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The Blade Itself
- The First Law: Book One
- Lu par : Steven Pacey
- Durée : 22 h et 15 min
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Description
Inquisitor Glokta, a crippled and bitter relic of the last war, former fencing champion turned torturer, is trapped in a twisted and broken body - not that he allows it to distract him from his daily routine of torturing smugglers.
Nobleman, dashing officer and would-be fencing champion Captain Jezal dan Luthar is living a life of ease by cheating his friends at cards. Vain and shallow, the biggest blot on his horizon is having to get out of bed in the morning to train with obsessive and boring old men. And Logen Ninefingers, an infamous warrior with a bloody past, is about to wake up with plans to settle a blood feud with Bethod, the new King of the Northmen, once and for all - ideally by running away from it.
But as he's discovering, old habits die hard....especially when Bayaz gets involved. An old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Glokta, Jezal, and Logen a whole lot more difficult....
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Moyenne des évaluations utilisateurs. Seuls les utilisateurs ayant écouté le titre peuvent laisser une évaluation.Commentaires - Veuillez sélectionner les onglets ci-dessous pour changer la provenance des commentaires.
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- DE LAZZARI Océane
- 28/12/2022
Super narrateur mais histoire pas à mon goût
Très bon narrateur mais je n'ai pas adhéré à l'histoire. Trop complexe si vous n'avez pas un certain niveau en anglais.
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- Client d'Amazon
- 19/06/2021
Histoire incroyable
Le meilleur roman de fantasy que j'ai lu depuis longtemps. Tous les personnages sont très credibles et intéressants. Il n'y a pas de vénération des heros ici comme dans les vieilles formules fatiguées qu'on a vu plein de fois avec ce type de livre dans le passé.
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- Chairswirl
- 09/06/2021
Recommend wholeheartedly
Great start to a certainty epic story with superb voice-acting mixing action, suspense, humor, mystery, and much more... The inventive and diverse characters are well-developed. The good guys’ motivations aren’t totally good and the bad guys’ motivations aren’t totally bad. The multiple pov storytelling is really well-executed. At times it is just hilarious without ever falling into parody. If you already love fantasy or are looking for an entry into the genre I recommend this book wholeheartedly. I didn’t hesitate a second to purchase the next book in the series!
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- Utilisateur anonyme
- 15/04/2020
Grim dark fantasy with great voice acting !
The Book is a bit slow and is more of an introduction to the world, where things slowly get in motion. I did enjoy it very much, the writting is crisp, a bit grim and smart. The characters and their inner monologues a lot of fun and really set the tone. Really impressed by the actions scenes that are very vivid, usually I find those quite hard to enjoy in Books.
Steven Pacey really brings it all to life, his performance is amazing, top notch !! Probably one of the best I've heard.
overall a great novel, jumping in the sequel right away.
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- Jefferson
- 30/01/2013
Violent, Ironic, and Absorbing Epic Fantasy Noir
In Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself (2006), swords, knives, axes, maces, spears, staves, bows, crossbows, tongs, chisels, lumber, fists, feet, arms, legs, teeth, and magical force all are put to bloody use during scenes of cinematic graphic violence ranging in scale from arrests and interrogations to ambushes and skirmishes (full scale battles are sure to come in the second or third novels in Abercrombie's epic fantasy noir First Law trilogy). But good as Abercrombie is with a blade, he really excels at character development, irony, and humor.
The Blade Itself focuses on the troubles of the Union: the king is senile, his callow sons are unfit to lead after him, squabbling factions weaken the government, the over-taxed peasants are restive, the Northmen have invaded from the north, and the Gurkhul Empire is preparing to attack from the south. Into this situation Joe Abercrombie introduces three main point of view characters, each of whom is darkly delightful to follow.
--Logen Ninefingers, the most feared warrior of the North, is a killer who has come to regret his bloodthirsty youthful exploits. Surprisingly for a "barbarian," he is philosophical and open-minded--but look out if his Mr. Hyde berserker alter-ego the Bloody Nine surfaces! Acting on advice from spirits, Logen heads south to meet a mage who's seeking him. What will he make of civilization and it of him?
