I recently finished reading Joe Ambercrombie's First law series of books. If you are into fantasy novels at all and haven't read these books do yourself a favor and head to your library, bookstore, or kindle store and get the first one The Blade Itself today.
The story has about 4 main characters all of them neither villains or heroes but somewhere in the shades of grey that make them dynamic personalities. The first is Logan also known as "The Bloody Nine". Hes a barbarian with a missing middle finger (how he got the nickname) who is one of the most fear killers ever who himself loathes killing. Second you have Glokta who is a torturer with a heart of gold that himself was tortured to the point even though he is only 30 his body moves like that of a 90 year old man. Third you have Jezel who is the callous noble fop who through events out of his control must learn to cope with problems he was never ready for, and hes a bit of a coward. Fourth you have Bayaz a mage with secrets and plots that may or may not have the best intrests of everyone around him at heart that's just a small sample of the characters that Ambercrombie deftly weaves to life in his first trilogy of books. The characters are totally believable the plot twists are unexpected and the villains might not be as bad as you thought at first.r
