Book Thoughts

So this time I’m going to talk about a The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. The first book in this trilogy is called The Blade Itself. An ominous sounding title that is itself a quote from Homer.

To be frank, I was not impressed with this book at all. I had such high expectations. When I saw that one of the blurbs on the cover was written by Scott Lynch author of The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas and Red Skies, I was ecstatic. Maybe he saw something in this book that I didn’t.

Every review I’ve read focuses on how Abercrombie did well by not overly describing the setting and instead focusing on creating vivid characters. This is actually where I disagree the most. To me the characters were cliche. Yes, I said it. Cliche. Let the hate mail commence.

We have a barbarian named Logen Ninefingers (because he’s missing one of his fingers — go figure). He fills the role of reluctant / repentant warrior. He’s spent years fighting in one bloody war after another and now he’s sick of it. He knows that he doesn’t have to show off or talk a lot to prove he’s a warrior. He’s smarter than he appears to others. I’ve seen all of this before! Abercrombie gives Logen one redeeming value. When he gets really angry / full of bloodlust he becomes something of a Norse Berserker. This other persona called The Bloody Nine takes over and kicks major ass. That at least was interesting. But other than that - snoresville.

Next we have a war hero turned cripple turned torturer, Sand dan Glokta. These were my least favorite sections to read. At least Ninefingers had a sense of humor. Inquisitor Glokta spends most of his time complaining about the pain from his crippled legs and toothless gums and abused spine. Apparently his arch nemesis is…stairs. I mean, at least Glokta’s thoughts are what a person in his position would think, but Abercrombie really lays it on thick. We get it already. He’s in pain. He thinks part of his humanity and empathy were stripped away along with his teeth when he was a prisoner of war in the last war. Moving on.

And what fantasy novel would be complete without a representative from the Idiot Nobility? How come fantasy writers don’t write stories where the noble class actually does get things accomplished rather than spend all their time worrying about their own fortunes/power/alliances/petty squabbles? And this brings us to Captain Jezal dan Luthar. His father purchased his captaincy in the King’s Own. He is a typical spoiled self-absorbed noble brat. Let’s try and predict his character development shall we? Hmm. Maybe he’ll end up having to suffer some sort of hardship and eventually will grow a conscience? Wow. Spot on.

I’m not going to bother with the enigmatic First of the Magi - Bayaz. Old. Yep. Bald. Yep. Powerful and knows more than he lets on. Yep. Scared of whatever nebulous evil is threatening the land in this trilogy? Yep. Done. My only question about him is whether or not he’ll succumb to Gandalf Syndrome - aka falling into a bottomless pit fighting a flaming monster only to be reborn.

The plot in The Blade Itself is pretty simple. The Union is corrupt and its enemies are eager to exploit its weakness. There is some deeper darker horror lurking unseen and it is up to Bayaz, Ninefingers, and Jezal to stop it. That’s about it. It’s not a bad plot per se. I give Abercrombie points for not coming up with a too complex plot. Some fantasy and sci-fi writers try to be too complex and twisty for their own good.

Predictable. Cliche. Semi-boring. In essence, this is Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself. But despite all that I said, it does have potential. After all this is only the first in the series. Maybe the characters will grow in different ways than I predict in the next two. I sincerely hope that Abercrombie proves me wrong.

Score: 2.75 / 5

(2.5 was a little too low, but 3 was too high)

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