--Sand dan Glokta sourly remembers his glory days as the champion swordsman and star noble of the Union, which ended during the last war against the Gurkhul Empire when he was captured and tortured for two years. Now thirty-five, he is an ostracized, cynical cripple, limping around in constant pain as an Inquisitor for the Inquisition. Glokta regularly asks himself why he's doing what he does, even as he tortures confessions out of small fry "traitors" like plump merchants. Will he ever uncover the true enemies of the state?
--And Captain Jezal dan Luthar is a vain, snobbish, and lazily ambitious nobleman, expert in winning his fellow officers' money in cards and leading them in drunken debauchery. Does he have the desire required to train seriously enough to win the Union's annual swordsmanship competition? Will he ever fall in love or mature?
Abercrombie writes interesting supporting characters, too, among them Major Callem West, a farmer's son who rose through the ranks by dint of hard work and courage; Ardee West, Callem's intelligent and frustrated sister, who chafes at being limited to a woman's role; the Dogman, the scout for a band of Northern outlaws who believe their chief, Logen, is dead; Ferro, a black-skinned, yellow-eyed, snarling female ex-slave criminal warrior who lives for revenge; and Bayaz, the centuries-old, legendary First of the Magi who thinks that world affairs could use a little wizardly aid again. The Blade Itself is great fun when its characters--each with different cultures, backgrounds, personalities, prejudices, and agendas--spend time together.
With rich irony, Luthar and Glokta see the powerful mage Bayaz as an "old lunatic" or an "old fraud." The caustic thoughts of Luthar and Glokta often hilariously contradict what they say, especially when kowtowing to superiors. Logen has some great lines, too, as when Bayaz explains to him that civilized people enjoy the theater, and he says, "Stories? Some people have too much time on their hands." There are plenty of funny similes, as when Bayaz sends an obnoxious Northern prince packing with "a face as red as a slapped arse." There are plenty of pointedly comical situations, too, as when Bayaz leads his gormless apprentice and Logen into a theatrical supply shop to buy gaudy costumes with which to convincingly play their real roles. Even the action scenes have funny touches, as when Ferro and Logen are being chased over city roof tops by persistent Inquisition "Practicals," and they crash through a roof and land in a bed in a room and Logen thinks, "In bed with a woman again, at last."
Stephen Pacey reads the novel masterfully, turning a four star work into a five star one through his use of different voices and accents for the characters from different cultures and backgrounds. He gives Glokta a gap-toothed lisp, Bayaz a John Geilgud-esque sly grandeur, Logen a Northern England accent, Ferro a feral attitude, and so on, each choice entertainingly enhancing Abercrombie's characterizations.
The Blade Itself does have plenty of typical features of the epic fantasy genre, such as the identity-less, Orc-like Shanka overrunning the far north, the evil Prophet sending evil cannibal mages on evil missions, and the varied group of people preparing to go on a vital and dangerous quest led by an old wizard. But Abercrombie gives the genre a fresh spin with his anti-hero heroes, unpredictable plot developments, irony, and entertaining imagination.
46 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- Eugene
- 05/08/2010
Great Book
I have listened to a ton of Fantasy based novels from George RR Martian to Jim Butcher. This author in this series is as good as any of them. You will not be disappointed with this book! The reader is great and the story line is well thought out. I have to say that I am especially impressed with the characters as each one of them has there positive as well as negative attributes.
42 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- Steven
- 17/09/2010
Steven Pacey is magnificient.
I've listened to many audio books and in my opinion Steven Pacey is in a league of his own. The characters come to life in his voice. But even a good narrator must have something with which to work. The Blade Itself lends a wonderful story to a magnificient voice. If one loves fantasy one must own this title.
32 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- Lauri
- 05/09/2010
Great Potential, but Book One Doesn't Stand Alone
Book one is well written, has interesting characters and is very well read. It serves to build the characters, twine them together and set the stage for a great epic resolution. Just as the reader is prepared for great battles and great twists of fate that will surely bring all the characters together again - book one ends leaving only questions and no resolutions.
This book is not a waste of your time or your credit, but you'll be disappointed if you don't have book two and possibly book three to step into.
