The Blade Itself – Joe Abercrombie – Episode 89

The Buddies re-enter the world of sword and sorcery with the first book in Joe Abercrombie’s First Law Trilogy: The Blade Itself. The Buddies were left wanting more time with the characters in this darker fantasy novel, so there is a good chance they’ll be reading book two in the future. The Blade Itself follows a number of malcontents and dissentients, much like the Buddies and it got them talking about varying topics like: Caleb Williams, nicknames and would you rathers when it comes to morning routines. So gather your ‘named men’, start speaking to the spirits, and join us as we start in on The Blade Itself adventure.

 Intro (0:00-2:18)
Stock Up/Down (2:19-25:24)
Favorite Scene/Character (25:25-34:05)
Love/Hate (34:06-39:54)
Conclusion (39:55-42:33)

NEXT BOOK: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂

Alright, welcome back to Book Club.
I’m Dylan here with my friend Keith.
Ten fingers and ten toes, what’s up buddy?
Just a quick note to the listeners.
The conversation of the drunk is only interesting to the drunk.
A few glasses of wine can be the difference between finding a man hilarious, companion,
or an inseparable moron.
So to all the listeners out there, please get inebriated so you actually think this
is good and worth listening to.
Any other notes for them, even?
Is that a quote from the book?
Yeah.
There’s lots of good quotes in this book.
Well, here at the buddy book club we’re breaking down some bestsellers and this week we’ll
be discussing The Blade itself by Joe Abercrombie, which was published in I think 2007.
If you’d like to recommend a book for us to read or reach out to us on a past episode,
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subscribe.
You said we didn’t really bring it necessarily for slaughterhouse five and looking back,
I kind of think that as well.
It was a little bit heavy and a little odd and definitely like a high school book.
We both liked it, but it’s hard to get like passionate about something when talking about
the deaths of thousands and thousands of people and kind of why we stay away from that just
because we can get kind of bogged down in the reality unless your Matthew McConaughey’s
book, which is out there.
I still am never going to forget that he said he made a treehouse that was like 120 feet
in the air or something like that.
But this one, the Blade itself has been in the hopper for a while.
As I said before, you know, I love me some sword and sorcery.
So I’m excited to dive into this one with you.
I heard it was dark fantasy or something like that or it’s supposed to be like, you know,
imperfect characters that, you know, the moral ambiguity kind of thing as opposed to Lord
of the Rings where these are obviously good guys.
These are obviously bad guys.
The good guys are all good.
The bad guys are all bad and we just have it out, which is phenomenal, but this is a
little bit different job or crumbie’s first novel and the first novel in the first law
trilogy, 4.2 on Goodreads.
And I don’t know if you knew this, but it was based on the quote from Homer’s The Odyssey
are named after.
I don’t know based on, but the quote is the blade itself incites to deeds of violence.
Any who let’s get into some stock ups, stock down.
That’s what we’re here for.
Keith stock up.
What do you got?
Yeah, stock up, not being a morning person.
Galaktor who I think his name is spelt like a boss.
Yeah, it’s a lot.
It’s Galaktor.
His morning routine really makes you rethink waking up on that Monday and being like, Oh,
God, hungover.
You know, maybe you get a couple of Sunday pops really makes you rethink your life and
how bad it is when he’s waking up and he basically just can’t get out of bed because
he’s in so much pain and he’s just like suffering so much.
But there’s also something that he reveals there too, which I wanted to ask you a question
of what would you rather have every morning you wake up, you basically can’t get out of
bed for 15 minutes.
So you’re in so much pain or every morning you wake up, you shoot yourself, which is
clock-strated both of.
So what which one would you have every morning if you had a cheers?
It’s more about the cleanup with the poop in your pants as as I, you know, coming on my
five year anniversary of the last time I put my pants, the experience isn’t so bad, but
it’s really the cleanup effort is tough.
If you’re doing it every morning, I assume the shame kind of leaves too.
You don’t really have the same shame.
No, the shame would persist for sure.
Someone’s coming in there every day to like have to deal with your sheets and like, Oh,
my God, there’s poop all over these.
Is there anything worse?
Like I’d rather be throw up.
Have you ever woken up?
If you’ve ever had the flu or something and you’ve sweated in the bed and it’s just like
a puddle, you just want to like jump off your bridge after waking up in that.
It just starts the day so bad.
Can you imagine waking up and you’re like, I just call it a day.
I’m like, I’m not doing anything today.
Just the day’s over.
Yeah, I’m going to go for the 15 minutes.
It’s also probably a good way to not wake up in pain, but just, you know, spending 15
minutes to kind of stretch yourself out, you know, get ready for the day kind of thing.
I did enjoy how you started that off being like, when you wake up on a typical Monday,
hung over like that’s the thing.
Oh, I just get wasted on Sundays every day.
Yeah.
Well, to be fair, I wake up on Monday.
I don’t drink Sundays usually, but I wake up Monday hung over.
You were at past the age 30.
You just hung over from like a one slice of pizza too much last night.
I’m hung over, you know, or I like, I just didn’t get my beauty sleep.
