 Hey guys, it's Leigh Ann and I'm here to do a talk about the world of the first law. So if you have never watched my channel before, you may not know. If you have, then you have no excuse for not knowing that I'm a big fan of Joe Abercrombie and his books. And I recently finished the last published book that takes place in the world of the first law and I have nothing more from him to read until he publishes the next book. And so I have nothing left to do but to just talk about it with you. So that's what I'm going to do. I do this to my friends constantly. We'll be talking about something that has nothing to do with Joe Abercrombie, maybe not even with books. And I'm like, that reminds me of, it's not remotely related, but I just want to talk about Joe Abercrombie. And I do and they let me and they're wonderful people for that. You get to enjoy that now. I'm not even going to say that this is a book review because it's not, it's a serious discussion. I don't know what that means. We can discover together what that means. So if you've never heard of these books, brief explanation. The first law trilogy, which is the blade itself before they are hanged. And the last argument of Kings is what sort of sets this all off. And then after that, there's a series of stand-alones and short stories. Those are best served cold, the heroes, bread country, and then the short stories for sharp ends. And now my stack is all messed up and it can just be right there. Y'all have seen them. Y'all can Google them. I'm not going to hold them up again. So the first law trilogy is Joe Abercrombie's dark take on your traditional fantasy arc, heroes, wizards, quests, that sort of thing. He's taken those ideas, those tropes, and shot all over them. And it's glorious. And then because, oh wait, there's more. He wrote some books that take place in that same universe in that same world. And it takes some of them, follow characters that we met in the first law trilogy and some are more minor characters. And we see further adventures with them. And other of the first law world books follow entirely new characters. But they're all in the same universe. Why do I love these books so much? I have attempted to articulate to my friends and family why I love them so much, which I've discovered is very difficult to do if you have not read the books. How do you describe fire if no one has seen or felt fire? The words will never do it justice. You can come close, but you can't really. There's a difference between the word fire and the thing itself. So Joe Abercrombie books are like that for me. I'm gonna try to describe what's amazing about them. And I've discovered in trying to do this with other people, people feel like I contradict myself. I promise that everything I'm saying is true even if it seems mutually exclusive. So his books are an absolute joy to read and they are dark slog where nothing good happens. Both things are true, I promise you. I constantly rave about these books and tell people they're amazing and everyone should read them. And as soon as somebody says, okay, you've convinced me I'm gonna read it, I immediately pull back and say, hold on a minute, don't read them. I don't want to be responsible for your depression. So I vehemently force everyone to consider these books and then also just as aggressively tell them to not read them based on my recommendation. So both things again are true. I think everyone should read them and I don't think anyone should read them based on my recommendation. These books happen to be specifically my taste. They are everything that I could look for in a book, which is why I think I've begun comparing everything else to Joe Abercrombie's books, which is why if you've watched my channel before you've heard of him. Not because I review his books. I don't think I've ever posted a review of any of his books before. And I don't think I've really ever used his books in like answers to tags. I may have, they may have been included in a wrap up or a TBR. But I haven't really done any videos about his books and yet I talk about them all the time. Because in discussing other books, I'll talk about how they have fallen short. And they have fallen short by comparison to other works that did it better, those being Joe Abercrombie's books. So I've decided to finally actually do a video about Joe Abercrombie's books instead of just constantly mentioning him as a, this sucked because it wasn't Joe Abercrombie's books. What makes his books so special? I would say his world building is fantastic. Many authors do great world building. It's definitely a strong suit of his and A plus. But isn't, his world building isn't what makes his books so much better in my opinion to almost everything else that I've read. It's, it's strong and it's there and it's wonderful and it deserves attention and a mention. But it's not the thing. He also does character building really well. Other authors have done character building really well as well. So that cannot be what sets him apart because I have often praised other authors, such as Lee Bardugo. That's the one that comes to mind right now. I usually use her as my great character building, like, example. So he's certainly not alone in that. He's done a really great