This book is BRUTAL. All topics are covered brutally, love, war, frndship, sex, talking ... WALKING. Everything is done with brutality. It's awesome. Why do I keep giving his books 4 stars? Because frankly I'm used to "the sword of clarity and helmet of truth" kinda books. As my Friend Amany likes to call them :P. The likes of WOT and Sword of Truth. With happy endings, impossible magical abilities, the hero does something miraculous when it is needed, good VS evil, etc. 
 The first law is my introduction to this new kind of Fantasy, actually wait a minute! It isn't, Game of Thrones is and I hated that! Now it makes sense why I must have hated that book so much while everyone adored it, okay I'm deviating. 
 Back to Before they are hanged. It went a bit slow , but I've already established that fast reads are not nesecarily good reads and vice versa. I adore the characters, flaws and all, actually even more so FOR their flaws. I noticed that magic is not really a key element in this book and although I loove magic in books this is a breath of fresh air. I'm STILL hoping for a semblance of a happy ending though in The Last Argument of Kings, this book ended on a note of despair and I'd like to see some good news! Going out to buy the last book today yay :D