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maidofbees's review
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture
singalana's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Before they are hanged is deliciously dark fantasy with gritty characters. The book picks up pretty much where The blade itself ended, and follows mainly three plotlines: the fate of Dagoska, the journey to the Edge of the World and the war between the Union and the Northmen.
The cast of characters is vast, but the characters are interesting and feel real with all their faults. Reading these books, it definitely feels as though the characters are influencing the plot as much as the plot is influencing them. The story arc is complex, and you can’t just pick up a book in the middle of the series and hope to understand what is happening. This book ends up the same as The Blade Itself: the story is by no means finished. Therefore if you like books in a series to have clear endings, then you are not going to like this.
I liked this book very much, and the narrator in the audiobook was excellent. My only complaints are that this book could have been trimmed a bit, it felt like it was going on for ever (even though it avoided being boring). And the second complaint was that the sex scenes were a little bit awkward to listen to in the audiobook. Other than that, I enjoyed this very much and I can’t wait to see what happens in the final book of the trilogy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual assault, Animal death, Chronic illness, Sexual content, and Cursing
Minor: Medical content, Slavery, Alcohol, Body horror, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Trafficking, and Vomit
whirl's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Gore, Violence, and War
Moderate: Rape
crownlullaby's review
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War
Minor: Suicide
surdiablo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Just as amusing as the first book with a much tighter plot. There's plenty of believable character development and moments that either kept me on edge or had me laughing out loud after midnight. Regardless of how intrigued I am by the history of the order of Magi or how much I like Logen, Glokta is the one who continues to steal the show for me so far consistently, way more than anyone else. Unfortunately, I can't say if I enjoyed this as much as its its predecessor ( I had spoiled the ending accidentally which did take away some emotional impact ), but I think it's an improvement over the first book when you consider the overall structure and writing. Without delving into details, you may either love or hate the ending depending on your preferences, I personally found it hilarious.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Torture, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Slavery and Alcohol
mikarala's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Huge improvement over Book 1, for me.
I flirted with rating this 4.5 stars, actually, and up until maybe 300-350 pages in, maybe I would have. Unfortunately, that's the point where the tension peaked overall for the book, so I have a similar problem with Book 2 as I did with Book 1, which is that I think the pacing is not great. Again, it was a lot better this time, and overall this book maintained tension pretty well throughout, but if the actual climax of the book doesn't beat the midpoint for action and tension, that's a problem for me. I understand this is more or less a consequence of having 3 separate plotlines in this book and needing to cover a certain amount of ground before Book 3 starts, but it's still something I personally find frustrating.
One other gripe I have is that the characters, while not necessarily shallow, sort of seem defined by like one (1) thing from their past. Except for maybe Logen, the characters don't often reflect on anything from the past in their POV chapters, and if they do, it's basically the same damn thing every time. Jezal has older brothers he feels competitive with, but they don't have names or specific memories attached to them. Glokta was a famed warrior before he was tortured and made a cripple as a POW, but he only ever thinks about that in general terms. With Ferro, we more or less only get her backstory when other characters make her talk about it, otherwise she just think about how she wants vengeance on the Gurkish for making her a slave, with nothing about that experience described in any detail.
Again, I won't say the characters are shallow, overall. For the most part, they have complex motives and feelings, and there's character growth, too. So maybe it's just a personal preference that's not being met here, but the fact that the character histories are so bare-bones just feels like some missing depth. This is also how I feel about Abercrombie's world-building, for what it's worth. I think he does a much better job on that score than in Book 1, but it still seems a bit surface-level. It kind of feels like he's trying to cover so much ground in terms of having multiple character threads and plotlines that will hopefully converge in Book 3, that he doesn't have the time to actually flesh out the world beyond what's absolutely necessary for the story. It's functional, but it doesn't make me feel immersed in the world the way I like in a fantasy setting.
However, I did rate this 4 stars, so let's talk about what I liked: first of all, as I wrote earlier, this book does a great job of maintaining quite a high level of tension throughout. Although it does dip somewhat towards the back third, there's still a lot going on that's intriguing, surprising, and overall gets you invested in the action. Whereas I felt like Book 1 spent a long time lingering on boring and unimportant shit, all the events in this book felt relevant and important to forward the plot or develop the characters/world-building.
I also really loved the character dynamics. Seeing a couple of different POV's from the first book collide and now working together in the sequel was honestly just really fun, and I liked to see how they bounced off each other. There were three separate plot lines in this book: one with Logen, Ferro, and Jezal following Bayaz across the Old Empire to retrieve a magical MacGuffin, one with West and Dogman & co colliding as the army of Northmen march on Angland, and one of Glokta in the South trying to hold the city of Dagoska against seemingly impossible odds as a Gurkish army beseiged it. Of the three, I probably liked the first the most, I guess because it seemed like the most important to the brewing fight against Khalul and his Eaters that appears to be the larger conflict of the trilogy, but also because I just enjoyed the mix of personalities. However, I actually liked the other plotlines overall as well (a huge improvement over Book 1, where I pretty much only liked following Logen's POV). The North/Angland war plotline did the best job of actually building towards a big climax at the end, with an entertaining dynamic from the clash of cultures as West began to work with our crew of Northmen.
