Book Reviews: The Blade Itself
The First Law by Joe Abercrombie. Book 1. Not child-friendly.
If I was puritanical about swearing in my fantasy novels I wouldn’t have gotten past page 1. I mean that literally as anyone who has read any of the First Law books will know. There’s already been plenty of internet discussion about that so I won’t bother to rehash. Although I did find the replacement of the more familiar (to me) balls with “fruits” a little odd in light of the fact that often came directly on the tail of a character talking or thinking about his cock. That may be a common term in England though. If an English person wants to confirm or deny, feel free to contact me.
The Book Itself.
Fantasy is familiar territory to me and the phrase “familiarity breeds contempt” is cliche but true. I bought this book based solely on the glowing review of a hard-to-impress friend. Had he not been so overwhelmingly impressed by the book I would have put it back on the shelf the moment I saw the word “barbarian” on the back cover. Even that trusted person’s recommendation nearly lost me at “thinking man’s barbarian” because I automatically replace “thinking” with “pompous” in situations like that. I set aside my closed-minded prejudices and bought it anyway.
The world is dirty. The characters display varying levels of bastardry, when they’re not bemoaning their lots in life. But even when they’re feeling sorry for themselves, they’re funny. Inquisitor Glokta, heroic-fencer-turned-crippled-interrogator, is bitter about his changed status but there’s a sharp humour to his self-pitying asides. Logen, the extensively scarred barbarian makes sure he smiles at every woman he sees because it’s been a while and you just never know. Bayaz, the First of the Magi, comes across as being borderline senile. And Jezal is pure, undiluted elitist wanker. Honestly, I’m not sure whether my enjoyment of these characters says more about them or me.
The book worked for me because I enjoyed the more casual tone of the narrative. The formality I find in many fantasy novels tends to keep me at arm’s length from the POV characters. In The Blade Itself, I found the filter through which each saw the events around them helped to understand the characters and make them a little bit less unsympathetic. As first books go, this was a good one. And on a purely cosmetic level, I found the chainmail-bikiniless cover appealing for that unique plainness and the texture pleasing to the fingertips. No, really. It’s almost velvety.
In light of most of what I’ve just said, it may come as a surprise that I recommend this book to fantasy fans looking for a different take on the genre. But I do, with one caveat. If you are easily offended by bad language, leave it alone. No point getting your fruits in a twist over a book.