Before They Are Hanged

Don't you love it when a sequel comes out swinging for the fences? No middle book syndrome, not a single weak chapter, paragraph, or sentence in the whole thing. Before They Are Hanged is everything that I loved from The Blade Itself taken to the next level.

Before They Are Hanged picks up just after the events of Book 1 and wastes no time in catching us up with our protagonists starting with Glokta. Where the last book had many scattered perspectives as our cast was assembled, Before They Are Hanged settles on bouncing between three parties; Glokta in the South, West and Threetree's gang in the North, and our main party of Logen, Ferro, Jezal, and Bayaz in the west.

I don't want to get too specific on plot; each party is accomplishing a unique task and their stories are largely independent. Logen has joined Bayaz on his quest into the Old Empire seeking a forbidden power. West is fighting the Union's war in the North against King Bethod. Most interesting of all, Glokta is now the superior of Dagoska and tasked with rooting out corruption while organizing the city's defenses in advance of a war with the Gurkish. All your favorites from the last book are finally in a position to begin their adventures and boy is it entertaining. As I mentioned with the last book, there isn't anything exceedingly unique as far as the premise goes, what The Fist Law series is really about is injecting nuance and cynicism into traditional tropes. So despite the trite premise, the plot proves to be exceedingly engaging.

As far as the theme goes this book is consistent with The Blade Itself, we've got a focus on the harsh realities of war and violence right at the forefront of it all. There is a persistent thread concerning the settling of scores, of reaping what you've sown, those concepts being echoed between the different storylines in both their narratives and in the prose itself. I think it's needless to say that Joe Abercrombie is a master of character writing and dialogue, but I will say that as a consequence of reading this series a lot of the recall I associate with traditional fantasy has been overwritten with old logan ninefingers and his motley crew. There are catchphrases, I totally forgot to mention that last review; personally I liked them, They fit in great and these books tend to be hilarious when appropriate.

More than anything I think I love the vibe of this series the most. It really benefits from the classic setting and story; it's dark and atmospheric and not always but now and again the story slips into a nostalgic almost a tabletop campaign-y vibe. I think I can safely say that I am hooked and I'll probably read the next series in this larger world/universe. I also can't believe that there hasn't been an adaptation of this yet!? The dialogue is so good that it sometimes feels like I am reading a screenplay for an hour of premier television. We've all wanted more Game of Throne-ish content, here's something that's arguably better!

Disappointed, yet I love this series.

I've been waiting for the real grimdark part of this series for two books now. So far the darkest thing was chopping off of fingers during torture in The Blade Itself. A disembowelment here, chopped off limb there... Sure, it is grimdark but on the low end. Where the hell does the “Lord Grimdark” nickname for Abercrombie come from? I thought this would be brutal. Exhausting. Disgusting in places. Erikson, Cook, Kristoff have more ‘grimdark' stuff in one chapter than Abercrombie has in two books.

Instead it's incredibly entertaining and often funny. Some characters die, but I do feel that most of them have plot armor. I expected to be drained like after finishing a Malazan book. Instead I feel like I read bloodier Sanderson book.

I'd have to re-read ASOIAF but I think Abercrombie does the best character work in fantasy. Along with great prose and writing style full of (often sarcastic) inner monologues it's what elevates these books above the most. He gets into the heads of characters really well. You can easily see why they behave as they do.

I knew this would be 5 star book after three pages. I find his style incredible. It's not something amazing and rarely seen. It's actually the way most writers write, it's just done on whole another level. Glokta, Jezal and Ninefingers grew on me. Especially Glokta's sarcastic comments. Not to mention the character growth some of these went through. Spectacular.

But where's the plot? I already heard that this trilogy is sort of one book split into three but I wasn't expecting to feel it this heavily after two thirds done. There's barely anything happening! And yet it speaks so much more about Abercrombie's writing talent as I'm giving it 5/5 and want to continue. I will take a small break to accommodate other series I'm in the middle of first, though.

The ending was disappointing, I can't believe he wrote it like this. Reminded me of Luke in The Last Jedi when he tosses the lightsaber... nooooot a good thing. Subverting of expectations like this was the worst thing he could've done to end the book on.
But I'm really curious where it goes next... and I shouldn't say ‘it'. Rather they. The characters. The main plot really isn't that much interesting.

I seem to have hit a “Sophomore Slump” with the First Law. I still think the characterizations and development of relationships were good but I'm not sure that any plot needs to move this slowly, especially over three books that are each 500 pages long.

