We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged.
- Heinrich Heine

Thus begins the second volume of The First Law, just like the first volume began with the Homer (the Greek poet, not the Simpsons character, dimwit!) quote, “the blade itself incites to deeds of violence”. I think we can all agree that the second quote is much more awesome. However, Heinrich Heine was an unfamiliar name to me so I decided to google his ass, ’cause, well, that’s what you do these days. I discovered that he was a German poet in 19th century (big shocker!) and a lot of fun trivia besides.

What’s more, Heine’s also got a very wide range of awesome quotes, including the slightly ironic in the context of the First Law’s milieu and cover art, “Where they burn books, they will also burn people”.

But enough about quotes and the like! Let us instead speak of why “Before They Are Hanged” is so incredibly much better than its predecessor and why Abercrombie now ranks up there with my very favourite fantasy authors. Yes, those should be more worthwhile topics indeed.

Reviewed in a few words: “Before They Are Hanged” is a humongous leap in quality from the first book. It’s better in every way.

Like I said in my review of “The Blade Itself”, the first book of this series was nearly all preparation and nearly no play. And everyone knows that aligning the little green men on the make-believe battleground is not half as much fun as firing the plastic weapons and laying waste to some of your neat formations.

That’s one of the reasons why “Before They Are Hanged” is a infinitely more enjoyable read. The arcs that were set up in the first book are coming together, the ante is upped and you begin to recognize the shape of something bigger on the horizon. I tore through this 441 pages long book like I haven’t done in a long, long time. I even brought it to read at work, which is something I’ve never done before. “What? You want to pay for your gasoline and order a hot dog? Well, good sir, you’ll just have to wait in line while I finish reading about Logen Ninefingers kicking unholy ass, and after that it’s a chapter about Sand dan Glokta, and we all know that I can’t prioritize you over him. You got to be realistic about these things.”

Another reason is that the characterization - already one of Abercrombie’s biggest and most shiny toys - takes a gargantuan leap. There wasn’t a single character arc that I wasn’t keen on reading, and that happens only with the most accomplished of authors. This time around I especially liked the development of Sand dan Glokta (hilarious!) and Colonel West (Hack. Slash. Snarl.), and while I’m still a bit irritated about Ferro Maljinn’s constant hostility to everything, even she eventually became stomachable.

Even the writing and dialog (!) has become a lot smoother and funnier. Abercrombie always wraps up each individual chapter in a backbone-chilling way that compels you to keep on reading. You’ll even find a few battles in this book, and they’re also very well done.

On the negative side, I have to mention some of the qualms that I had over the first book and add one more. The series is still very clichéd, though enjoyably so in a sort of homage-to-fantasy way (which, I presume, would be the point). The repetitiveness of the characters has all but gone away, and Abercrombie has even started riffing on them, an this book has got a much better beginning and ending than the first book, too. One think that bothered me, though, was when Abercrombie was talking about archery - he clearly hasn’t used a bow, ’cause some of his comments on that art was terribly silly. I would also have appreciated a map, but knowing Gollancz’ editor Simon Spanton, wishing for one would be like wishing the writer’s strike would end; not hopeless, but very unlikely in the near future.

“Before They Are Hanged” is a fantastic sequel that begs comparison with Erikson’s “Deadhouse Gates” and even Tolkien’s “Two Towers” in terms of sheer awesomeness if not in style. I can’t wait to get my hands on “Last Argument of Kings” in late March and it’s easily one of my most anticipated books of the year. To flog my toy-metaphor yet again: “Before They Are Hanged” shows us that Abercrombie can make perfect troop placements and write nice skirmishes, but we’ve yet to see him fire the cannons or have him waltz a Godzilla in on us all unawares. But methinks that the giant lizards are on their way and I can’t wait to get thoroughly trampled. Here’s to the 20th of March and me inventing that time machine!

8,5 /10