The Blade Itself

Written by Joe Abercrombie

Narrated by Steven Pacey

The first novel in the First Law Trilogy and debut novel from New York Times bestseller, 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 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.

Unpredictable, compelling, wickedly funny, and packed with unforgettable characters, The Blade Itself is noir fantasy with a real cutting edge.



First Law Trilogy
The Blade Itself
Before They Are Hanged
Last Argument of Kings


For more from Joe Abercrombie, check out:

Novels in the First Law world
Best Served Cold
The Heroes
Red Country

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: Sep 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781478907817

Joe Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie was born in Lancaster in 1974. His first book, The Blade Itself, was published in 2006. He lives in Bath with his wife Lou and their three children Grace, Eve and Teddy.

Reviews for The Blade Itself

[K · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

fantastic book. even better narration. the world came alive with the voice of Steven Pacey.

[Rich Davis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I had to buy double espresso after downloading this. It is an edge if your seat ride most of the way through. You hate some of the characters but love most of them. It was intense. I can not wait for book 2.

[Victoria O'Neal · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The narration was incredibly well done... In the top 5 novels I've ever to.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't sure what I was expecting from this book: more traditional fantasy, maybe. I've enjoyed reading it -- it's certainly funnier than I was expecting. I have no idea where it's going (beyond the spoilers my mum's given out!) but I'm looking forward to reading the next two books.

[johnnypanic13 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Good lord that was a good book! That's what I've been waiting for.This is the book that gave me that "hell ya" that I haven't had since George RR Martin, or Stephen Erikson.This is the second Joe Abercrombie book I've read. I started with Best Served Cold. That was a good book, enjoyable, but frankly not mind blowing. This book however... The Blade Itself, First in the First Law Trilogy...Mind...Blown...If you like fantasy, just go out and get this damn book.If you might like fantasy, just go out and get this damn book.A good story, told well. Nothing terribly groundbreaking. just good story told well.The pacing and character development were unbelievable. The patience Mr Abercrombie displays as he slowly ads to his characters. Building them little by little, rounding them out oh so nicely. The story and the world gently unfolding. And no point did i feel like i was being force fed the history of this world or the backgrounds to these characters. It felt like a natural blossoming.Get this damn book. You'll get about half way though and think "oh this is a good book, but why was that one guy to excited about it?"Then you'll be about two thirds of the way through and you'll say "oh, this is getting good, things are picking up nicely".But wait, you ain't seen nothing yet.The last 50 pages. Read on my back porch on the first 60 degree of 2013, finishing a bottle of Layer Cake Malbec.... Those last 50 pages were amazing. I'd jump right into the next book if i hadn't told my wife I'd give 'Wool' a try first. But wow... there's no way I could quite this series now.

[veeralpadhiar · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Joe Abercrombie needs to find the person responsible who had misplaced the last 100-150 pages of this book just before it was to be published. But I have a feeling that he might not have to go much far to do so. A mirror would serve just as well as Hercule Poirot in this case. Yes, the book ends abruptly. But such is the curse of reading epic-fantasy.

Apart from that, I enjoyed this book quite a lot. Especially the character Glokta, the Inquisitor, the torturer. His dry wit reminded me a lot of Tyrion Lannister from "A Song of Ice and Fire". Then you have a spoiled and smug young nobleman and a barbarian. One good thing about this book is, each one of the characters is more flawed than the previous one. And Joe Abercrombie paints them in such a light that you cannot help but like them. Even love them. The character development is that good.

World-building? Not so much. Just some perfunctory glimpses here and there and so it feels more like the real medieval era earth than an altogether different fantasy world. And also the use of modern vocabulary in the book makes you ponder whether one of Connie Willis's characters from present times might have time-traveled into the book itself or not.

But even though somewhat flawed, I liked this book very much and would continue with the series as the end (although dis-satisfactory) suggested towards a good second installment.

[ninjoblio · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fun book. Reminded me a little bit of the Song of Ice and Fire series, but without all the excessive characters; much more manageable.

Really good fight scenes; detailed and easy to follow.

I felt the first half flew by a lot faster than the second half, but it all pulled together in the end with a pretty good finale. Will definitely read the the other books in this series.

[jeremypreacher · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

So just to get it out of the way: I bought this trilogy (all three of them at once) because the physical books are so lovely. I very seldom do that. So yay, production values!

This is grim, gritty fantasy at its best. The characters are almost, but not quite, unlikeable, the political situation is tangled and dire, and it's impossible to pick someone to cheer for. The torturer, who seems the most genuinely human? The barbarian, who has basically abdicated responsibility to follow an increasingly dubious leader? Possibly the gang of soldiers, who do typically hideous soldier things but clearly have some minimal standards of behavior. It's definitely well done, with intriguing hints of what may come.

