I messed up the audio a little bit on this video. The next one will have the same problem. But then after that we are BACK baby!

Glotka's inner monologues are some of the best parts of any book ever.."body found floating in a river...."

I love this series. I once had the opportunity to go to a Q and A session with Joe Abercrombie at a big bookstore and he was a really entertaining and funny guy. He even signed my copy of The Blade Itself.

I just did a reread of this book in December, this time along with the Pacey narration and also feel it improved the overall rating of this book. I'm not big into audiobooks but so happy I did it with this reread.

I agree, currently on my first re-read and im just blown away by all the references and foreshadowing that flew over my head the first time. This series deserves to be reread, a few times probably. (Which i honestly didn't expect).

This got me so excited to go back. Loved my first read of this trilogy and want to get back to it. I want to do the other ones in that world too. Just amazing characters.

I'm planning on reading this soon and your video just made me even more excited about it. There is something special about writers who can pull off very dark characters and make the reader root for them, the Bourbon Kid series will always be my fav for this type of character. Thanks for the video :)

This is one of my favourite fantasy series, and I originally read it on Kindle. I have heard so many good things about the audio version that I think I need to go back and “re-read” this via audio.

Yes I couldn’t understand anything until I pulled out my one ear bud and listened to it on the phones speakers. Totally agree on this review. I actually just downloaded the audiobook before I knew how lauded it is. Such an amazing series and gripping tale, but the audio book is definitely 10/10. I love it, great review!

Love the series, and this is coming from a main science fiction reader.

Definitely my next read! Awesome review mate

This is great video!! Happy reading to you!! 📖🎥

Can’t wait for you to get to The Hero’s on Audio it was honestly my favorite stand alone because of the Audiobook

Dang what an amazing review. I felt the exact same way about the book/audiobook, and look forward to my own eventual reread!

Joe Abercrombie is the best.

No way you did a review on this! I just started reading this the other day on audiobook, I'm on chapter 9 :D

At 4:57 I expected a Brian Lee Durfee “don’t worry I’ll edit that out.” 😂😂

I finally convinced my brother n law to listen to the First Law Trilogy and he enjoyed it so much that he is never reading a physical book again, Pacey converted him to an audio listener! Once you have to get the bifocals on the glasses it just make sense.

Easily my favorite fantasy series and collection of audiobooks from start to finish. This really has me excited for the future of audiobooks in general. Do you have any recs (fantasy or non fantasy) for similar audiobooks with similar quality of narration, maturity, and characterization? Big fan of the channel, Matt! Thank you for a great review

Wait a minute. Audiobook has Glokta voiced with lisp? Wow 😮 In the books his dialogues don't have it. It's Frost that has heavy lisp. I'm reading the first trilogy for the first time, currently took a break in the middle of The Last Argument of Kings and I absolutely love the writing style. It feels so effortless but no one else does it like Abercrombie. I'm definitely doing re-read via audiobooks.

I loved the book on first read and thought it was 1000% better on an audio re-read. Glokta's performance is magic. The lisp was so logical and yet I never would have thought of it. After you read book 3 this book gets so much better. A fair criticism is the plot isn't easily apparent, an unfair criticism is it doesn't have one. It doesn't have a generic quest plot in book one, but all the dominos are being set up beautifully.

Can’t wait to get to this series and now I feel like I’ll have to do it on audio!

Excellent review on an equally excellent book/series. I ran into this audiobook on KZfaq. Pacey just crushes these characters and the atmosphere. I do think this is the weaker of the three due to a lack luster plot. However, it is more than overshadowed by the exceptional character work by Abercrombie.

ordered my copy a couple days ago.

Audio sounds fine now. Gotta admit that while I loved the Glokta character I got tired of hearing that he is running his tongue over his gums. But of course it helps keep us in mind of his inner life.