30 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- Tom
- 12/08/2010
Great Listen!!
What a Great book!. The Story is very smooth. The Characters are well developed and likable. Its got all you want in a fantasy book. Blood, guts, magic, heroes and villains. its got alot of action and some good humor blended in. The narrator does a great job. cant wait to listen to the next two books. And im sure if your a Geaorge RR Martain fan..you will enjoy this too.
28 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- David
- 09/11/2010
Thrilling ordeal
Abercrombie uses this book to assemble his cast of characters, and a fascinating and irresistible crew they are. Flawed, idiosyncratic, dangerous and often quite funny when they least mean to be, they have been dragged kicking and screaming into his tale and, by the end of the book, he has them all moving reluctantly in the same direction. The wonder is that, while we know the "real" story has not even begun yet, he has already ushered us through a harrowing and thrilling ordeal filled with brilliant detail. Simultaneously, along the way, he has introduced us to a fully imagined world which is remarkably convincing. And as several other reviewers have remarked, not the least of the attraction is that the characters we meet are complex and unlikely heroes.
I bought this audiobook because I so enjoyed "Best Served Cold," by the same author. I was slightly apprehensive because a part of the attraction of that book was the narrator, Michael Page, who did a superb job. I was a bit sad that he was not the narrator for this one as well. To my amazement I found that Steven Pacey was at least Page's equal and perhaps even a demi-shade better. This is a wonderful marriage of great writing and great reading.
I am going to have to delay reading the second and third books in this series because I am loathe to have the whole thing end. Anticipation will heighten the experience, I think. In any event, Abercrombie is now among my very favorite authors of this genre.
27 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- Lanfear
- 02/03/2011
Finally,more adult fantasy!
I cannot say enough about this series...except I want more! I am a big fan of Robert Jordan and GRRM and was beginning to despair that the rest were all for "young adults." Joe Abercrombie doesn't hold back. I was swept up in a world that was realistic and fantastic at the same time. Some people complain about the language but the use of "foul language" keeps you rooted in the world. This is a dark and gritty tale meant for adults. This is a must read for GRRM fans! You'll find yourself loving and hating characters at the same time much like you do in A Song of Ice and Fire! Narration was excellent!
24 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- Marlene Monacoli
- 02/09/2010
Just a great a book....
This is just a great book and an excellent begining to a promising triology. All the elements are here...excellently written, superb narration, multidimensional characters, a large world, magic, violence, romance, war, and politics. Sometimes funny, always engaging and thoroughly enjoyable…sucks you in and pins you there as you ride along with the story. Easily on par with Mistborn, A Song of Fire and Ice and The Wheel of Time. Can't wait to hear books 2 and 3.
22 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- Kindle Customer
- 15/09/2010
It's terrible
I'm a fantasy buff, but I'm left scratching my head at the high rating on this one. I thought it was terrible. Not poorly written - boring. Between the torturer, the playboy and the whining soldier, I felt absolutely no connection with the characters. Furthermore, there are no female characters within the first two hours or likeable qualities in the main characters. I say two hours because that's when I quit. Save your money and get Sanderson's new Way of the Kings instead. That's a great listen.
14 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- Lore
- 02/03/2013
Great listen! Perfect combo of author & narrator.
Joe Abercrombie has created a cast of characters that just ooze personality and Steven Pacey has brought them to life with a wide array of engaging voices. This is the first book I have listened to involving either Joe or Steven but it certainly won't be the last!
There are 3 main point-of-view characters in the Blade Itself:
The first is Logen Ninefingers, a Northman known as "The Bloody-Nine." The nickname comes from the wake of corpses he has left in his past as well as the fact that he is missing one of his fingers. Logen has a surprisingly easy going personality for someone with his bloody history and is often surprised by the fact that he is "still alive" whenever he survives yet another life threatening encounter.
Inquisitor Glokta is a bitter, crippled torturer who would like nothing more than to torture whoever it was that invented stairs, which are the bane of his existence. He learned how to torture and break people first hand when he was a prisoner of war and it was done to him. He bears many permanent handicaps including the fact that half his teeth were removed in such a way that his remaining upper and lower teeth never overlap and he cannot chew solid food.