[suzemo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think this is easily one of the best fantasy books I've read in a while.

Nice cast of characters with lots of fleshing and grey areas. Plenty of action, and plenty of big picture moments along with little picture stuff to flesh you the characters. There are fantastic heroes and antiheroes and plenty to love/hate about just about every character.

I can't wait to read the rest of the story.

I've been told that the trilogy reads better as one big book, and I'm inclined to believe that assessment - the first book did end rather abruptly. I already had the rest of the series, so I could just skate on to the next book if I wanted to, though I could see how others might be annoyed.

[fireweaver_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

this was a solid 4-star book throughout: detailed, complex characters with individual motivations and backstories, each person a part of a nation going to war, each person working towards understanding their part in the larger game being played, and then it just ended. not so much as a little wrap-up, not even an obnoxiously staged cliffhanger, it just ended, abruptly enough in fact, that I want to check to make sure my kindle version didn't leave anything out. since the last chapter is followed by a "sneak preview" of book 2 in the series, I'd assume that's just how this book goes.

[clfisha · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So before you read the review note I have a low tolerance of standard fantasy (I will try to limit the flippancy) I am only reading as it was recommended to me by a trustworthy source...Ok so its got all the usual tropes: large book that is 1st in a trilogy, vague setting based on a medieval world, a bit of magic (but not too much cos its the time of men etc..), a non human race, standard fantasy characters, a quest for a magical item and a plague that seems to have killed off 90% of women. After all that I should really hate this book but the characters were so very entertaining I found it impossible to do so. Abercrombie pulls off some difficult tricks so whilst we get hugely likeable and funny characters such as the barbarians we also have deeply unpleasant ones that are still a pleasure to read, the bitter torturer who you cannot quite hate (his cynicism helps) or the egotistical swordsman who you look forward to getting a hard time. The setting is amusing too, the author has a lot of fun with the portrayal of decaying, corrupt, "civilised" Union. Ok so the plot isn't much as it's basically just setup but with such a varied cast this just works in the books favour. You get a constant shift in character view point, that keeps the plot fresh and the pace quick, plus you never get fed up with one character. I wouldn't necessarily rush out the read the 2nd one but as it's a library book and the 3rd is meant to be the best so onwards I go with Before they were Hanged

[humouress · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first in the First Law series. The fabric of it is woven together from the threads of many different characters from different places in the Union, each with their own story and view point. Abercrombie seems to be having fun with his characterisations; the heroic-seeming ones are flawed, while those with weaknesses have redeeming qualities, which they often lose again. The country itself is headed by a king so fat, he usually falls asleep when he does appear; but is run in reality by a Council of Twelve, who each have their factions and agendas. In the meantime, the Union is in imminent danger of attack from both the north and the south, while their attackers also face an alien threat. The army is mainly run by nobles with little battle experience who look down on commoners who have worked their way up the ranks. All in all, it sounds a mess, but the story works.The pace of this book is fairly brisk, and it holds your interest as to what happens to each character; I kept hoping that, having unexpectedly redeemed themselves, but fallen again, they would turn out decently after all. It is laugh-out-loud funny in parts. Though it gives a detailed view of each main character, getting into their heads, it does seem to be setting the stage for future events rather than carrying the story very far. I must admit I had to turn off my 'bad language radar' (mum of young kids here), but once I got past that, it was an interesting story - confusing as it is to review.

[theoclarke · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An assured debut into a crowded genre, this novel is bleaker and wittier than many sword and sorcery tales. The characters are deeper than their rather hackneyed occupations would suggest: a barbrian, a soldier duellist, a wizard, and a torturer could so easily be caricatures or cyphers. The combination is pacy and engrossing.

[stellarexplorer · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

An ugly book. Unlikable, sadistic characters; gratuitous violence; overly long. I resist populating my precious reading realm -- and time -- with the unpleasant people in this bitter world.

[tyllwin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Blade Itself, as a book, invites comparisons with its "sword and treachery" brother Game of Thrones; and, as a series, The First Law invites comparisons to Song of Ice and Fire. Cynical, dark, High Fantasy with an ensemble cast and action spread across continents. Abercrombie, I think, is less polished a writer than Martin, but he improves noticably with each subsequent book. He brings a great deal more humor as well, though I'd stop short of calling it satire, as some do.A crippled torturer, a drunken dandy and a moody berserker serve as the main viewpoint characters in a dark world where magic is fading, and a decadent empire is beset with barbarian invasions in the north and desert uprisings in the south. The characters, particularly Abercombie's ability to get the reader to engage with characters who are often not too likeable. His greatest weakness is some awkwardness in conveying the history and mythology of the world.An engaging book, but one which is all setup for the following volumes, not remotely a standalone story.

