bookrev: The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
The Blade Itself is the first novel of Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law Trilogy. 
If I would have had the second book, I would have dove right into it, and that would have made me like the first book much more. As it is, The Blade Itself is very well written with excellent characters and an interesting world, with politics, self-absorbed civilizations, barbarians and magicians. But it is a setup book with a lot of world and character building and background, some exciting and tense plotlines, but with little resolution. Setup books are okay if you intend to read the whole series; they are basically a portion (in this case 1/3) of a much larger book.
Kinda reminds me of Tolkein’s The Fellowship of the Ring, which is another setup book (and 1/3 of a much larger book). Both have to build their world, reveal their characters, and set the conflict. Like Fellowship, The Blade Itself has multiple plotlines, with some groups preparing for war, some working the politics and a group going on a quest. Like Fellowship, the “quest group” doesn’t get everyone together until quite a ways in the book (and doesn’t intro a couple of the major characters until Part II (pg 217 of a 527pg book), similar to intro-ing members of the Fellowship late in the game. (more…)
