Before They Are Hanged

It's funny. I read the first book in this trilogy (now a bit of a long running series actually) [b:The Blade Itself|944073|The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1)|Joe Abercrombie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1284167912l/944073.SX50_SY75.jpg|929009], back in 2015. I really enjoyed it and promised I would read the next one, this one, soon.

But that didn't happen. Hey, I am a guy with nearly 2,000 books on my Want to Read list, so it isn't surprising. But earlier this year, I read [b:A Little Hatred|35606041|A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness, #1)|Joe Abercrombie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1558367199l/35606041.SY75.jpg|57338685] and really enjoyed it, not even realizing it is connected to The First Law trilogy! It is the next generation of these characters. So I decided I should head back and finish reading the original trilogy.

And wow, am I glad I did! It is another grim, dark, brutal fantasy, with limbs flying and a dark cold death around the corner for everyone. To be honest, I don't remember much of the first book at this point, so I'm not really sure how the story carries along. But I quickly became friends (again?) with the main characters. In this book, there are 3 groups:

+ The Magician Bayaz and his group head off on a quest for a "thing" to help win the war.

+ Colonel West tries to help the stupid prince not die in a battle, then gets dragged along by another group to fight a big battle against Bethod.

+ Superior Glokta tries to save an outpost against the Ghurkas

Told in usually alternating chapters, the story moves along quickly and the characters in each group reflect off each other, have adventurers, kill, die and make love in equal doses.

The book suffers a bit in being the middle book of the trilogy. It starts off in the middle of stuff and the endings are not much. The futile end of the quest and the start of another, a murder and a huge battle that ends when things fade away in the mist, literally. But other than that, I was pretty riveted for the entire book. Loved (and hated) the characters, enjoyed their growth and their humor and can't wait to read the third book.

However, a couple things bring this down. First one is, of course, the big quest. If you have read any of my reviews, I am not a big fan of quests, ie, just one damn thing after another. This one wasn't quite as bad as others I have read and at least I liked the characters. But it was still A Quest.

But the biggest drawback to the book is the use of torture. I know Superior Glokta is an Inquisitor, who, almost by definition, uses torture like others use a credit card, but it still gets tiring. Ever since watching The Report, an expose on the torture of Iraqis by American soldiers, I have become a warrior against torture. I won't watch shows that glorify torture (I'm looking at you Watchmen) or movies either.

And this book uses it as a sort of deus ex machina to give Abercrombie an easy way out. Want to solve a murder? Torture some one and he spills be the beans. Not only does he tell the truth, but you don't doubt it in the slightest and without even a shred of supporting evidence, you convict the other two. Even just the threat of torture works every time. It's just wrong, it's just ugly and it's just lazy.

But besides that, I love this series and love this world. I need to read the next book ASAP!

If you clenched your teeth hard enough, and took enough strides, you could get anywhere.

Before They Are Hanged is a slog in the most sincere and positive way possible. The book is fantastic and an excellent middle step of a trilogy. However, for our characters after The Blade Itself nothing is easy, everything is a struggle and war is all around them.

The slog of Ninefingers, Glokta or Jezel is tiring, ruthless and a continuous struggle for survival and it made for a brilliant read. Grizzled veterans or fresh faces to battle experience the constant onslaught of existence and what could be a monotonous read is gripping and suspenseful.

We are leaders. War is what happens when fail.

Each chapter moved the story along and I never felt my enjoyment drag. The book was shorter than The Blade Itself and that helped prevent the story from having any unnecessary weight. For as much as I enjoyed it I'm not sure it is worthy of it was amazing five stars.

The story focuses on familiar characters, there are struggles and wonderful character development, and more action than its predecessor but ultimately the book doesn't conclude anything. This moved characters along, cranked up the tension and set up for what should be an incredible finish in Last Argument of Kings.

Got to have fear to have courage.

The spoils of war aren't sugar coated in this story the violence may be extreme for some reader but I am glad Abercrombie writes this way because you feel that life and death truly hangs in the balance. Fantastic story and I'm looking forward to finishing the trilogy off!

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.