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The middle book of a fantasy trilogy is the hardest one to write. Most writers solve the problem by raising the stakes mechanically. Joe Abercrombie solves it by sending three of his characters on impossible missions in three different directions and letting each thread accumulate moral cost. By the end of Before They Are Hanged, every protagonist is worse than they started, and the books somehow make this feel like progress.
Logen and Bayaz go on a long, miserable quest into a ruined east that drips menace from every chapter. Glokta is sent to defend an indefensible city and inquisitions ensue. Jezal goes to war and discovers, slowly, that he is not the person he assumed he was. All three threads work. The Glokta defense of Dagoska is some of the best siege writing in modern fantasy.
Abercrombie's dialogue is the engine, again. There is a sequence between Glokta and the city governor that I went back and reread the moment I finished it. Five stars. Read The Blade Itself first, then this, then Last Argument of Kings and accept that the next month is gone.
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Last Argument Of Kings
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The final First Law book. Abercrombie sticks every landing he had been setting up for two books, and the result is bleak in the best way.
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