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A review by frasersimons
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This plods along competently and I was warned ahead of time it’s best to treat the trilogy as one book. I waited until I felt like reading them like that, so it’s been years and years and years. As expected, this first one is pretty much all setup, save for some nice character building and small arcs.
The back matter explains the characters well, save for the best of all: Ferro. An escaped slave that gets embroiled with some mysterious magic user fella. She is by far the most interesting thread to follow here, though I also like the take on the ‘barbarian’, nine fingers.
And, as with everyone else it seems, the least interesting is the noble sword guy, jez or whatever. The characters slowly come together and the macro threat is introduced. It’s surprisingly light and funny sometimes. The fights aren’t overlong and generally brutal. There’s some neat world building, with most aspects being just a bit different than generic fantasy stuff. Not bad.
The back matter explains the characters well, save for the best of all: Ferro. An escaped slave that gets embroiled with some mysterious magic user fella. She is by far the most interesting thread to follow here, though I also like the take on the ‘barbarian’, nine fingers.
And, as with everyone else it seems, the least interesting is the noble sword guy, jez or whatever. The characters slowly come together and the macro threat is introduced. It’s surprisingly light and funny sometimes. The fights aren’t overlong and generally brutal. There’s some neat world building, with most aspects being just a bit different than generic fantasy stuff. Not bad.