Before They Are Hanged, Joe Abercrombie

Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie is the second book in the The First Law series.

Started: 6/12/2020

Completed: 6/16/2020

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This book drops right in from the previous one and finally explains what the First Law is.

The sweeping violence of this tale matches the prior and somehow one still gets to like the characters.   Even the most violent are somehow true to themselves and all seem to recognize how remarkably violent their lives are.  In some ways, this is a simple quest story and the quest does move forward in this book although it is hard to tell why some of the subplots are important.  The quest itself continues to be a harrowing journey.  Meanwhile, for the other characters who are not directly involved in the quest, the world seems to be following apart for pretty much everyone's perspective.

In other ways, the flat heads seem to play the role of monsters in a monster tale.  The flat heads fill the role of horrifying kill on site type of thing (to my mind they worked like enormous and truly dangerous spiders would to most people now) and we learn that Logan seems to have a berserker quality around them as well as the nature of his magical sword being defined.

All in all, the story remains compelling, the characters engaging, and the hooks have been driven deeper calling for the third book.