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The First Law Trilogy Boxed Set: The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, Last Argument Of Kings (2012)

by Joe Abercrombie(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Gollancz

review 1: It seems to me that mostly single words come to mind after making it through this nearly 1800 page ride. For instance:Finally. Meaning finally someone west of the iron curtain managed to write a gritty full-on epic fantasy to my liking. Yes, I'm well aware of the Ice and Fire, but that's a special thing that turns into fantasy only slowly and gradually. The First Law reminded me of the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski that I read years and years ago, where elves exists pretty much from get go and the pet parrot's catchphrase is "Whore of a mother" (that's paraphrasing). First Law trilogy treats you to a fair share of fucks and shits, both the literal and swear kind, brilliant characters, cliches turned upside down and twists and turns. The whole thing. Ah yes...Characte... morers. You might almost want to harm the author for how good he does his characters. Evil and nasty is like that only till the moment you look into their head and learn their motivation. On the other hand, nice and heroic doesn't mean the absence of darker personality traits. Plus, you'll marvel at the variety. The characters will deceive you, trick you, attract you, piss you off - almost like in the real world. And also, if you're like me, you'll instantly fall for the nasty cripple of an inquisitor and will be rooting for him whenever you encounter him.Realism. Not in the sense of slapping you in the face with grittiness. Yes, there are bodily functions, gore and disappointing sex, but the book goes much faster. How fast can a ready-for-everything hero turn into a begging ruin holding on to life for the last couple of breaths? Does the wise man have to be always right? And most of all, do stories ever end? The last part was probably what hit me the most and made me seriously sorry for leaving this world. I could think of a number of examples where the last X pages were devoted to wrapping up, the pricess saved, married to the third-son-new-king and a long time of prosperity awaiting the world. You put the story down, sorry that the story is over, but the world is not the same all of a sudden. An exact opposite happens with this story, where the characters keep plotting and acting till the last page and yes, they solved their issues but - just as in real life - they found new ones with no holiday inbetween to lick their wounds. In the First Law world, the stories never stop.Can't wait to get my paws on the other books from this world!
review 2: A fantastic trilogy. The Blade Itself got off to a rough start, I struggled to get myself fully into to the story and had to leave it on my bookshelf for a week before diving into the second half. I started reading this trilogy after picking up a copy of The Heroes and loved it, thankfully my love of his storytelling and writing style encouraged me to return to The Blade Itself. The struggle continued, though once I'd reached the end I knew I had made the right decision in returning to the story. For all my problems with the first book, It left me needing more. The second book, Before they are hanged, was a much easier and enjoyable read for me. Perhaps Abercrombies writing had improved, or perhaps I'd simply realised the story itself was worth forcing myself though the rough patches. Finally, with The last argument of kings, the story was complete. There abouts, anyways. Whilst the ending left a few questions unanswered, it did confirm one. It's well worth a read. less

Download links for: The First Law Trilogy Boxed Set: The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, Last Argument of Kings

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