First Law Trilogy Comments
First Law Trilogy (Joe Abercrombie)
Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he's on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian - leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies. Nobleman, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, Captain Jezal dan Luthar has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules. Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it. Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glotka a whole lot more difficult.
Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood. Unpredictable, compelling, wickedly funny, and packed with unforgettable characters, The Blade Itself is noir fantasy with a real cutting edge.
The Blade Itself is a rousing new entry to the fantasy genre. Joe Abercrombie takes all the classic fantasy conventions and spins them into something new. The Blade Itself features reluctant heroes, black humor, and breathtaking action. Seemingly a novel of contrasts, The Blade Itself is defined by its cast: a philosophical Barbarian who hates to kill, a dashing hero afraid to fight, and a crippled torturer with a heart of gold. The twisted plot and cast of unforgettable characters makes The Blade Itself an absolute must read.
Feel free to rate the Blade Itself on the Community Book Review section of the site.
I really wanted to get into it, but found myself struggling through all 3 books. The story was good, but I think the writing left something to be desired. It was good enough that I will continue to read his other works, but not so sure it deserves such a high ranking. All the other books you have on here, that I have read, are excellent and deserving of their place.
I'm reading an awful lot of people talking about how this series is not deep, and for much of the series, I would have had to agree. The series kept me interested with some very unique characters that seemed to finally have some real human flaws. Little did I know, Abercrombie was flawlessly weaving a complex allegory of much of what goes on in our world today. The world is ruled by money, and most of what goes on in politics is of little consequence in the huge scheme of things. One needs only look at the seemingly powerful Sult and Morovia arguing tirelessly over every minute issue in the closed council, with little progression one way or another while Bayaz pushes his agenda while playing puppets. This is the same thing that happens in politics in most countries including the U.S. Republicans fight Democrats all the while nothing really ever changes as the leaders of government changes. The banks own us and money runs the world. Sad but true. Abercrombie is a genius.
Well that's pretty cute if you think joe abercrombie was writing a political allegory for the united states but really, it's just his pithy twisted take on fantasy cliches.
PS get that tin foil hat out
Haha well I'll make sure to take my antipsychotics and get my schizophrenia under control before I comment again, however if you don't think he's poking at how useless and undemocratic our government really is, I'm not sure there's medication on the market to help you with your dense and superficial take on this trilogy. Psychosis can be treated; ignorance cannot.
Indeed, you got the point of the book, like I did. It was a sad but clever ending to the series. For those who didn't get it, you might want to read more deeply next time 
First book was slow and I couldn't really tell where the plot was going. I felt I was wandering around with no real direction. The characters had enough development that even though the plot was thin, by about half way through I found it to be enjoyable.
Overall, the series is a good read and I'd recommend them. The battles are well written. There are some well defined rules to the magic system. The dialogue between characters was really well done. It was believable. I didn't find the banter to be over the top. I often found myself smiling and even laughing a few times. Glokta reminded me of a Tarantino character.
I felt like the story was incomplete. I wanted to know more about Bayaz and what really went down with his former masters, although I think we can accurately infer the truth. There is obviously some more writing to be done with the current residents of the Master Maker's house.
We kept hearing about history doing circles and then we got to Logan's ending. He went out just like he came in. Somehow I get the feeling we haven't seen the last of Logan Ninefingers.
He's got two more books in the same world and they're both outstanding, check them out, they do give some answers to the unanswered questions, I doubt Abercrombie will ever answer all or the questions, but he's a true genius at what he does.
Of course the ending sucked. as another poster said, he unraveled every bit of growth for 2 characters (Glokta and Jezel), turned Bayaz into quite the opposite of what you thought he was (don't necessarily have a problem with this). The only one who really stayed true was Logan. I don't mind plot twists, but when a guy who has proved his heroism and was ready to die for his ideals (Jezel) suddenly, almost inexplicably, turns a coward, I have a feeling he just did it for kicks, knowing if we were that far he could laugh at us. It's the opposite of Dues ex machina, except in this case, the characters all just end up where they were with the entire series being pointless.
