The Blade Itself
- 531
- Pages
- about 10 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Blade Itself” is fantasy for adults built on character more than plot: a barbarian down on his luck, a vain, card-playing officer and a crippled torturer are each drawn so closely that they soon feel familiar. Some readers find the first half slow, and the book works mainly as groundwork for the trilogy. It is also bloody and bleak, so it suits readers tired of chosen ones and tidy heroics.
Worth knowing The Blade Itself, from 2006, was Joe Abercrombie’s first novel and the first of the First Law trilogy, finished by Before They Are Hanged in 2007 and Last Argument of Kings in 2008. It introduces the people the series is known for: Logen Ninefingers, a Northman trying to stop being a killer, Sand dan Glokta, a torturer for the Inquisition who was himself broken by torture and is the funniest narrator in modern fantasy, Jezal dan Luthar, a vain young officer training for a fencing contest, and Bayaz, who says he is the First of the Magi and is assembling them for a journey. Almost nothing is resolved in this volume; it is a long first act, and the payoff of the trilogy depends on it. Grimdark before the word was common.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
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 Glokta 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.
Reading order · The First Law
Full order & progress →- The Blade ItselfThis book
8.38.3 / 10 - Before They Are Hanged
8.58.5 / 10 - Last Argument of Kings
8.68.6 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.3 across 2,086 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 93% of the weight and the score stays at 8.3 — the Fantasy average of 8.0 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.2 | 93 | 5% |
| Hardcover | 8.3 | 2K | 96% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Blade Itself?
It has 531 pages — longer than 51% of the ranked books in Fantasy.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Fantasy — and a score of 8.3, the closest to this book.
