The Blade Itself

3.5/5. I'm so glad I've finally read this one, since it's been on my TBR for the longest time. Overall, I had a lot of mixed feelings about this book but overall it was a fairly enjoyable ride and I'd probably keep on reading the rest of the trilogy, although I'm not in a huge rush to continue at the moment. The characters were probably the best part of the book, the world was OK but I wasn't a fan of the way it was built in the story. This book being such an iconic cornerstone of the grimdark subgenre had me intimidated lest there was way too much gratuitous suffering and torture porn, but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't so bad, or maybe I've already been reading too much violent stuff. I don't really like excessive graphic violence, so I was happy for this.

I would give my usual summary of the book here but honestly it's hard to summarize, and that's one of the major issues I had with this book. There're all these threads of plot happening but you don't really quite know what it all leads towards, or what the endgame of the book is. More on that later.

We start off the book being introduced to perhaps our three main characters, Logen Nine-fingers, Sand dan Glokta, and Jezel. We switch perspectives between these three incredibly different people. I don't mind multiple perspectives and I enjoyed it in this book because each character's inner voice was so distinct and different. Logen was definitely the protagonist I could root for, while Glokta is an intriguing malcontent that is the most fascinating of the lot. I was the least interested in Jezel in the current moment, but because in many senses he's the most “unspoiled” of the three characters, I feel like he's going to have the biggest character arc in front of him, so I'd be interested to see what happens to him in the rest of the series. It's also interesting how Jezel almost seems like a “pre-Glokta” and I think Glokta doesn't like him for precisely that reason. Jezel reminds him of who he used to be in a life that no longer exists for him. It also raises the question whether Jezel is going to go through the same kind of pain and suffering that Glokta did, and how similarly or differently will he deal with it.

So, about the plot. We kinda meander along and it's almost just like following the journeys of these 3 people but without really having any inkling about what all of this is tending towards. Logen goes on to meet Bayaz, the first of the Magi, at the same time that Glokta is navigating the difficult and treacherous politics of Adua and Jezel is training for his fencing competition while also carrying on a forbidden intrigue with a respected mentor's sister. We have some vague notion that conflict is brewing on the North and South borders of the Union, but all these plot elements seemed rather scattered and disjointed, and there isn't any one big Problem overarching everything.

It was all fine enough to meander along with these plot elements, but the book only really got interesting for me after the 70% mark, when we start to learn more about the mythical figures at the beginning of the history of the Union, and some very enigmatic references to the origins of magic, which also makes one wonder whether Bayaz is going to go over to the Other Side or something, especially given what Yulwei said to him at the end. It sounds like any use of magic is essentially of a diabolical nature and therefore has to be only moderately used, but Bayaz seems to be throwing that out of the window more and more. Will he become the true villain of the series?!

I'm glad I finally read this and would like to continue on the rest of the series at some point, but I'm not in a rush.