And finally, Jezal dan Luthar, is an arrogant, self-centered nobleman who has every advantage in life and takes it all for granted. He is a promising swordsman who really doesn't want to work hard to realize his true potential. His father's wealth has provided him an entry into the Contest, the most prestigious fencing tournament in the Union, and he seems determined to embarrass his family name and throw this opportunity away.
What really amazed me about the book is none of these 3 main characters is all that likeable and their stereotypes are somewhat cliché in the fantasy genre. They have many undesirable traits, they act in unethical ways, and there is really no reason to like any of them, but I loved them all! It was the perfect combination of Joe Abercrombie's writing with Steven Pacey's reading that made we want to spend more time with each of them, learn more about their pasts, and find out what happens to them in the future.
Once Bayaz, the First of the Magi, entered into the picture things were building up to something special. Bayaz acts as a catalyst that turns everyone else's life upside down and he assembles many of the characters into an incompatible group of personalities for a purpose only he knows. I found myself ready to go on a grand adventure with this unlikely collection of individuals and then the book was over. This is the only reason I do not give this book a 5 star rating overall. It set the stage nicely, but then it just ended.
If you are looking for a single book experience then I must caution you against this book; however, if you want to be entertained and you are willing to commit to more than one book, then this is a credit well spent.
13 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- Allan Jensen
- 15/05/2015
Great series but not so great start
This book begins a great series. Unfortunately the book itself is not that good. It takes half the book over 10 hours, before you even get the first hints of anything resembling a plot, and more than two thirds through the book before even one of the main characters get anything resembling motivations for any of the things they do. By the end of it though, things are going great, there is a plot, and characters have motivations for what they do, and you can not wait to the get the next part.
The narrator is doing a good job. He misses few a paragraph pauses making scene-changes confusing, but he is still well above average.
7 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- Herr B.
- 04/11/2012
Hörvergnügen!
Die Handlung dieses Hörbuchs... ist irgendwie zweitrangig, zumindest für mich. Was diese Geschichte vorantreibt, sind die vielschichtigen Charaktere.
Allein der verkrüppelte Inquisitor Glokta, sein trocken sarkastischer Umgang mit seinem Zustand, sein fast schlangenartiges Winden durch die engen Pfade, die die Umstände und die Mächtigen ihm vorgeben, ist das reinste Hörvergnügen.
Und hier setzt die Brillanz von Steven Pacey an, der den Figuren akustisch viel Leben einhaucht. Er nimmt sich Zeit für die Personen, lässt jeden sehr eigen und ausdrucksvoll sprechen und die Handlung innerlich kommentieren.
Sein Inquisitor Glokta, klar und messerscharf in Gedanken einerseits, nach aussen zahnlos lispelnd, scheinbar buckelnd, aber durchtrieben und immer wieder für eine Überraschung bereit... macht einfach Spass.
Ähnlich wie bei Steven Fry, hat man auch bei Pacey nie das Gefühl, das er vorliest; er erzählt die Geschichte. Bei anderen Erzählern passiert es mir schon mal, dass ich gedanklich abschweife und evtl. zurückspulen muss; bei diesem Audiobook kein einziges mal.
6 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- Steffen S.
- 28/11/2020
mediocre book, with unappealing characters
This is a review of all three books. The series is well enough written so that I have listened till the end, and it has its thrilling and exciting moments. However, there are too many weaknesses to make it a good book. First of all, the overall story is too simple and mostly foreseeable. I have rarely been surprised by an unexpcted twist. All characters behave as expected. Extensive, bloody descriptions of fights, duels, skirmishes, battels become tiring after a while. The people on the good side are as bad as those on the bad side. In fact, the Union is so rotten, that I have whished sometimes it would loose the war. Thus, I have neither become comfortable with the characters nor with what they were struggling for (maybe except for Ferro and Dogman). Finally, the end is an imposition. Not really bad, but really unsatisfying.
The speaker, however, is brilliant! Unfortunaltly, a nice facade doesn't make up for a bad story.
I will certainly neither listen to nor read another book of Joe Abercrombie.
