Reddit Reddit reviews The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One)

We found 35 Reddit comments about The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Literature & Fiction
Books
Genre Literature & Fiction
Family Saga Fiction
The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One)
Check price on Amazon

35 Reddit comments about The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One):

u/MrCompassion · 129 pointsr/books

Use of Weapons and, everything else by Iain M. Banks. Amazing stuff. Trust me.

The Blade Itself and the rest of that series by Joe Abercrombie.

Altered Carbon and the rest of that series as well as Thirteen and The Steel Remains, and it's sequel (still waiting on book 3) by Richard K. Morgan. He's pretty amazing.

That would keep you busy for a long time and are all pretty amazing. Seconding Dune, which is amazing, and the Name of the Wind which is great but very popcorn.

But really, if you were to read everything by Iain M. Banks you would be a better person.

Edit: The Sparrow

u/threewordusername · 18 pointsr/Fantasy_Bookclub
u/Cooleycotton · 15 pointsr/booksuggestions

Check out the First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Not to give it away or anything, but I found the ending to be a bit of a suckerpunch to the gut. Definitely worth looking into I'd think.

u/crayonleague · 13 pointsr/Fantasy

Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen

Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn

Brandon Sanderson - The Stormlight Archive

Peter Brett - The Demon Cycle

R. Scott Bakker - The Second Apocalypse

Joe Abercrombie - The First Law

Scott Lynch - The Gentleman Bastard

Patrick Rothfuss - The Kingkiller Chronicle

All excellent. Some slightly more excellent than others.

u/ISw3arItWasntM3 · 8 pointsr/asoiaf

Joe Abercrombie. His style and the philosophy of his writing are similar to Martin. There are no good guys and bad guys in the sense that everybody has their own motives and act on them yet there are still clear protagonists and antagonists. They books focus on a smaller cast of characters and the world is less enormous but the characters are very well realized and the entire series is about 1 and a half times the size of a aSoIaF book. What really made it great for me is that Abercrombie is great at writing intrigue as well as humor that doesn't compromise the narrative.

Here is the link to the The Blade Itself, first book in Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy, and for a bonus here's an video of Joe Abercrombie interviewing GRRM about the Game of Thrones TV series.

If you want a longer review here's a pretty good one from Amazon.

>
>I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I read the blurb from the back and nearly turned away after reading only half of the summary. But something made me open it up and try the first few pages--and I was hooked. It starts with an action scene--like most fantasy novels--and it is described so well. It is realistic without splattering gore in your face. I can't think of any other author who treads that line so well as Joe Abercrombie does in The Blade Itself.
>
>I didn't find this a funny book, overall. It's not a comedy at all. But there are several moments where I did laugh out loud as I read some clever description or a reaction of one of the characters. In fact I think I found more to smile at in this book than most other novels that are specifically tagged as being funny or humourous. The humour here isn't forced. I didn't feel like the author was trying to be funny. It was more like the humour you might find in casual conversation with a friend.
>
>This book moves along at a good pace. It is one of those books where you want to keep reading to find out what happens, but, unlike many other page-turners, things actually happen in this one! I hate books that promise action or resolution just over the next page, just another page, one more page, and before you know it you've read half the book and still nothing's happened. This is definitely not a one-trick pony of a book. Each character is well developed and the plots intertwine naturally.
>
>What this book doesn't contain are tired old writing techniques. Well, it's not perfect, but it's as close as I've come across in 15 years. Anyway, there are no stereotypical cliched fantasy characters. The author doesn't end each chapter on a contrived cliff-hanger and then talk about another character's life for ten chapters before returning to the cliff-hanger. He doesn't especially dwell on the gruesome details of battle, but he writes it as realistically as you'd want. Perhaps not super-realistic--this is a fantasy, after all--but it's not nearly as predictable as many.
>
>Something else I noticed about the writing style is that Joe will change his writing a little to suit each character. So each time he changes the perspective to a new character, the way he describes the scenes changes, too. It's like he's letting us look through each of their eyes, rather than just giving us a homogenous narration throughout. They're not jarring transitions by any means, though. For me they really added to the story and made it all the more absorbing.
>
>This is by far the most absorbing novel I have read for many years. And this is the most glowing review I have given any book on Amazon!

u/cjbos · 7 pointsr/Fantasy

I would suggest giving Joe Abercrombie a try, he writes witty, dark humor, and his books are light on the magic. There is no clear "hero" in his story, all the characters have flaws in the traditional heroic sense. I'm suggesting this due to you liking Game of Thrones and Neil Gaiman, it is like a odd mix between the two.

