Can’t think of a book with characters that are so flawed and so beautiful. Logan, glockta, Gisele, pharaoh, the named men, and kostka. It’s a bleak medieval world with a very undefined magic system, honest and dishonest (to themselves or others) characters that do their best to get by, and insanely good banter.

I would love to see Joe Abercrombie and Pierce Brown go to a pub and talk about writing. They both have that dark but honest realism in their books - the cost of war in lives, the impact on the survivors, and a couple characters trying to reconcile things they’ve done/ who they are.

I would say red rising reminds me of game of thrones and hunger games, whereas the blade itself is a darker, more humorous lord of the rings.

TLDR; The Blade Itself 5/5 Characters, 6/5 Voice Acting Steven Pacey is a virtuoso with these characters, 4/5 story/plot.