Before They Are Hanged

Joe Abercrombie

Sep 2015 · The First Law Trilogy Book 2 · Hachette Audio · Narrated by Steven Pacey

About this audiobook

The second novel in the wildly popular First Law Trilogy from New York Times bestseller Joe Abercrombie.

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.


First Law Trilogy
The Blade Itself
Before They Are Hanged
Last Argument of Kings


For more from Joe Abercrombie, check out:

Novels in the First Law world
Best Served Cold
The Heroes
Red Country

Ratings and reviews

While the first novel in this series was a long winded - yet captivating - introduction of characters, this novel was more of a traditional quest. As quests go it was interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed this book if only for a specific character's arc, though I worry that the arc may curve back towards an unsavory direction in the third and final novel. Here's hoping that isn't the case.

awesome series BUT WARNING!...thethird book is the final book of this series...in my humble opinion i wish I'd never started this series of I'd known how the series "ended". Nothing is resolved...there is a cool full circle moment but it did not work for me as an ending. we needed a fourth book badly!

I highly recommend this series for anyone who loved GOT or just adventure and fantasy. I personally enjoy this authors books better than Sanderson. I know, I know, blasphemy lol but judge after you've read Joe Abercrombie!

About the author

Joe Abercrombie is the New York Times bestselling author of Red Country and the First Law trilogy: The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, and Last Argument of Kings. He is a full time writer, and occasional freelance film editor, who lives in Bath, England with his wife and three children.