He did a AMA here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/oaxpd/i_am_fantasy_author_joe_abercrombie_ask_me/ and the first book in his trilogy is here http://www.amazon.com/The-Blade-Itself-First-Law/dp/159102594X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1344611006&sr=8-3&keywords=joe+abercrombie

Also David Gemmell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gemmell is more pulpy, but he has written several stand alone novels.

u/scalz1 · 7 pointsr/TheDarkTower

The Blade Itself

Start here. Better than Game of Thrones, IMO.

u/_brendan_ · 6 pointsr/Fantasy

Well since you've read the Night Angel Trilogy you should definately read Brent Weeks next book 'The Black Prism'. I Absolutely loved it! Its the first book in the Lightbringer Series, only catch is he's only written one so far.
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Prism-Lightbringer-Brent-Weeks/dp/0316068136/ref=pd_sim_b_3

Another awesome series is Peter Bretts Demon Cycle series, check out book 1 'The Warded Man' again awesome read.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Warded-Man-Peter-Brett/dp/0345518705/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331693550&sr=8-1

And lastly since
both the series ive suggested so far are incomplete thought id at least suggest a completed trilogy for you to check out, Joe Abercrombie's First Law series are an excellent read as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Blade-Itself-First-Law-Book/dp/159102594X/ref=pd_sim_b_5

hope that helps

u/kargat · 6 pointsr/asoiaf

Joe Abercrombie came out with a decent series (First Law Trilogy) that managed to keep my attention for a few months. It was the first fantasy I had read since ASOIAF and it took me a bit to get into them because I'm soo attached to the ASOIAF characters... I got over that and ended up really enjoying these.

u/zwhit · 5 pointsr/rpg

The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Starting with "The Blade Itself".

To me it was a nice departure from the DnD fantasy with some grit, lethality, and hard characters in a hard setting. Loved it.

u/[deleted] · 5 pointsr/books

The Blade Itself does a pretty good job so far.


edit: for some reason i assumed you meant books that used the points in the plot. Probably because the title was "10 lessons ... fictional dystopias ignore"

u/Cdresden · 4 pointsr/printSF

You can't go wrong with Frederik Pohl's Gateway. It's an older classic that won all the best novel awards.

For more recent SF, Hugh Howey's Wool Omnibus is outstanding.

In fantasy, I've really enjoyed Joe Abercrombie this past year. Good characters, good plots, and good action scenes. The Blade Itself is the first of his series...all his books take place in the same fantasy world.

u/Magikarp · 3 pointsr/AskReddit

ugh i've finished everything worthwhile in my local library been reading e-books but running low on those as well

heres some off the top of my head.. be warned these are more character driven then anything else... I hate books with a giant cast of characters ( though malazan was an exception )

Old Shit:
The Fionavar Tapestry (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Tree-Fionavar-Tapestry-Book/dp/0451458222/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279523697&sr=1-2

Farseer Trilogy (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Apprentice-Farseer-Trilogy-Book/dp/055357339X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279523843&sr=1-1

New Shit:
First Law Trilogy (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Blade-Itself-First-Law-Book/dp/159102594X/ref=pd_sim_b_1

The Name of the Wind (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles-Day/dp/0756405890/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257193424&sr=1-1

Codex Alera (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Furies-Calderon-Codex-Alera-Book/dp/044101268X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279524012&sr=1-1


u/jonopei · 3 pointsr/books

Try The First Law series. Great characters, fun adventures, and it's not too fantastical. I'm just finishing up book 3 now, and I'll be sad not to be reading it.

u/Brian · 3 pointsr/books

A quick warning first - this genre tends towards long-running series, and these are no exception (nor are many of them yet complete). However, they're well worth trying:

PC Hodgell's Godstalk series. This is a sadly underappreciated series, but is IMHO one of the best fantasy series ever. The worldbuilding is phenomenal, and the protagonist, Jame, is one of my favourite characters in any novel.