Maybe I'm just impatient.

As for the characters, I would have appreciated it if the one woman who got a POV in the book was not so boring. All she does is think about how she hates everything, distrusts everyone, and how stupid and slow her traveling companions are. A little of this goes a long way. Was Abercrombie afraid we were going to think she'd “softened” if he didn't repeat her constant bitter inner monologue?

I still like Glotka's combo of inner turmoil and outer cool. One thing that kept me going was curiosity about what he'd do next and how he would deal with what was thrown at him.

Yeah, I'm gonna finish the series. The completist in me needs to see how it turned out.

Well that was a surprise. Almost all trilogies have “middling” second books whose job is to fill in some gaps and lay the grounds for the third one, and you forgive its lack of plot. However I so much more enjoyed this to the first book. It might not be empirically true but I got the feeling that the number of characters settled down and Abercrombie did I fine job in fleshing all of them out and the three distinct threads(North, East and South) were clear and easy to follow (a map would help but there are some fan ones online. Immediately jumped into the third one.

I wrote a review and it disappeared. YAY. My wifi is a spectacular piece of shit. So try No. 2 now. It took me a ridiculously long time to actually read this, but in this case that was caused by me having a lot of fun. When a book is good I often take my sweet time, I stop often to think about what is happening and what I feel about it. I look at fanart, the different works of the author, the different books in the series, the whole context of the book. Well, just having fun with the experience. When we pick up the story again the characters form up into little groups to take care of their respective story lines. In the north West is sent to deal with the freshly formed Northern kingdom, try to keep the crown prince in line and to gain him some glory, then he happens to meet up with Logen's old group. Bayaz and Quai pick up Logen, Jezal, Ferro and Longfoot to look for a mysterious artefact that will help them deal with the threat of the Gurkish prophet, Khalul. While Glokta is sent to Dagoska to somehow defend the city from the more immediate danger of the Gurkish Empire, or at least to get information and do what can be done. This is one of the things I actually extremely enjoyed about the story; the different groupings of characters and how they dealt with each other. For anyone interested in different types of people, temperaments and manners clashing and working things out, this is truly a joy about this one. At one point West, who is usually extremely controlled and civilised snaps in a battle and goes totally mental really suddenly. It was great to see the conflicting feelings as he was horrified by himself and felt guilty, while the Northmen were genuinely amazed by him. I absolutely love him in general, so yeah, there is that. Another interesting contrast was Logen and Jezal. Normally they would have no chance of having to communicate like this, but I guess the Fantasy Roadtrip of a Shitshow does that to people, so I can't complain much. Hopefully in the last book Glokta will meet Jezal again, as the latter had changed enough for their dynamic to be completely different now. Thinking of Jezal, he is interesting. I mean he is not a bad character, but in himself I wouldn't say he is all that special either. What he is great for is making others shine, amplifying them and himself gaining depth and colour and more interest through that. I find that quite brilliant. At one point his jaw gets broken and his face a bit... disfigured. I loved the way Mr. Abercrombie using Jezal's vanity. At first it feels silly to see his reaction, crying and all, but then when you think about how connected our face is to our self-identity and everything we are... yeah. It's adding a lot of depth to his character. Genuinely impressed. Glokta is just as cynical as always, with his wit and ruthlessness. Absolutely fantastic. Questionable choices here, a character pushed into situations that have no perfect outcome. With [b:Malice 15750692 Malice (The Faithful and the Fallen, #1) John Gwynne https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1342785006s/15750692.jpg 21444710] I have mentioned how sometimes things were too complicated and hard to follow, like at the very end, where a group of a lot of characters move together and it's hard to visualise all of them. Here the whole thing with the different groups made it so easy and fluid to just go with it and keep everyone in mind. The world scope is great in my opinion, not overwhelming, nor is it too constricted. It all feels comfortable. When I first started reading this and saw the grimdark subgenre marked, I expected it too be much darker than it actually is. Things happen, some people die, there is war and slavery, all kinds of nasty things without it being too much to me. Maybe I am just not that sensitive, I don't know. With darkness it's easy to go overboard. One of the pitfalls of it is going crazy, becoming too much and that taking away from the emotional weight of bad things. Everything becomes cartoonish, your brain tunes it all out and somehow the edge is lost. Even if the things happening are in line with certain things from reality, the depiction just becomes too much. Here it doesn't happen. Appreciated. People also shouldn't expect huge twists here. I don't think the book needs them, though, I feel it has its own atmosphere and flow without huge shockers being dropped on us. Then again, I am not really the type who cares about twists too much, more like the journey and the characters. Even though I said that, something interesting is going on with this one; I have no idea what is happening in the last book, I have no idea what endgame there will be, how we will close things down. I don't feel we are anywhere near, especially because we see literally nothing of the antagonists. None. Not the Northern threat, nor the Southern, the villains just don't come out to play at all. The “good” characters are grey of course, though. So I have no idea what to expect after this and refuse to think about it, because then I will probably give myself crazy ideas and expectations, which would colour my experience. We shouldn't go there. I'm definitely going to pick up the next book. I'm having a lot of fun with this, it's all kinds of entertaining, even if I have no idea where it will end up. Potential for sure, there is a lot and then we'll just wait and see. Have a good night and don't leave me hanging! (ohhhh god, no)

