I can think of few other books that I nearly quit reading, asking myself why in the world everyone else thinks this is so great, only to end up really enjoying it by the end.

If you're wondering, I almost quit at these lines:

Spoiler

"'I would be the last to deny it. A fine job.' He spun suddenly around, the tails of his white coat snapping, his face twisted into a brutal snarl. “A fine job of dodging the King’s taxes!” he screamed. There was a collective gasp."

I am no literary snob, but this entire section was emblematic of my issues with this book up until this point. While I was beginning to enjoy the characters, I just couldn't get past the writing. It was downright BAD at times. Just super cheesy dialogue, and the scene where that quote came from would be better found in a Simpson's version of a trial, except, even worse.

But...

I kept on. Figuring I owed it to myself after seeing so much praise for it, to at least give it the entire book. And while I would give the first 2/3rd's of the book a solid 1.5 stars, the last third was a solid 4. Still some issues with the writing, but at least it started going somewhere. I read someone else's review somewhere stating that this book really felt like more of a prologue than the first book in a series, and I couldn't agree more.

I like the main characters. Except for Jezal. God, I hate Jezal. And I am looking forward to continuing the series. I just hope that the writing gets better with the pacing that clearly improved in the latter third of this first book.

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.

What a terrific start!

Though not much happened in this book, it did a pretty good job of setting up the next entry in the series. We get to see the grim nature of this world and the politics at play. I am excited to know if Logan gets to meet with his old crew, what Bayas does next, how Glokta manages after being sent to the south, and what fate
holds for Ardee and Luther.