More like 2,5/5...
I made the mistake to read The Blade Itself just after reading Steven Erikson's Toll the Hounds, the 8th installment of Malazan Book of the Fallen, and the experience was like watching a high school basketball game after an NBA final: the former is not that bad per se, but the comparison is devastating.
The key word in describing this book is "forced"; while reading it, I had almost constantly the feeling that the writer knew "too" well what kind of story he wanted to tell and what kind of plot mechanisms he would employ in telling it, but at the same time the way he was telling it was trully too obvious (and with too much exposition for my taste). And here I am not talking about the need of more plot twists, but mainly about the way he builds his characters (i.e. "this one will do this to make him look arrogant," "the other one will do that to make him look ruthless" etc.), the things that we can clearly see coming but are shown as great surprises, and the convergence that happens by the end of the book.
Nevertheless, the book had its moments, especially when we are given glimpses of a greater scheme that looms over this particular world or when we get more about its lore and mostly when we meet some of its secondary characters. It's an easy reading, and although I can't say I root for most of the main characters, there are a few interesting ones among them.
All thing said, as of now I haven't yet decided if I want to read the next one or not.