I have tried to read the blade itself before, because I have heard things about the series itself. The first time I dnf, this time I finished it. And I don’t quite see why people love it. It felt like it was just a bunch of set up and not enough pay of. The characters where fun enough and the world was fine. The prose was good. But it felt just a bit drawn out, and meandering, and no real pay off. Earlier this year I read gardens of the moon and I feel the books are similar, but I loved gardens of the moon way more. Gardens of the moon felt like being thrown into the deep end of a pool and told swim. Almost like you where watching a tv series and starting at the middle. The blade itself feels like the start of the story but it needed to set everything up. But there was no pay of. I know there will be pay off in the rest of the series, but it didn’t feel like there was a arc in this book. I wanted some kind of katarsis. Like give me some answer, that leads to new questions. But I’m gonna read the sequel one day. 3 out of 5.