Before They Are Hanged – Joe Abercrombie

After finishing The Blade Itself I had to read Before They Are Hanged without a pause. In fact I had ordered it long before I had finished the first book. Writing a trilogy is no easy matter. About a third of the way thru the second book one runs out of steam and having no inspiration fill things up with pap instead. We see this happening with so many writers. Not so with Joe Abercrombie. Before They Are Hanged starts at the charge and continues at a breakneck speed untill the end. Long before I got there I had ordered up the final book. This time on Kindlle for PC but more of that later.

Poor old Glokta plays a major part in this episode. Sent by Arch Lector Sult on an independant command to hold a distant city at all costs. Without money supplies or reinforment Glokta must muddle thru no matter the opposition. The Gurkish come North. The Northmen come South. In the middle nothing but treachery and the usual backstabbing. Can Glokta survive his latest promotion. It comes as no surprise when he does but it’s the way it happens that maintains interest in the story.

Amazon (A. Whitehead “Werthead” (Colchester, Essex United Kingdom) ) has this to say about Before They Are Hanged

Before They Are Hanged is the second book in The First Law Trilogy and the sequel to The Blade Itself. In this middle volume of the sequence, Before They Are Hanged picks up the storylines left dangling from the first novel and develops them further. As with the first book, this volume often feels like a ‘standard’ fantasy novel with lots of standard tropes in use, but Abercrombie successfully continues to put a subversive spin on events which keeps things fresh and interesting.

There are three main plot threads in the book. In the Northlands, the Union Army prepares to face the forces under Beothed. They have enlisted the aid of Threetrees and his band of cutthroats and warriors, but Marshal Burr and Colonel West find their hands full with just keeping their feuding generals from each others throats and babysitting the preening, useless Prince Ladisla.

Meanwhile, in the South, the city of Dagoska falls under siege from the army of the Gurkhal Empire. Inquisitor Glokta, in the city to investigate the disappearance of his predecessor, finds himself orchestrating the defence of the city against a vast and powerful foe, but is also forced into making alliances with suspect agents in order to ensure the city’s survival.

In the West, Bayaz and his band of unlikely companions continue their journey to the edge of the Circle of the World, to recover a weapon of tremendous power. Their journey will take them through the fallen remnants of the Old Empire, an ancient city and a towering mountain range before their goal can be achieved.

Abercrombie’s story rattles along at a fair old pace. With the characters introduced, there is no more need for scene-setting and the plot explodes with vigour. More happens in this 450-page novel than some writers struggle to squeeze into an 800-page tome, and it’s all invigorating, page-turning stuff. There’s a lightness of touch and plenty of humour in the writing which makes reading the book all the more pleasurable. The characters become more interesting, with Glokta particularly becoming a morally ambiguous person whom the author gives real character to, his decisive ruthlessness coming as quite a shock in some parts of the book. Meanwhile, in other parts of the story other characters undertake unexpected transformations. Meeting other people who know Bayaz from earlier in the world’s history forces the reader to reconsider their opinion of him, whilst another character undergoes a startling personality transformation which is kept quietly in the background, hinting at some darker force moving in the storyline which will be explored further in the final book of the series.

All in all a trilogy to live for:
The Blade Itself
Before They Are Hanged
and the last of this series
Last Argument Of Kingsmore on that next

Philip
P.S. Don’t forget to have a look at Singles Seek Singles

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