2006
527 pages.

(This review is based on a comment I wrote on the review of The Blade Itself. It contains NO SPOILERS! The “more” thing is only there to soothe any spoilerphobics who might happen to read this.)

When I first finished Before they are hanged, the second book in Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law trilogy, I wasn’t sure if I should write a review of it or not. Normally, I don’t 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. The world is still interesting (with a fun Moria hommage, done almost by the book, excepting the rather conspicuous absence of any Balrog-like demons), 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.

Before They are Hanged is solid piece of work, in other words, and slightly more so than The Blade Itself. Its most fascinating feature was the most serious non-lethal injury I think I’ve ever seen (or at least can remember seeing) afflicted on a main character in a fantasy novel — especially in a world without any magical healing avaliable.

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.