Book 1 of The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
This book focuses mainly on character development and very little in plot. It’s primarily a set up book for the rest of the series. What is it about? I still don’t know yet. It is a grimdark fantasy following 3 main characters and 3 important supporting characters who get a few point of view chapters.
I’ll just say now that I did enjoy this book. It might seem like I didn’t by the end of this, but I did. At least, well enough that I finished it. I rated it a 3 stars. I think this just wasn’t my kind of genre. To give a balanced review I’ll list out 3 pros and 3 cons instead of just ranting about what I didn’t like.
Pro 1 – The character development was very strong. Again, this is the main aspect of this book. It establishes our characters. Everyone is a bit grey, so do we have heroes? Yes, but they aren’t the most likable. Is it well written, mostly. See Con 3.
Con 1 – Very little plot. I like more balance in character to plot ratio. I had no idea what was really going on plot wise the entire book. There is a fight in the second to last chapter, I assume the climax? I did not, for most the fight, realize this wasn’t just some random, out of the blue, fight that had nothing to do with the plot, apparently it did? Who knows. I sure don’t. There’s a war going on, but all we really see is what’s being said in reports for the most part.
Pro 2 – The magic system sounds interesting and unique, even though we get very little scenes involving it. I don’t have a whole lot more to say about this just yet. I would have liked to see more.
Con 2 – Racism and Language. I’ll put these two together as the language is a minor complaint. I don’t usually have a problem with profanity, but in my opinion I prefer the fantasy genre to create their own curse words. Also, Angland? All I could think of anything this came up was the UK. The names were so uncreative. For racism, it’s a tricky thing. The color of everyone’s skin seems to be a big factor. It’s pointed out frequently. One character, Farro, repeatedly calls white people “pinks” and her skin color is referred to as “black.” Could there not be a better way to phrase this? And of course this was written by a white man.
Pro 3 – Logen Ninefingers. He has a violent past, but trying to be a better person now. I can respect that. He’s the only character that I actually liked, out of the main 3. I preferred his chapters.
Con 3 – Repetition. The amount of times that anything is repeated is very unnecessary. It would really shorten the book a lot without all the repeating. Okay, I got it after the first five times such-n-such has been said.
There is a lot more I can add to the Con list, but as I can’t really balance it out in Pros, I’ll just leave it at that. I hear a lot of people do like this series a lot, so that’s good for them. This isn’t one that I am super hyped to continue. I might since it’s said it just gets better and the real plot gets started later. We’ll see.
I’m also not really sure what the title even means in relation to the contents of the book. Does anyone know that could tell me?
Rachels Books 