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Joe Abercrombie
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The Blade Itself: Book One Paperback – 10 May 2007

by Joe Abercrombie (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 21,646 ratings
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Inquisitor Glokta, a crippled and increasingly bitter relic of the last war, former fencing champion turned torturer extraordinaire, is trapped in a twisted and broken body - not that he allows it to distract him from his daily routine of torturing smugglers.

Nobleman, dashing officer and would-be fencing champion Captain Jezal dan Luthar is living a life of ease by cheating his friends at cards. Vain, shallow, selfish and self-obsessed, the biggest blot on his horizon is having to get out of bed in the morning to train with obsessive and boring old men.

And Logen Ninefingers, an infamous warrior with a bloody past, is about to wake up in a hole in the snow with plans to settle a blood feud with Bethod, the new King of the Northmen, once and for all - ideally by running away from it. But as he's discovering, old habits die really, really hard indeed...especially when Bayaz gets involved.
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Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 3
    The First Law Trilogy
  2. Print length
    544 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Gollancz
  5. Publication date
    10 May 2007
  6. Dimensions
    13.2 x 4.2 x 19.8 cm
  7. ISBN-10
    9780575079793
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0575079793
  9. See all details
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Product description

Review

I might not end up marrying this book, but I'm certainly infatuated with it right at the moment. It's delicious, the characters sharply drawn and their motivations believable, the clash of cultures (always particularly difficult for an author to pull off) believable as well. - Lilith Saintcrow.

Review

I might not end up marrying this book, but I'm certainly infatuated with it right at the moment. It's delicious, the characters sharply drawn and their motivations believable, the clash of cultures (always particularly difficult for an author to pull off) believable as well. - Lilith Saintcrow.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0575079797
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gollancz; 1st edition (10 May 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780575079793
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0575079793
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.2 x 4.2 x 19.8 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 21,646 ratings

About the author

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Joe Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie

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Joe Abercrombie is a freelance film editor, who works on documentaries and live music events. He lives and works in Bath. THE BLADE ITSELF, his debut novel, is the first novel of The First Law trilogy, followed by BEFORE THEY ARE HANGED and LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS. His new stand-alone bestseller is BEST SERVED COLD.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
21,646 global ratings

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Top reviews from Australia

Steve
5.0 out of 5 stars Just a Magic read could not put it down
Reviewed in Australia on 15 September 2023
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What a new and refreshing read l think it is the start of a wild ride with some very different characters and a story line that keeps you wanting to turn the page
Anyone who loves Jordan, Sanderson, Tolkien and Gemmell will just love this
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Good
Reviewed in Australia on 24 January 2018
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Not bad. Needs more violence and blood shed. Especially for the zbloody Nine. Gloats is a grea character though. Next.
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Good for air fryer on bench
5.0 out of 5 stars Such a great book
Reviewed in Australia on 8 October 2023
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Love it
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richard
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute ripper
Reviewed in Australia on 1 June 2023
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Alrerady on to to book 2, this is a well written book with a nicely spooled out story and engaging characters. LOTR without so much walking and ponderous guff.
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Elijah Hutton
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in Australia on 18 May 2015
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All in all the story was great, however it was a bit choppy...
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bloke
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome
Reviewed in Australia on 16 February 2022
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Finished it in a few days and loved every moment. Really enjoyed Joe Abercrombies writing style and character work. Itching to start Before They Are Hanged once I finish Malice by John Gwynne
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Amiz
3.0 out of 5 stars I personally wasn’t into it
Reviewed in Australia on 31 October 2023
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I didn’t like the story (that’s it)
But I did like the characters -very well done
This is one of those it’s me not you types of situations.
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Sarah
5.0 out of 5 stars If you like dark and you also like laughing, this is the book
Reviewed in Australia on 19 December 2020
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I read these books about 10 years ago and reading them again gives me the same reaction as back then, they are dark and hilarious and have some cracker lines that I have never to this day forgotten! I highly recommend these books!
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Top reviews from other countries

Rodrigo Ormonde
5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing dark fantasy trilogy
Reviewed in Brazil on 14 April 2024
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First of all, this series of books is not for every one as it includes lots (and I mean it) of very well described scenes of dark humor, gore, torture, violence, and so on (I think you can get the picture). If this is something you can stand and also you like complex stories that start slowly to unveil themselves but have very interesting and surprinsing endings, than stop thinking and buy this book.

Before reading the first book, I read many reviews mentioning the slow start of the story and I imagined that they meant the first chapters or so, but actually the whole first book can be seen as an introduction to the actual story that unfolds in the next two, so it starts *really* slow (although the fist book is not entirely dull as it may sound as it has many funny and interesting moments).

