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The First Law Series

This epic fantasy saga delves into the dark corners of human nature, blending politics, war, and personal ambition. Follow the fates of unforgettable characters navigating the line between heroism and betrayal. Brutal conflicts and morally ambiguous situations test the limits of what it means to be human. The series is renowned for its gritty depiction of violence and cynical wit.

Red Country
The Heroes
Best Served Cold
The First Law - 3: Last Argument of Kings
The First Law Trilogy - 2: Before They Are Hanged
The First Law - 1: The Blade Itself

Recommended Reading Order

  1. The First Law - 1: The Blade Itself

    • 425 pages
    • 15 hours of reading

    Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he’s on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian – leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies. Nobleman Captain Jezal dan Luthar, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules. Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it. Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald 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 Logen, Jezal, and Glotka a whole lot more difficult. Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood.

    The First Law - 1: The Blade Itself1
    4.2

  2. The First Law Trilogy - 2: Before They Are Hanged

    • 560 pages
    • 20 hours of reading

    The second novel in the wildly popular First Law Trilogy from New York Times bestseller Joe Abercrombie. Superior Glokta has a problem. How do you defend a city surrounded by enemies and riddled with traitors, when your allies can by no means be trusted, and your predecessor vanished without a trace? It's enough to make a torturer want to run -- if he could even walk without a stick. Northmen have spilled over the border of Angland and are spreading fire and death across the frozen country. Crown Prince Ladisla is poised to drive them back and win undying glory. There is only one problem -- he commands the worst-armed, worst-trained, worst-led army in the world. And Bayaz, the First of the Magi, is leading a party of bold adventurers on a perilous mission through the ruins of the past. The most hated woman in the South, the most feared man in the North, and the most selfish boy in the Union make a strange alliance, but a deadly one. They might even stand a chance of saving mankind from the Eaters -- if they didn't hate each other quite so much. Ancient secrets will be uncovered. Bloody battles will be won and lost. Bitter enemies will be forgiven -- but not before they are hanged. First Law Trilogy The Blade Itself Before They Are Hanged Last Argument of Kings For more from Joe Abercrombie, check out: Novels in the First Law world Best Served Cold The Heroes Red Country

    The First Law Trilogy - 2: Before They Are Hanged2
    4.4

  3. The First Law - 3: Last Argument of Kings

    • 544 pages
    • 20 hours of reading

    The end is coming. Logen Ninefingers might only have one more fight in him but it's going to be a big one. Battle rages across the North, the King of the Northmen still stands firm, and there's only one man who can stop him. His oldest friend, and his oldest enemy. It's past time for the Bloody-Nine to come home. With too many masters and too little time, Superior Glokta is fighting a different kind of war. A secret struggle in which no one is safe, and no one can be trusted. His days with a sword are far behind him. It's a good thing blackmail, threats and torture still work well enough. Jezal dan Luthar has decided that winning glory is far too painful, and turned his back on soldiering for a simple life with the woman he loves. But love can be painful too, and glory has a nasty habit of creeping up on a man when he least expects it. While the King of the Union lies on his deathbead, the peasants revolt and the nobles scramble to steal his crown. No one believes that the shadow of war is falling across the very heart of the Union. The First of the Magi has a plan to save the world, as he always does. But there are risks. There is no risk more terrible, after all, than to break the First Law...

    The First Law - 3: Last Argument of Kings3
    4.4

  4. Best Served Cold

    • 560 pages
    • 20 hours of reading

    Monza wants revenge, and she's going to do everything she can to get it. Her brother is dead and now she plans to kill each of the seven men who murdered him. But she needs some help - Shivers, the Northman, Cosca, the mercenary, Friendly, the former inmate of a vicious prison - all hard men to do hard, bloody deeds.--Publisher.

    Best Served Cold4
    4.2

  5. The Heroes

    • 560 pages
    • 20 hours of reading

    They say Black Dow's killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the throne of the North up a hill of skulls. The King of the Union, ever a jealous neighbor, is not about to stand smiling by while he claws his way any higher. The orders have been given and the armies are toiling through the northern mud. Thousands of men are converging on a forgotten ring of stones, on a worthless hill, in an unimportant valley, and they've brought a lot of sharpened metal with them.THE HEROESFor glory, for victory, for staying alive.

    The Heroes5
    4.4

  6. Red Country

    • 464 pages
    • 17 hours of reading

    They burned her home. They stole her brother and sister. But vengeance is following. Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she’ll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she’s not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old step father Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb’s buried a bloody past of his own. And out in the lawless Far Country, the past never stays buried. Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer, Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust... The past never stays buried...

    Red Country6
    4.3

Related books

  • The Great Leveller

    • 1734 pages
    • 61 hours of reading

    Three standalone novels set in the world of the FIRST LAW trilogy, from SUNDAY TIMES bestseller, Joe Abercrombie.

    The Great Leveller
    4.6

  • The First Law Trilogy Boxed Set

    • 1822 pages
    • 64 hours of reading

    A beautiful box set containing SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Joe Abercrombie's epic fantasy trilogy: THE BLADE ITSELF, BEFORE THEY ARE HANGED and LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS.

    The First Law Trilogy Boxed Set
    4.7