I am not the fastest reader, as I typically don't find the time to read at home. But this book, even though I read it almost exclusively in transit, was one I couldn't but devour. The world Joe Abercrombie created is filled with just as much cruelty and brutality as it is with humour and goodwill. It is a refreshing tale of a cast of characters that couldn't be less alike and I think that's why there was never a dull moment, no matter which character I followed. Most delighted was I by the fact that a character as marked by the circumstances of life as Glokta was, he still managed to be the character I most looked forward to getting more of. Not only through his own eyes but also through the eyes of other characters that happened to even just share a glance with him. His witty remarks and inner monologues were one of the highlights of this book for me. And lastly, count me truly impressed, that Abercrombie managed to draw me into his world of conflict and political intrigue, without even putting a map into its beginning pages. I could babble about the things I liked in this book for hours so I might just stop to read the next entry of The First Law. I expect greatness and maybe a couple more bodies found floating by the docks.

Ein guter Freund wollte, dass ich unbedingt das Buch lese, weil er die Reihe absolut liebt. Kann ich persönlich nicht nachempfinden für mich war der erste Teil gar nichts. Es ist völlig anderes Fantasy, als das was ich sonst lese. Mir waren es zu viele Namen auf einmal und die ständigen Sichtwechsel haben es nicht besser gemacht. Mir war auch eindeutig zu wenig Magie dabei für Fantasy. Geschrieben ist das Buch ganz gut, ich habe es auf englisch gelesen bzw. am Ende gehört und fands vom Schreibstil nicht schlecht. Schwierig war auch, dass mein Kumpel, dass dann auch gerereaded hat und naja er hats schon gefühlt fünf mal gelesen und war schockiert, dass mir beim ersten Mal lesen nicht jedes Detail aufgefallen ist, fand ich persönlich schwierig.

This started soo good and I heard a ton of good stuff, that's why I grabbed it and I flew through the first 200 pages but then it got soooooo slow and boring and all it did was build up for the upcoming books, which was super exhausting. Abercrombies writing is awesome, but the plot and dialogues got sadly super boring halfway through the book. I think we have to rate the whole trilogy, to be fair. But this book was just a looooooong introduction with some good bits in it. Das Hörbuch wurde von David Nathan gelesen, und der macht einen absoluten grandiosen Job!!! Hab das Buch halb gelesen, halb gehört.

Hat mich nicht ganz überzeugt. Ich möchte keineswegs sagen, dass dieses Buch schlecht ist. Das ist es nicht, und ich kann völlig nachvollziehen, warum viele begeistert davon sprechen. Allerdings frage ich mich, ob diese Begeisterung auch darauf zurückzuführen ist, dass sie die gesamte Serie beendet haben. Ein Aspekt, den viele beim Diskutieren dieses Buches hervorheben, sind die Charaktere. Ich stimme voll und ganz zu, dass Abercrombie ein Meister im Erschaffen von Charakteren ist. Fast alle Hauptfiguren sind so faszinierend, dass man mehr über sie erfahren möchte, gleichzeitig aber auch abstoßend genug, um einem manchmal den Magen umzudrehen. Die Story hat mich leider im Vergleich zu den Charakteren überhaupt nicht abgeholt.

A solid and engaging setup into the world of The First Law In many ways this book was not what I expected it to be, but it was engaging the whole way through, and made for a very enjoyable read. "Look in the Closed Council. Look in the House of Questions. Look in the University. Look in the banks, Glokta!" The characters in this are always praised, and it's definitely deserved, because without them, in all honesty, I can't see this book working as it does. Glokta, Jezal, Logen and West were the selling point of this 100%, and throughout the story, the thing that kept driving it forwards was the enjoyment of reading about the characters. The inability to predict the movements of the characters and the confusion as to their motives made this very addictive, and it's brilliantly done. This war was a bad thing, a terrible thing, no doubt. He felt himself grinning. A terrible thing. But it just might be the making of him. There was really very minimal plot, but to be honest that didn't matter. The Blade Itself is very obviously setting the tone for the story and introducing the world and characters, and does not suffer from that. Everything that happened was interesting to read about, and didn't feel out of place or disconnected, it made sense with the characters, and I loved it. That being said, if no clarity as to where the story is actually going is given in book 2, I would find this to be a problem. The real reason this only deserves 4 stars in my opinion is the way in which the world building was done. The story undoubtedly achieves its goal and does it well - however, the way in which Abercrombie wrote his world with very minimal explanation as to how everything fit into the grander picture just isn't my preference. Ultimately everything pieces together, but it was confusing to begin with, and it did bring this down for me personally. "Do you think to win me with your honest face and your talk of old times? Like a long-lost dog, at last come faithfully home? I know better. You stink, West. You smell like betrayal. That memory at least is mine." All in all, I'm keen to see where the story goes as the plot and characters have definitely been fully set into motion. "Everything frightens me, and it's well that it does. Fear is a good friend to the hunted, it's kept me alive this long. The dead are fearless, and I don't care to join them." THE FIRST LAW: The Blade Itself - 4/5

Everything in this book, from the first page had me gripped and wanting to read more. Knowing it was Grim Dark Fantasy I expected a lot worse than it was. Joe Abercrombie is a master of writing stories about deep and grey characters. The Characters in this book, all of them given to you to decide wither they are on the wrong side or not, grips you and drags you into their lives, rooting for them all. Story wise, I am a man who loves a good plot driven book. This was the first book that was not plot driven, but had me from start to finish. It is really well done and even with the ending it has, I want to keep reading. Joe you are a master. I am still alive!

Didn't wholly click with me In no way am I saying this book is bad. It's not, I can totally see why people rave about it, but I do wonder whether they are looking back on it more favourably because they have finished the series. Three one thing people really about when discussing this book are the characters, and I totally agree with them that Abercrombie is a master of character building. Almost all of the main characters are intriguing enough for you want to discover more about them, but bike enough to sometimes turn your stomach. It is for this that I'll carry on with the series. I always thought I was more of a character person, but while I still think that is true, I also believe in equally a plot person. As a lot of people say, this books plot doesn't start until about two thirds of the way through, and I think it's because of this that I struggled with it. I know fans of this book will want to set Glokta onto me for praising it to high heaven, and who knows, once I've finished the series maybe I'll think back on it differently. But for not it's a book of some shining example of how to do things, but neglecting other areas to do so. Sorry.

This is a new favourite for me. It made me feel so many conflicting emotions. It's easy to get into the characters head and while all of them are terrible people, some truly despicable, I couldn't help to care for them. They have enough that makes them human and so much that makes them interesting and complex. Also, the POVs are written in distinct ways, like one has the typical omniscient narrator that tells you how he feels, but another has this great inner monologs in italics, and stuff like that. While everyone talks about how dark this is, and it truly is, it's also incredibly funny. The humor balances out the serious topics and occurrences really well without cheapening them at all. There are so many memorable scenes, some of them I already went back to reread without being fully finished with the book. I also feel one could probably really gain from a reread, to have more context to certain little things and get the tiny pieces of foreshadowing. The writing style really appealed to me, too. It sets the tone, everything said felt important or at least entertaining to me, it's quite precise and very close to the characters. Abercrombie also deliberately messes with the reader by implying or teasing something to just be like "well, but that's not what's happening now" in some cases. I was so excited and engaged reading it, that I constantly wanted to comment on it and discuss it with people. I just ended up dumping endless amounts of voice messages on my best friend that she'll probably never listen to, but I really needed an outlet for what this book made me think and feel while reading it. Definitely will reread it and can't wait to read the sequels.