Customer Reviews
great triology - By: Kravn, 22 Jul 2008 
I've been reading quite a lot of fantasy books lately & as was looking for something with a little edge to it. I found it in this triology, great characters, good backdrop scenario, intense & dramatic story but above alll - absolutely wonderful humor. Simply a priceless sense of humor.
if you read alot of fantasy, its a bit blah - By: Ms. K. Elworthy, 10 Jul 2008 
some interesting characters, the key ones even have their own catchphrases which continue through the whole trilogy.
most irritating has to be that this isnt a trilogy, its one book cut in three.
there is no suitable end to this book.
it finishes with people already starting the next leg of their journey, as such there's no release from the story. theres no end.
so not liking to judge a book without having read the end i went & read the other two. its very easy to read, although the characters are more fleshy than some writers give you they are far flatter than most. alot goes on & there are some nice fights. there is constant reference to the history of the place, but instead of getting in depth info you get the same stuff over & over with a couple of "twists" that arent very suprising. the end was reallly very disapointing to me. A satisfying conclusion to make the whole rest of it make sense, no. A spellbinding extravaganza where everything is tied together making alll the tedious bits worth while, nope. A beautiful & tragic ending where you cry & wonder, you guessed it, nah.
its alll a bit blah reallly chaps nice for a holiday maybe.
Truly outstanding trilogy - By: Dwight, 02 Jul 2008 A fantasticallly engrossing 1st book of what is a brilliant trilogy (or more precisely one long story divided into three books). I should point out no book I have ever read has made me feel like writing an online review, however given it was other reviews that tempted me to read this book I felt it was the least I could do to give it my ringing endorsement.
I would also like to stress fantasy is not usuallly my genre (with the exception of the dark materials trilogy) however these books drew me in effortlessly with fantastic characterisation & some delightfully twisted black homour.
In short buy this book & then look forward to enjoying the other two even more as the story crescendos.
Nothing really new. Not much Fantasy - By: Paul Dawson, 28 Jun 2008 
I didn't reallly find that the story came to any conclusion, meaning that it was written with a trilogy in mind (which is given away in the titel - Book 1). I don't think any book should be written as such, because the seperate parts feel inconclusive.
There wasn't much in the way of fantasy either. Smalll, set pieces were thrown in here & there, but the plot was lacking & I won't be reading the rest of the trilogy.
The torture was the most enjoyable part of the book with some good bits of humor thrown in here & there. The fencing was just downright boring
Exciting contemporary fantasy with real cutting edge - By: russell clarke, 27 May 2008 Fantasy is a much maligned genre , yet it has given us a slew of hugely gifted writers. George RR Martin, Robin Hobb, Steven Erikson, Clive Barker, China Mieville to name some of the top of my shiny bonce. There is a new name to add to that list. Joe Abercrombie is a freelance film editor but on the evidence of The Blade Itself he has a new career as a writer . This is terrific stuff.
The best fantasy writers alll create wonderful characters( You could argue any good writer has to do this what ever the genre but I feel fantasy for some reason lends itself to vivid but multi-layered characterisations) & this novel has several.
There is the Northern barbarian Logen Nine fingers -"The Bloody Nine"- a prodigious fighter separated from his band of men after yet another battle. He is also possessed of dry intelligence with the wry self awareness to realise that his monumental reputation will bring him nothing but constant strife .
There is Inquisitor Glotka, a former soldier for The Union -which encompasses the land between the inhospitable frozen North & the steamy exotic South who has been left a cripple after spending two years as a guest of the Gurkish , one of the Unions numerous enemies. He is now a torturer for the State , wracked by pain from his physical deformities & constantly undergoing a sardonic internal dialogue .
Then there is the aristocratic Jezal dan Luther , would be fencing champion & the archetypal preening arrogant toff. He treats his fiends with barely concealed disdain & his superior officer the proud grounded Colonel West much the same as he is a commoner & not deserving of his rank ...despite his exceptional war record.
Byaz is the leader of the Magi & is a pompous fulminating presence .He is also an extraordinarily powerful magician & is a witty orator when he has to be .
All of these characters are unalterably drawn together as war approaches the Union on twin fronts. The barbarian hordes are being united by Bethod, a former friend of Logen Ninefingers while in the South the Gurkish hordes are amassing ready to take back some of the territory they lost to the Union. Byaz is talking of dark portents & the end of things.
As this is the first of a trilogy The Blade Itself has to do a lot of scene setting which can be a dull interlude before the real narrative takes hold. Happily & most entertainingly Abercrombie is the type of writer who can reallly make dialogue fizz ,He also has a highly modernistic irreverent approach to fantasy with lots of profanity , which no doubt will alienate fans of classic fantasy , & plenty of gory action sequences.
As if alll this isn't enough there is also a wonderful array of supporting characters including Ferro from the southern state of Diljiin the , a former Gurkish slave girl whose experiences mean she absolutely loathes everybody & has a pathological mistrust of even those trying to help her. There are Ninefingers former compadre,s including Dogface & Threetrees & Quai , Byaz,s geeky apprentice.
At the books conclusion it's alll set up splendidly for the next instalment & I was salivating at the prospect of finding where that takes us. While The Blade Itself doesn't have the deep political intrigue of works by Robin Hobb or George RR Martin & indeed doesn't conjure up it's world quite as vividly, for which the lack of a map is a surprising oversight, it's still well written & about as compelling as fiction gets...fantasy or otherwise.
