The Blade Itself

by Joe Abercrombie

Info

Date Finished: 4/7/2026

First Sentence: Logen plunged through the trees, bare feet slipping and sliding on the wet earth, the slush, the wet pine needles, breath rasping in his chest, blood thumping in his head.

Last Sentence: Why?

Companion Album:

New Cover

A book cover for "The Blade Itself" by Joe Abercrombie, part of a "First Law Trilogy" cover set. The layout features a plain cream-colored band at the top containing the title in large orange-brown gothic script, with the author's name and series info in smaller text. The main body of the cover is a dark, sepia-toned photograph of a ruined stone fortress on a rocky hill under a cloudy sky. A large, stylized outline of a sword is graphic-printed in diagonal orange stripes across the image.

A Few Thoughts

More like The Buildup Itself, am I right??? The Blade Itself follows a cast of characters who start at various points on a fantasy world map and make their way to a central location where they all start interacting, catalyzing what will happen in the coming two books. Along the way, you learn about the politics, history, and magic of this world.

At the end of 500(!) pages, you don't learn a whole lot about the overarching conflict, but you spend a lot of time with the main characters, each of whom is deeply flawed and fascinating.

It's a grim world. Violence is visceral. Magic is unsettling and perverse. But the characters provide a heart to the book, even (especially?) Glokta the Inquisitor. My bet is the next two books will be absolutely breakneck. Everything is set up: the characters, the political conflict, the mystery.

Related:

Cover Notes

I was inspired by the cover for *Looking for Tank Man* by Ha Jin that I found in this article from *Print Magazine*. I tried to combine it with some grungy dungeon synth type vibes. I used this photo and this .svg illustration from Wikimedia Commons.

Castle photo -- By Mow Cop Castle by Brian Deegan, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133963841

Sword illustration -- By Zingus - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78916088