Joe Abercrombie

Before They Are Hanged

Michael Springer

Alright, so, this is me becoming a legitimate Abercrombie fan. 
 
In "The Blade Itself," Abercrombie showed a high level of skill at creating characters that fit firmly into the traditional roles of fantasy fiction (the warrior barbarian, the whiny nobleman with a sword, etc.), yet were crafted with a level of nuance beyond what you come to expect from a fantasy series. I was fairly impressed. But, I've read a lot of good books lately, so I wasn't, you know, knocked out of my socks or anything.
 
"Before They Are Hanged" is significantly better, mostly because it does exactly what you hope the second book in a trilogy will do: startles you with new realizations about the characters, introduces new settings and new conflicts, raises the stakes, and turns your expectations on their head more than once. Abercrombie knows the expectations of his readers, the traditional fill-in-the-blank hero's journey tropes, and he clearly gets a kick out of subverting them just when you were lulled into thinking you knew what to expect. 
 
And, have I mentioned the characters? Crikey, I love them all! Even the ones I was less impressed by at the end of book 1 have reached a level of complexity at this point that is astounding. Jezal isn't just some fop with a blade, Glokta isn't just some crippled torturer. Nobody is a "goodguy," nobody is a "badguy," everybody is a PERSON in full detail. Abercrombie writes his chapters through the lense of a specific character's thoughts, and you can (most of the time) tell after the first sentence whose lense it is. The character's minds all work in slightly different ways (Ferro thinking in short, colorless sentences; Logen often returning to the lame sayings of his father; Dogman thinking mostly in self-deprecating slang), which helps create a stylistic difference from chapter to chapter that always helps with understanding the characters, and often creates a hilarious contrast as well, when multiple characters are thinking about the same event in very different ways.
 
Before reading this, I'd heard so much about its GRITTINESS, and its DARKNESS, and the VIOLENCE, and BARBARIANS CHOPPING MOTHAFUCKAS' HEADS OFF! What I didn't hear as much about is how he writes about these characters that aren't the nicest people in the world with enough warmth and empathy to make them all LIKEABLE, even during their darkest and most selfish moments. Because, even then, you really have the sense that you are with them, that you are taking the journey with them. 
 
I've said nothing about the plot, and that is intentional: I don't want to spoil anything for those who plan on reading the series. And, if you are a fan of fantasy, I suggest you do. The most applicable comparison is to George R R Martin, except in many ways this is better. Before you declare me a heretic, here's why: the characters are similarly complex, yet none of them are "slow" characters that you kinda wish you could skip over. The world here is ALMOST as intricate and full of intrigue, but with a more limited scope---kinda like he's only writing three books. And, the magical elements of the series seem to work better. And this is funnier, and Abercrombie has written the whole thing. It is all published and at the book store. 
 
This is a lot of fanboy gushing, considering I haven't even finished the series. But, even if he jumps the shark in book 3, it has been a fun ride.

Gavin

So yeah it's about a big siege, a big battle and a big quest, but somehow new and uncliched. The heroes, about their quest: "What are we doing here?"; "Got nowhere better to be".

Prashanth Srivatsa

Better than the first, but just. Glokta is brilliant, just brilliant.

Anastasia 

FUCKING FINALLY 😭😭😭


finishing this was the most challenging thing I experienced this month, not even joking, the pacing was significantly worse than the first book, I only kept going cos of glokta and jezal ...the prose is still easy to read as always but the prolonged battle scenes I didn't enjoy at all 

I hope the next book really offers something different 6.5/10

Ashutosh

"What? A family?” Ninefingers frowned, rubbing grimly at the stump of his middle finger. “I did have one. And now I’ve got another. You don’t pick your family, you take what you’er given and you make the best of it.”

Joe Abercrombie has an amazing grip on his writing style and how it decently portrays the desired character traits. While this book starts off where the first one ended, it definitely holds a lot more detailings of the world building. We get a deeper dive into the historical events that form a base for the current events. 

In Blade itself I was a lot confused as to what the plot wants to achieve and what the characters aspire in the grand scheme of events. While things do get clear by the end of Blade itself, they start make a lot more sense in this sequel. We get to know the characters more deeply and also at some instances their morally grey features go into hiding. Bloody battles, gory violence, and some minor plot twists just add to the characteristics of a grimdark fantasy.

Even though there are almost no likeable characters, I still loved how Joe tries to lean towards a realistic view when he presents some good aspects of the characters, while not completely subsiding their brutality and cruelty. And speaking of some good aspects, I definitely started loving Logen Ninefinger's character much more then the first book, as it was just an introduction. Also we get development on Jezal's character as he struggles through his own thouguand beliefs, and craving for just one more chance to leave his selfishness and egoistic attitude behind, and start anew. Glokta was much more interesting and calculating, and the was almost emanating Tyrion Lannister vibes. 

To sum it up, this book was much better than the first one in almost all aspects, but mostly characterizations. 

However, one thing that still bugs me is that the plot consists majorly of character driven storyline and the focus is pretty economical when it comes to exploration of the history and magic system, but it wasn't much bothersome to the extent as I would rate it less. There was an immense focus on the political manueverings. The amount of fun and intrigue is what matters to me. 

Anyways, that's all what I thought about this sequel, which is a prime exception to the Middle-book syndrome.

Happy Reading ☺️

Alost

Nothing like game of thrones, but a man in a desert should drink any or something.

dead line

I feel kind of whelmed by this book. The first in the series set up some interesting ideas, but this added nothing new, and characters seem to just diddle about.

The gang go on a journey to do a magical thing - cool and good. But we're kept in the dark as to what the magical thing is for most of it. Which would be fine but it's coupled with Bayaz telling stories of all the cool things that have already happened. There's no mystery, he knows why there is a city in ruins, and it's a totally sick story. It feels like we're being dragged along by an old man, who knows exactly what needs to be done, and will tolerate no deviations.

Ferro is also just such a grating character. She's damaged and trusts no one, we get it - can we maybe get a crumb of more personality?

Meanwhile Glokta is set a task that we find out has absolutely no impact on the goings on. We spend a quarter of the book caring about the outcome of his task, but joke's on me because it never mattered.

Also meanwhile, did this author punish a woman with a painful death for having sex with someone other than the POV character? Because that's what it sure feels like. The POV character saves the woman from being raped, after saving her from a prison camp, she chooses to sleep with someone else, POV character feels scorned and angry, and oopsie she's dying painfully. Kinda weird tones here...


In all, it was fine. Competently written.

Kayla Smith

Surprisingly, I didn't love this installment as much as the first. However, I still had a great time with all of our characters and I'm excited to see where things will go in the third book. I had a hard time getting through the 50-65% mark of the story. It seemed to drag and I was ready for all of the travelling to wrap up. The occasional action and skirmishes our characters got themselves into while they were travelling just weren't enough to hold my attention for very long. Once I finally got past that point, I couldn't stop reading. I had to finish the last 3 hours of the audiobook in one sitting because I had to know what would happen next.

Deborah Kerr

As expected: absolute brilliance.

Seriously. So freaking good.

I have a sneaking suspicion that by the time I'm done with Last Argument of Kings that The First Law will be one of my favorite series of all time.

Ben Nathan

A very good second installment. I'm taken with the characters as they all have MAJOR flaws and that makes them infinitely more interesting than if they were perfect in any way, shape, or form. Also, with the way this work, I'm excited that it is only three, as I think it would just get a little ridiculous if it went longer. You can say one thing about Logan Ninefingers, you can say he's in a good series.

Before They Are Hanged

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