Comments on: The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

By: Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie | Thus Spoketh Terje

Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie | Thus Spoketh Terje — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:19:10 +0000

[...] review is based on a comment I wrote one the review of The Blade Itself. It contains NO SPOILERS! The “more” thing [...]

By: Dread Pirate Terje

Dread Pirate Terje — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 12:56:02 +0000

So, I finished the second book, “Before they are hanged” yesterday, but I’m not sure if I should write a review or not. I don’t normally write reviews of sequels, as they usually end up being a list of spoilers for those who haven’t read the book in question, followed by a few paragraphs easily boiled down to “more of the same”, with a possible addition of “but better” or “but worse”.

Which is what the case was with “Before They Are Hanged”: More of the same, only slightly better. Still an interesting world (with a fun Moria hommage, as I choose to call in), still intriguing characters, more realistic violence, still a mainly transparent and predictable plot, although with the occasional surprising detail, a continuation of its predescessor’s existentialist theme, and so on and so forth.

A solid piece of work, slightly more so than “The Blade Itself”, which most fascinating feature was the most serious non-lethal injury I think I’ve ever seen afflicted on a main character in a fantasy novel.

If I were to rate it, I suppose I’d give it a strong 8/10, bordering on an 8,5, meaning that the series as a whole could end up with a rating very close to 9.5 if the last installment is as good as they claim.

Whether or not that is the case is something I’ll have to wait for about a week to find out, as I sent “Last Argument of Kings” home last weekend, and ain’t going where it is for another week.

By: Loki

Loki — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:31:48 +0000

” Shit, I feel like correcting between 8 and 10 out of ten of my won posts, when I reread something I’ve not proof read. (I did proofread this one, though…)”

XDXDXDXD (Hint: Do a re-reread)

And I wasn’t on MSN at the time you wrote that, so what do I care if you waste your time READING. ;P

By: Dread Pirate Terje

Dread Pirate Terje — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:07:55 +0000

And when one reads an otherwise fancy text, few things are more annoying than tiny, yet basic and thus hugely grating errors. So thanks for the correction, man. And two out of three ain’t bad, considering how many errors I usually make. Shit, I feel like correcting between 8 and 10 out of ten of my won posts, when I reread something I’ve not proof read. (I did proofread this one, though…)

And by the way, I’d kinda planned to log onto MSn and browse your blogs now, guys, but Lotta mentioning the quality of the next Abercrombie novels made me want to read those, instead.

By: Loki

Loki — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:08:27 +0000

Fancy words are the quintessential sign of fancy texts, and I like me some fancy texts. ;D

By: Amras Elensar

Amras Elensar — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:46:45 +0000

“…in other words, when Abercrombie gets a few more novels under his belt, he just might be great)”

Oh, he is, he really is. The last one he wrote was truly spectacular and practically a shoe-in for my Book of the Year award.

I do agree with your review here, though. You said the same things as I did, only with a lot of fancier words

By: Loki

Loki — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:19:58 +0000

Oh, and frack, I just realised I actually spent two out of two comments correcting your English. Really not my intention, man. You write good English, so the consistent mistakes just call a lot of intention to themselves. (No offense was ever intended in my arrogant corrections, though!)

By: Loki

Loki — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:18:26 +0000

I have to tell you, man “rumour” means “rykte” as in “det er eit rykte om at mafiaen står bak dette søppelkøyringsfirmaet” or “Margrete har eit rykte på seg for å vere gal etter fart og spenning”, __NOT__ as in “Roosevelts rykte var imponerende” or “Han var bekymra for ryktet sitt”. For that meaning, you need another word, probably “reputation” or possibly, in some (positive) cases, “renown”. So reading some of your phrasings was rather jarring. Sorry.

Other than that, pretty good review. Bastard. I don’t have time to read this book!