The Blade Itself

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

Every once in a while, I pick up a book that reminds me fundamentally why I enjoy reading—a book that turns my brain off and sweeps me away to some far flung world that I can sit at any quiet moment and. . . disappear into.

The Blade Itself is one of those books.

Funnily enough, I think this book has a terrible plot—it’s almost all setup for the greater series, a cardinal sin for new authors but an earned reward for experienced ones. The “henchman” villains are shoehorned in and one dimensional; honestly, most could have been cut without much fuss. I found the magic confusing and it doesn’t really come into focus in this book in an overwhelmingly meaningful way.

Sounds terrible right?

Wrong!

Between these covers are tremendous characters. The prose is stellar and most importantly moves the reader along with its momentum. However, the element that stood out to me the most is the novel’s tone and voicing. Not only could you strip the dialogue tags from 70% of the novel and know exactly who’s talking, but that attention to character design and dialogue pays off all the way to the final sentence. Glotka is already a character after only one book I’ve filled into my upper echelon of character design.

It was also refreshing to see a world so vibrant and fleshed out. You feel Logen’s awe as he moves from the hinterland to the city. You see how societal changes impact all walks of life. And you see how dogma is so easily discarded when it’s forced to face itself. Where it lacks in sweeping and complex “hero vs. villain” conflicts, it masterfully interjects little, human, conflicts that really brings the characters and the world to life.

I imagine I will think better on the structural elements as I progress through the series, but their current weaknesses can’t be ignored. That said, I’m willing to forgive such an absence now—it is almost refreshing to read the first book of a series that doesn’t resolve everything, that leaves the big questions open for you to explore later. This isn’t a weaving symphony; it’s power chord metal and I loved it.

Final Grade (all out of ten):

Plot: 5

Characters: 8

Conflict: 7

Theme: 8

Setting: 7

Prose: 9

Tone: 9

Quality: 9

Impact: 7

Enjoyment: 9

Overall: 78/100

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A/N:

Over the next ten days I’ll be releasing full reviews of my top ten books of 2025. From there, I plan on publishing a weekly book review. I’m hoping this is a way to keep me reading regularly and academically.

A quick note on my grading philosophy which I formed listening to a few movie critics. I believe that a 7 in any of the categories above constitutes “Good”. Anything above that is something that is above and beyond in any one particular category. I believe this creates a more nuanced evaluation of any Story. Very, very rarely do I give scores above 90 (8 since I started grading books back in 2022). Consider anything a 70 or above the equivalent of 5 stars. You may note that this entry is tied with the my #9 book with an overall score of 78. The tiebreakers are the higher score in Enjoyment, then Impact, then Quality, then back up to Plot and descending from there.

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