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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN num: 9781591026419
ISBN number: 1591026415
Label: Pyr
Manufacturer: Pyr
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 543
Printing Date: March 25, 2008
Publishing house: Pyr
Sale Popularity Level: 1820
Studio: Pyr
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Product Description:
Superior Glokta has a problem. How do you defend a city surrounded by enemies and riddled with traitors, when your allies can by no means be trusted, and your predecessor vanished without a trace? It s enough to make a torturer want to run if he could even walk without a stick.
Northmen have spilled over the border of Angland and are spreading fire and death across the frozen country. Crown Prince Ladisla is poised to drive them back and win undying glory. There is only one problem he commands the worst-armed, worst-trained, worst-led army in the world.
And Bayaz, the First of the Magi, is leading a party of bold adventurers on a perilous mission through the ruins of the past. The most hated woman in the South, the most feared man in the North, and the most selfish boy in the Union make a strange alliance, but a deadly one. They might even stand a chance of saving mankind from the Eaters if they didn t hate each other quite so much.
Ancient secrets will be uncovered. Bloody battles will be won and lost. Bitter enemies will be forgiven but not before they are hanged.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Before They Are hanged (lower case "h" mistake on cover) continues the story of 6 rag tag individuals traveling to the end of the world. Great fight scenes continue, Joe Abercrombie describing the landscape like a Cormac McCarthy novel and the same humour we've come to expect. No substantial new characters. What this trilogy really needs is a map.
"A good cook was almost as good as a fighter. Not Here. Bayaz could just about get his tea boiled, Quai could get a biscuit out of a box on a good day. Logen doubted Jezal would have known which way the pot went up and he reckoned Ferro was used to eating her food raw. Perhaps while it was still alive".
The reason Bayaz assembled this group is explained somewhat during their journey (all except one) and the fight scenes in Aulcus are like a scene in the video game Gears of War.
West is still frustrated about the group he's with and protecting the clueless Prince. Lord Marshall Burr and whole whole indigestion thing does get as tiring as Grim always saying nothing more than, "Uh".
Quai is Bayaz' apprentice, but has less lines than the Navigator.
Logen asks if anyone knows any stories while they're all together around the campfire and Quai tells a brutally depressing tale about feuding brothers and sommoning magic from the other side which is forbidden and ultimately destroys an entire civilization then asking Logen if he liked the story. "I'd been hoping for something with a few more laughs, but I'll take what's offered". Not much of the very first book is *re-explained* so reading the very first book is a must and for those who liked The Blade Itself, you won't be diappointed.
Rated by buyers 
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Mature, fantasy readers must read this. If you haven't read The First Law trilogy, go buy it. Now. Abercrombie has an amazing style, characters and plot development, and more importantly...the entire series doesn't have a single character or word more than it needs. Absolutely the best I've read, in any genre, for a long time.
Rated by buyers 
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This book was actually very well written--the best of the three in the trilogy; I enjoyed the inlay of humour even during serious scenes. The character development is flavorful in its variety--several good characters well developed and completely different than the subsequent and these characters are brought to new places where you can see their personalities effected by their circumstances. I must admit the profanity got me down, I'm such a prude, and that's why I originally knocked it from a 5-star to a 4 1/2, but it got shanked down to a 2 because the last book of the trilogy was awful, simply awful.
What do I mean awful? Five main plots/subplots and only one of them turned out worth the ink used on the paper, and that one was just okay, not great. Personally, I just hate it when a good story gets a lousy ending...ruins the whole thing for me...makes me sorry I bothered with the very first two books even though they are pretty darn good. It was so bad, that it inspired me to write this review, and I don't usually write reviews. I'd go into details, but I hate spoilers worse than I hate horrible, HORRIBLE endings.
But if you can get over a LAME ending to the trilogy, don't mind an f-word thrown here and there, a very explicit sex scene thrown in the mix (although I don't mind that, I know some do) then read this book, because by itself, it is good stuff, leaves you wanting more, so you'll buy book three and it will SERIOUSLY crap on your book reading experience just like it did mine.
Rated by buyers -
The 2nd book in the series is really a continuation of the first, and should be viewed that way, rather than as a stand-alone book.
Character development continues and there are hints of other forces and players as the prime group struggles halfway around the world to recover an artifact of great power.
More and more it becomes evident that each character has a dark side, and who is good or bad becomes a matter of viewpoint. Each person is the hero of their own story - trying to do the best they can, but is it best to surrender a city and live under foreign rule, or suffer a long siege, starving, when it is clear the defender will eventually fail with great loss of life and the city be sacked. Dead hero or live chicken ?
Rated by buyers -
I can't say this enough. Buy this series. I said the very first book was one of the best fantasy novels I have EVER read (and I have read a few) but this one is even better. It prompted me to A) write a review, which is a rarity for me and B) write the author, which is unheard of for me.
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