The ending of the first law was great, seriously what did you expect....
In these books the journey to the edge of the world turns out to be a pointless waste of time. Our noble savage barbarian turns out to be the murderer of children. How about a sympathetic viewpoint charachter that happens to be a twisted misanthope who tortures the innocent. The first law mocks traditional fantasy conventions at everyturn and if you were expecting a happily ever after where Jezal becomes a noble king and gandalf pats him on the back, you were truly disillusioned whilst reading it.
What Ben said. People who read this series and expected anything but what happened in the end didn't grasp what Abercrombie was going for. Self sacrificing heroes are all fine and dandy, but it's not what, as a general rule, people are. Abercrombie's characters had flaws, and when push came to shove those flaws went from being embers to out of control flames. Would it have been nice to see to see that Logan, Jezel, exc... had actually changed and learned from their experiences? Sure. But I found it more rewarding to have an author take a chance and in the end the characters were what they were from the start of the series, not all that great a group of people. Abercrombie's aim, at least my take on his aim, was to give good old tradition fantasy standards a nice vicious sucker punch, and I thought he succeeded exceedingly well in his aims.
If you haven't read his other two books you really should take a chance and pick them up. They tie up some of the loose ends left at the end of the trilogy and go on to further his point. People aren't nice. There is no such thing as a good war. The world isn't all puppies and unicorns. If you put good people in a bad situation, they're not always going to come out of it having done the right thing or come out of it at all.
Personally I love Abercrombie's series. I can see where it's not for everyone, but almost everyone has to appreciate what he does. There's a place for dark fantasy in the world and I'd put Joe Abercrombie right up towards the top as far as writers in the genre.
I absolutely loved the series. Couldn't put down the books before my eyes bled.
The characters in the story were great, if you ask me. My fav character was Glokta. He was amazingly written and developed. I see some people whining about how some characters were annoying. Well, it wouldn't be realistic if every character was likable. I personally hated Ardee. Horrible personality, and whether that is because Abercrombie isn't that good at making female characters or if her annoying personality was on purpose, doesn't really matter to me that much, cause I shouldn't expect to fall for every character.
People complain about lack of character explanations/details. You do not need to know everything about a character or situation or whatever. This applies to Logen being able to speak to spirits and having "superpowers" (that points towards psychosis). We do not know how and why, and maybe he doesn't know it himself. Maybe he was born with the abilities and maybe it's a regular normal thing (spirit talking) in the North. Perhaps he's just crazy. We don't need to know, despite maybe wanting to. I hate books and movies where everything is blatantly explained down to detail. Leaves nothing to the imagination. Might as well read a math book.
Same applies to the Eaters. I agree, that eating human flesh to become immortal-esque and powerful doesn't make much sense. But no one ever said that's how they become Eaters. It's just stated that they eat human flesh, but not that eating human flesh is the actual ritual to become an Eater. Again, its obviously something else and a mystery, or else a lot more people would definitely run around, eating each other. But we do not need to know that. And why should we? Why not leave us as much in the dark as the ordinary people of Abercrombie's world? I don't see why people fuzz about this.
Again, the same goes for the ending. I thought the ending was absolutely perfect, no matter how furious I was that it ended so abruptly. I am so tired of happy endings or endings where every one dies. When you part with people in real life, they don't have to either die or get happily married and live forever in bliss. The ending perfectly illustrates the continuity of life, into the unknown. I thought the ending was brilliant.
Anyway, I loved the series even though I did not enjoy everything to the fullest. A few parts were boring. Some nervewrecking. Some obvious and predictable, but again, that's how things are in real life too.
It took me a couple of hundred pages to get into the story, probably due to six plot lines evolving in four different places and having no connection whatsoever - until later.
Once the plot lines started to merge during the latter part of book 1 I became enthralled by the action and characters. The second book was quite entertaining and I looked forward to reading book 3.
Though Jezal's development and future soon became blatantly obvious, Logan and Glokta were always fun to read. So I also enjoyed the third book - until the end, which left me utterly flabbergasted, forlorn and furious.
