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kartik_nagar 's review for:
Before They Are Hanged
by Joe Abercrombie
Before they are hanged is the second novel in the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Having played with subverting fantasy character stereotypes in the first novel, this time the author plays around with fantasy plot stereotypes. There are three subplots which all start as standard fantasy tropes - a band of heroes going on a long and arduous journey through hostile land for a mission involving a magical artifact, another band of heroes coming to the rescue of a city under siege, the third band of heroes going to a noble war against the barbarians from the north - and for most of the novel, things happen as expected, but again, Abercrombie manages to pull off some unexpected and surprising twists. Having said that, at least two of three story-lines have a bizarre anti-climactic ending, so much so that some readers may question the purpose of these subplots. Also, some annoying traits of the author are starting to emerge, such as over-written action scenes describing events in microscopic detail and yet somehow manage to be confusing, repeated descriptions of the pain and discomfort experienced by some of the characters, etc. The novel also suffers from the fact that much of the plot is bland and cliched. While there may not be much plot depth or world-building depth, there is still plenty of depth to be found in the characters, as we find out just how broken and twisted some of these characters really are. And yet, Abercrombie manages to make the readers empathize with them, with some scenes being especially poignant and heart-breaking. Overall, this is the typical middle book in a fantasy trilogy, with not many important things happening, but characters starting to show their true colors, and setting up the stage for the finale.