The Blade Itself
Joe Abercrombie
Gollancz
515 pages
Read in 2009

Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught up in one feud too many, he's about to become a dead barbarian, leaving nothing behind but bad songs and dead friends.
Jezal dan Luthar, paragon of selfishness, has nothing more dangerous in mind than winning 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 little better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then he hates everyone. Cutting treason out of the heart of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship - and his latest trail of corpses could lead straight to the rotten heart of government... if he can just stay alive long enough to follow it...