GRR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire been mentioned (and is excellent), but in a similar vein (dark and gritty high fantasy) check out Joe Abercrombie's First Law series. This is similar Martin with the cynicism turned up even further. Where Tolkein is more or less black and white, this is very dark grey vs black (and it's not entirely clear which side is which)

Thirdly, check out Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series. Vlad is (initially) an assassin and later mob boss in a fantasy empire where magic is commonplace. Unlike the others I've mentioned, you can probably start with any book as they're mostly self-contained (though there's an ongoing story), and the chronology tends to jump around a lot anyway. The one exception is Teckla, which is much weaker than the rest.

u/DiegoTheGoat · 3 pointsr/AskReddit
u/yellingoneandzero · 3 pointsr/asoiaf

I can't give you "titles of the chapters are the characters' names", but Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy is one often recommended here, and for good reason. It shares an epic, wide-ranging, and (usually) tautly-paced plot advanced through multiple viewpoints and characters painted entirely in grey, along with exposing the harder edges of the world its characters populate.

u/facelessmaester · 3 pointsr/asoiaf

Thanks. :-)

And here you go:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Blade-Itself-First-Law/dp/159102594X

Trust me, you won't regret it.

u/JDRSuperman · 2 pointsr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

Phil Kessel, thou art a flesh-monger and a cream-faced loon.

The Blade Itself

u/jacada885 · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.

u/Khumalo_Neurochem · 2 pointsr/asoiaf

Richard K. Morgan: A land fit for heroes

It's a pretty damn good fantasy series. I got into it because his cyberpunk noir novels were so damn good. Altered Carbon and the rest of the Takeshi Kovacs novels were excellent.

Also, I was lucky enough to have friends immediately recommend Joe Abercrombie post asoiaf. The First Law Trilogy is absolutely gripping. Personally, I think it's better than asoiaf.

u/SailorDan · 2 pointsr/books

The Blade Itself (The First Law trilogy) - Joe Abercrombie

7.5/10

Low Fantasy

Exciting and fast paced with strong character building. Lacks the world building of other longer fantasy books, but it's very intriguing. Can't speak for the rest of the trilogy.

Amazon

u/MelodyLeeK · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

A trilogy I enjoyed very much and I feel is undervalued are The First Law books by Joe Abercrombie. Here is the link to the first book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/159102594X

u/RageGodReed · 1 pointr/pics

Can never have too many blades, as Logen Ninefingers would say.

u/Fractalzero · 1 pointr/Fantasy

I'm considering to pick up these books next since a lot of people are giving them high praise. However everytime I read the description of the first book, like on amazon, I get a bit put off since I get the feeling that the plot is constructed with a D&D rulebook an a pair of dice.


A few Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V from Amazon to show try to lift my point.

  • Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck.
  • Nobleman, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, Captain Jezal dan Luthar.
  • Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer.
  • Enter the wizard, Bayaz.

    With some luck it's just a bad description and I'm a fool for putting these books off.
u/Pyronious · 1 pointr/AskReddit

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie.

u/zevoxx · 1 pointr/books

For a more sci-fi feel check out the expanse series by James S.A Corey,
also the long price quartet by Daniel Abraham, is pretty neat as it is fantasy that isn't centered around Europe.
I would also recommend checking out the First Law series by Joe Abercrombie

the links are in order

u/BigZ7337 · 1 pointr/Fantasy

Hm, here are some recommendations of my favorite Dark/Gritty Fantasies that immediately come to mind:

Joe Abercrombie is one of my favorite new authors, his books are incredibly gritty dark and original, but the characters are simply amazing. The best starting place is The Blade Itself, but you can read his two other books that aren't part of the trilogy and can be read without losing too much, though they are in the same world and there's more to like about it if you already read the First Law Trilogy. Out of his two stand alone books I'd recommend Best Served Cold which is a Fantasy revenge story in the vain of Kill Bill.

One really good book I read recently is Daniel Polansky's Low Town which is a really cool gritty noir fantasy novel. Where the main character is a former detective for a Fantasy city, but at the beginning of the book he's a drug dealer. Then when murders start to occur, he gets drawn back into the politics of the city, resulting in a great story and multiple plot twists and revelations.

One of my favorites books I've read recently has to be Brent Week's Black Prism. It has some really unique world building, where the magic powers are based on light/colors, and the different magic users have different really unique powers based on their color wavelength. His previous work, the Night Angel Trilogy is also great and it's a little more gritty, with the main character being an assassin.

Next I'll go a little indie here, with the author Jon Sprunk's Shadow's Sun. It features an assassin with slight magical powers and the conscience of a beautiful invisible woman (a real imaginary friend) that is always following him around. There's a lot of things to like in this book, even if they are a little shallow.

Two books from different authors (both of which I really loved) that have kind of similar settings featuring thieves running amok in the underbellies of fantasy cities with a decent amount of grit (without being too dark) are The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch and Doug Hulick's Among Thieves.

