The Blade Itself

This book has been advertised by the community really poorly. Fans of the series will swear up and down that it's what Grim Dark is meant to be, and that it's this extremely gritty series, that pulls no punches. While yes, I agree that it has some heavy hitting moments, this is by no means the darkest book I've read, nor does it really feel particularly Grim Dark.

And this is to the books benefit in my opinion. I can't imagine a change that would have made the book better for me, however, for some readers, the lack of momentum on the plot will be massive turnoff that will be difficult to get over. This book is all about the character work, and it shines. The Blade Itself has some of the most well realized characters that I've ever read in fantasy, with Abercrombie deftly turning them on their heads regularly, completely shifting your perspective on them, without it ever feeling like a betrayal of the character that we'd seen up until this point.

I'd give a basic synopsis of the plot, but there isn't really much to talk about that isn't in the blurb on the back of the book. Most books will move past the blurb, but TBI doesn't until the last two or three chapters. And again, for a lot of people, this will be crippling for their enjoyment of the story.

I've been told this improves by the end of the series, which is good, since a full trilogy with that slow of a story would have been an issue for me. But this book feels like an extended prologue, that wants to spend it's time establishing the characters so that when the shit hits the fan, you already know who's who.

The writing is stellar, the prose rarely does anything too special, but the dry wit that's regularly on display is excellent. There were multiple jokes that had me needing to put the book down while I waited for a laughing fit to subside. On top of that, every single PoV character has a distinct voice that separates them from the other members of the sizable cast. By the end of the book, you'll have been in the head of 6 different characters.

On top of that, Abercrombie's choice of character for certain events is pristine. He'll show you an event from the PoV of a character that you weren't expecting to see it from, and in doing so, will elevate the event above what it otherwise would have been. A prime example of this is when a character is trying to gain access to a city, and you would have expected to see it from that character's PoV, but instead, it's delivered from another characters view, allowing you to see the reasonable doubt they display about these newcomers, while also enhancing a side character in the eyes of the reader.

Overall, I'm gonna rate the book a solid 4.5/5. I'd like to see more progress made in the story in future installments, and if Abercrombie keeps the same quality of character writing while delivering on that, they'll likely land a full 5 stars, because this book was fantastic.