I only got eight and a half hours.
Oh, I like that.
This new, this new age way of staying hung over because yeah, if I’m not even bed by
10 o’clock, then I’m hung over the next day.
Yeah, I’m in bed by 10 o’clock, but I’m not going to sleep till midnight just because
the Sunday scares.
I still get that.
I don’t think you can do it.
I just make it a little bit more out there.
All right.
I’m going to just get all of it.
No, it’s just I hate Mondays.
That’s all it is.
I figured out.
You gotta case the Mondays.
My first stock up is Caleb Williams.
First round pick, first overall pick probably, exactly.
First round pick first overall pick for those that don’t know, he’s a was a quarterback
for the USC Trojans.
He’s got it all.
You know, he he he showcased his talents and his offensive acumen over the last couple
years, people are really excited to see this guy enter the NFL draft and presumably go to
the Chicago Bears. Now they got assets. Basically what I’m saying is that there’s a ton of potential
with this guy, ton of potential. And that’s kind of how I feel about this book, the blade itself.
In itself, this book, it wasn’t a standalone book. You know what I mean? Yeah, the end of it.
A lot of times when we read these trilogies, like these fantasy trilogies, they leave you wanting
more, but they also kind of close up something that happened during that book. This wasn’t like
that. It was more of like an intermission. It was like the forming of the Fellowship of the Ring.
It’s like, and this is the Fellowship of the Ring. You’re like, okay, cool. And if the movie just
ended there and you had to wait another year, I’d be like, what the fuck? So what I’m trying to say
is that the book left me wanting more. It wasn’t a complete novel. I’m not upset about it because I
did like the book itself, but it set itself up in a way that there’s a ton of potential going
forward. And it’s almost like too much potential because I’m scared it won’t live up to it.
100% agree. I mean, we’ve said this before about other books that have ended in similar fashions.
If Star Wars just ended with nothing happening, it would have been like, well, this movie sucks.
You kind of need to end that first book, in my opinion. You should write it with the intent
that I’m not writing a sequel. And then if it’s amazing, then you write a sequel. If you think
of Mistborn, I don’t think they kill the main dude at the end. Yeah, he ends the portion of that
book. And you’re like, now there’s options to write the second one. The emperor doesn’t die.
Darth Vader doesn’t die in Star Wars. However, you’re invested because the story ends at least.
The only one I can think of in terms of like a fantasy thing where we read was
N.K. Jemisin’s the fifth season. That was my biggest complaint.
Oh, there’s a lot more. And yeah, the problem with that one to me was that
the characters weren’t as fleshed out as they were in this. Like I was not invested in it
whatsoever. I really couldn’t picture it necessarily. And that’s probably just us though too. Like a
lot of people seem to have like that book. It just didn’t hit with me. But that’s one I remember where
nothing really happened. And then I was like, wait, this is over? Like what? And I didn’t want to
read the second one. This one was more of just like a long intro, getting the characters really
fleshed out. And then now we’re going to go on our on our Epic Quest.
If I had it my way, I think it would have been either you the first 10 hours is basically the
first book of what we just read in the second 10 hours is the like them on the adventure. Or
you almost just start it when like the dining hall scene was like awesome. Be almost started
there. And then you flashback to how they got there as they go on the adventure, which you know,
a lot of other when they when they do stars will their bias play that one. Yeah, so they all come
together. And it’s like you almost were like, who are all these people that have come together in
this one room? And now they’re going to take off in this adventure. And then you kind of flash
back to like, Oh, here they who they are. And why they act this way. So you almost get a backstory
as you’re going. Because then you’re kind of on the adventure. Instead of just being like,
All right, there’s going to be a venture coming. It’s coming. Don’t worry. It’s coming.
Books are I did find it was kind of interesting that this book was 25 hours long and granted I
was doing a lot of yard work as I was listening to it. So I wasn’t quote unquote bored anyways.
But at no point did I feel like it was dragging the last quarter of it. It really seemed to pick
up steam. There was no point though I was where I was like, I need to keep listening. Like I can’t
stop now until the last quarter where I was like, all right, let’s go now. Now, now I’m ready. And
then I was starting getting worried. I was like looking at the time being like, wait a second.
What’s going on here? This is this knock. We’re going to get to what we need to get to.
All right. We’re going to talk more about this stuff. I’m sure. So what else do you have for
stock up? Well, I’m going to keep it right in the football world. Okay. You’re using those
analogies perfectly. Doc up Brian Dawkins, aka Weapon X. Have you seen these clips on YouTube
before his highlight tape? Yeah. So one of my favorite videos of him is interviewing him and
like his personality and they’re like talking about his like off the field and on the field.
And he turns into Weapon X, which is like Wolverine, essentially when he goes on the field outside
the field. He’s like this very religious, very humble, doesn’t curse. You know, everything he
does is very, very interesting, genuine and super, super nice guy. He also went to Clemson,
Harvard to the south. So you can tell he’s intelligent. He’s just a super nice dude. And then on the
field, he before the games, he starts speaking in tongues. He starts literally going crazy. He
oils up his muscles to make them look good. So he looks insane. And he starts speaking in tongues.