There's also Ari Marmell's [The Conqueror's Shadow] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Conquerors-Shadow-Ari-Marmell/dp/0553593153/ref=la_B001JSDH98_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1340785404&sr=1-20), the main character is a former evil warlord who gave it all up to live a mundane life with a woman he kidnapped. He then has to put back on his fear inducing armor, when someone else is out in the world impersonating him. There is no evil force in this book, and there's a lot of interesting stuff here, the guy actually has a demonic amulet as a partner that provides him with magical abilities, and the demon is hilarious.

The next series isn't too gritty but it's awesome, so I'd still recommend the author Michael Sullivan, a DIY author that was so successful Orbit picked up his 6 book series to release as three larger books (he's also done some great AMA's on Reddit), the first of which is Theft of Swords. The characters in his book are absolutely superb. It's about these two master thieves that are brought into the conspiracy that they wanted no part of, but will see it to the end no matter what the cost.

Robin Hobb technically isn't real gritty, but she is one of my favorite authors, and in her books serious and horrible things can happen to the characters at times, but the endings of some of her trilogies are some of my favorite endings I've ever read. You could start with her first book about the bastard son of a king (that can bond with animals) being trained as an assassin, Assassin's Apprentice, or my favorite trilogy of her's set in the same universe but a different continent, Ship of Magic that has some awesome pirate settings, talking ships, and dragons. I also love one of her other trilogies set in a different universe than the rest of her books, Shaman's Crossing, the first book has kind of a Harry Potter-esque academy setting without the magic, and the rest of the trilogy gets into some really interesting stuff that's too weird to attempt to explain.


I think that's all I got, and you wouldn't go wrong reading any of these books, all of the pages I linked to are the book's Amazon page, so you can read further descriptions that I'm sure are better than mine. :)

u/no_social_skills · 1 pointr/Fantasy

I usually recommend Abercrombie's First Law trilogy to fans of ASOIAF.

The Blade Itself

Before They Are Hanged

Last Argument of Kings

u/Gandolphin98 · 1 pointr/Fantasy

You might like The Blade Itself I don't know if I would consider it "excessively violent" though.

u/Sleep45 · 1 pointr/books

I am glad I am able to expose many of you to these as I have been. If I had to briefly describe them I would have to say satisfyingly dark, plenty of violence and great fight scenes. The characters is what makes this stand out though. Hate them or love them they are truly unique and greatly enjoyable, the perspectives change from chapter to chapter so you never get bored. Everyone is out for themselves and there are no good guys, many betrayals and twists. This is truly the most entertaining books I have read.

Here is the amazon link for those interested in more reviews.

After the trilogy takes place there are 2 stand alone novels taking place in the same world. The first roughly 4 years after the trilogy titled Best Served Cold, the second roughly 8 years after the trilogy is The Heroes.


If you are someone that has been searching for that truly violent epic that doesn't hold back, with a cast of amazing characters and a non stop energy that just flows through the entire set then check these out, It will not disappoint!

u/robdizzledeets · 1 pointr/gameofthrones

I also hear The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie is pretty genre breaking and similar to the "grittiness" of ASOIAF. I read the first chapter of Best Served Cold (not from the trilogy but same world) and liked it so far.



EDIT: (added link to Amazon) I would also like to plug The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. I enjoyed the political maneuvering of Dalinar and his son, the 'fuck yeah' moments of Kaladin, the worldbuilding of Shallan's sketches and various interludes, the neat stormlight Lashing/soulcasting magic system, interesting pace, and overall excellent quality of the book. I don't think it had the same tone as Martin but I enjoyed it far more than Dance. Just my $.02!

u/snarktastic_snowfox · 1 pointr/gameofthrones

I personally love GRRM's writing, repetitive phrases and all (and I wouldn't call myself an inexperienced reader at all). I am absolutely absorbed in the world he's created and I can safely say it's my second favorite series of all time.

But if it's recommendations you're after, I just started Joe Abercrombie's first book, "The Blade Itself." Very interesting so far in that you really aren't sure that you're cheering for any of the protagonists, and I hear the character development is sublime as the books progress.

Also, the Dresden Files (Jim Butcher) are my absolute favorite series. Talk about character development! He does a great job blending sci-fi and fantasy from all over and adds in some really likeable (and snarky!) characters.

And cheers to Redwall! I miss those books. :)

u/LeBombVoyage · 0 pointsr/booksuggestions

Joe Abercrombie's books are a good kickass follow up to Lynch.

Try The Blade Itself