The humour of Abercrombie is one of the things that makes First Law so brilliant! The tone does not change and the second book is one of my favourite fantasy books
As someone that dislikes most Fantasy, the First Law trilogy had me hooked from beginning until the very end. I am forever grateful to the friend who practically begged me to read them as I strongly considered giving my (then unread) copies away at the time. Jezal's chapters aside, I didn't quite have the same issues with the pacing in The Blade Itself that I later found many people seemed to have. I think it was the well-written characters and wanting to see how their individual stories unfold and converge that kept me utterly enthralled. The second and third books are both a massive step up in pacing, storytelling, characters, and plot from The Blade Itself, and the ending to the trilogy is absolutely brilliant. I personally consider The Last Argument of Kings to be a genre masterpiece, though one could easily make the same case for Before They Are Hanged. Very excited to hear your thoughts on the books that follow! You're in for a real treat
So I finished the trilogy two months ago and I really enjoyed it. I put it off because it was grimdark and everyone says how brutal and dark it is but I didn't feel that either. It didn't go into detail of some of the more visceral things that happened. Yes someone gets sliced in half long ways but it doesn't describe it in great detail like I thought it would. My favorite character is Gockta. We get into his head a lot and see how he views others and what he wants to say but doesn't. I do wish I read them all back to back as one big story because it does feel like that I do feel the first two just end. Going to start the standalones soon and then Age of Madness.
I definitely need to start this series. I keep meaning to but always put it off. I love that you mention the humour. I like gritty books if they have a balance with other elements. Gritty on its own isn’t good for me, but if it has other elements, it enriches the world rather than defining it. Not sure if that makes sense, but in effect, you’ve got me sold on the book.
I just finished this book and I couldn’t agree more! First of all I found it so so funny and I also expected dark grim violence only. And I got Lord of the Rings vibes (Glokta = Gollum ? Did anyone feel that), glad I’m not the only one 😅 To me it was a 5/5 though, I absolutely loved it. Thanks for the video!!
"Darkness" is subjective. I think the readers that enjoy authors like Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan would consider 1st Law "Dark". Authors like R. Scott Bakker and even Clive Barker, in my opinion, have extremely darker tones to their books than Abercrombie. However, no Author has quite made me "LOL" like Abercrombie though. I think is character work and humorous prose his exceptional and he's definitely an auto buy author for me. Awesome review brother.
Thank you!!! I remember listening to the Blade Itself as an audiobook and I hadn't laughed out loud that much since the last Terry Pratchett novel I'd read. Joe Abercrombie is funny as hell, and that would be the first thing I would tell anyone who asked me about First Law. Sure, there are some darker moments and some darker humor, but as a big horror fan, Abercrombie's books are like a puppy. A rottweiler puppy, but still a puppy.
I'm so glad you liked this; your thumbnail was worrying me.😂 Yes, Joe Abercrombie has a lot of humor so it's not dark in that sense, but more philosophically dark. This is the slowest book, so it only gets better from here.
The amount of times I have been disappointed by people telling me "...oh, you liked that book? You will love this one. It is the same." No. It isn't. Sometimes you can get lucky, but in my experience, I believe most people think a book is good or bad for reasons other than what you think, thus they recommend or condemn books to their taste. Even if you might love the same books (or movies or music etc.), they might have loved other aspects of it than you. So yes, this is a good review I think, because you highlight more than just one attribute. I personally loved this and most of his other books, but disliked the newer books (mostly, I think, because I had not picked up on it being for younger readers.)
I read this and although I thought it was pretty good, I did not follow up with the series. Typically, I don't read fantasy and this was supposed to be a great starter book. I kind of wish I read the second book though. If you enjoy the series I may try again. Again, well done.
I was disappointed. As you said, ut was not particularly grim, at all. ASOIAF is considerably more f'd up. Prose isnt great. Bayaz & Glotka are good characters. Found the others a little underwhelming. I'll read #2 and hope for an improvement, particularly in the writing.
Agree. Some good characters, but.. the writing, although accessible and serviceable, isn't what I would call "good". There is a lot of "Shit, he said" type stuff, which makes me cringe.
Reading is so subjective, and I think you likely have a higher tolerance for gritty dark literature than most. You’ve described some books as hopeful and uplifting that have left me utterly traumatized 😂
@@katrianamacmillan 😂 you’re probably right. I was a big horror fan in my youth so I think I have a very high tolerance to dark / disturbing literature.
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The humour of Abercrombie is one of the things that makes First Law so brilliant! The tone does not change and the second book is one of my favourite fantasy books
Woah! Second novel one of the best fantasy novels you’ve read! Now I’m excited.
As someone that dislikes most Fantasy, the First Law trilogy had me hooked from beginning until the very end. I am forever grateful to the friend who practically begged me to read them as I strongly considered giving my (then unread) copies away at the time.
