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The part two review
Hi,
So last night I finished up, The First Law Book Two: Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie. As you might guess, this is the second in a three book series (the first The Blade Itself, I reviewed last month).
I think this series is a winner. Here's the deal: It takes all the standard Tolkien-esque tropes and then completely peels back the shiny heroism to reveal the all-too petty, mean and dismal underside. You know how we lionize people like Bonnie and Clyde who were basically psychotic criminals? It's kinda like that. The group of heroes questing to find the MacGuffin are mostly complete bastards in one form or another. True, over the course of their quest, they start to knit together as a group, but it's not an easy alliance. Meanwhile, a callous member of the Inquisition is starting to wonder if there's still time to find the truth rather than a convenient confession. The book mostly wonders about second chances and redeeming the mistakes of your past and the characterizations are all pretty strong.
The book takes no special pains to bring new readers up to speed and frankly that's fine. If the first book was mostly getting all the characters introduced, the pace really picks up in this book and considering where it leaves off, I'm expecting a full-tilt gallop in the last book because there's a lot of stuff on many different fronts that's going to need wrapping up in book three (and I'm pretty confident that Mr. Abercrombie intends to tie off everything in three).
So yeah, fun stuff.
later
Tom
So last night I finished up, The First Law Book Two: Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie. As you might guess, this is the second in a three book series (the first The Blade Itself, I reviewed last month).
I think this series is a winner. Here's the deal: It takes all the standard Tolkien-esque tropes and then completely peels back the shiny heroism to reveal the all-too petty, mean and dismal underside. You know how we lionize people like Bonnie and Clyde who were basically psychotic criminals? It's kinda like that. The group of heroes questing to find the MacGuffin are mostly complete bastards in one form or another. True, over the course of their quest, they start to knit together as a group, but it's not an easy alliance. Meanwhile, a callous member of the Inquisition is starting to wonder if there's still time to find the truth rather than a convenient confession. The book mostly wonders about second chances and redeeming the mistakes of your past and the characterizations are all pretty strong.
The book takes no special pains to bring new readers up to speed and frankly that's fine. If the first book was mostly getting all the characters introduced, the pace really picks up in this book and considering where it leaves off, I'm expecting a full-tilt gallop in the last book because there's a lot of stuff on many different fronts that's going to need wrapping up in book three (and I'm pretty confident that Mr. Abercrombie intends to tie off everything in three).
So yeah, fun stuff.
later
Tom