great triology
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I've been reading quite a lot of fantasy books lately and as was looking for something with a little edge to it. I found it in this triology, great characters, good backdrop scenario, intense and dramatic story but above all - absolutely wonderful humor. Simply a priceless sense of humor.
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if you read alot of fantasy, its a bit blah
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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 and 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 and 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 and over with a couple of "twists" that arent very suprising. the end was really 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 all the tedious bits worth while, nope. A beautiful and tragic ending where you cry and wonder, you guessed it, nah.
its all a bit blah really chaps nice for a holiday maybe.
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Truly outstanding trilogy
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A fantastically 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 usually my genre (with the exception of the dark materials trilogy) however these books drew me in effortlessly with fantastic characterisation and some delightfully twisted black homour.
In short buy this book and then look forward to enjoying the other two even more as the story crescendos.
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Nothing really new. Not much Fantasy
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I didn't really 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. Small, set pieces were thrown in here and there, but the plot was lacking and 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 and there. The fencing was just downright boring
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Exciting contemporary fantasy with real cutting edge
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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 all 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) and 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 and 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 and constantly undergoing a sardonic internal dialogue .
Then there is the aristocratic Jezal dan Luther , would be fencing champion and the archetypal preening arrogant toff. He treats his fiends with barely concealed disdain and his superior officer the proud grounded Colonel West much the same as he is a commoner and not deserving of his rank ...despite his exceptional war record.
Byaz is the leader of the Magi and is a pompous fulminating presence .He is also an extraordinarily powerful magician and 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 and 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 and most entertainingly Abercrombie is the type of writer who can really 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 , and plenty of gory action sequences.
As if all 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 and has a pathological mistrust of even those trying to help her. There are Ninefingers former compadre,s including Dogface and Threetrees and Quai , Byaz,s geeky apprentice.
At the books conclusion it's all set up splendidly for the next instalment and 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 and 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 and about as compelling as fiction gets...fantasy or otherwise.
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