The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie | Book Review *No Spoilers*

Today I wanted to review ‘The Blade Itself’ by Joe Abercrombie, the first book in The First Law trilogy.

Music: ‘Somnolent’ by The Tides

________________________________________________________________

[davecool]

What a coincidence, I finished this book just last week. I liked your review Kathi, because despite all of the other positive reviews of this book that encouraged me to read it I really didn't enjoy it either. I thought it was like a fantasy version of the tv show 'the office'. I might have to wait for your review of book two before continuing!

[thisandthat]

Not sure if you do audio books, but if you do, the narrator Steven Pacey really brings these books to life...highly recommend also the writing gets better and better.

[bjminton]

I am so glad I watched your review of this popular book. I really did not like it! Many say it's just the setup for the rest of the series, but 600 pages for a setup is about 500 too many for me - lol. Repetitive sword battles and poor Glotka struggling up and down stairs for endless paragraphs. I just wanted to pull the rest of his teeth so he could get some wooden ones. I finished the book not knowing much more than when I started it. And wasted about 10 hours of reading time!! On to watch more of your past videos...

[envra]

Your review was interesting. I sucribed in hopes that you review the second book in The First Law trilogy. I have re-read the books, or well, I have re-listened to his books several times.

[Gontaza]

I had a hard time getting into the first book aswell. It took me three tries because it's so different from the more classical fanstasy. Once i got over that first hurdle I couldn't put the books down and went through all nine in about two weeks. The books are a deconstrution of the genre which challenge most of it's tropes. It takes a while to get into how Abercrombie writes his characters all of them are just so well done I think. Most of them are real bastards but they grow on you to the point you can't help to be fascinated by them

[mtandazomoyo]

I've read the first law trilogy and I must say i agree about your thoughts on the first book. I absolutely hated Giselle too. He's a pretty one dimensional idiot! Glokta is a great character and i like his story arc through the series. The books do get better after this first one.