The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie

[kcf]

I did a search and while there are several discussion threads for the individual books, there is not a single thread for the series itself, so I've taken it upon myself to start one.

In honor of the start of this thread - a link to a review of The First Law I just posted over at the blog.

[Jacen]

I'm re-reading it again, by chance.

First thing though,can this thread be spoiler heaven or no?

eta: Very nice review of the series as a whole. :thumbsup:

[kcf]

First thing though,can this thread be spoiler heaven or no?

eta: Very nice review of the series as a whole. :thumbsup:

[The Fenris Wolf]

I'm reading this series right now for the second time, and I absolutely love it. I read your review and I think you nailed it on a number of points. That being said, I have to admit that Glokta was my *least* favorite character. In most of the reviews that I've read he is listed as one of the outstanding characters created by Abercrombie, so I will bow to the collective and say that I'm in the minority! :)

[Ouroboros]

I've read it, I liked it, but I personally think it's a little overrated.

[Garlan the Gallant]

I'm reading this series right now for the second time, and I absolutely love it. I read your review and I think you nailed it on a number of points. That being said, I have to admit that Glokta was my *least* favorite character. In most of the reviews that I've read he is listed as one of the outstanding characters created by Abercrombie, so I will bow to the collective and say that I'm in the minority! :)

:tantrum: HERETIC!

:leaving:

I seriously loved this series; it's my favorite series that I have read in the Martinesque category of fantasy. Scratch that, it's probably my favorite fantasy series. I kind of look at tFL and aSoIaF like this: GRRM was Michael Jordan, he changed how the game was played; Abercrombie is Kobe Bryant, he used what GRRM (Jordan) created and made it better...on crack. I think the main difference between the two is that aSoIaF is a world where there are better and worse people (which was a change from fantasy's black and white moral standings). tFL is a book where everyone is worse. There are worse characters, worse worse characters, and then there are people who eat dead people. :thumbsup:

[allanonk4]

tFL is a book where everyone is worse. There are worse characters, worse worse characters, and then there are people who eat dead people.

Wow, that sounds like a great series! I'm definitely going to pick that one up :thumbsup:

[Centrist Simon Steele]

The writing is so bad though. I hate to say that because I really like Abercrombie as a writer and how he acts as a professional. He is humble, good hearted, and wants to deliver a great story. But man...

[Ouroboros]

The writing does leave a lot to be desired, but its still a readable series and he created some fairly interesting characters. To me the first book was like a very good Forgotten Realms book with some interesting themes tacked on, but not really a great piece of literature. The second and third book were a bit better but....not by much.

[mashiara]

I loved it. I really enjoyed this trilogy. The characters were the best part for me, I thought he did an amazing job. I liked his writing too, especially the witty dialogue and the many sarcastic moments.

[ErikConrad]

... He is humble ...

Hahaha :D You hear that, Joe?

It is one of my favourite series. I loved how he got the voices of the chars right, and the fact that it is not too long - actually reading an end to a series is quite nice for a change nowadays, and this ending was ACE :P

[The Fenris Wolf]

...and the fact that it is not too long - actually reading an end to a series is quite nice for a change nowadays, and this ending was ACE :P

:agree:

Hear, hear! It is such a pleasure to finally find an author who can not only tell a good story, but actually end it! I think the (sadly now closed) Inchoatus site said it best when they trashed the WOT. They listed some of the most profound, influential pieces of literature from a wide variety of cultures, and stated that none of them even came close to the sheer number of pages that filled the WOT series.

[Vethnar]

:tantrum: HERETIC!

:leaving:

I seriously loved this series; it's my favorite series that I have read in the Martinesque category of fantasy. Scratch that, it's probably my favorite fantasy series. I kind of look at tFL and aSoIaF like this: GRRM was Michael Jordan, he changed how the game was played; Abercrombie is Kobe Bryant, he used what GRRM (Jordan) created and made it better...on crack. I think the main difference between the two is that aSoIaF is a world where there are better and worse people (which was a change from fantasy's black and white moral standings). tFL is a book where everyone is worse. There are worse characters, worse worse characters, and then there are people who eat dead people. :thumbsup:

I have never quite understood what the defining characteristics of the "Martinesque category of fantasy" are (ASoIaF looks like fairly standard epic fantasy to me), nor why TFL is considered to belong to this category. The main thing these two series have in common which put them apart from most other works of epic fantasy is that they are far better than average.