5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- Lauritz
- 03/03/2014
Amazing characters and a brilliant narrator
Story:
What seems like a decent fantasy-story quickly becomes one of the best you will ever hear - not because it has a fancy story with twists and turns, but because every single character has a some kind of an extremely big quirk. There are no shiny heroes you can rely upon, no knights on white horses, no typical moralizers, but likeable and at the same time hateable anti heroes. And that's what this book is mainly build around.
Narrator:
Though at the beginning Steven Pacey seems hard to listen to (a bit too monotone and fast when he is "just" narrating), he excels later on, when he develops the characters. Almost always you know which person is talking, because each one is impersonated brilliantly by him and this is - so far - the best narrator I've experienced.
4 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- BikerJoe
- 03/10/2014
Solid Epic Phantasy
The Blade itself is the first novel of the trilogy 'The First Law'. Abercrombie's style and narrative is the closest I could find so far to R.R. Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire'. It does not have the complexity and depth, but it has its own value.
5 characters dominate the scene:
Logan Ninefingers, a fierce fighter from the North, who struggles with the demons of his past, running away from violence, but attracting it nonetheless.
Inquisitor Glokta, a former war hero and dashing swordsman, but a crippled bitter man now. He has a lot in common with Tyrion Lannister, outwardly cruel and cynic, he often enough seems to be more human than most of the noblemen and leaders around him.
Jezal dan Luthar, a vane, arrogant and superficial young officer, whom fate pulls out of his comfortable shell and throws into the midst of adventure and peril.
Bayaz, the first of the Magi, a powerful and intriguing old wizard. Dangerous and unpredictable in his wrath, he sets out with his small group of compagnions to save the world.
Ferro Maljinn, the most bizarre character of the group, vicious and incredibly violent, constantly on the look out for a fight.
Bayaz, Logan, Jezal and Ferro prepare for an epic journey to the end of the world to find the ultimate weapon, which would save the empire, while Glotka plays his game of intrigue, corruption and lies to keep the powers within the empire in balance.
Fast moving story, action packed scenes, some surprising twists and turns, all in all a great read
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- Monopod
- 22/08/2012
Teils etwas zäh.
Eigentlich kommt die Geschichte recht schnell in Gang - bis man feststellt, dass es nicht nur die Geschichte einer Figur gibt sondern mehrerer Figuren.
Eine ganze Weile wartet man darauf, dass sich die Erzählung dem Höhepunkt nähert und sich die Figuren "treffen" und ein fulminantes Erlebnis haben.
Nach vielen Irrungen und Wirrungen sind die Protagonisten nach gut 20 Stunden Hörerlebnis nun endlich als "Reisegruppe" zusammengestellt und machen sich auf in ein anderes Land. Ich hoffe Band 2 sorgt bei mir für mehr Klarheit.
2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
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- M.S.
- 26/04/2022
Unterhaltung pur
Die Geschichte und Charaktere selbst sind weder neu noch aufgefallen, allerdings erschafft sie der Autor mit einer bemerkenswerten Leichtigkeit und Tiefe. Ich bin bestens unterhalten worden und musste oft Lachen und kann mir kein besseres Kompliment für Qualität denken. Daher eine klare Empfehlung meinerseits.
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- claustrophobicmole
- 24/07/2023
outstanding
the first law series is a masterpiece of dark storytelling.
no noble heroes, no invincible masters, no good nor evil, just petty flaws, incompetence, bad decisions and lots of blood.
abercrombie creates a lot of utterly unique characters, some of which - even with all their flaws - often manage to be likable.
the narrator is brilliant in his inflections and diversity of accents and voices.
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- Oliver Hofgärtner
- 01/05/2023
A blast!
Absolutely stunning piece of fantasy, JA weaves an intricate web of foreshadowing and character-development. Read it back in the day when it came out, got back to relisten and it’s just enhanced so much by an fantastic narrator.
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- Brettchen
- 27/10/2022
Boring
The Blade Itself was recommended to me as "grimdark fantasy". to me it read more like Terry Pratchet minus the funny. After listening to the Audiobook for a few hours I checked the internet to see if anyone else found it as boring as I did. Some sites told me it would get better in the second book and I should just "keep going". I won't.