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A review by fulltimefiction
Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
4.0
The story continues from the The Blade Itself. ended. We have pretty much the same perspectives as the first book but some received more attention here like the Northmen (which I totally loved). We also discover more parts of the world in here. I’m going to keep this review short because I didn’t have time to write one before now and it’s been two weeks since I finished it.
I don’t think you need yet another person praising Abercromebie’s characterization but I will anyway. He is truly a master at creating different unique characters with their own voices. Flawed. But you’ll grow to love them anyway. Their character development sometimes isn’t the fastest but that’s better. The changes are very subtle yet the progress is undeniable.
I definitely grew to care about the characters more in Before They Are Hanges. Especially Glokta who truly shined in this installment. Not to say that the other characters weren’t well-written but I can see now why Glokta is famous among grimdark fantasy characters. He wasn’t that tortured torturer that we say in the first book (no he wasn’t simply just that even then) but now he really had a lot more depth to his character. We saw him as a human, leader, and friend. I honestly liked vain Jezal since The Blade Itself, he wasn’t your ideal character, of course, but his character has so much room for development and Abercrombie made the best of it. I still like Logen, he was one of my favorites in book 1 and still is here. Honestly, West hitting his sister is still inexcusable and I couldn’t simply turn a blind eye to that in this book. He was a true commander though here and his parts were very enjoyable. BUT THEN AGAIN THEY ALL WERE. At a certain point, that is.
I think however that Ferro’s characterization is.. ehh. I do understand where she’s coming from but I thought it’s very limited to that. It was nice to see her open up a bit but she was too much of an idea of a person than a real one. I also wasn’t a fan of Bayaz in this book. I preferred him in book 1. Still, this was another side of him I assumed.
Now to the pace: well, it was slow. Just like the first book, I had a difficult time getting into this one. But just when it got better, I was very busy and I didn’t have much time to read anymore. It’s not like it wasn’t consistent but I waited too long to read this book on one hand, and on the other, these are very character-heavy novels. Hence, if you’re looking for a fast-paced trilogy, this isn’t for you. Don’t get me wrong stuff happens but they are not the highlight of this book but the characters themselves. I also didn’t have a favorite perspective! I looked forward to them all once I started enjoying the book more.
Overall, this was a good book. I wouldn’t say it’s better than the first book, I enjoyed them both equally. I liked many characters but this series hasn’t amazed me (like I was expecting it to). The writing got overly descriptive sometimes which I usually find boring. Nonetheless, it was a solid sequel that didn’t suffer from the second book symptom. I’m also definitely not waiting another 11 months to read the third and final book, [b:Last Argument of Kings|944076|Last Argument of Kings (The First Law, #3)|Joe Abercrombie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1302062699l/944076._SY75_.jpg|929012]