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A review by maiagaia
Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
There are a lot of issues in this book that weren't as obvious in the first book. I will chalk it up to middle book syndrome and hope that it doesn't continue into the next one.
The structure is odd. The main plots for certain characters end, but then there's a good chunk of the book leftover, so we continue to go back to their POV and waffle around, making little progress that should have been woven into their story earlier when there was more going on.
While I think Abercrombie is really great at writing small fight scenes, his battle sequences are much less affective. I would argue that the chase sequence near the end of book one was an early indicator of things to come.
Abercrombie made the questionable choice of including multiple sex scenes. I wouldn't mind except for the fact that my man cannot write sex scenes. And then to have them so close together... He should have just faded to black because it would have gotten the message across much better.
Now, for the positives, Abercrombie is still at the top of the class as far as characters go, and now that we have them together, we get to see some really great interactions between them.
There are some interesting discussions and ruminations on power and war.
Logen and Ferro are cool as hell.
And that's about it.
Overall, the first book was much more effective, and I hope the third book will be a strong finale because I really do love these characters.
The structure is odd. The main plots for certain characters end, but then there's a good chunk of the book leftover, so we continue to go back to their POV and waffle around, making little progress that should have been woven into their story earlier when there was more going on.
While I think Abercrombie is really great at writing small fight scenes, his battle sequences are much less affective. I would argue that the chase sequence near the end of book one was an early indicator of things to come.
Abercrombie made the questionable choice of including multiple sex scenes. I wouldn't mind except for the fact that my man cannot write sex scenes. And then to have them so close together... He should have just faded to black because it would have gotten the message across much better.
Now, for the positives, Abercrombie is still at the top of the class as far as characters go, and now that we have them together, we get to see some really great interactions between them.
There are some interesting discussions and ruminations on power and war.
Logen and Ferro are cool as hell.
And that's about it.
Overall, the first book was much more effective, and I hope the third book will be a strong finale because I really do love these characters.