The Blade Itself is the first book in The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. It’s a fantasy novel, set in a kind-of-medieval-world. No elves or trolls till now, but magi and stuff. So far, so old.  

Explaining the plot will leave you with the impression that nothing new is in that book, but I’ll try anyway.
Overarching plot: The self-proclaimed King of the North threatens the Union of the South with war. And some more or less unsuspecting people get tangled up. [God, I’m bad at summarising this.]
The story focusses on three characters:
Logen Ninefingers is a tested warrior, a barbarian with a past. After his whole existence is destroyed, he joins ranks with Bayaz, the first of the Magi, even though he doesn’t really know what Bayaz is planning.
Jezal dan Luthar is an asshole. Nobleman, officer, good-looking. He’s rich and spends it all on booze, gambling and women. He has serious daddy-issues which make him train for a fencing tournament even though he doesn’t really want to do all this hard work.
Inquisitor Glokta once was like Jezal — until he was tortured and left crippled. Now he’s a torturer himself, hating the world and everyone in it.

Later, other important characters join these cheerful three.

See, I know it sounds like something we’ve heard a million times already. But surprisingly, it isn’t.

Isn’t this edition absolutely gorgeous?

First of all, these books are very, very, very well written. Joe Abercrombie writes from different perspectives – each chapter follows another one of his characters, mostly the three mentioned above. And each character has their own consistent voice. It’s just wonderful. And so very rare to find.

And the characters themselves… Jezal is an asshole, Glokta is probably the most bitter person ever and Logen is pretty incomprehensible [because his thinking is totally different from mine], but you can’t help caring about them and what happens to them. Probably, because they’re so real. And so not stereotyped.
I love, love, love Bayaz, btw. He is one of the coolest, funniest wizards ever.

The whole thing is pretty heavy stuff. Don’t expect fluff. Abercrombie goes into detail – be it the torture scenes or the fighting. And somehow, most of his characters are in pain most of the time.

I definitely can’t wait to read the next two books. They’re already at home, patiently waiting for me to finish the non-fantasy-book I promised myself I’d read from time to time.