The Cool Kids' Fantasy Club discussion

When I started "The Blade Itself" I was a little disappointed. I had a hard time getting into the book, I wasn't enjoying the writing as much as I usually do, then about halfway through the book I was hooked. I am currently on the 2nd book of this trilogy -- "Before They Are Hanged" and I am loving every minute. It's hard to make myself put it down.

I don't know why it started off rough for me seeing as how much I'm enjoying it now... Strange, eh?

yes me too, but when you finish maybe you are going feel little strange

Intriguing...

I don't think it's strange, it happened to me with other books as well. But The Blade itself wasn't among them, Glokta won me over imediately :)

When I reviewed "The Blade Itself" I called it a 600 page prologue as it mostly seemed about introducing the characters and moving them around so they could take part in the main action.

The Glokta character is complex isn't he? A great example of a character not being inherently good or evil.

yeah but the best character no is good person jajja , the best person in the book is dogman.

Well I just finished yesterday. Totally dissatisfying ending. Disappointing.

I know the feeling. I had mixed feelings about this series, and can't say it's a favorite. I actually liked the Shattered Sea trilogy much better than First Law. One of the follow-up books I liked was Best Served Cold, which I liked much more than the trilogy itself.

I loved the First Law trilogy's construction in that it's almost perfectly Antithetical to the grand concept of Fantasy (AKA: Lord of the Rings.)

Where LotR ends neatly, and everyone's happy, Abercrombie has delivered something inherently messy. The mess builds very strong comparisons with reality - and in presenting such complex characters that learn very hard lessons, we're presented with a world rife with issues that we ourselves might experience.

I think Abercrombie has made these antithetical leaps from LotR on purpose - there are several key moments in the series that mirror LotR, and in reflecting, REJECT the same moments.

Tim wrote: "I loved the First Law trilogy's construction in that it's almost perfectly Antithetical to the grand concept of Fantasy (AKA: Lord of the Rings.)

Where LotR ends neatly, and everyone's happy, Aber..."

I definitely got that same feeling, of subverting the way things neatly tie up, but to me it felt like...that subversion was part of the point from the beginning of writing, and instead of being a necessary consequence and one that was clearly building throughout the series, it felt almost like..in your face "how's this for an ending?" I think there are ways to do mess that don't have that sort of very...abrupt-feeling ending.

And to be fair, I don't know if I am reading this into the series, or if it is something else. I do tend to like having closure, even if that closure is not what I wanted or expected. Messy, not messy, whatever. I guess it's difficult to describe unless you actually felt it! But I will say I could definitely see why such a subversion would play well with many people, and I'm glad it gets people into different types of fantasy.

I agree with you -- it did feel very "in your face." The books were very enjoyable but the ending felt clunky to me. The most believable books have elements that come from real life, like no one is perfect, your heroes will have feet of clay, sometimes the bad guys win, sometimes the good guys die, etc. but this was just not satisfying in the least in the way the ending was written.

Also, the characters seemed to abruptly change for the ending in a way that didn't feel true to form. They had all been written to be making an effort to change for the good or rethinking previously held beliefs and whatnot but then *bam* nope - we all give up.