Before They Are Hanged (2007)

This second installment had a slow start. A very slow start, and I was beginning to worry that it would be very dull compared to the amazing start the series had in "The Blade Itself."
However, once it finally picked up in the last third, it was relentless and didn't let down. Bloody battle after bloody battle, and great character development. Edge of your seat narrative that had me turning page after page, not wanting to put it down.
This is a dark series, that at times feels extremely hopeless. I love and I hate equally that, the hopelessness never seems to shift to hope. It's a very unique quality in a fantasy series, so I love it. However, its so bleak I find myself depressed for these characters have thinking this series will not have a happy bow tied around it at the end.
There is something to be said for Abercrombie's writing however, that he has written such deplorable and flawed, and ugly characters, and yet, has made me so invested in them. I actually care about many of these characters and that's some fine writing, as these characters are not all that likable.
I really enjoyed Ferro's development throughout the novel. It seemed as her character grew and developed, Bayaz's diminished and darkened. There was a nice contrast to their arches in the story, that I found quite riveting.
What I love best about Abercrombie's writing is that at their core these are character driven narratives. He has taken fantasy character tropes and turned them on their head. Yet he still gets us inside the characters minds, and drives the story forward by driving his characters forward in development and growth. He is by and far one of the best character writers out there in this genre. Each character is fully realized and wholly their own in his narratives.
Overall, the series is definitely worth a read, if not just to read something totally unique and different to your typical fantasy series. Strong writing, dark, and bloody. ( )

Before They are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie is the second in The First Law trilogy. The first novel I bought on a whim at a bookstore in Oxford while I studied there. I knew some of my favorite authors recommended it (and a good friend) and I thought the cover was pretty (it was shiny!) and I wanted a British fantasy author to buy before I went back to America. The first book was entertaining enough so I needed to read the rest.
As I started reading the book my thoughts were: interesting characters, interesting development, very dark, but nothing extremely innovative or creative to me. I noted the repeated use of certain descriptors and I thought that this was indicative of lazy writing, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that this was a clever tactic to get us into the heads of the characters. Glokta’s italicized thoughts to himself show us his isolation, his conflict, the only person he can talk to is himself. Dogman’s use of dialect and vernacular shows us his difference between the Union citizens, how he stands apart form them. Jezal’s prose is the most “traditional” because he is a nobleman raised in the way we would expect someone to write. But when we read Ferro’s story we find her very style of speaking to be abrasive, enforcing the idea of her own abrasiveness.
Abercrombie offers us a chance to have a conversation about voice, style, and form. There is something much deeper to the characterization in these books than just another fantasy novel. Abercrombie’s strength rests in his ability to create deeply character driven novels. The language of the narrative itself informs and shapes the characters. It is an amazing gift and talent. For me, nothing makes a novel more compelling than good characterization. The way Abercrombie can use the exact voice of his characters as the narrator is absolutely brilliant. Other writers try to do this, but so few actually succeed so well. My reading experience was one of submersion into the minds of these characters and each experience was realized fully.
His books are a beautiful thing, although very dark. The darkness in some ways was only able to be communicated by being so deep in the character’s minds that things that were truly able to as devastating as they were. Yes, the actions were not nice, especially involving Glokta, but the things that were so horrible and dark were made all the more traumatic because the reader is so deeply embedded into the character’s mind, every single hurt because the character and you morph together. It is a beautiful and truly authentic reading experience. ( )

Ok, where to start with this review for the second book in the First Law trilogy...

It has already been mentioned in other reviews that it picks up immediately after the first book, with Glokta heading south to Degoska (spelling names in this review is a challenge, since I'm listening to the books instead of reading them) to prevent the city from being overrun by the Gurkish army, Collum West heading north to prevent Adua from being overrun by Bethod, and Bayaz, Logen, Jazel, Quay, Longfoot, and Ferro heading to the edge of the world for... something.

At this point, the characters are well-known, and I wasn't expecting much in their development, but boy, was I surprised! I especially liked how Glokta's character developed over the course of this volume. I was also surprised at how much I dislike Bayaz, who has turned into something of a conniving manipulator, failing to give the "whole truth" or worse, only giving enough information to get his team into some deep, life-threatening trouble.

As several reviewers already mentioned, this book overcame the "second-book-in-a-series" curse very well, and the tension is ratcheted up significantly towards the end of the book, with several characters being killed (a couple shocked me), intense palace intrigue, shady dealings, and double-crosses happening in spades throughout. Of course, it ends on a series of cliff-hangers, too.

The narrative is outstanding, and Stephen Pacey has got to be one of the best at this. His ability to differentiate the dozens of characters is simply amazing!

On to the next book! ( )

This is an excellent continuation to the series, picking up where book one left off. Abercrombie delves deep into his characters and moves the plot forward, the latter being a welcome addition after the slower moving character work that made up the majority of the last volume. I loved the first book, but Before They Are Hanged entranced me and I was unable to put it down. In particular, I loved Logen's tale in this book, and really enjoyed Glotka's adventures in the south. There is still some of the same issue I described from the first book, where a chapter may not start with a clear indication of which character's perspective is informing the narrative, but otherwise this is a fabulous story, and the rest of the writing more than made up for it.

I'll keep this review brief and write something longer when I finish the third and final book in the series. ( )

These books have good, wry humour, and great imagination and characters, but the war and the politics make for a long slog. ( )