Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself

[Nymeria87]

Think I'll wait until the last book is out before I read the second though. I've seen the girl naked, and I like her, but I want to guarantee an orgasm before I engage in any more foreplay. (Sorry for the worst metaphor ever.)

Thanks for entertaining me in my rather dull office morning, Rimmer Yay for mental associations...errr...

Furthermore these proofs shall be SIGNED, DATED, and LINED with an inscription of YOUR choice, and delivered to your front door courtesy of my dark masters at Gollancz.

Meow...I want one...how can I bribe you??

[kcf]

Oh, and Joe and I are cooking up a 5 questions interview, so stay tuned.

The interview is up for any who are interested - good stuff as usual from Joe.

[GoN]

*stealthy bumpage*

Just wanted to say that the Blade Itself and Before They Are Hanged are probably my favourite books from the past 3 years. They were read and went straight back into my embarressingly huge To Be Read pile, as they are tempting me back into a reread already. Add another to the Glotka fangirl/groupie column. :bow:

[MinDonner]

I'm doing a reread now, in cunning preparation for the Last Argument of Kings ARC which I'm sure will be turning up any day now. I have to say, it's even better the second time around, when you know what's coming. This is turning into one of my favourite series

[Joe Abercrombie]

the Blade Itself and Before They Are Hanged are probably my favourite books from the past 3 years.

Couldn't agree more. I too have a huge respect for this author.

I'm doing a reread now, in cunning preparation for the Last Argument of Kings ARC which I'm sure will be turning up any day now.

I am assured that proofs will finally be arriving from the printers on the 21st, so they should reach reviewers the following week...

[Bronn Stone]

I flew back from World Fantasy Con with three books (plus some free schwag books they gave away, which I'd not included in my carry-on bag as they were heavy and not terribly compelling). I'd already read The Lies of Locke Lamora a half dozen or more times - I mostly had it to protect it from grubby-pawed baggage monkeys. I intended to do a reread of Sapkowski after finishing Before They Are Hanged. Instead, I went straight from the last page of BTAH and reread it on the spot.

And then again (long layovers suck, btw). Alas, it is still an unsigned copy in that a certain git did not show up at said Con, but I'm sure at some point the BwB London folks will kidnap said git and ship him to the US via parcel post.

[Geddon]

I'm sure at some point the BwB London folks will kidnap said git and ship him to the US via parcel post.

It'd cost at least a hundred million pounds to send something as heavy as a person to america using the Royal Mail. It'd be cheaper (and take only slightly longer) to build a bridge across the atlantic and drive him there.

Maybe he'll do one of those Margaret Atwood remote signings, you know, the ones where the writer programs in his signature while at home then goes and has a cup of tea while a robot thousands of miles away copies it out as many times as needed.

[Rimmer]

Just wanted to say that the Blade Itself and Before They Are Hanged are probably my favourite books from the past 3 years.

Have to agree actually. The story isn't particularly original (though Book 3 could well turn it that way), but it just has such good characters and pacing, and it's always refreshing to find fantasy that doesn't need to describe every tree in detail, Tolkien-style.

The biggest negative criticism the books seem to get is that there's not much conclusion at the end of the first two books, but I think he got it just right. It's been a trilogy from the start, and it sacrifices the integrity of the overall story somewhat to split it neatly into three obvious parts; it's not like anyone will care when all three are available. (Besides, to me the books do finish on pretty big turning point for each character.)

Didn't see too many 'subversions of cliches' in TBI, but they definitely jumped out in BTAH, and it was great:

SPOILER: BTAH

- Jezal abandoning his horse in a typical 'Sam leaving Bill' moment, then Ferro walks up and smashes her sword through its neck

- The second son who was hinted at being a much better potential king than the first getting killed off as well

- Bayaz's whole heroic journey being a waste of time

[Whiskeyjack]

Just wanted to say that the Blade Itself and Before They Are Hanged are probably my favourite books from the past 3 years.

Same here. I love this series.

Especially enjoy reading about Logen, as well as the whole crew of Northmen. Black Dow, Tul Duru, Threetrees, Grim....some of the best 'side characters' I've read about in a long time. Maybe since I first began ASOIAF.

[Whiskeyjack]

SPOILER: BTAH

- Bayaz's whole heroic journey being a waste of time

SPOILER: BTAH

That was one of my favorite moments in book 2. The realization that they had gone all that way, without any payoff. In so many books, it's a given that the 'heroes' will find the object they seek at the end of their long, arduous quest. The journey can still be full of conflict, but you kind of assume that the ending is set - especially if they are just looking for an item that they can use to fight against somebody, because you figure they have to get that item to be able to move on to the next step (the fight). I loved how Abercrombie turned all of that around by giving you a seemingly endless journey, and then making it a worthless exercise (in terms of accomplishing their in-story objectives).

