This is the second book in The First Law fantasy trilogy. The Dogman leads us into the sequel with a strong voice, and seems to have taken over from Logen Ninefingers as the issuer of pithy barbarian proverbs and gritty wit. The story runs fast in the style of the trilogy, where there are no heroes, just survivors, or rather people with a strong determination to not die.
Abercrombie’s strength is his characterisation, and he delivers incisive insights into the nature of his ruffians and rogues which carry the story with wry humour. If you don’t think too hard about it, the tale is a lot of fun, particularly for those who enjoy watching a good fight.
The first cracks in a potentially great fantasy series appear in the plotting. The questers go on a seemingly endless journey to ‘find’ the talisman for the wizard, but it becomes obvious that the wizard can’t be trusted and will use the power for his own ends. At this point I’m asking myself “What is Logen’s motivation to risk almost certain death and hardship?” The assassin Ferro Maljinn has even less motivation. She was hunted by the invincible Eaters at first, but they seem to have abandoned the chase entirely. She’s been told she will get her revenge, but she’s not that stupid to believe the wizard. None of them would repeatedly risk their life without being shown exactly what the quest was about. Maybe there were better motivations devised for the characters but they weren’t obvious.
The conceited soldier Jezal gets some of the arrogance kicked out of him and so becomes more interesting, but he still lacks a compelling motivation for following the quest and any real ambition we can empathise with. Glokta, the crippled torturer, survives in a world of politics and subterfuge only by being clever. We feel his vulnerability, but I’m not rooting for him anymore, because he doesn’t seem to have any ambition beyond survival.
There are bright instances of great descriptive writing: sharp, clean and evocative. But on the whole the crassness of the characters and the pointlessness of the quests, battles and political intrigue create a world that can become tiresome. The story lacks the magic of the first and leaves me thinking that the ‘delightfully twisted and evil’ review quote on the cover might be appropriate. It’s still a good fantasy due to the arc from the first book and my hopes for the third, but the trail between them is bloody.
Before They Are Hanged: The First Law: Book Two
Rachel Morgan
March 31, 2011 at 2:43 pm
Yay! I’m happy to have found a fellow South African writer of fantasy fiction (though mine tends more towards the young adult end…). I’m very curious to hear your story to publication – how long it took you to write, did you get an agent or submit directly to publishers, how many times (if any!) were you rejected before someone accepted your manuscript… Things like that!
xx Rach
greghamerton
April 7, 2011 at 3:14 pm
Hi Rach
It took 2 years to write Riddler’s, 3 years to write Second Sight (because it’s more layered and complex). That’s full time (10 hours a day) … I did some part-time work around that to keep the wolves from the door. I had an agent in London but she couldn’t find any publishers, so I self-published … and went big, aiming for a national bookstore presence. Unless you’ve got time, and about £10,000 per book to risk, that’s not a good idea. Although I’ve got tons of great reviews and happy readers, as an author I haven’t earned a cent from the series yet … I’m a long way from recovering my costs. (When they say authors are committed, they mean in an asylum kind of way
Then again, I have faith in the story and that it will eventually spread far and wide, and I’ll retire to a chalet in the Alps and go flying
.
If I did it again, I’d focus entirely online: Kindle Direct, Smashwords (for the non-Amazon retailers), Createspace (if I wanted printed copies available) and my own website. Saves a lot of time and money, and you can still try to get an agent thereafter.
Good luck with your writing! Do you have anything published yet, or are you still building your masterpiece?