“Once you've got a task to do, it's better to do it than live with the fear of it.”
This series threw me off. There were times when I laughed out loud. There were times when I was sad. There were times when I was just disgusted. All equally. The First Law Trilogy is a character driven series. Joe Abercrombie does such an amazing job in exploring these characters’ motivations, thoughts and decisions. Not always are they merry, and you wouldn’t agree with them sometimes.
We mainly follow three characters, though we do branch out to three more as we progress. Sure, there are kings overthrown, kingdoms invaded, blood-shed in wars, and magic from the Other Side, but that isn’t what most people would remember coming out of the series. It is the characters’ morality that would come to mind.
The writing style, prose is all great. Glokta might be one of my favorite characters in all of the books I’ve read. We get to see his inner monologue as he speaks to others and it’s just funny or harsh truths. You have to be realistic about these things, after all.
Despite the fact that this is a fantasy series, there isn’t much magic in the world. At least, not as vivid as say in the Misborn series. It is just not explored in depth, but it does have influences in the story.
Anything more would be going into the spoiler territory. I recommend reading this for all fantasy fans. I wouldn’t vouch the series for first timers though. Joe Abercrombie is set to expand this world further. There are three stand-alone(s) after the trilogy and then again a trilogy called The Age of Madness which is the era of industrial revolution in the Circle of the World. The whole series combined is The First Law World. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.