[Sophelia]

Just wanted to comment on The Blade Itself before I read what other people have read (note I actually read the book a couple of months ago). So I'll probably repeat a lot of what people have said, and annoy others, but I do so like to get my own impressions out before my memory becomes retroactively distorted by other views. (And then I quite like the retroactivity process afterwards )

OK, firstly, I didn't read the book on any recommendation. I did that rare thing of seeing it my local bookshop and picked it up because I was irresistably attracted to the cover. Actually the first time I picked it up just to feel it and look at the cover, maybe to read the blurb on the back and thought it sounded like my sort of book (er...torturers?). But it wasn't until the second or third visit I decided to impulsively buy it, after failing to find the book I was actually looking for.

It was an easy book to start reading, and I was hooked by the Glokta chapters mainly because of his wonderfully sarcastic italicised thoughts. He was also interesting as a character, being both pitiable and spiteful, shrewdly observant but vulnerable, and I did forget over and over that he is still relatively young, despite hobbling around like an aged man and reminiscing about his past as a young man as if it was decades distant.

At first it reminded me of Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora, because of the interactions of various slightly nefarious plotting characters in a city setting which was... um... I have forgotten the historical analogue period, if there was one... but more like 18th century or something than the usual fantasy setting. But I forgot that in the more usual trilogy, the first book tends not to be so self-contained as LLL was. So I was disappointed to find The Blade Itself turned out to be very much a set-up for the rest of the trilogy. I felt that no arcs were completed, and the end of the book sent the characters off in a new direction which gave me no fulfilment. (I suppose I'll have to buy the next one now, but I need to finish sulking first. *miffed*)

I found the politics, (lack of) diplomacy and social hierarchies suitably tense and (I guess) more realistically dark and messy than in many fantasy novels. However I was annoyed by many of the characters. I'm sure I was set up to loathe Luthar, but if he was supposed to become more sympathetic later it didn't work - he just became even more irritating, and I was actually hoping the author would put me out of my misery and kill him off. Ardee is marginally more readable (she at least has a way with words, but she seems to be just waiting for someone to rescue her). Both these characters seem to be comprised of a 'strength' and a 'weakness' which make them slightly less flat, but not enough for me to care about them. Bayez was (on purpose) more intriguing, a sort of callous Gandalf character, with his own agenda which I'm never quite sure is an honourable one (fun). The male and female barbarian characters were both presented in similar ways, I thought: both shaped by horrific events into the people they are: fiercesome and despairing. There was a sense both were going to be 'tamed' and 'redeemed' while being exploited for their skills. The whole 'savage not understanding city customs' thing was a bit overdone and made me cringe in places.

Still, it's early days to judge the characters as being too simplistic, and I would hope the reader is being set up for a few surprises. The surprises are going to come when the characters have to start working together and reacting to new situations, and really there hasn't been much chance for character development (I wasn't convinced by Luthar's) because the book was relatively static (mainly setting up background, and shunting characters from one place/circumstance to another). There got to a point about half way through where I stopped looking for a plot to impel me forward, and read on just because I liked the Glotka chapters. Clearly there is a plot, but perhaps too much of it was kept mysterious, so I couldn't see where things were going, and didn't get a sense of suspense, anticipation or jeopardy to make to me want to know what happened next.

Still, the best cover I have seen on a book (since The Darkness That Comes Before). *fondles it reverently*

OK, going to read what other people have said now, and will probably change my mind completely

[Sophelia]

OK - read the whole thread now. Um... hello Joe Abercrombie if you still read this thread.

Actually I feel guilted into going to look for the second book now, because I enjoyed reading Joe's comments and feel I should be paying for a writer's words Oh OK, actually I was encouraged by what GoN and Joe and and people were saying about the second book, so have renewed enthusiasm to get on with reading the series.

Just wanted to say I didn't occur to me to recall Bakker when I read The Blade Itself - can't see any resemblance myself*.

Forget about the content, you should see the feely stuff they've got planned for the next one! It's going to be similar grip-friendly textured paper, but with the title depressed into the cover, and a design behind picked out in icy blue foil. Oh man that's going to be one great-feeling book!

Interesting, this business of maps. People seem to either love 'em or hate 'em, and probably you've all discussed the ass off this issue a thousand times. I can see the attraction but on the whole I find myself in the against camp. For me, epic fantasy can be a bit too obsessed with setting at the expense of . . . well . . . everything else.

And yes, Midderland is an island. See? You don't need a map!