Also rereading this on audio and enjoying it more

Totally a 5/5! Perfect book

Did you notice that at least one, if not several, of the duelists Jezal fights before Gorst make reappearances later in the series? The one I remember for sure meets with Vick in Styria in The Trouble With Peace

I’ll definitely be doing a re-read for the movie! If you listen to the audiobook, like you said… Clokta is phenomenal! I love the descriptions, because I myself am a quadriplegic and can relate to him on the page many times🤘🏼

Haven’t gotten around to the sequel trilogy yet, but hearing how good it is makes me itch for a First Law reread. This video might have pushed me over the edge and I’ll have to put it on the schedule😬

I love books by Joe Abercrombie (apart from Shattered Sea trilogy). Apparently, Best Served Cold is getting a movie adaptation

I 1000% agree! Especially with once you listen to it, nothing els really compares. Now going forward, all other audio books feel average lol

This is a fantastic series. Red country is my fav. Return off the bloody nine.

My first fantasy audiobooks were the lord of the rings by Andy Serkis and I don't know if I'll ever love a narrator as much as I love Serkis but maybe I'll try the age of madness in audiobook form

If you get a chance, watch the interview Captured in Words did with Joe and Stephen, especially the bit where Stephen does a reading of one of the books (I can’t remember which) - OH MY GOD, is that man talented! I’ll never forget it!

I tell anybody who will listen that Steven Pacey's reading of Sand dan Glokta, in particular, is one of the best performances in any medium ever recorded. Pacey is elite!

I just moved this up on my To Read list.😀

Spoilers and Slander of series in this comment this is your warning . . . . I have read the first trilogy and I really liked the characters especially Nine fingers and Glokta and it was an enjoyable read for me. However, I really don't understand why I hear many people saying this is their favorite Fantasy series of all time. The characters were very good however the plot seemed to be all over the place and make no sense to me. Like they went on a random long journey for a rock because some Wizard told them and then the rock wasn't even there. Glokta defended a city for a while at great cost just to stall for a bit because the higher ups told him to, in the end Byaz was the evil mastermind behind everything through the power of... finance and banking? I could name a bunch more things in the plot that just felt weird and random to me. Grim Dark is supposed to be more surprising because bad things can and will happen and this can make things more exciting because their is no absolute knowledge that the good guys will win. But there is a difference between bad things can happen and random plot lines for no real reason. Like at the end it implied Ninefingers died (I think I haven't read past the first trilogy) but rather than feel dismayed or surprised that a main character I was fond of died I just threw it on the pile of things that happened in the book for no real reason with no build up to it of which there were many. It just didn't feel like the plot had any point to it or underlying logic that a book should have. Now I still enjoyed the series but to me it played more like a comedy than a serious Fantasy book. I'd put it in A or B tier personally.

I’m on book 3 now and while it does retroactively make me like book 1 more seeing how all the pieces were laid in place, I also can’t help but feel like this should have all been spread out a bit more. Book 1 to me is still just so slow and if it wasn’t for the great writing and characters, there’s no way I would have gotten to book 3. I would have loved a bit of resolution to at least 1 of the minor plot lines, but book 1 really doesn’t have any kind of plot or resolution at all.

Came to this after watching the booktuber video. Unfortunately will not be staying😢 Wish you the best of luck

I must admit I didn't like this book. Mostly because pretty much nothing happens in it :D It's like first act of a story dragged out into whole novel. I'm glad I then read Best Served Cold so it got me hooked on Abercrombie, because otherwise Blade Itself would likelly be the last book of his I've ever read.

Matt doing ASMR, i am in for it

Spoiler. I would argue Logen is a gray character with a literal demon for an alternate personality. Maybe some would say that makes him black, but when he's in control he has a somehwat justifiable moral compass. I recently finished the first trilogy and I can't decide if Logen or Glokta was my favorite charcter.

If you're reading these books and not listening to them, then you're seriously missing out

A) Logen is a good (not morally gray) person and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise. The Bloody Nine, on the other hand . . . B) I was blown away with Glokta's narration. I love that he has a prominent lisp when speaking but doesn't when thinking. But another aspect of it is that there several times when he is dreaming, and he doesn't have a lisp there either. It's awesome

Do you listen at 1.0 speed or faster? I feel like over 1.25x speed it’s like listening to chipmunks

Yeah Steven pacey has killed other audiobooks for me, he's just too good

I’m currently 30% into the blade itself, and unfortunately I’m struggling. I’m just bored and the characters (so far) feel overhyped