He starts speaking to the ball. There’s no like, there’s times where like camera hasn’t been
fun. They just catches him just talking to the ball. He’s just like, he’s like, we’re gonna
play well today. I need you to be on my side. And he’s just like whispering to the ball. And then
he starts speaking in tongues. There’s very, so much got to tell that guy. There’s like 12
different balls they play with in a game. So he’s got to go. He’s got to go. His side line’s going
to the other sideline get their balls. He just turns his whole different personality. And I
love it. I love the video. But that’s what the bloody night, when he turned out that switch,
I literally was laughing. I was like, this is the greatest thing ever when he just turned that
switch and became that psychopath. I mean, that was great. It was tough that that was,
again, that was the last hour of the book that happened. So I’m like, where was this the whole
time? Yeah, give me bloody night. We got Logan nine fingers. He was like super nice and like
probably the most kind person, not just nice, but like actually kind person in this book. But then
you didn’t understand his history. They were like, I don’t really see this guy. I mean, the guy that
won 10 doors. It doesn’t really make sense to me. And he’s like, everything’s luck. You know,
I just got lucky sometimes. I was like, yeah, I guess so. And then he turns into the bloody
night. And it’s like, some guys like, do you know who I am? He’s like, you’re the next one to die.
All right. Shit. When he headbudded the guy and they described it as a woodpecker.
Yeah. Just kept headbudding him over and over again. Awesome. Yeah. That’s a psychopath.
Well, it’s funny you say that because my next talk up was named men, which is the thing we’re
on the same path today. Let’s go. I had the same one, but yeah, which is just like a thing for the
Northman in this book. Some of the Northmen are named men. And I think you know, you have to
win some battles or you have to do something to distinguish yourself. I mean, we got the dog
man who just has a great nose. You know, he smells out the other guy. So it’s like, all right,
he’s the dog man. Got it. Logan nine fingers, pretty self explanatory. We didn’t learn a lot
about the origins of some of the other named men, but being a named man is it’s just badass.
And I’m not sure why we don’t have that in our culture. I feel like even in sports,
it’s fallen off. You did use Brian Dawkins as Weapon X, which I appreciate. But we used to have
Babe Ruth, the great Bambino, the Colossus of clout. And I was trying to think about who we have
today. I never thought of Brad, Brian Dawkins is a good one. And honestly, all I could think of was
the Oracle of Omaha, like Warren Buffett, which is more about that. He’s known as the Oracle of
Omaha, which is a great nickname, the named man. That’s that’s not bad. But can you think of any
other ones? I mean, you already shared Brian Dawkins. So what’s the difference to sanction
between his eyes that stock up nicknames? What do you think the distinction between name man
and nicknames is a nickname is just a thing where a name has to be due to something like something
you did. For example, in American pie, the one guy who has to go home to poop every time he can’t
poop at school, his nickname is shit break, because he has to take a shit break during school,
which I appreciate that is a named man. You know, it’s not like a it’s a nickname, but he’s it’s
a name because of the distinction between the two. It’s due to do it. Well, if you’re saying
a mind nickname is demon, that’s just like my first letter of my first name plus man. Okay,
I see her saying. Yeah. So it’s an action that’s created a new nickname for that person. Yeah,
like our friend, whose last name is Poochy. We call him pooch. That’s not if you walked around
barked, that would make more sense. But it’s just a nickname. Like the mailman Carl Malone always
delivers. That’s a good one. Yeah, there you go. So yeah, that was that was that was my that was my
stock up. Amen. Let’s let’s do more of it people. Yeah, I’ll add to is that the group of dogman,
three trees, black dow, thunderhead. Yeah. And then uh, forlty the weakest. Yeah, I felt that
before. Yeah. The only thing I would have commented on is like, give me more of them. I didn’t really
want to hear about Luther anymore. I haven’t said that’s before, but I don’t care about a
character that just complains all the time, which that’s what Luther was. He just didn’t
hand it everything in life. And he was just still complaining. And I was like, all right,
I get it. This guy’s a huge bitch. I don’t want to hear anymore about him. Give me these guys.
Give me these five guys what they’re doing in the woods. I couldn’t agree with you more. I was
I was excited for them to meet back up. It almost seemed like they were having a side quest,
but now they’ve seen the flatheads. They know these flatheads are coming for
the Northmen. So they go to let Bethad know, hey, Bethad, just FYI know we’re not in good terms,
but I just want you to know like these flatheads are coming for you. And instead they just kill
our boy Forley and threw our guys over. But the good thing is that now their mentality is we have
to go fight Bethad no matter what, even if we’re fighting for the union. And I think I’m almost
certain that in future novels, we get a lot more of that group. My last stock up was Game of Thrones
and I feel like this book may have taken some inspiration from Game of Thrones just in general
of a King of the North and the Chaka or the flatheads who were talking about their
a humanoid race similar to Orcs kind of, I guess, but they live mostly in the North and want to
kill everything. Sounds a lot like White Walkers to me. I’m not saying at all that Joe Abercrombie
ripped off George RR, but I do feel I was thinking it was more like the Mistborn creatures that the
Emperor had built, right? The things that the skins like peeling off and things like that, right?
