The Blade Itself

By Joe Abercrombie

I read this book because my dad read it and recommended it to me. As he was reading it, he noted that the writing wasn't very good, but the story was engaging enough to keep him reading, so I figured it was worth a shot.

I had a couple issues with this book. The first problem was the overly-explanatory narrator. It really wasn't that bad, but I think my tolerance for that kind of writing has actually decreased. I was OK with the it for most of the book, but by about page 300 it started to wear down my patience and the book is 527 pages. An excessive use of adjectives and adverbs was also an issue. Not that I am opposed to ever using adverbs ever, ever, ever, but I do think that it can be easy to go overboard on them and I felt there were a number of instances where Abercrombie did that.

Most of the overly-explanatory narrator was a result of the fact that Abercrombie likes to give his characters thought bubbles, so to speak: sections of prose written in italics to convey a character's direct thoughts. I'm not against this except when those thoughts are subsequently conveyed in the character's actions and/or dialogue, sometimes word-for-word. That drove me crazy, but like I said, the thought bubbles in and of themselves did not drive me crazy. For the most part, I really enjoyed them.

Which brings me to my favorite part of the book: the characters. The characters were all awesome and definitely fun to read about. I am all for finding out what happens to these people. My only remaining qualm is the fact that this book didn't have much of a plot. Knowing that it's the first of a trilogy, I asked my dad if the second and third books have more structure and he assured me that they do. This book is merely introducing the characters and setting up the situation for when shit really goes down in the next book.

If that's the case, then I might actually want to read the next book. At the moment, I still haven't decided. I'll have to let this one sit for a few weeks before I decide if I want to get back into that world.