A trilogy? WTF?? And the end of book three we are left with about six trailing plot lines. Nothing is resolved, new questions arise and the trilogy is finished.
Again, WTF? The end of book 3 leaves me wondering why I spent hours upon hours dragging through book 1 only to be left with - exatly nothing.
You do know that there are other books set in the same world that do in a round about way tie off some of the lingering plot threads. Read Best Served Cold and The Heroes, they're both really good and you do get some answers as to what wasn't directly tied off in the trilogy.
Best Served Cold was really good. I haven't read any of his other books, but I will.
This series has a lot of good things, such as a realistic world in which the good guys aren't protected from fate by their "goodness", characters are realistic and "grey", etc. There are also some nice fight scenes, which are painted very realistically in your mind.
The thing that really kills the series is how predictable it is and the bizarre character changes in the last book. Characters like Bayaz become totally and inexplicable different in the final book, resulting in your view of the book's world being confused. The best way I can describe it is characters that are "overly grey", meaning they are more complicated than would be realistic. In the real world, no one is perfectly good or totally evil, but everyone has an inclination to good/evil. Some of the characters in the book are just confusingly double sided, as if they are all Schizophrenics or something.
Jezal's plotline was pretty predictable, but my problem was that the main characters turn out to be a coward, a psychopath, and an immortal dictator.
i dont know why this is on so many lists of best fantasy. i quit after the second book. horrible characters. rather read a comic book (which i dont read) if i am looking for a plot and characters that are so far fetched. it was just stupid. go read the name of the wind and see what a good book looks like. i ever re read the first book to make sure it sucked. it still did. i
There are more exclamation points written in Book 1 than there are pages.
Fact.
Once I latched on to this, it's all I could think about and it became so distracting that I couldn't get into the story. Everyone yells, all of the time. It sucks.
Seriously, why does Abercrombie! Use! Exclamation! Points! So! Much!?!?!?!!!!!!
Ugh.
I'm going to keep this comment short:
I liked the entire series (plot, characters, etc.) until the very end of book 3. It was as if Abercrombie was trying to undo everything we thought we knew about the characters (especially Bayaz) in the final 50 pages.
In the end, I just wondered why Bayaz didn't just seize the throne for himself.
It also seems far fetched that eating the flesh of a man gives somebody super powers.
In these books, God (Euz) basically said, "Don't do these things, because they are bad".
It's like the 10 commandments. There's nothing stopping you from breaking one, but if you do, you'll become immortal/powerful, etc.
The whole series was progressively great. the first book was very good, the second better, and the third was action packed although I must say the ending was sort of a "gotcha." I don't know who my favorite character was but it surely was the crippled inquisitor. I admired Glokta's character development but his teeth grossed me out. Also, someone who had a relative or close friend who got tortured by Glokta would have eventually killed him as he went limping around by himself.
All in all the book is a good read and is of average length for a fantasy set. It is different from the Mistborn world, or The WOT world, and more closely resembles the physical world described in George R.R. Martins books.
8/10 rating!
Well, fuck you, your moron.
WOW!
Nothing like this anywhere out there, this series was unreal.. my life for the past wek has been getting up, going to work, coming home and reading this untill my eyes stung then reading on.
No series has gripped me like this, no book has made me actually laugh out loud either. Truely great! im just gutted its over.
In the process of begging people I know to read it now.
oh what a bore,,struggled with the first book ,got half way through the second and then threw it at the wall,,
amazingly entertaining? yes. deep? oh, no. did i think it was awesome? hell, yes.
where the fuck is logan?!
best served cold was too much more of the same thing and went on too long.
If not for Glokta, 3trees' gang and baiaz's final antics, this would be a mundane fantasy series. But, as it is seasoned with the above mentioned and has turned almost every cliche upside down, my score is better. Still, i wouldn't give it such a high place, mainly because of the fact that the world isn't that original, and that he just tries too much in turning fantasy upside down. Oh, and i found Ferrow to be extremely annoying as well.