<--- hates maps

(Just annoys me when I feel obliged to interrupt my reading to glance at the map)

I've got maps, oh yeah. I have them to try and ensure consistency (as Tom points out). But I don't think I'd necessarily want to share them with readers, any more than a chef might want to put the recipe for his soup on the menu. To use a strip-tease metaphor - what you don't show can be as important as what you do. I feel maps can detract from the mystery of a world, and reduce the amount that a reader can exercise their own imagination. That's also, incidentally, why I'm not a huge fan of very literal old-school fantasy cover art - it can force you to have a certain view of the settings and characters. For me Titus Groan would be hugely less impactful if there was a map of Gormenghast on the fly-leaf.

Also, with The Blade Itself I was trying to write something that was very much character-centred, and wanted the reader to feel like they were in the character's heads, part of the action. I think that maps give a reader a sense of omniscience, of looking down from a great height, which is the opposite of what I was hoping to achieve. I certainly wouldn't want people to read one of my books flipping back and forth to check where they are on the map all the time (espeically, Rhelley, if they were later going to nit-pick).

Ooh, even better arguments.

I'm also quite content to believe an author when he/she tells me that the characters have reached X place in Y days. I don't need to check it myself with a ruler.:/

P.S. I think I just prefer torture to romance in novels. (Though that doesn't go for real life)

* I lied. I compared the covers.

[niamh]

Reading Sophelia's critic makes me realise how many twists there actually is in BTAH. I disagree with mnost of what you say, but I won't get into a discussion as I don't remember what is spoilerish for you or not.

The only thing I figured after reading a lot of people's thoughts about it, is that these are not books for people who have ADHD.

[Sophelia]

Reading Sophelia's critic makes me realise how many twists there actually is in BTAH. I disagree with mnost of what you say, but I won't get into a discussion as I don't remember what is spoilerish for you or not.

Well when I read people's comments it suggested that there would indeed be surprises about the characters in the next book, so I'm planning to read it pretty soon, and then return with modified opinions, and maybe we can get into a discussion at that point?

[niamh]

Yup

[Vintertroll]

I just finished The Blade Itself, and I have to say, it's one of the best fantasy books I have read in a long time. (I even liked it better than The Lies of Locke Lamora which, for all its greatness, still reminds me a bit too much of Oliver Twist gone evil.)

One of the best things about it is that it's not trying to be what it's not. The story's easy to follow, it's so delightfully free of over-ambitious political intrigues - they can be nice of course, if the author can manage to keep it all under control, like GRRM, but mostly it all ends up in a mess where you end up wanting to throw the book in the wall out of frustration 'cause you lost track of the numberous characters and foreign-sounding country names (...did anyone say Scott Bakker?). The plot could maybe have been a bit more, well, clear, and to create an exiting ending by throwing in a random fight scene seems a bit simple, but I love the genuine atmosphere and...

...the characters! Sure, they might be a bit cliché, but that only bothers me in the case of Logen, because he's too kind for my taste. The more cynical and selfish, the more fun! The wizard avoid the cliché trap by being slightly brutal and arrogant (kinda 'Gandalf on drugs'). Jezal I simply love. Easpecially that part when he uses an entire page to admire the look of his own jaw. I found myself reading extra fast just to get more chapters with him. The most fascinating thing here is not the action in itself, IMO, but the charachters themselves and the intrigues between them. I'm easpecially eager to find out how it will go with the whole Jezal/West/Ardee-thingy. Drama ftw.

Just hope the two next books hold the standard of the first (which I would perhaps know if I'd bothered to read the entire thread, of course...) I want more! (But since I've spent all my money on concerts I'm going to have to wait and see if someone buys the next book for me for christmas, and of course they will if I only threathen them enough. Maybe I can pick up a few hints from Glokta. )

[Lord Baelish]

Before They Are Hanged is IMO an improvement on The Blade Itself, so no worries about holding the standard. And I have no doubt Abercrombie will provide a fantastic climax to the trilogy.

[Lies And Perfidy]

So, is BTAH out in the US? I couldn't find it at Borders, though I admit I wasn't looking very hard cause I didn't even realize it was released at all.

On a side note, I have been describing TBI to friends as "If George RR Martin wrote The Princess Bride." And now I want that to actually happen.

But yeah, really fucking awesome debut. Besides interesting and original characters, a couple really out-of-nowhere twists, and nicely revealed world-building, Blade has what so many fantasy novels are missing - goon squads. I love goon squads. There need to be more of them.

[RedEyedGhost]

So, is BTAH out in the US? I couldn't find it at Borders, though I admit I wasn't looking very hard cause I didn't even realize it was released at all.

Nope, it won't come out until March '08 in the US (it came out this past march in the UK).

Last Argument of Kings will come out in March '08 in the UK and September '08 in the US.

[The Iceman of the North]

Talking about Last Arguments of Kings, when are you going to announce that I won an ARC of LAoK, Joe?