There are so many differences between the two series that I find it hard to point out a single "main difference", but in terms of characters, I would say that ASoIaF contains a huge cast of characters who actually feel like real and believable people, while in TFL most characters apart from the POV characters are little more than caricatures. The examples are numerous; the first few ones who spring to my mind are Frost, Sult, Ardee, Black Dow, Longfoot, Terez, Ladisla, Kroy and Poulder. Most of these are very entertaining and well-done caricatures, but caricatures nevertheless. This is not a criticism, mind you: TFL doesn't pretend to be more than a light, fun read, and as a light, fun read it is terrific. I look forward to reading Best Served Cold as much as anyone.

[Rhom]

TBI was a bit slow going for me at first, but by the time I had read the entire trilogy I was blown away. He spends so much of the first book setting up the typical fantasy cliches and then spends the entire third book throwing them on their head. I thought it was fantastic.

[red snow]

I thought Ardee was quite an interesting character and far from a caricature. The others are probably more arguable but I always took them as tongue-in-cheek.

The thing this series has in common with ASOIAF is mainly that it is incredibly dark and more "realistic" in terms of violence and its repercussions. Plus it tends to follow the adventures of bad/flawed characters.

[TheEvilKing]

TBI was a bit slow going for me at first, but by the time I had read the entire trilogy I was blown away. He spends so much of the first book setting up the typical fantasy cliches and then spends the entire third book throwing them on their head. I thought it was fantastic.

Agreed with this - I think a re-read will make The Blade Itself more interesting, given what we now know about Bayaz and Logen.

[Datepalm]

I seriously loved this series; it's my favorite series that I have read in the Martinesque category of fantasy. Scratch that, it's probably my favorite fantasy series. I kind of look at tFL and aSoIaF like this: GRRM was Michael Jordan, he changed how the game was played; Abercrombie is Kobe Bryant, he used what GRRM (Jordan) created and made it better...on crack. I think the main difference between the two is that aSoIaF is a world where there are better and worse people (which was a change from fantasy's black and white moral standings). tFL is a book where everyone is worse. There are worse characters, worse worse characters, and then there are people who eat dead people. :thumbsup:

I liked the series a lot, but the way I saw it, he mostly took these particular aspects of charecterization and morality and took them to a sort of logical extreme - and did it very well, for a very good and thought provoking read, but ASOIAF is more of an all rounder. Much as I liked it, I wouldn't have minded more a bit more worldbuilding and better writing. The scope and plot aren't up to ASOIAF either, but thats not what he was going for so I don't mind. (Also, while ASOIAF is far from cheery, it has its moments of grandeur and grace. TFL, (maybe more accurately) not so much.)

I'm really looking forward to Best Served Cold though, in the expectation that the "gimmicky" aspects (like the

SPOILER: book 2

useless quest

, which was hilarious as a sort of genre commentary, but not very rewarding to actually read) will have eased up a bit.

[Slynt]

I had a hard time getting through book II, but the pace picked up with III. I personally think it's a bit overrated, but it's still one of the best fantasy series I've read. But nowhere near the sheer brilliance of A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. Also not near The Lord of the Rings, but I feel it's a bit unfair to compare with that tome of legendry.

Favorite character: Harding Grim.

Awesomety!

Least interesting character: Mm.. I didn't particularly LOVE any character, the way I love most ASOIAF characters, which I guess means the characters don't come across as powerfully as do Martin's.

I feel Glokta is a bit close to Tyrion as a character, and that swashbuckling friend of his reminds me of Bronn; the noble whats-his-name was okay I guess...Logen was cool, as were the rest of the Northmen.

Actually, I think I'd like this series a lot more if it were written from the perspectives of Logen's bunch only - you know, Black Dow, Dogman etc. That group of fuckers really made the series for me, together with the excellent last half of "Last Argument of Kings" and the awesome covers. I like the humor in the series. Didn't like the women in the series. Colonel West was a bit bland.

Yadayda.

[Spring Bass]

tFL is a book where everyone is worse. There are worse characters, worse worse characters, and then there are people who eat dead people.

You know, that's actually pretty apt in its own way. None of the real characters whom we get into their heads (plus surrounding characters, like Bayaz) are particularly *good*. They have their redeeming traits, but they still range from "murdering asshole in self-denial" to "pompous, egotistical young dickhead chickenshit" to "sociopathic powermonger" and so on and so forth.

That said, I liked the prose in all the books, generally liked the stories and characters (although parts of Book Three really dragged for me), and although Book Three made me absolutely furious (not in anger at the book, but in rage generated by sequence of events), I still liked the series.

[cloudbusting]

I hurled the books from my window, they broke upon the bridge below. Srsly though I really enjoyed the books and I'm someone who's always wary of taking on an author I haven't read before, and these were really well done. I did want to kill Ferro at times though. Ok all the time.