[timothyl33 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Surprising, The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One) by Joe Abercrombie is all buildup. But the world is so well fleshed out and all the characters so well written, that regardless of how one might feel at the abrupt end of this book, you'd only be asking for more to come.A pleasure to read, from beginning to end. Highly recommended.

[cherrymischievous · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The entire book is just an introduction to the world of The First Law Trilogy with the usual formula of a wizard, a warrior, and a motley crew.The book keeps multiple threads running at the same time and jumps from thread to thread from chapter to chapter. I don’t like this writing style because I tend to forget what is going on with a thread while reading 2 or so chapters on a different thread. So when the book jumps back to that thread I have to re-read the previous chapter on that thread to recall what was going on with that thread of the story. This makes the pace very slow. So slow that I sometimes loose patience and put the book down to pick up another. And when I’ve forgotten my impatience, I pick this book up again. Another reason I don’t like this kind of writing style is that the story looses continuity and the flow of the story is constantly disrupted. This tends to make my interest wane and I have to use “will” to finish the book. The loss of continuity and constant disruption to the flow of the story sometimes irritate me so, that I abandon reading the book. I did put this book down a few times which is why it took almost a year to read it. The author has a good voice though that the story flows well for me, that is, until the flow gets disrupted when the book jumps to another thread. I find that really annoying, so I cheat. I follow one thread and jumps chapters which is not of that thread, until it intersects with another thread and then I go back and read that other thread which it intersects with. I use color coded little sticky index markers to help me keep track. Slow going. Annoying. To top it off, this book ended in a big, whooping cliffhanger.My suggestion is, don’t start reading this book if you do not have all three books of The First Law trilogy in your possession, so that as soon as you hit the cliffhanger at the end of this book you can continue reading on to Book 2 which would make it a whole lot less annoying.Overall Rating: 3 out of 5

[agingcow2345 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

By and large I no longer read high fantasy. The books tend to blur and all read like someone's bad D+D campaign crossed with a ripoff of LOTR. This is the first exception I have found since Glenn Cook's Black Company. It gets five stars only because the rating system does not allow six. I was turned onto this by a friend on one of my yahoo lists. Finished this book last night and ordered every other book in the series before going to bed. It is clearly high fantasy and clearly a quest and yet so different that I actually went back and reread sections that night I finished it because it was so damned good. I'm not sure any author can juggle this many characters, subplots and universe threads but am eager to read four more books to find out.

[jgaiser_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A slow start, but what a finish. Great start of a series

[awoods187 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought the book started pretty slow but then gradually picked up to be fairly interesting. It has an almost video game like feel to it, but I've enjoyed it so far. It also reminds me a bit of David Eddings writing.

[isamoor_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dec10:Characters: The Bloody Nine pretty much made the whole book. The Cripple wasn't bad either.Plot: Very solid. Things running about, but it all came together.Style: Very gritty. Hack and slash. But just some awesome fight scenes.

[majkia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Anti-heroes abound in The Blade Itself . But then, when the world is a place full of violence, where the Inquisition is used to torture anyone into confessing to anything, what exactly is a 'hero' anyway?Joe Abercrombie creates a bloody and violent world, sadly, a totally believable one. Magic is there, but understated and not well understood. The privileged use and abuse the masses, and are astonished when revolution raises its head.The characters are all flawed, and worn down and scarred by their lives, all but one self-centered privileged fellow who, despite himself, seems about to finally open his eyes to see what is going on around him. He won't like it.Reminiscent of George RR Martin's series, A Song of Ice and Fire, you just never know who will step up or who will fall apart. Nor, are you likely to know exactly what is going on any time soon.Highly recommended.

[ansgor · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Just finished reading the book some days ago and I can't wait to get my hands on the next volume.Most of all I liked the characters, which are not like any other fantasy characters you would expect, they all have their dark sides, and plenty of them. It's quite funny to follow their thoughts and their view on the story... so far. What I also liked was the vague storyline in the beginning, since I had no idea what might be the bigger picture up to the last third of the book, and the gradual flow of background information about the settings history.

[5hrdrive · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A lot of fun when the action heats up, unfortunately that doesn't happen very often. Really enjoyed when the story turned to Logan's band up north and I liked Glokta (he kinda reminds me of Tyrion from A Song of Ice and Fire), but way too much time spent on characters that I really didn't care about. May move on to the next book, then again I may not. One thing in favor of continuing, the author really has a knack for a well-turned phrase.

