---
product_id: 147062769
title: "The Blade Itself"
price: "¥1488"
currency: JPY
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.jp/products/147062769-the-blade-itself
store_origin: JP
region: Japan
---

# The Blade Itself

**Price:** ¥1488
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- **What is this?** The Blade Itself
- **How much does it cost?** ¥1488 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.jp](https://www.desertcart.jp/products/147062769-the-blade-itself)

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## Description

desertcart.com: The Blade Itself (Audible Audio Edition): Joe Abercrombie, Steven Pacey, Orbit: Books

Review: Absolutely fantastic audiobook - Steven Pacey brings Abercrombie's motley crew to life! - *audiobook review* This book starts off in the epic fantasy vibe - vigniettes of different characters that all come together by the end of the book into a finely-woven tale. One thread is that of Logen Nine-Fingers, a barbarian from the north - we meet him as he narrowly avoids his own death at the hand of raiders. Another thread spins from the tale of Inquistor Glockta - a former fighter held captive for two years, who had turned his broken body and skills to ferreting out whatever truth he needs to find. The last major thread comes from Jezal dan Luthar, a spoiled brat of a gentleman who thinks it may just be cool for his career if he becomes a fencing master for his country. There's a huge cast of characters, but it's no problem at ALL for the audio listener because Steven Pacey is an absolute artist at narration. The combination of Abercrombie's clean text and the skilled voice work of Pacey brings every character alive from the very beginning - you hear the fear and resignation in Logen's voice as he falls off a cliff, the pain and life-long effects of torture in Glokta's voice, and the subtle spoiled tones in Luthar as he decides what kind of man he's going to be. These people and the rest of the cast meet in the story of Bayez, first of the magi, who is headed to the Union capitol to gather resources and equipment for an expedition that is meant to save the world. It's going to be hard with Bethod's Northmen attacking from the northern part of the Union, and the barely peaceable Gurkish Empire agitating to take over parts of the southern Union. The king is barely coherent, the ruling council is corrupt, the nation is woefully underprepared for war, and the scene is set for a fantastic audiobook experience. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a compelling audiobook experience - Pacey's narration skill may even make the book easier to understand because each character has a unique voice. This is my favorite book I've read this year!
Review: The First Law Trilogy - I really enjoyed reading The First Law trilogy and getting to know the characters created by Joe Abercromie. I admit that when I began to read The Blade Itself, it took a couple of chapters for me to become absorbed by the story, but I appreciated JA's writing style and wit and found the Bloody Nine to be as interesting a barbarian as I had ever encountered. Logen is a hero... for the most part. He is feared by many, he is practical and amusing, he is intuitive and he is a relatively decent man. He is also deeply flawed and at war with himself, as many of us are, so one may relate to him as he experiences both triumphs and tragedies. The story itself provided enough action and intrigue to keep me entertained and interested in what might come next. I found myself cheering for and supporting different characters at various times, disliking most of them at one point or another, then resuming my cheering at a later point. I appreciated the fact that not every story arc was obvious and easily predicted, and that the main characters weren't perfect, but they each showed growth throughout the series. I liked that most of the characters were alternately fascinating or repulsive. I loved Glokta's sarcasm and sadism, West's intelligence and noble attitude towards' things HE felt were noble, Ferro's ferocity and Bayaz's twisted and manipulative nature. Of course, there were a few things I didn't like. For example, I wasn't a big fan of the Logen/Ferro "romance". It seemed bizarre and awkward, at best. I liked them individually, but when they were together in any way besides as warriors, I found it annoying. I didn't like that at the beginning of the series I had no idea what the heck was going on and couldn't read comfortably for around 100 pages. I wasn't impressed with some aspects of the story that seemed to drag, ie: The Contest, wherein Jezal and other swordsmen compete for a title. However, I really don't feel that these issues detracted much, if at all, from the trilogy as a whole. I definitely liked the way in which the series ended, as there are many directions that JA can take the story if he chooses to continue writing about these characters. I'm glad that he didn't write himself into a corner when ending the trilogy. All in all, I thought that the First Law was enjoyable and creative. It is not fantasy a la Jordan or GRRM (as well it shouldn't be); it is unique and gives the genre a little push in an interesting direction. I recommend all three books.

