What is on my nightstand this week: Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
Before They Are Hanged (The First Law #2)
by Joe Abercrombie
Looping back on some series I have started before and never finished this month. First up is the 2nd of The First Law series, Before They Are Hanged.
This book drops you right back in, and I am pretty impressed by the author’s ability to get you back up to speed on the characters. You have a big spiraling, epic fantasy, that you need to get loaded back into people’s brains when they return to the books at some later date. Some authors have a summary that for force on people, others just drop people in like it is another chapter of the previous book (leaving someone who is not reading them in quick succession lost), but here it is done quite deftly. Either because of the vividness of the characters and the setting, or because of some nice chapters well crafted to return everyone to your mind, the re-entry into this world was nicely done.
I tend not to read reviews until after I finish a book or series, once I have chosen to start it, just to let me enjoy the book and how it stands on its own. So, I do know that some people have commented on the darkness of the series, Abercrombie’s twitter handle is @lordgrimdark, but as compared to a lot of other popular fantasy it is nothing too extreme. There is one character who is a bit gruesome, but on some level you end up rooting for him. Enjoying this one as much as I did the first one.
Recommended.
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