[sdobie_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An anti-heroic fantasy where all of the main characters are morally ambiguous or worse. An England-like country known as the Union faces threats from the Gurkish Empire in the south and from the newly unified barbarians in the north. A group including a Northern warrior, an aging wizard, a torturer and a vain minor noble all end up in the capital of the Union and involved in plans to help it with the threats facing it, while still being mainly motivated by their own self-interests.I enjoyed the book quite a bit, although this volume does not work as a standalone at all. It feels more like an extended prologue which mainly serves to get the characters together. There is not much plot, and the bigger storyline of the series does not start to become evident until the end. I enjoyed the characters though and it left me looking forward to the next book in the series.

[teacat_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

100 pages left and I stopped reading. Yup, 100 to go. Not 100 into it. The characters were flat; I didn't give a flying fig about any of them. Some of them seemed to pop in & out of the story for no particular reason. I couldn't figure out what the book was supposed to be about. Nothing really happened. One guy went from Point A to Point B, picked up someone and they went to Point C, picked up someone else and traveled to Point D. Apparently they've picked up yet another person & are going to Point E but I lost interest in the why of it all

[lpg3d · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a very well-written book, but it just didn't grab me. I came away not caring about any of the characters and with no desire to read the sequels.

[krau0098 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I love epic fantasies. So when I heard what a great series Abercrombie's First Law series was I am eager to read it. Overall it was not one of the best epic fantasies I have read: I much prefer any of Brandon Sanderson's books, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, or Scott Lynch's works.This book follows the actions of a number of different characters. Logen Ninefingers is an infamous barbarian that is looking for a path away from killing. Captain Jezal dan Luthar is a fop that is trying to win a fencing tournament to make his life more comfortable. Inquisitor Glokta is a crippled torturer who takes care of the realms confessions. Bayaz is a mysterious mage. They each have their own agenda but are being drawn into a war between the Northmen and the Union.Let me start by saying that Abercrombie has a writing style that is very easy to read and engaging. His action scenes are well done. That is about all I can say positive about this book.The characters are unlikable down to the smallest side character. They are all selfish, irritating, and just...well...very unlikable. They aren't really all that fun to read about and many aspects of their personalities are overdone. For example as a reader I understood right off the bat that Jezal was a selfish, spoiled, idiot. I kept waiting for his character to gain some depth outside of this stereotype and it never really did. The whole book I kept hoping the characters would break their mold, do something interesting or surprising, but that never happened. They all acted as stereotypically and predictably as they possible could.The plot itself tries to be an intricate web of political maneuvering, but in reality nothing much happens in this book. All the characters are moved from place to place with not a lot happening, basically this book just gets all the characters in the right places and sets things up to send them off some place else in the next book. The only interesting characters in the whole book are Logan (who may actually have some depth beyond a strict barbarian) and Bayaz (who is mostly a mystery).I will say I am not big on books that totally involve only political machinations. So that is probably why this book was a bit of a bore to me. I usually like some adventuring, questing, war (up front, not at a distance), and even the occasional relationship. I should mention that this book is also into giving you the gory reality of everything, not much is held back...there is also a ton of swearing (which doesn't bother me one way or the other).On a side note being a woman who reads epic fantasies I have really enjoyed that writers such as Sanderson and Butcher create interesting woman characters that have a sizable and important role int their books. This book reminded more of epic fantasies I read in the 80's and early 90's where it is all about the guys. There are two woman characters in this book: one is a manipulating flirt, the other is a crazy ex-slave. Neither of them are interesting and neither of them have a lot of pull in the plot of this book.Overall I didn't like the characters and I thought the plot was boring. I did like the style of Abercrombie's writing and I did like the action scenes. When all was said and done; I put down the book and thought "Thank God I am done with this, I never want to read about these people ever again!" If you like political novels with unlikable characters and revel in the awful gritty goriness of fight scenes this is the book for you. I personally like my novels a bit more interesting with characters with greater depth. I would recommend any of Brandon Sanderson's books, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series, Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series or Scott Lynch's series over this one.

[january_f_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book has really interesting characters that I'm looking forward to learning more about. The story itself is just getting started, and there are many little mysteries that are waiting to unfold. I'm looking forward to the next two books in the series, but am going to take a break before starting them.

[saintbrevity · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The blurb for this book calls it "noir fantasy," which is perhaps not the worst term to describe it, but comes close. The characters are complex, the plot moves nicely, and the setting is well formed. The complexity of the characters, I think, is what earned the noir appellation; they have motivations and expectations, and are constrained by their history, or peers, or their experience, and none of them are without flaw. The books does not flinch away from the characters' acts; the bastards are bastards, and the reader is fully informed of this.The first in a series, the book finishes with more or less nothing resolved, but rather than being frustrated, I happily anticipate the next one; highly recommended.