Before They Are Hanged

Like the first book, the characters are what bring this world to life and keep me reading as fast as I can. This seems like this is the book that gives the characters what they need even in often gruesome and horrifying ways. Such as, Logan being able to be a positive mentor without his previous life weighting him down or West experiencing a culture that accepts his faults and celebrates his competency. Of course there is a lot of character backsliding into their old habits as well. You get to see the beginning of what these characters could be and what would really make them happy beyond their stated goals or the mantra in their head. The character interactions in this book are just so much fun especially when multiple POV's are present to bounce off of one another and we get the contrasting internal monologues. Another favorite part of this book is everything to do with the Magi, they are just so petty to one another I love it.

If I had one critique on the characters, it would be the relationship drama between Logan and Ferro in the latter part of the book. I can somewhat believe they could have communication problems but it is just the most boring route to take that conflict. Logan getting offended because Ferro punched him in his sleep is just stupid, we've seen his band they do equally random violent things and he knows her backstory by this point as well.

The plot of the book is also improved from the first book and I feel this book while still very much a part of a trilogy stands up on its own much better. The highlights for me are the war in the north and the siege of Dagoska. The quest for the Seed is more of a stew for character interactions and purposefully not a driving factor in the overall story. There are enough fight scenes and lore that it keeps it interesting for the final anti-climax. The Dagoska story line was shorter then I remembered and left me wanting more, I felt Glokta's story slowed a lot once he was back to intriguing in Adua.

Continuing from the first book many POV's don't have a lot of agency in their story lines. Jezal, Logan and Ferro are just following Bayaz and only have agency during the fight scenes. Glokta once back in Adua is back to following Sult's and now V&B's orders and West has to follow orders in the beginning of the book. It's probably not a coincidence that my favorite plots to follow are when these really interesting characters get to do things themselves.

I didn't think to much about it during my read but in reflection the way torture is used in this series is starting to get to me a bit. In all but one of the on page torture scenes is torture or the threat of torture used to get information that is completely true, actionable and or gets the victim to do what is desired. Even in the case where the practical was shown to have erred it is later undercut with the fact he actually did have the right person, she was just a magic cannibal and could resist. It also annoyed me that even though the Inquisition is notorious in this world and known to use torture extensively there is no counter espionage at all. This is especially true of the Gurkish (and to a lesser extent the merchants) who are described as liking cunning plots. Two Gurkish envoys are tortured and killed and it seems like they did not even consider it an option or make contingencies. Why aren't they plotting behind false faces and fake names? Why send in an envoy that actually knows the true information and not with multiple conflicting stories? I know the answer is that the plot needs to move forward and Glokta can usually just tell when it is the truth anyway it just leaves the world a little more flat if the antagonists aren't doing some of the more obvious counter moves. While I'm not expecting completely true to life experiences, I having more nuanced results would have made the use of torture in this book more palatable.

I've noticed in my reviews that I tend to focus more on my critiques and what didn't work for me then what I enjoyed. If anybody ever reads this then I'm sorry I working on that, haha. I just want to reiterate that I really enjoyed this book!