Colosse, the Colosse. Yeah, and all they do is tack. That’s all they’re like known for. And
that’s what it sounded like these people were as well. Right. So maybe it’s somewhat of like a
ubiquitous thing throughout fantasy, but more of my of my stock up was just that and it really
not stock up to Game of Thrones, but at this point, I think Game of Thrones, there was like a break
in between books and he took long breaks between books. So if you were a Game of Thrones fan at
this time, like 2007, and you stumbled upon this, it would have really scratched the niche for you,
I think. So stock down, what do you got? Getting compliments, stock down. Okay, you’re a big
compliment guy. You know, you’re really good looking. Thank you. All right, never mind. It’s
back to stock. Thank you. Didn’t do like a, you know what? Actually, sometimes you need it, kid.
Okay, well, it’s nice to hear once in a while. I’ve told you before, like, I got complimented in
2008 on a shirt color, I wore and that color like blue looks good with your eyes. And I was like,
Oh, okay. And then every single thing I bought from then on out to this day is blue. And all it
takes is one comic. That’s that’s not rare. It’s honestly really true. I guess it’s
stock down in this instance, because comments can kind of make you a little bit set in your ways,
or you know, don’t know how that hunger. It’s a quick snippet of the books you might have missed
this. But they’re talking about the great hall of like the banquet hall or whatever, and how
there’s a stage built there. And the reason that they build those different kings of views,
different things for it. So there’s like entertainment or some pieces for torture. But by far, the best
one was the one of the kings hired people that looked like his enemies. And during breakfast,
they would just hurl insults at him. And he would just like shit on him. And the reason he did that
was to keep that like the hate and anger. Yeah, it was all I do remember that. And I was like,
wow, this is Michael Jordan right here. Yeah, this is exactly what you need. Yeah, Brady would do
the same thing. You know, they’re all the great. So really appreciated that. And keep the hate
coming and keep keep the anger that fire and the belly and deed my first stock down. And it’s been
discussed in this pod before. So you might have to Google it if you’re not familiar, because I’m
not going to explain it is edging. So that’s what’s called right? Correct. You know, it’s called
Get Out of Here. Come on. So to me, this is a whole book of edging. You think something big is going
to happen. And you’re waiting for the moment of the clouds in the rain, C Shogun. But nothing
ever comes literally. Big difference too is instead of being two minutes, it’s 20 hours. So yeah,
some tantric love going on right there. And it’s all entertaining and definitely a page turner.
But for what I assumed was going to be an epic story, it’s not. It’s pretty small in scope. We’re
really just dealing with Addua here in terms of this whole world. The vast majority of the story
happens in Addua with like some brief moments in the north. And anytime that something kind of gets
going, even the the fencing match matches, I was like, Oh, okay, this is going to be like a night’s
tale. And like it’s going to be built around this. But then they skipped a couple and it was just
kind of like flash forward to him winning. And the last one, I mean, it was interesting, but it wasn’t
epic at all. And then they get to buy as comes the city. And they’re he’s like, okay, I got the
key to the house of the maker, which hasn’t been opened in centuries. It’s like, this is going to
be something’s going to be in there. This is going to be crazy. And they bring out a box. It’s like
that that was it. Don’t go down that way. No, don’t go down there. All right, take this box. Let’s go.
What’s in the box? What’s in that box? And then our boy, Glockda, Glockda from Glosta,
you know, the Andy sent away to a city that’s fighting the gurkish. We don’t know who were the
gurkish. We don’t know anything about them. We just know that like they held Pharaoh. And I think they
were the ones that had glockda in prison, because I think it was the emperor of Gurka or whatever,
had Glockda as his prisoner. So it seemed like at every step, we were going to get some crazy
stuff going down, especially with a cold open of Logan nine fingers fighting off a bunch of flat
heads and then jumping off of a cliff, which was another potential stop up for me is like falling
off of a cliff. You know, he does it, Ergorn does it. I think Indiana Jones has done it like 30 times.
It doesn’t do anything. Just jump off a cliff. You can’t nothing bad can happen to you. Never,
ever happens. So back to my edging though, it didn’t fulfill that need that we kind of talked
about earlier, but at the same time, I liked every minute of it. I really enjoyed it.
I had some lost vibes with it where as you got further and further into it, you thought,
okay, some of these questions will be answered. And it just more questions became apparent.
Wait, there’s more wizards? Oh, and they’re going to this weird hall and you know,
it just keeps on opening, opening up. Yeah, especially when they’re talking about Bias,
who’s the first of the Magi, he had his teacher or whatever, then these like the first people who
are the first creatures in this land or whatever the case was. And the idea of the first law being
don’t touch the other side, they go to the other side to pull magic over because the other side’s
where the demons are. I was like, Oh, okay, this is going to be cool. Because there’s going to be
something along with that. But we didn’t necessarily get it. And a lost vibes is a good take on this
because so many seeds were planted that I’m hoping that we can sow them all. But it’s also like,
there’s so many seeds that I kind of forget a lot of what they were trying to sell me.