## Images

![The Blade Itself - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91043VlVjnL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Absolutely fantastic audiobook - Steven Pacey brings Abercrombie's motley crew to life!
*by N***R on September 3, 2025*

*audiobook review* This book starts off in the epic fantasy vibe - vigniettes of different characters that all come together by the end of the book into a finely-woven tale. One thread is that of Logen Nine-Fingers, a barbarian from the north - we meet him as he narrowly avoids his own death at the hand of raiders. Another thread spins from the tale of Inquistor Glockta - a former fighter held captive for two years, who had turned his broken body and skills to ferreting out whatever truth he needs to find. The last major thread comes from Jezal dan Luthar, a spoiled brat of a gentleman who thinks it may just be cool for his career if he becomes a fencing master for his country. There's a huge cast of characters, but it's no problem at ALL for the audio listener because Steven Pacey is an absolute artist at narration. The combination of Abercrombie's clean text and the skilled voice work of Pacey brings every character alive from the very beginning - you hear the fear and resignation in Logen's voice as he falls off a cliff, the pain and life-long effects of torture in Glokta's voice, and the subtle spoiled tones in Luthar as he decides what kind of man he's going to be. These people and the rest of the cast meet in the story of Bayez, first of the magi, who is headed to the Union capitol to gather resources and equipment for an expedition that is meant to save the world. It's going to be hard with Bethod's Northmen attacking from the northern part of the Union, and the barely peaceable Gurkish Empire agitating to take over parts of the southern Union. The king is barely coherent, the ruling council is corrupt, the nation is woefully underprepared for war, and the scene is set for a fantastic audiobook experience. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a compelling audiobook experience - Pacey's narration skill may even make the book easier to understand because each character has a unique voice. This is my favorite book I've read this year!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The First Law Trilogy
*by A***F on May 6, 2012*

I really enjoyed reading The First Law trilogy and getting to know the characters created by Joe Abercromie. I admit that when I began to read The Blade Itself, it took a couple of chapters for me to become absorbed by the story, but I appreciated JA's writing style and wit and found the Bloody Nine to be as interesting a barbarian as I had ever encountered. Logen is a hero... for the most part. He is feared by many, he is practical and amusing, he is intuitive and he is a relatively decent man. He is also deeply flawed and at war with himself, as many of us are, so one may relate to him as he experiences both triumphs and tragedies. The story itself provided enough action and intrigue to keep me entertained and interested in what might come next. I found myself cheering for and supporting different characters at various times, disliking most of them at one point or another, then resuming my cheering at a later point. I appreciated the fact that not every story arc was obvious and easily predicted, and that the main characters weren't perfect, but they each showed growth throughout the series. I liked that most of the characters were alternately fascinating or repulsive. I loved Glokta's sarcasm and sadism, West's intelligence and noble attitude towards' things HE felt were noble, Ferro's ferocity and Bayaz's twisted and manipulative nature. Of course, there were a few things I didn't like. For example, I wasn't a big fan of the Logen/Ferro "romance". It seemed bizarre and awkward, at best. I liked them individually, but when they were together in any way besides as warriors, I found it annoying. I didn't like that at the beginning of the series I had no idea what the heck was going on and couldn't read comfortably for around 100 pages. I wasn't impressed with some aspects of the story that seemed to drag, ie: The Contest, wherein Jezal and other swordsmen compete for a title. However, I really don't feel that these issues detracted much, if at all, from the trilogy as a whole. I definitely liked the way in which the series ended, as there are many directions that JA can take the story if he chooses to continue writing about these characters. I'm glad that he didn't write himself into a corner when ending the trilogy. All in all, I thought that the First Law was enjoyable and creative. It is not fantasy a la Jordan or GRRM (as well it shouldn't be); it is unique and gives the genre a little push in an interesting direction. I recommend all three books.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What an interesting set of characters!
*by L***S on October 23, 2014*