My rates of the individual books would be 3.5/5, 4.5/5 and 5/5.
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RickZ
5.0 out of 5 stars Glimpse of warmth in gritty harsh world
Reviewed in Canada on 18 October 2023
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Set the world well. Plenty of memorable moments, stylish writing. Fantastic character portraits. Can't stop now. On to the journey I go.
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Joel Distefano
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing so far!
Reviewed in Germany on 29 October 2023
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about half way through and I am loving it!!!
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Rashmit M.
5.0 out of 5 stars Second read and it makes the book even better
Reviewed in India on 31 July 2023
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So i have decided to delete my last review and write a new one , coz my 2nd read has left me even more flabbergasted.

WHAT I LIKED :

Lord Grimdark , as Joe Abercrombie is known as on twitter (or X) , set out to write this novel , his very first to create a world which was dark and in the process of doing so he created one of the best Grimdark fantasy to date .

And sure many would complain that it's not dark enough, fair enough, there's a lack or murder , Rapes , etc in comparison to something like A song of ice and fire , but whats dark in these books are it's characters and their actions , there's no hero here .

The characters and how they develop through out the book is marvellous to witness , you cab have your pick of diverse and fun character to call your favourite and yet none of the characters are actually good guys/gals .

But character and their darkness aside , Abercrombie's world is unique and so alluring , he puts you as a reader in the world and doesnt force feed you pages upon pages of information about his world like most fantasies , he instead acts as if the readers are already aware of the world and keeps pouring information fleetingly throughout the book. Heck he doesn't even care to explain much about the mythical creatures of his world or the magic system, (both of them excellent creation btw ) which is draining away and as a reader I never felt to have skipped a beat.

There's a lot of events that take place in the book that break the general trope in fantasy literature, and keeps you fixated and amazed. The pages are 500 thick and it never feels as such and reads like a 300 page afair.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE :

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING . This is my favourite series for a reason .

CONCLUSION:

Though characters are the biggest selling point of the series , the magical realism , fast pace , the tropes breaking , the awesome action and the unique magic and world system it's just nothing like any other fantasy and its awesome
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The Fantasy Review
5.0 out of 5 stars A Gritty, Political Fantasy Book With Amazing Characters
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 September 2022
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I’ve been watching book reviews, hauls, TBRs and more on BookTube for over 8 years now. I first heard of The Blade Itself and Joe Abercrombie 4 years ago, around the time fantasy book review content creators such as Daniel Greene, Murphy Napier and Elliot Brooks started putting out their videos.

After 4 years of ignoring everyone’s advice and insistence that The First Law trilogy (and everything else) by Joe Abercrombie is worth reading, I finally started reading The Blade Itself. I should have read it sooner.

Everyone Talks About the Characters

And there’s a reason for that. Actually, I think there’s a second, but I’ll get to that. Jezal, Glokta and Logen are all incredible characters. Their points of view feel completely different, to the extent that you know who you’re following even without being told.

Jezal is an arrogant, selfish nobleman who I hated from the start and still don’t like him. That’s the point! Just because I don’t like him doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy his scenes. Seeing the world through his eyes was interesting, especially when he seemed to have conflicting opinions on people and things, his arrogance and self-righteousness coming into conflict with friendships (kind of) and the world around him.

Glokta, once a great swordsman, now a crippled torturer, is bitter and in constant agony. I think this character might have been the most difficult to write. He finds himself, as an inquisitor, embroiled in political schemes that were very entertaining to read and genuinely surprising at times.

Finally, the last main point of view character is Logen. What I find interesting about Logen is that he doesn’t want anything. That is to say, he wants to not know anything, and will just follow his companions along, making sure they don’t die. As someone who has done both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in writing, it was surprising to see a character with no impact on the plot of the book, yet it still worked. I couldn’t stop reading until the end of his scenes, all because his character was so well written, rather than being hooked on the plot.

There is Little to No Plot

Sure, there is a narrative, but it isn’t what you might expect. The Blade Itself is almost like a set up for the next 2 books, introducing us fantastically to the world, the characters and mysteries to uncover.

This is why I think everyone (including me) mainly talks about Joe Abercrombie’s characters in book reviews for The Blade Itself - what else is there to talk about?

This sounds like a negative, but it’s not. If you only want a fantasy book that has epic battle scenes, dragons, elves and constant excitement, this might not be your favourite book. (But, from what I’ve heard of the trilogy, you could think of it as a 1500-2000-page epic fantasy book and get your fill of battle later on.)

The narrative is political. It’s full of mysteries, backstabbing, literal stabbing… And from the little we see of other countries/continents, Joe Abercrombie successfully shows that this is a sprawling world with vibrant cultures and dangerous, incoming threats. This is just the kind of book I was after, and it’s been on my TBR pile for over 4 years!

Final Thoughts on The Blade Itself

Everyone who raves about this book is right. If you loved A Song of Ice and Fire and don’t mind your fantasy books a little dark with only a dash of magical elements, this is definitely a series you should pick up.
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