Reviews

Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie

shorkreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

eltorothedeep's review against another edition

4.0

Thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to get my hands on the third and final one. It's waiting for me at the library!
It sets the plot in motion, the plot outlined in the first book [b:The Blade Itself|944073|The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1)|Joe Abercrombie|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1284167912s/944073.jpg|929009]. Character depth does not increase significantly for characters introduced in the first book, other than Ferro.

tiger_moth23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

jem_carsta1rs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

obenn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

abendlied's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

spacebornfew's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

dcli223's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

ambarbaq's review against another edition

4.0

A world spanning adventure! I enjoyed having the main crew split up and seeing different corners of this world Abercrombie has built. Once again the characters really shine, the story is relatively simple, at least on the (conventional) heroes side but it is full of just raw character work. The real treat in this book is following Glokta’s escapades in Dagoska. As it has become a theme in my list of pros for books, it’s got GOOD POLITICAL INTRIGUE! Lotta backstabbing, and plans within plans within plans. And it introduces the greatest First Law character, Nicomo Cosca, mercenary extraordinaire.

skippen's review against another edition

3.0

A marked improvement over The Blade Itself, but upon finishing this, I have learned, that Joe's books are not fast paced. This book reminds me of Robert Jordan book in ways that we spend a lot of pages for very little to happen. The characters are what save this story. They are interesting, growing (although very predictably), and keep a glacial story interesting enough to continue on. However, after reading this book, The Blade Itself, is still next to unneeded. We get some excessively long character introductions that frankly could have easily be done in 1/2 of the novel or frankly even in this one, and the story (so far would not have suffered).

The audio by Steve Pacey overall is fantastic aside of a few women character voices.