History Literature / TheFirstLaw

* UnreliableNarrator: In ''Best Served Cold'', Morveer often thinks about his mother's death and how it has traumatized him, and we sort of sympathize with him as he recalls how he was bullied in the orphanage. That is, until [[spoiler: we find out that he actually poisoned his mother, as well as just about every person he ever had more than a passing acquaintance with.]]

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Of the right novels published so far, Bayaz is still on top]].

* HighCollarOfDoom: Archlecter Sult wears an immaculate white uniform, of which the high collar is occasionally mentioned.

** The Battle of Osrung in ''The Heroes''.
** The Battle of Stoffenbeck in ''The Trouble with Peace''. Union royalists clash against Open Council rebels.

** The Battle of Adua in ''The Last Argument of Kings''. The climactic battle between the Union and the Gurkish Empire.

* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: The society of the North has Thralls (essentially drafted peasants) on the bottom, then Carls (proper, well equpied warriors, typical in service of a Named Man or Chief), then Named Men, with the Chief on top. That said, don't expect major or even named characters who are thralls or Carls.

* TortureAlwaysWorks: Played with. Glokta acknowledges early on that torture mostly just gets the victim to say anything they think will make it stop, truthful or not. Of course this works just fine for the Inquisition, as it means they can get people to confess to virtually anything, which may be problematic for getting the truth but is execllent for getiting the exact confessions needed to advance political schemes. Of course in spite of all of this, Glokta seems to always knows when he's being lied to, even if it often doesn't matter.

* ArmorIsUseless: Whirrun fights without armor, believing that he is not fated to die until a specific day. He says, "Armour... is part of a state of mind... in which you admit the possibility... of being hit." He's a famous named man in spite of his lack of protection [[spoiler:but ultimately gets killed when a stray spear impales him from behind, something that might have been prevented if he'd been wearing armor]].

* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: The society of the North theoretically has Thralls on the bottom, then Khals, then Named Men, with the Chief on top. That said, don't expect to see any characters who are thralls or Khals.

* TortureAlwaysWorks: Played with. Glokta acknowledges that often times the result of torture is just the victim saying literally anything they think will make it stop, truthful or not. The Inquisition is more than happy to take advantage of this though, often times just tortuing victims until they'll agree to whatever confession the Inquisitor wants rather than the truth. Despite this, Glokta seems to always knows when he's being lied to.

* TortureAlwaysWorks: Even though he doesn't always necessarily ''want'' the confessions his victims give him to be truthful, Glokta always knows when he's being lied to.

* ArmorIsUseless: Whirrun fights without armor, believing that he is not fated to die until a specific day. He says, "Armour... is part of a state of mind... in which you admit the possibility... of being hit." He's a famous named man in spite of his lack of protection [[spoiler:but ultimately gets killed when a stray spear impales him from behind, something that might have been prevented if he's been wearing armor]].

** Yoru Sulfur is described by another character as having a somewhat ethnically ambiguous appearance, being darker skinned than is the norm for someone in the Union (a European FantasyCounterpartCulture) but lighter than people from the neighboring Gurkhal (TheEmpire, home to people of Arabic and African appearance). This ties into Sulfur's blandly pleasant manner and blandly pleasant features that make him TheNondescript, able to fit in everywhere. It's implied that the ambiguity relates to the fact that like his master, Sulfur is Really700YearsOld, and thus came from a culture that no longer exists.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: [[OurOrcsAreDifferent The Shanka]] appear in the original trilogy and are never even mentioned again (apart from a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference in ''Red Country''.
** Finally averted in ''The Trouble with Peace,'' where the Shanka even have some brief CharacterDevelopment.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Logen Ninefingers, also known as the Bloody-Nine.

** Averted in ''Literature/{{Best Served Cold}}'': Monza promises the city of Caprile that they will be spared of the usual RapePillageAndBurn. But her mistake was to entrust the city's safety to her brother, Benna, who was supposed to keep the mercenaries in check and got blackout drunk instead.

* EveryoneHasStandards: To the civilized people of Midland, the Northmen are a monolithic culture of barbarous, warmongering savages, and the Northmen in turn see southerners as soft, cowardly and weak. But to our main Northmen like Logen, the Dogman and even Dow, the Hillmen are [[BloodKnight belicose]] and hardy [[UpToEleven to ridiculous degrees]], and the tribes from beyond the Crinna are considered wild and savage beyond reasoning with.

* KnifeNut:
** Logen. You can never have too many of 'em...
** Friendly fights with knives and doesn't like swords.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys:
** Frost and Severard, Glokta's two practicals.
** Deep and Shallow in ''The Heroes''.

* BaldOfAwesome: Lamb shaves his head for his [[spoiler: brawl with Glama Golden]] and keeps it for the rest of ''Red Country''
* BaldOfEvil: ''[[spoiler: Logen]] should have known better than to trust a man with no hair.''

The first three novels form a trilogy. The next three each stand alone but continue the progression of the setting's timeline. A third set of books will form a second trilogy set 25-30 years after the first trilogy. In addition, there is an anthology of short stories called ''Sharp Ends'', which was published after ''Red Country'' and jumps around the timeline of the first six novels.

* NotSoDifferent: A recurring theme. Odds are fairly good that opposing characters or factions will be more similar than they care to admit.