The Blade Itself

The First Law: Book One

By: Joe Abercrombie

Narrated by: Steven Pacey

Length: 22 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Inquisitor Glokta, a crippled and bitter relic of the last war, former fencing champion turned torturer, is trapped in a twisted and broken body - not that he allows it to distract him from his daily routine of torturing smugglers.

Nobleman, dashing officer and would-be fencing champion Captain Jezal dan Luthar is living a life of ease by cheating his friends at cards. Vain and shallow, the biggest blot on his horizon is having to get out of bed in the morning to train with obsessive and boring old men. And Logen Ninefingers, an infamous warrior with a bloody past, is about to wake up with plans to settle a blood feud with Bethod, the new King of the Northmen, once and for all - ideally by running away from it.

But as he's discovering, old habits die hard....especially when Bayaz gets involved. An 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 Glokta, Jezal, and Logen a whole lot more difficult....

©2010 Joe Abercrombie (P)2010 Orion Publishing Group

Slow start but quick finish

It started out really slowly and it was hard to get in to but by the end, I found myself listening for hours every evening.

Fantastic!

Great writing, narration, and characters. Sucked me in from the first 10 mins. Books 2 & 3 failed to disappoint as well!

Exceptional Story and Audiobook

The First Law Series (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, Last Argument of Kings) by Joe Abercrombie is an impressive and remarkable Fantasy series. I review the entire series here. With the proviso that this first book is necessarily incomplete without the others, the following comments apply equally to the first book alone.


The world Abercrombie creates is gritty and realistic and reminiscent of the yet to be completed Song of Fire and Ice series by George R. R. Martin. Politics, torture, warfare and violence play a central role in the narrative. There are no heroes in the story, only deeply flawed individuals who nonetheless assume the the role of protagonist.

Explanation of the world and the true motivations of the secondary characters comes to the reader slowly and continues to the end of the last book. The conclusion, when it comes, is complete (and possibly even too long). Despite the resolution of the series' conflicts and the careful attention to completing story arcs, the ending is far from the cliched heroic triumph of characters living happily ever after.


On reflection the incredible characterisation of the flawed protagonists pose many questions about the nature of good and evil, nobility and the potential of individuals to grow and mature without beating the reader over the head with any 'answers'.

The narrator, Steven Pacey was exceptional in his reading and all of the voice characterisations. His ability to consistently produce identifiable voices (male and female) for the army of speaking roles and use them correctly in the context of the surrounding description was remarkable and added immeasurably to the experience of the story.

Overall, a very high quality series and an exceptional audiobook production.

Excellent story and Narration

Where does The Blade Itself rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Very highly

What other book might you compare The Blade Itself to and why?

At the present none but a few movie types come to mind. Logen is a Clint Eastwood or more precise a Josey Wales type and Glokta a Peter Lorre type. All the other characters fall in between but are very entertaining.

What does Steven Pacey bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Excellent use of voices both male and female.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. I usually only listen in the car but I do find myself with the ear buds in at the house.

Any additional comments?

Excellent book. Already started the second of the series and that is looking great also.

Gritty often humorous Anti Hero

Would you listen to The Blade Itself again? Why?

I have listen to the whole series twice through.

What did you like best about this story?

There is so much to like here it is hard to pick one. Every character excellent. Rich dark characters all with various faults. I also love how Abercrombie injects humor into the most tense situations. This is dark fantasy, the world Abercrombie creates is very violent.

What about Steven Pacey’s performance did you like?

Steven Pacey did a good job bringing the characters to life but a note to whoever produces these things. STOP putting in music and sounds effects. There isn't much of it in these book more just some mood music during the start of chapters but I think I speak for all when I say it unneeded and unwanted. Just let the guy tell the story. If you have the right guy and as I said Pacey is excellent, you don't need sound effects.

One of the best fantasy readings in along time!

I would say 90% of the book is character building but it was along time ago i was this excited to hear about the everyday live and their struggles of the main cast.

great narrator

I don't know how he came up with all those voices and dialects.
The book was awesome.

Wonderfully entertaining

Though the start wasn't bad, I had to warm up to the book a bit. Soon I wouldn't stop listening to it. It's rather well written, the characters are interesting and the story has been unfolding nicely and I'm very curious as of how it's going to continue. Splendid piece of work. The narration is also very well done.

An bloody excelent first book

This book does something amazing. I don't know where does it wants to go. And I don't care.
The plot advances so very little it should be a negative, but I don't care.
Because.
Because of the friking amazing characters. Every and each one of them, and there are a lot, are so colorfull, so interesting and intriguing, so friking evil and bad people so dark and cruel and nasty each and everyone of them, that in other books, other stories any of them might be the evil one, the villain. Here, they are only human.

Amazing performance on top of all. I've devoured this book eagerly, and will spend extra to get the credits for the rest of the series.

Bloody good book, I tell you.

Great book

And it will only keep getting better! Keep listening, and you will see, I promise :)