Waar The Blade Itself meer een inleiding was tot de personages en de opzet van het plot, begon Before They Are Hanged echt met de actie en verhoogde de inzet, terwijl onze personages zich verder ontwikkelen van kennissen tot bijna-vrienden.

Ik hield echt van de drie verhaallijnen die we volgden, zeer interessante connecties en nogal onverwachte onthullingen. Ik blijf verbijsterd over het feit dat ik echt van deze personages hou, ook al is geen enkel echt een sympathiek persoon. Wel zijn ze echter allemaal heel opmerkelijk menselijk en hebben allemaal iets waardoor je voor ze supportert.

Deze trilogie voelt echt aan als gewoon één lang boek, waarbij boek één naadloos overging in het tweede boek. Daarom eindigt het wel een beetje onbevredigend, maar dat betekent ook dat ik niet kan wachten om in boek 3 te beginnen, en dat ga ik dus ook gewoon doen. Ik twijfel er niet aan dat het alles zal zijn waar ik op hoop of meer.

“I have no doubt, that there will be an orgy of blackmail, bribery, corruption and betrayal. A carnival of deal making, alliance breaking, intrigue and murder. A merry dance of fixing, of rigging, of threats, and of promises.”

The humor in these books is MASTERFUL. Someone could be dying in agony from being tortured but I still manage to laugh out loud from Glokta's internal monologue. Or from Ferro's retorts shutting up Longfoot. Or from Jezal's pitiful realizations. I don't know how Abercrombie weaves just the right type of humour in so effortlessly at just the right moments, but he does do it, and boy does he do it so insanely well.I disliked Jezal when I read [b:The Blade Itself 50009069 The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1) Joe Abercrombie https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1628737516l/50009069.SY75.jpg 929009]—and despite being a well-written character, you are kind of meant to dislike him in that first book anyways. He was really entertaining to read about but at the same time he was this spoiled, arrogant brat. However, his character development here was executed perfectly, and now I'm really invested in him. Once again, he was already a really well-written character to begin with, but his development in this book made him so much more likable and just turned him into—not a great person—but a better person.Similarly, despite being a really well-written character, I wasn't all that invested in Logen either in the first book. But holy shit, how did Joe Abercrombie manage to make my feelings do a complete 180? Though Logen is called ‘The Bloody Nine' for a reason, he still had this oddly soft and caring side to him in this book that was so endearing. His POV chapters were also surprisingly funny since I don't remember that being the case for the previous book. Dare I say Logen is becoming a favorite character of mine?I still love reading about Ferro and Glokta the most, because the amount of entertainment they provide for me is unparalleled. Ferro scowling at everyone and Glokta talking shit about everyone in his mind always gets me.Needless to say, I am in love with this series.