You almost forget which questions you haven’t been answered yet. Yeah, exactly. Like it was like,
Oh, that was interesting. But I’m probably going to forget about it immediately.
And we also don’t know none of the motives for why this crew isn’t even in the crew. And that’s
we’re 20 hours of the book. You know what I mean? Like, which is fine if there was some story that
was resolved. But yeah, obviously, Baez handpicked them to be in this crew. But for what purpose and
I mean, it all makes me definitely want to read the second one because I liked the characters so
much. And I think that’s something that we haven’t really necessarily talked about. But we’ll talk
about that. So what else would you have for stock down? Yeah, last one was just standing out in a
group stock down. You just never really want this. I’ve realized because either you’re the worst in
the group and everyone just makes funny you a K for the weakest or you’re the leader. And everyone
expects you to know the decisions and then you have all the blame. So I feel like you’re just in the
middle of the pack and you’re just kind of you can be the one making fun of the person below you.
You mean one blaming the person above. Yeah, middle management. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Exactly. Just passing the book everywhere you can. Not my fault as a person that’s below me that
messed up. We’ll have to get rid of them or not my fault. You’re not going to raise the person
above me. You know, that’s just the key to middle management is those all it comes down to. Exactly.
That’s a good take. I like that. Yeah, thank you. It’s always going to work for me. Shit rolls
downhill. But if you’re somewhere in the middle of the hill, sometimes you can dive out of the way.
If you’re at the top of the hill, you’re pushing the shit. And if you’re at the bottom of the
hill, you’re getting smushed by shit and you’re living with it. Either way, you’re not waking up
with it in your pants. That’s the key. That’s the key to life, really. My last lockdown is long-term
commitments. So I’ve been dancing around this too. But I like this book and I do want to know more
about these characters. You know, we’ll Logan our infamous barbarian meet up with his buddies.
You know, why did Baez decide to come back to the city like now at this point in history?
What’s his plan? What’s the deal with Pharaoh? Why do they need her? What was it that she heals
fast or something? She’s her own version of Weapon X. Couldn’t inch, can’t see colors for
some reason that matters. I don’t know why that matters. But she seems super badass. I really
wish we had more Pharaoh. So I’m hoping we barely hung out with her at this point. So I’m hoping
we get a lot more. And then I’m at this point at the end of this book, I’m like, all right, cool.
I’m ready for this trilogy. I’m ready to finish it. I’m not doing any trilogies or series at this
point. I could be into this. I go look it up. It’s not only one trilogy. It’s two trilogies,
plus like 20 short stories. Oh, did I say my lockdown was long-term commitments? Because I’m
not in a place in my life to make that kind of commitment. Why did I say this? I’m talking about
books, obviously, not relationships. I love to missborn and red rising, which were both trilogies.
But it took me a year to get through each of those because I like to mix it up and see what
else is out there. And I’ve also been burned before. I’ve dived into promising trilogies,
just to get disappointed at the end after investing 60 plus hours. Don’t get me started on Game of
Thrones. I was obsessed over it for years. I read them after they come out. So I was kind of reading
one after another. But they still took so long to read because they’re massive books. And I’ve
been left standing at the altar by George R. R. since. So I will finish this trilogy, but I really hope
it gives me the closure that I need. Well, I will say just doing a quick look at the
ratings of the next two books, 4.4, 4.3. So higher than the first one.
The only thing is the problem with it like that is that if you didn’t like, you’re not going to
read the second and third. So it doesn’t really, you know, that’s the only problem with the sequels
as you never know with that. And then my last quick one, Stockdown, is the Golden Rule,
which is treat others as you want to be treated. It’s not enough, honestly. We need a second rule,
like they have in this book. Don’t eat human flesh. Maybe it can be the silver rule to the
Golden Rule. Eaters, these are, there’s eaters in this book, which they get powers. They get like
magical powers or something for eating human flesh. Maybe it should be the eighth rule.
So yeah, I think there’s, there’s only two laws that we know of so far. One is don’t go to the
other side, right? Or like don’t interact with the other side, which is the rule number one. And
then rule number two is don’t eat people. So pretty, pretty straightforward, honestly. Although
Logan has magical abilities. He talks to spirits. I was just smoking the gonjourm pretty sure, right?
I would have used with smoke something and be like, whoa, what’s up, man? You know, like the
spirits were like never given an opinion or anything. So I was like, you’re just talking to yourself.
He held that fire in his mouth and then spit it at that guy in order to chop his arm off,
which I thought was pretty badass. So the bloody nine has got tricks up his sleeve. You gotta,
you gotta be careful. Did you have a favorite scene? I mean, you talked about Luther’s,
I like the dinner scene a lot. That’s when things started to finally kind of click.
I just love a scene where one person knows her and they’re right. You just wait for that to play
out. I just really like the the bias. The scene ends with him breaking into its chair and everyone’s
like, no, that’s fine. That’s normal. I was like, what? It doesn’t everyone think he’s a wizard now?