The Glokta storyline was somewhat more frustrating for me. I was really invested in his political intrigues in Dagoska and seeing him prepare for a siege, but that plotline peaked at the midpoint of the story. I understand removing him to Adua was important set-up for the third story, but it leaves his storyline weirdly in the lurch, so I would have preferred him spending most of the book in Dagoska, with maybe a single chapter near the end in Adua as a cliffhanger for future events. As it is, there's something unsatisfying to me about the arc of his plotline, and while I can see that it's establishing some important elements for the finale, it does feel odd how isolated his character is from the rest of the POV characters and action.
But overall, a really strong second entry for a fantasy trilogy, that does a great job of bringing elements from the first book together, challenging our MC's in exciting and interesting situations, and ramping up the tension for the series' conclusion.
I flirted with rating this 4.5 stars, actually, and up until maybe 300-350 pages in, maybe I would have. Unfortunately, that's the point where the tension peaked overall for the book, so I have a similar problem with Book 2 as I did with Book 1, which is that I think the pacing is not great. Again, it was a lot better this time, and overall this book maintained tension pretty well throughout, but if the actual climax of the book doesn't beat the midpoint for action and tension, that's a problem for me. I understand this is more or less a consequence of having 3 separate plotlines in this book and needing to cover a certain amount of ground before Book 3 starts, but it's still something I personally find frustrating.
One other gripe I have is that the characters, while not necessarily shallow, sort of seem defined by like one (1) thing from their past. Except for maybe Logen, the characters don't often reflect on anything from the past in their POV chapters, and if they do, it's basically the same damn thing every time. Jezal has older brothers he feels competitive with, but they don't have names or specific memories attached to them. Glokta was a famed warrior before he was tortured and made a cripple as a POW, but he only ever thinks about that in general terms. With Ferro, we more or less only get her backstory when other characters make her talk about it, otherwise she just think about how she wants vengeance on the Gurkish for making her a slave, with nothing about that experience described in any detail.
Again, I won't say the characters are shallow, overall. For the most part, they have complex motives and feelings, and there's character growth, too. So maybe it's just a personal preference that's not being met here, but the fact that the character histories are so bare-bones just feels like some missing depth. This is also how I feel about Abercrombie's world-building, for what it's worth. I think he does a much better job on that score than in Book 1, but it still seems a bit surface-level. It kind of feels like he's trying to cover so much ground in terms of having multiple character threads and plotlines that will hopefully converge in Book 3, that he doesn't have the time to actually flesh out the world beyond what's absolutely necessary for the story. It's functional, but it doesn't make me feel immersed in the world the way I like in a fantasy setting.
However, I did rate this 4 stars, so let's talk about what I liked: first of all, as I wrote earlier, this book does a great job of maintaining quite a high level of tension throughout. Although it does dip somewhat towards the back third, there's still a lot going on that's intriguing, surprising, and overall gets you invested in the action. Whereas I felt like Book 1 spent a long time lingering on boring and unimportant shit, all the events in this book felt relevant and important to forward the plot or develop the characters/world-building.
I also really loved the character dynamics. Seeing a couple of different POV's from the first book collide and now working together in the sequel was honestly just really fun, and I liked to see how they bounced off each other. There were three separate plot lines in this book: one with Logen, Ferro, and Jezal following Bayaz across the Old Empire to retrieve a magical MacGuffin, one with West and Dogman & co colliding as the army of Northmen march on Angland, and one of Glokta in the South trying to hold the city of Dagoska against seemingly impossible odds as a Gurkish army beseiged it. Of the three, I probably liked the first the most, I guess because it seemed like the most important to the brewing fight against Khalul and his Eaters that appears to be the larger conflict of the trilogy, but also because I just enjoyed the mix of personalities. However, I actually liked the other plotlines overall as well (a huge improvement over Book 1, where I pretty much only liked following Logen's POV). The North/Angland war plotline did the best job of actually building towards a big climax at the end, with an entertaining dynamic from the clash of cultures as West began to work with our crew of Northmen.
The Glokta storyline was somewhat more frustrating for me. I was really invested in his political intrigues in Dagoska and seeing him prepare for a siege, but that plotline peaked at the midpoint of the story.
But overall, a really strong second entry for a fantasy trilogy, that does a great job of bringing elements from the first book together, challenging our MC's in exciting and interesting situations, and ramping up the tension for the series' conclusion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault, and Self harm
Minor: Cannibalism
strawberrypinch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Gore, War, and Death
Moderate: Blood, Cannibalism, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Colonisation, Trafficking, Murder, Cursing, and Xenophobia
Minor: Slavery, Body shaming, Racism, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Rape, Suicide, and Alcohol
jb567's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Trafficking, Chronic illness, Gore, Grief, Violence, War, Body shaming, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Toxic friendship, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Torture, and Xenophobia
ewout_s's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: War
Minor: Cursing
theliteraryhooker's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I loved this just as much as the first, if not more. I adore these characters and the growth they go through in this second book is impressive. The plot is tense, constantly keeping me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next. I cannot wait to dig into book 3 and just more of Abercrombie's writing in general. He's quickly become a new favourite author for me!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and War
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Vomit