Before They Are Hanged

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)