It is a feast of brilliantly-developed characters who, despite being a bunch of the most unlikeable creations you could (or rather couldn't) imagine, the reader can almost grow to like as their personas are peeled away through the three books.

Take Logen Ninefingers, from the savage north, who can erupt into his uncontrollable alter-ego the Bloody-Nine at any moment during battle to slay foe and friend alike in a blind, beserk fury.

Logen has fought more fights and slain more warriors, as well as defencless women and children, not to mention comrades, than he cares to remember. He is Conan the barbarian without the morals and scruples.

But he wants to change and thinks he can be a good man - however it is hard to turn your back on warfare when you have so many enemies with scores to settle.

Even more unsympathetic a character is Superior Glokta, a crippled former war hero of the all-powerful Union who is now a bitter and literally twisted inquisitor who weeds out treasonous and corrupt influences without compunction.

His promising career - and life - was ruined by cruel torturers after he was captured in battle and he now spends his waking hours carrying out expert torture himself to extract confessions by any means possible.
He lives with constant pain - his own and that of others.

Then there is Jezal dan Luthar, a selfish, superficial noble, vain officer in the Union army and talented swordsman who lives for fleecing his colleagues and seducing women.

Their lives cross paths in a plot which starts straightforwardly enough but builds and turns in enough directions to satisfy complex story-loving fantasy fans without being so multi-layered that you need to constantly refer back to previous books or online resources to keep up.

The writing is crisp - different for each third-person point of view character chapter - and laced with lashings of sarcasm, irony and the darkest humour through the dialogue and thoughts of the superb characters.

As with any good fantasy fiction, there is plenty of action. In fact, the first book, The Blade Itself, starts with a cliff-hanger, an actual cliff-hanger!

In the first few lines the only dialogue is the same expletive uttered by Logen as he is separated from his companions in a chase through a northern forest which ends with him tumbling over a cliff and into a river.

The book introduces the characters and the world they live in and we also get to meet Bayaz, First of the Magi, an ancient magic-wielder who has strings to pull in the affairs of the great and the good, and Ferro, a warrior from the southern deserts who has but one thing one her mind - vengeance.

The sequel, Before They Are Hanged, achieves what many second books fail to, it lives up to its predecessor and carries the plot along, building to the epic finale in Last Argument Of Kings.

The last book is equally superb and character-driven and the ending leaves you desperate for more.

The author is revisting the world he so successfully created for The First Law series in his next book and I can hardly wait for its publication.

That is because, say one thing for Joe Abercrombie, say he has raised the bar for fantasy writing.