Or is that just how are they still confused? Yeah, I didn’t get that part. Or the fact that
there clearly is magic because they went to that house, right? And they like, it’s just in the middle
of the what the the city and like no one can go in there. It’s a door that’s locked. There’s no key
or anything. But if anyone goes near it, they get sick. There’s something going on there. Like,
right? I don’t know. It could be like Chernobyl. Yeah. Just a nuclear bomb when officer they’re
like, well, I’m gonna stay away from this thing. Yeah, it seems like it’s a it’s like one of the
peaks of the castle. It’s in the castle itself. It’s just like it’s on a house that’s just like
sitting there. You know what I mean? It’s like up high in the castle. But yeah, I do agree. The thing
is though that magic hasn’t been seen for so long that people just forget that it’s even real. And
the idea that the real by as is here, considering there’s been so many people who have said there
by us, if it’s like a portly old guy who’s bald, you’re not like, this is the greatest wizard of
all time or the greatest magi of all time. You just say this is some guy who’s putting on airs.
I could see their skepticism, but especially with glauchta, when he sees that bomb go off in
that place, he’s like, thing exploded, dude. I don’t understand. Well, he obviously can see
the explosion, but the idea that he went and tested everything out with the scientists or
whatever and said, how much of this explosive powder would it take to go through a four foot wall
and then it’s like, what? Too much that’s even in the empire. So I feel like he’s a smart guy. He
should figure that out. Well, I think the problem with glauchta is he’s been trained to automatically.
I mean, they proved that well, like everything he does is this person’s guilty now, let me find
how they’re guilty, which is like a terrible way to be an investigator. So I know he’s supposed to
be smart, but I also think he’s kind of been trained to be an idiot. The traitor was like right
on another nose and he didn’t even consider that. Like the most obvious answer would be the one
person that has access to the slip of paper is the person that is the bad guy. And he was like,
nah, I can’t be that mischievous, someone else. Like, hmm, that’s a little weird.
My favorite scene, I think, was the Logan and Pharaoh when they fight off the inquisitors,
the inquisition or whatever. That was the practicals. Amazing. It felt like a fight
scene for Mission Impossible or like a Daniel Craig James Bond movie or the Matrix for that matter.
It was just brutal and awesome. It’s like going from building to rooftops, then into some field,
to then back into a building and then they’re stuck and just brutality ensues. So I thought
that was awesome, especially that it culminated in them getting back to the group. The inquisitors
showing up and bias coming out of the bathroom naked being like, what the hell’s going on here?
And then turning one of the practicals into what I’m saying.
And just like popping them into pink mist. And I was like, all right, uh, yes, we got to get out
of here. I honestly don’t know how Logan can move after that though. He was torn to pieces. So
they’re like, you know, we have to get on a ship now. It’s like, he needs a surgeon. This guy needs
he needs to be in a hospital bed for like 10 days. So it was awesome though. I really enjoyed that.
For sure. What about your character? So the thing I think that I loved most about this book in general
and maybe I’m spoiling my love, but the characters are so well established. He spent so much time
fleshing out these characters. You know exactly who they are by the end of this book where I hope
then we can just like get onto the plot devices and whatnot. But you know, they’re their motivations
as well. What drives them? I thought that each one you felt was interesting, but in its own way.
I always thought it was kind of hard to pick a character because between Logan,
Glockda, Luther, I’m with you. I didn’t like necessarily like him as a character, but I appreciated
that he was there. The author was able to put him in there because there’s like vain guy. I feel
like he’s going to get his come up ins a little bit and get humbled a little bit and then maybe
change his tune. And then obviously Baez, who’s wonderful in his own right. And Pharaoh, who we
barely even met. But who do you like? Yeah, I think once Baez tells Luther, yeah, the
owner is anyone because I made you in. Like he’ll, that’s going to humble him real with work. So
I’m looking forward to that. Baez is my favorite. This is like kind of probably a trope at this
point, but any wizard at this point, I feel like it seems to be old, babbling, humorous,
underestimated dude with a good sense humor that all of a sudden can turn dark real real quick.
And you’re like, Oh, shit, this person’s super powerful and super scary. That’s Gandalf. That’s
Dumbledore. That’s even Yoda. Like those are the like, they’re all like bumbling weird guys that
like, Oh, and then they’re like, you fuck around or you find out real quick. Yeah, like all three of
them love ripping pipes. They just fucking love the devil’s lettuce. So I think that’s in your
future. Do you know, 30 years from now, you’re gonna be ripping pipes, having been funny, then
you get on that pickleball ball core and people are going to find out real quick. I got pickleball
to more six 30 in the morning. It’s going to be this good. That is very dedicated. Some people
by the way, I was like six there. I was like, what time is like six 30? And like, you know that you’re
40 minutes away from me. I was like, all right, well, I have to go with glockda. I honestly think he’s
one of the best characters. Very rich enough. I’ve read. Yeah, I can’t think of a greater
character that I’ve read because he’s just so interesting. He was like an upper crust sword
fighting prodigy that the world comes crashing down on when he’s wounded and then captured at war
and tortured relentlessly. I also think the audiobook, like we built it, we both listened to the audiobook,
the narrator does such a good job with all of them, but especially him because the thing we forget is
that glockda doesn’t have many teeth. They did a fucked up thing where they basically gallomed him
where they broke the top or bottom tooth, but never like two in a row. So like you don’t have a
matching top tooth to your bottom tooth. So you can’t like eat things. It’s just, it’s so messed up
the way they torture it, but the narrator gives him a lisp that’s perfect, I feel like for his
character. Glockda is miserable, but he’s also hilarious. You get so many inner monologues with him
where he’s having these like quippy one liners too, and he feels like he’s the smartest guy in
the room surrounded by idiots, but also doesn’t want to live anymore. He’s like done with life.
