The Tentacled Monkey

I am not a fan of fantasy novels, I never really have been. I played the hell out of Dungeons and Dragons when I was younger though so good fantasy still has a rough little spot in my heart. Well, at least that is what I used to think. But as of late with the quality of the fantasy novels I have read, referring to Rothfuss’s amazing The Name of the Wind and now this latest book I finished, The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, fantasy is making a significant comeback into my reading list.

I first heard about Abercrombie only a few scant weeks ago during the release of his latest novel Best Served Cold. And what I heard intrigued me,

"If you’re fond of bloodless, turgid fantasy with characters as thin as newspaper and as boring as plaster saints, Joe Abercrombie is really going to ruin your day. A long career for this guy would be a gift to our genre."
Scott Lynch, author of The Lies of Locke Lamora

“The books are good, really good. They pulled me in. Well-developed world. Unique, compelling characters. I like them so much that when I got to the end of the second book and found out the third book wasn’t going to be out in the US for another three months, I experienced a fit of rage, then a fit of depression, then I ate some lunch and had a bit of a lay down.”
—Patrick Rothfuss, author of The Name of the Wind

So essentially I was told by word of mouth that it is akin to George R. R. Martin but with great characters, and since I don’t really like Martin this seemed grand.

The story follows a number of major characters, “The Bloody-Nine” (aka Logen) being primary among them. Logen is a great battle hardened Northerner that evidently has a little psychotic break when he gets angry and kills people in a most violent manner. Aside from that he is a thoughtful, considerate, and even compassionate at times.

Captain Jezal Luthar is a pompous young member of the nobility hell bent on making it big. His commanding officer Major West is a commoner and reviled by the officers because of it, and plauged by his drunken sister, Ardee. And there are countless others.

But for some reason the one character that really sticks with me more than any other is Inquisitor Sand dan Glokta. Glokta was in the Ghurkish War years prior and was Major West’s commanding officer then. He led a fool hardy attack that eventually won the war and cost him two years of torture in the prisons of Ghurka. When we find Glokta he his a crippled shell of a man that is hobbled with pain and has had alternating sets of his top and bottom teeth removed by hammer and chisel giving him a sickening smile. Oh and as an Inquisitor, Glokta gets to torture people. Something he is rather good at given  his own experiences.

If you haven’t guessed already, this novel is amazing. Full of intelligent characters that are so damn believable it is hard to grasp that one guy could write them all. I was sucked in within pages and was hard pressed to put it down.

I give it 5 out of 5 and recommend it for everyone out there. Next on the reading list is Before They Are Hanged Book 2 of the First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.