Jezal's chapters aside, I didn't quite have the same issues with the pacing in The Blade Itself that I later found many people seemed to have. I think it was the well-written characters and wanting to see how their individual stories unfold and converge that kept me utterly enthralled. The second and third books are both a massive step up in pacing, storytelling, characters, and plot from The Blade Itself, and the ending to the trilogy is absolutely brilliant. I personally consider The Last Argument of Kings to be a genre masterpiece, though one could easily make the same case for Before They Are Hanged.
Very excited to hear your thoughts on the books that follow! You're in for a real treat
I can’t wait!
Glokta one of my all-time favorite fictional characters. ❤
In my opinion the series just gets better and better. You are in for a treat.
Agree!! I've read all of Abercrombie minus his YA(?) trilogy
I agree!
So I finished the trilogy two months ago and I really enjoyed it. I put it off because it was grimdark and everyone says how brutal and dark it is but I didn't feel that either. It didn't go into detail of some of the more visceral things that happened. Yes someone gets sliced in half long ways but it doesn't describe it in great detail like I thought it would.
My favorite character is Gockta. We get into his head a lot and see how he views others and what he wants to say but doesn't.
I do wish I read them all back to back as one big story because it does feel like that I do feel the first two just end.
Going to start the standalones soon and then Age of Madness.
@@Griffnix thank you for commenting. Let the journey continue for us both :)
I definitely need to start this series. I keep meaning to but always put it off. I love that you mention the humour. I like gritty books if they have a balance with other elements. Gritty on its own isn’t good for me, but if it has other elements, it enriches the world rather than defining it. Not sure if that makes sense, but in effect, you’ve got me sold on the book.
I just finished this book and I couldn’t agree more! First of all I found it so so funny and I also expected dark grim violence only. And I got Lord of the Rings vibes (Glokta = Gollum ? Did anyone feel that), glad I’m not the only one 😅 To me it was a 5/5 though, I absolutely loved it. Thanks for the video!!
"Darkness" is subjective. I think the readers that enjoy authors like Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan would consider 1st Law "Dark". Authors like R. Scott Bakker and even Clive Barker, in my opinion, have extremely darker tones to their books than Abercrombie. However, no Author has quite made me "LOL" like Abercrombie though. I think is character work and humorous prose his exceptional and he's definitely an auto buy author for me. Awesome review brother.
The tone and humor of this book is pretty much what you get with all of his books.
Thank you!!! I remember listening to the Blade Itself as an audiobook and I hadn't laughed out loud that much since the last Terry Pratchett novel I'd read. Joe Abercrombie is funny as hell, and that would be the first thing I would tell anyone who asked me about First Law. Sure, there are some darker moments and some darker humor, but as a big horror fan, Abercrombie's books are like a puppy. A rottweiler puppy, but still a puppy.
@@e_n_hand hahahaah! Great analogy
I'm so glad you liked this; your thumbnail was worrying me.😂 Yes, Joe Abercrombie has a lot of humor so it's not dark in that sense, but more philosophically dark. This is the slowest book, so it only gets better from here.
love this review, read these books in early lockdown and they were such a blast - as you described, a bouncy, and very funny page-turner.
Glokta's voice just jumps off of the pages!
Huge Joe Abercrombie fan here - The Blade Itself is easily the weakest book (though still an 8/10). Truly incredible writing down the line.
The amount of times I have been disappointed by people telling me "...oh, you liked that book? You will love this one. It is the same." No. It isn't. Sometimes you can get lucky, but in my experience, I believe most people think a book is good or bad for reasons other than what you think, thus they recommend or condemn books to their taste. Even if you might love the same books (or movies or music etc.), they might have loved other aspects of it than you. So yes, this is a good review I think, because you highlight more than just one attribute. I personally loved this and most of his other books, but disliked the newer books (mostly, I think, because I had not picked up on it being for younger readers.)
I read this and although I thought it was pretty good, I did not follow up with the series. Typically, I don't read fantasy and this was supposed to be a great starter book. I kind of wish I read the second book though. If you enjoy the series I may try again. Again, well done.
Have you read the darkness that comes before?
I haven’t. I’ll look it up :)
Its bleak like blood meridian but epic fantasy
All I can say is Just RAFO. Byaz is FAR more interesting than Gandalf. For so many reasons.
I was disappointed. As you said, ut was not particularly grim, at all. ASOIAF is considerably more f'd up. Prose isnt great. Bayaz & Glotka are good characters. Found the others a little underwhelming. I'll read #2 and hope for an improvement, particularly in the writing.
The Blade Itself is very much a set up for the next book. Next one is a big step up
Its not “dark” even compared to game of thrones.
I couldn't finish it. The prose is overrated, IMO.
Agree. Some good characters, but.. the writing, although accessible and serviceable, isn't what I would call "good". There is a lot of "Shit, he said" type stuff, which makes me cringe.
Reading is so subjective, and I think you likely have a higher tolerance for gritty dark literature than most. You’ve described some books as hopeful and uplifting that have left me utterly traumatized 😂
@@katrianamacmillan 😂 you’re probably right. I was a big horror fan in my youth so I think I have a very high tolerance to dark / disturbing literature.