And then you see his other side that he didn’t even know he had when him and West have that
moment towards the end. Glockda felt like I’m on an island, it’s just me against the world,
and I really don’t care if I lose. And then call him West who’s like his buddy, they have that heart
to heart. And I feel like Glockda’s taking a little turn here. So yeah, I just thought he was,
he was the most interesting, the funniest, and also I think you’re understanding, I think he’s got a
pretty keen eye. So, okay. Yeah. No, I like that, that’s pretty good. I also thought the audiobook
guy did a really good job because he does that list when he talks, when he’s thinking, you know,
like in the conversations he’ll be wanting to say something who doesn’t say it, you knew when he
wasn’t actually speaking because he would talk normally. So that made it so you could actually
understand when he was talking versus when he was wanting to say something he didn’t say. Next
level job by the narrator, I will also burn my hate here though. When he did Glockda,
and when he did Chamberlain Hoff, he sounded a lot like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons.
And it was funny as they both say excellent a lot, which Mr. Burns says, he was excellent.
And so it was like exactly like, I took me a little bit because the beginning is a lot of
Glockda and Chamberlain Hoff, you know, those like political scenes or whatever. And I was just
like, all I hear is Mr. Burns in my head. Love, hate, love, what do you got?
Yeah, I think we did a lot of them already. But love, you mentioned Glockda. One thing I
don’t think you mentioned was I do really like that someone that has been tortured is the only
one that should be tortured with people. Someone that’s been to war should be the only one sending
people to war, you know, because if you experienced it, he’s like, listen, I fucking been through this
fuck you, you know, so I actually can respect that someone that’s tasted their own medicine can
can dish out the medicine. He’s been so humbled that he doesn’t even care anymore. People, you know,
someone would be like, Oh, I feel pain. He’s like pain. Do you know what pain is? Like,
I shit myself in the morning when I wake up, like he’ll straight up say that to people. And he
hates stairs. He hates stairs so much, which is real. That’s his real item is stairs. So yeah,
I said that the characters, like I said, I love that. And then my only other love here was just,
there’s just funny lines and situations that happen, you know, mostly between Glockda and
Baez. I feel like they were the key contributors there. But in a fantasy genre, I guess that’s kind
of a bit doer, as they say in the book. It’s nice that you know, you can’t, you don’t necessarily
think all there’s going to be these like uplifting comedic moments. But Jarber probably found ways
to fit those in. And they were always enjoyable and didn’t feel like he was like stuffing something
that was kind of funny into a scene that didn’t really need it. It brought some some levity to it.
It was nice. You definitely felt like you were transported into this world and into these
characters. You didn’t just think like, okay, this needs to get to the next plot point, which
I know we’re criticizing that for the same reason. But at the same time, like you mentioned, you
really do hardly know the characters because you think you’re, you just feel like you’re in the
shoes almost. And you don’t think, all right, this is just to get to the story. Yeah, on the whole,
I mean, we’ve been grabbing a little bit about the plot points. And I think that’s fair. I think
that’s a fair assessment for this book. But on the whole, I liked it a lot. I don’t think it’s
going to break my top 10 or anything. But I liked it enough that I could, I really want to read the
next one. I really like the characters. I think he did such a good job setting them up that now
I’m excited to see them go on their journey. And hopefully it fulfills it. I think it’s almost
something that should be lauded because he was able to make such an interesting fantasy story
without a lot of the fantasy adventure elements that we expect from a book like this.
Again, that’s one of the biggest things we’ve criticized or at least I have in the past. Hey,
I need a story out here. And if you can keep me entertained and saying, you know what, I’m going
to get the second one a chance here too. You know, after not really delivering a true full complete
story, you know, that’s pretty impressive. What about hates? Don’t say plot. I think most of the
hates. I didn’t really understand Yuri brought up the artifact. I’m getting that. I didn’t know
idea what’s really going on with that scene. There was a little bit little meta for me or
something going on there. I don’t know what happened. Well, they got a seed. And for me, I thought
the seed was going to be like a child or something like that. Like, Oh, you know, like seed of his
loins kind of thing. But it was just like, I think there’s like an actual seed in a box. I don’t
know exactly. Maybe they’re going to grow a beanstalk and climb up and find a giant. So yeah, there
was some of that stuff I didn’t necessarily between that. And then I thought the political stuff was
good in that it showed us what’s happening in this main capital in terms of like who the players are.
