A review by jfaberrit
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

4.0

Joe Abercrombie is an extremely talented writer in many ways, and can actually draw out a decent bit of character and a really rollicking action sequence. He's good with humor, the basics of politics, and manages to come up with a pretty promising world here. The only drawback is that the elements are really, REALLY familiar. It's basically your standard mishmash from Game of Thrones/ASOIAF, just minus the dragons, and with smaller walls in the North. He does clever things with these elements, combines them in new ways, pulls in other influences that can be easily identified... but everything is extremely familiar, almost like played from a "fantasy tropes" tarot deck. Break the mold, and this would be five stars; as it is, it's very good, and hopefully a sign of good things to come.