character building as have other authors. He's written really gritty and grim and realistic settings and events, dark battle, bloody battle, very grim, dark kind of stuff. And other authors have as well. And I very much enjoyed grim dark fantasy for that reason because I like stabby books. I like the gore. I like the battles. I like the action. I like all that. So he's certainly not alone in that. And he's also written incredible banter and snark. And, and again, other authors have done that wonderfully. I have loved Liza La Climora. I have, again, I've loved Six of Crows by Lee Bardugo. I've loved other books too for having very, very clever and weedy characters and banter. So he's not alone in that. So everything I listed that he did well of their authors have also done really well. Why is he different? Why is he unique? He isn't, I guess. Except that he most definitely is. And this is why I find it so difficult to explain. But you have to believe me that the fact that he's done good world building, the fact that he's done great character building, the fact that he's done incredible action, gore and grim dark realism, and the fact that he's done snarky banter and put them all together in one book. It's more than the sum of its parts. The way that he's combined all these ingredients is more and is better. And it's the way that he has combined them where the magic happens. So book reviews and movie reviews as well tend to take things apart and examine their components and talk about why this combination of ingredients is what makes this whole so wonderful. But the whole is what's wonderful. Those component parts are fabulous. And I can ooze and I can gush about them all day. And they are deserving of all that gushing. But my gushing over those individual components isn't going to be greater than my gushing over those components in other books. It's when they are combined into ever gone these books that it's that's when the magic happens. And so I cannot describe it to you in a way that will make you see what is brilliant about it. You just have to read it yourself. But I will be the first to tell you to not read it because I don't want that kind of pressure of age. I honestly hate when people tell me that they read a book because I recommended it because, oh my God, what if you hate it, it's my fault. I highly recommend his books, but don't read them. So when I read his books, perhaps the best way to explain what is amazing about them is to just explain my experience, what I get out of them, what I feel when I read these books. I don't laugh and I don't cry. I don't gasp. I don't sob. I just feel impressed. The whole time that I'm reading Joe Abercrombie books, I just sit there being impressed. His prose is amazing, which I guess I could have put that on the list of component parts. He has excellent prose. He writes well. He writes good words. A lot of good words in these books. He's a wordsmith. He's a word player and it shows and it's fun to watch. Basically when I read a Joe Abercrombie book, I just feel like I'm watching somebody, you know when you watch a finger stator or a gymnast and they are just in control, you never once think that they're gonna fall and they don't. You never once think they're not gonna make this move that's never been made before and they make it fine and they make it look easy and it's just a joy to watch them because you're not rooting for them because they're struggling but they're barely gonna make it and they do. They just are that good that you're like, oh my God, you were born for this. His writing feels like that. It feels like he was born to write it and that feels like too much to say. It feels like I don't like the sound of that because I don't wanna be the person that's like, my God, this author is God's gift to literature but he is just that good. He's good at putting words together on a page and making me want to read them. He writes Grimdark in a way that isn't depressing. He writes horrible evil villainous characters in a way that I don't hate them. He writes fairly virtuous characters in a way that I don't root for them. He does everything that you wouldn't expect and would think that you wouldn't want and makes you crave it and the ability to do that is just so goddamn impressive. When I read The Blade Itself for the first time many years ago, I was quite young and I had mainly been reading very upbeat, uplifting heroic type of fantasy, the more traditional stuff and I had no idea The Blade Itself wouldn't be that way and halfway through I was just like, everyone is awful. Everything is terrible. Why would I read this? And then I grew up and I really fell in love with it because I gave it another go and thank God I did because it's just so gritty and Grim and realistic. And when I tell people that they're like, why on earth would you want to read that? Why would you want to read about horrible people doing horrible things to each other? Why? And I don't really have a good answer for that. The way that I combat that, the way that I react to that is usually just to pull up Joe Abercrombie quotes on Goodreads and just start reading my favorites and after about the fourth or fifth one, I'm like, do you see? Are you enjoying these quotes? And nine times