But they ended up finding out it’s this law firm or whatever that might be behind a lot of this
corruption. But who’s running this law firm? Like the people don’t exist. I honestly wasn’t really
invested into that storyline. Maybe that’s going to change. But yeah, I don’t know. Like the whole
corruption aspect doesn’t really interest me a ton. Yeah, I agree. The I also thought the fencing
stuff was it was just not much stakes in it. I didn’t really care about Luther that much. It
wasn’t to the death. It was interesting that bias was able to help him win. But we don’t know for
what reason, you know, so it was just like a lot of buildup for not really good payoff in my opinion.
I was a little disappointed that the only character that seemed likable and you know,
one to root for was Wes. But by the end of the book, Wes was like the worst character. I was like,
oh, this dude sucks. He basically is constraining his sister but not helping her in any way. Didn’t
save her from her dad. Then chokes her out at the end of the book. I was like, oh, so this guy is
the worst fucking dude ever. So like he just went from being someone that you were like,
finally a character we can like and root for it. Oh, this guy’s the worst.
He has his own complications too, which is what I like about all the characters is,
you know, he’s a guy from a far-funk, flung place who’s now rising up in the ranks,
but it doesn’t have the name to go along with it. So he feels a ton of pressure
to do that. But he doesn’t realize that he’s probably one of the best people because he’s
actually fought in wars. You know, he’s fought in battles before and all these rich pompous
assholes kids who he’s going to be taking to war don’t necessarily believe in him. And he’s
concerned about that. Like, well, they listen to me, but I think he’s gonna, I think he’s gonna shine.
I’d like a Luther over him. Luther at least is, he’s what he is. I’m a selfish, you know,
everything’s about me. Look at my child. Yeah, there’s no veneer. It’s just that’s what he is.
Whereas West pretends like he’s like, oh, I had to work super hard at all these things,
but all he cares about himself. He’s just as selfish as Luther, but he pretends like he isn’t.
He just pretends he’s different than them, which he isn’t. He’s not different than them at all.
If you were born in the same station that Luther would, he’d be Luther. Like, that’s what you
realize being in the book. And it’s like, oh, okay. So this West dude kind of sucks too. Yeah.
And I agree with you on the Joust stuff too, just mostly because we have somewhat recently
read Rage of Dragons, which is the book I started earlier. And I think that’s all about Joust scenes
for the first half. And those are so awesome. Just so good. And a lot of that people do end up dying.
Okay, Keith, this was the blade itself. Would you recommend it? Yeah, I think we always say if
it’s like multiple books, it’s whether you’d read the second one. I would read the second one.
I think we already lamented about the disappointments on some of the things. I think it was good enough
to get me interested in the second one when we all read that one. Not sure. But yeah, I would say,
yeah. Yeah, unfortunately, we have tough time making long-term commitments because we have a
few different books in the hopper. But I might put it on as my side piece for a while. I need a new
side piece. So after listening to a book about this book, Outlive, which is basically about how to
lengthen your healthy life and also just your life life. It’s a bit heavy, honestly, very
scientific. But also I’m like, wow, I’m probably going to die. So you’re trying to live longer?
Like what are we doing here? I mean, what? Try to live better. All right, there. I want to
put pickleball until I’m 95. You know, I want to be out there. That’s our question people.
Smoking that pipe and going out there and crushing like I said, or yoda doesn’t have a pipe. Yeah,
he does. He smokes in the first puffing on something. Really? I’m making that up. Yoda smoking. These
are all memes. These are all memes. I don’t know if they’re actually real. I think he’s like in his
hut, he might be like cooking something or there’s just like smoke happening. What planet is that?
God, I’m fucking losing my Star Wars knowledge. I got to step up. There you go. Okay. Yeah. Well,
maybe he wasn’t smoking it, but I remember smoking it in my mind. Yeah, I would recommend the blade
itself. I thought it’s very different than some of the other like fantasy stuff we’ve read. And in
a good way, I’m excited to read the second one. I honestly am. I’m I’m I want to get back with
these characters. Basically, I missed I missed hanging out with them. Keith, what do we got coming
up next? We got the three body problem coming up next by Lou, L.I.U. Sixon, C.I.X. I.N. So that’s
probably completely butchered. We’ll find it on the internet and we’ll make sure during the actual
podcast, we know this person’s name. Netflix show coming up for that. Yeah. So we decided because
of this Netflix show coming up, which is interesting because everything I’ve read about this Netflix
show is that it’s a total disaster. Oh, really? Well, see, but I was actually I heard the book
is good. Yeah. So have I and I was out to dinner with a friend like if that just from work, not
like an old friend from work or I didn’t even know. And she was talking about books as one naturally
does. And she was like, you got to read the three body problem. So it was one of those I heard it
from her and then I saw it was on Netflix. Then you said someone had suggested to you. So it was
like a rule three. We had to do it. So yeah, yeah. All right. That was the blade itself.
And we’ll catch you all next time for the three body problem. Keith talk to you then. All right.
Bye now.