Where to begin . . . I have such a wide range of feelings for this book. First off, we’ll start with the world. I thought it was very well done, had a nice rounded out feel to it, and seemed very solid. There were races and countries at war, prejudices and an array of cultural differences, old heroes and long forgotten lore. It gave me enough without boring me to tears. Always a bonus. When I was learning, it was through the eyes of a character, so it made it much more enjoyable. No info dumping! Loved that I didn’t have to read pages of history. The pacing was rather slow at times. Normally that would bother me, but it didn’t with this book. Personally, I view this as more of a character read. Sure, there were some amazing action scenes, but overall—to me—it moved a bit slow. I would have been bored if some of the characters weren’t so damn amazing! So while the story might have lazily plodded along, I was content because I had some interesting people to plod alongside with. Now, that being said, I had no problem putting the book down and coming back to it later. This was one of those few times where I read other books while enjoying this one. This book felt like a first book. A lot of setup. Character examination. World building. Again, nothing wrong with it. There was a point to this buildup that I understood by the end. I don’t think it was a waste and it was needed. Now that I’ve grown rather close to some of the characters, I’m anticipating book two will raise the stakes and I’ll become obsessed. I nearly was with this book towards the end, which was incredibly fun. As for those characters, that’s where this book shines. First off, I really didn’t like Jezal. I don’t think we’re meant to, honestly. For me, I cared the least about him, I didn’t find his story that engaging, and I ended up skimming some of his sections. Abercrombie nailed Jezal’s character: haughty nobel with no idea how insufferable he is. I hope he grows. I hope in the next book his story is a bit more interesting. He’s the only character I didn’t like and sighed each time I came to one of his chapters. Logen. Now, he was a favorite of mine pretty quickly. I not only loved his character, but he had a fun story: traveling, fighting, action. His journey held my interests the most of all the characters. That’s not to say he was my all time favorite, just that his story was. I tend to like traveling with characters and seeing the world. Glokta, my favorite character of the whole book. I can’t say enough amazing things about him, but I don’t want to ruin how well Abercrombie rolls out his entrance in the book. I’ll just say that I loved him. I wanted to be in his PoV just to hear his internal thoughts. However, his storyline wasn’t as interesting to me as Logen’s. It’s just a matter of personal tastes on that one. As I said, I like traveling and exploring. I tend to grow bored with political intrigue, which is where Glokta’s story unfolds. Shame. Not to say the intrigue wasn’t good, it was, it’s just not something that can get me flipping through pages in excitement. Regardless, I never shied away from his PoV like I did Jezal. The other characters were done well. I think in the next book West will play a bigger role which I’m actually excited about. I liked him from the start and as the book grew, he became one of the PoV’s I was excited to read, especially as his role in the unfolding story becomes more important. We see sides to him I would never had guessed. Brilliantly done. Abercrombie’s writing took me a few chapters to adjust to. Most of the longer reads of late have been very poetic almost, the prose reading smoothly and, at times, flowery. I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of a way to describe Abercrombie’s writing and the closest I can get is delightfully choppy. Harsh maybe, compared to the others. It kinda reminds me of Logen, honestly. It’s how I would imagine him writing a book. Though it took me a bit to adjust, once I did I was completely enraptured by it. I hit my stride and found that I thoroughly enjoyed his style. There was something alluring to it, something that made me feel entrenched in the story when reading. So overall, a bit of a yo-yo effect for me, but it ended on a high. I’m very excited to pick up the next book. Matter of fact, I’m aching to, but I’ve got two I need to read before I can carry on with the series. But as soon as I can, I’m buying the second book. This is one of those reads that would be enjoyed by a wide range of readers.

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*Product available on Desertcart Japan*
*Store origin: JP*
*Last updated: 2026-02-22*