about the interesting, interesting characters, each of whom are as battered and travelworn as the book they are being read from. It gives the story an intimacy that I di It's appropriate that my copy is a battered library discard, taped and dog-eared and smelling a bit.

Abercrombie has picked his targets carefully. Worldbuilding narration is whittled to the minimum--the reader never learns what the "Agriont" is until someone explains to Logen Ninefingers what he is seeing--and instead this is all about the interesting, interesting characters, each of whom are as battered and travelworn as the book they are being read from. It gives the story an intimacy that I didn't expect. Whatever the larger plot throughout the trilogy, each character's journey is personal.

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The personal focus on the events is so far forward that it feels like a postmodern commentary on epic fantasy. Here, it is not as much the clash between supernatural forces or even political conflicts as it is the worms-eye view, how the sociopolitical thrashing and possibly turmoil among legendary figures will affect--damage--each person.

And the fights, oh the fights. Gloriously brutal battle, full of crunch and splatter and exhaustion and things only sort of going right. Everything costs, and nobody walks away unscathed.

Logen Ninefingers in particular struck as possibly the best Conan analogue I've ever seen, and possibly better than Conan himself. He is cut from the same cloth, but cut by someone less obsessed by machismo and primitive existence and admiration for his creation: it's clear that the Northern culture is just as sophisticated as the Union, but less stratified and with a different set of values and priorities. Abercrombie takes the additional genius step of this being Logen's first visit to 'civilization', and him being gobsmacked by the size and grandeur of edifices and constructions.

I'm delighted to follow where the author leads, for the rest of this series. ...more

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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

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