Executive Summary: Even better than the first entry in the trilogy, a dark and fun ride, not for the feint of heart.Full ReviewI enjoyed this entry even more than [b:The Blade Itself 944073 The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1) Joe Abercrombie http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1284167912s/944073.jpg 929009]. With most of the setup out of the way, Mr. Abercrombie now switchs to developing the characters and progressing the story further.Parts of this book reminded me of [a:Patrick Rothfuss 108424 Patrick Rothfuss http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1351307341p2/108424.jpg]'s Kingkiller chronicles. Stories shared within the main story building the lore and giving the reader clues as to just what the heck might be going on.This book is even darker than it's predecessor. It's not a nice world, and these aren't nice people. That doesn't stop you from rooting for them however.Mr. Abercrombie somehow manages to describe terrible acts of brutality yet through the thoughts of his characters you find yourself both laughing and sympathetic to killers like Logen and his friends and a torturer in Glokta. Bayaz is no Gandalf either.I'm still not sure how that's possible. There is obviously something wrong with me, and Mr. Abercrombie is tapping into that. Given the generally high rating of these books, I can take some small comfort that I'm not alone in this.My only real complaint about this book is that it doesn't so much end as it stops. Like [b:The Blade Itself 944073 The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1) Joe Abercrombie http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1284167912s/944073.jpg 929009], it's a reasonable stopping place though. It's probably a better one since some short term goals are accomplished, but there is still much left to be uncovered and resolved.I can't wait to finish this trilogy up next month. I might have to cheat and start early.Given the way things are going however, I suspect we won't be getting a “And they lived Happily Ever After..”

This book was definitely an improvement on the last. Most of my complaints for the first book don't apply here because I now had context about this world and these characters.

I definitely started to feel much more attachments to the characters in this book. I felt like their arcs were getting very interesting, and a lot of those grim dark elements really started to shine. The plot was interesting, and I'm eating up all of these little breadcrumbs that are being left about the bigger picture. I'm very excited to see how all of these characters stories end up tying together.

This book is such a great followup to The Blade Itself. Before They Are Hanged builds so much on the characters in the first one, expanding their depth while broadening the world. These books are way more character-focused than world-building fantasy and I would read about their adventures all day long.

I usually take longer breaks in between books in a series, but I don't think I can keep from starting
Last Argument of Kings as soon as possible.

We Weg van Angst is een uitstekend vervolg op het eerste deel. Waar het in het eerste deel soms nog ontbrak aan een sterk plot, heeft juist het tweede deel drie duidelijke verhaallijnen en krijgen de karakters meer kleur en diepgang.

De serie blijft op zijn eigen manier grauw en grimmig en werkt het boek steeds meer toe naar een groter climax. Ik ben onwijs benieuwd hoe deze zich gaat ontvouwen in het derde deel.

My main complaint with the last book was that there was essentially no plot what so ever. In this book that's changed, however if I could sum it up in one word that word would be meandering. It's just incredibly slow moving and it feels like only a couple things of any real significance happen plot wise. Also there are what feel like weird time skips to me. The characters will be doing something at the end of the chapter and when it gets back to their POV whatever they had been doing is completed.

You expect this in epic journey's of course, because you don't want to read an inch by inch play by play. However, in this case sometimes it skips things that would seem to be things of great tension rather than mundane journeying. Just something I found off putting.

The small events that do occur though continue to drive the characters forward. Some of them get a good amount of development this go around, albeit some arguably too abruptly. Overall though the character writing is still magnificent, to the extent Glokta in particular, is currently one of my favourite characters in all of Grimdark Fantasy and high up there in Fantasy as a whole. That's not a slight on the rest of the characters though as the one's I love and hate (for all the right reasons) are numerous.

I found myself laughing when they're sarcastic or witty, scowling when they do something objectionable, smirking when one of them gets what I think they deserve and a wide variety of other emotions and reactions.  The last book was a 4.25 and while not perfect, I do think the improvements were enough to warrant a 5 here.

Even better than the first one. The story gives you more details on the characters of which I love more and more and there is a significant amount of violence.

My absolute favorite about Abercrombie is his ability to make you feel for the characters. You truly feel Glokta's pain and what it must be like to be in agony every day of your life.
You feel like you're right there in battle with people getting split in half, appendages being chopped off, blood everywhere, the sheer chaos of warfare. It's outstanding

A good read. I don't find Joe's stuff engaging in the way that a truly amazing book is, where you sit there enraptured until you absolutely have to go to bed or do something else, powering through page after page, but it's enjoyable and nags at me to keep at it. The story is quite grim in an unpleasantly realistic way, and sometimes it can be tiring, but the story he's telling is engaging and every paragraph serves to build up to a climax you can feel coming a long way off. I also appreciate that Joe's characters genuinely feel fleshed out - they grow and backslide, and have some dimensionality to them. All in all, not a bad read.

After the slow-to-sluggish build of most of the first volume, this second book in The First Law trilogy is rolling right from the start and maintains the momentum through the whole thing.

It's a classic heroes-on-a-journey/battle-for-the-future-of-the-realm Tale but the action is great and the characters have plenty of life in them. I'm excited to read the third book.