out of 10, they're like, I absolutely am. Those are fantastic quotes. I'm like, well, imagine 500 pages that are like that. That's what I get out of this. That's what I enjoy. My favorite character that Joe Abercrombie has written and I think is also the best example of what makes his writing incredible is San Tan Glokta. San Tan Glokta from the beginning of the first law trilogy is someone that you meet post being tortured. Once upon a time, back in the day, he was an extremely attractive, virile, successful, wonderful, heroic knight. But he was also an asshole and a dick. And sort of, he was Janie Lannister and you meet him after all of that. So he's still a fairly young man but he was tortured by the enemy and he had half of his teeth pulled out, his body broken, he is a mess. He's late in his 30s but he's got the body of a 105 year old curmudgeon and he is my favorite character. What does he do for a living? Now that he's not a prisoner of war, he is a torturer for the corrupt government that got him into that war in the first place. He hates his bosses and he hates his job and he hates his life and he hates every single breathing moment of his day because he's in constant pain. He wasn't a good person before this happened to him so you really shouldn't feel sorry for him. It almost feels like justice that this happened to him because he was a dick and he doesn't really go around acting like, you know, oh woe is me, I didn't deserve this. He sort of acknowledges that he did and everyone that his able-bodied around him, he hates them for being able-bodied and acknowledges that he was exactly like them and just as snooty and that he would have spat on himself if he had ever met him. His former self had met his present self and he knows he works for a corrupt government and he doesn't care. He tortures people that he knows are innocent to get their confessions and he doesn't care. He is extremely clever and extremely good at playing the game of politics but not that good. He does get tricked. He does get fooled. He does get taken in and he's my favorite character. Probably that I've ever read but definitely my favorite character in Joe Abercrombie's books. And why on earth would I want to read about that? When I describe Gluckton to other people, they're like, why bow? Mm, why? And that's when I tell you you just have to read it because Joe Abercrombie is that amazing, that good. The idea of taking a character like that and following him and wanting to follow him and I can't even say that I root for him. I root for him being on the page. I root for him surviving so that he can continue to be in the story. I don't want good things to happen to him but I want him to live just so that I can keep following his story. And I come away from reading a Joe Abercrombie book and reading about Gluckton, my favorite character. I don't feel inspired. I don't feel hopeful for humanity. I don't feel like that was the hilarious romp. It's none of the feelings that I get out of any other book. Most of the books I read, I either feel like that was a tragically beautiful story or I feel delighted by the wit or I feel like that was an amazing tale about friendship or my goodness, they overcame such incredible odds. All of these higher feelings, I come away from reading a Joe Abercrombie book and I feel like I've stepped out of a mire of depravity but I also don't feel remotely disgusted. I don't feel grossed out. I don't feel depressed by it because I also have read books like that where everything is dark and grim and filled with darkness and depression and disease and evilness. And I just feel weighed down by it and gross and ugh, but I don't feel that way when I read a Joe Abercrombie book. I should, I feel like I really, really should but I don't because his writing is fantastic. His writing, I don't wanna call it beautiful because to me, beautiful writing is the sort of poetic kind of style that you get from Lainey Taylor or Patrick Rothfuss which is lovely and I love it. Joe Abercrombie's writing is artful. I think that's the best way to describe it. It is artful. He has put words together in a way that is just the way that they were always meant to be put together and no one else did it before. It's an absolute joy to read which is a strange thing to say but when I read Joe Abercrombie it is a joy to read his work even though everything I'm reading about is misery but it's a joy to read about. And an author that can make me feel that way about that kind of a story deserves all the credit in the world. I don't know if this explanation helped you at all in any way or if it inspired you to pick up his books. I don't know if you've read them before and hearing me describe it this way if you agree with me or not but that's what I get out of them. That's what I love about them and that's why I think everyone should read them and no one should read them because I recommended them. Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below about writing in general, what you look for in a book if a book has ever made you feel the way that I just described feeling about reading Joe Abercrombie's work whatever you wanna let me know. I post videos on Saturdays, so like and subscribe and I'll see you next Saturday. Bye.