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Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Imagine if Tarantino wrote a Sword & Sorcery Novel...
The guys at Unshelved have done a webcomic review of The Blade Itself, which is a wonderful thing (though due to the limitations of blogger you might have to click on it to enlarge so you can actually read it). I particularly like the line: "imagine if Quentin Tarantino wrote a Sword & Sorcery novel." I'm a bit of a fan of Tarantino (alright, of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction a hell of a lot, True Romance and Jackie Brown a bit, and the rest, not so much, but hey, two brilliant films is two more than most of us make, right?) so I take a comparison to him, however tongue-in-cheekly made, as a great compliment. But it did get me thinking about some similarities of approach...
Lurid, over-the-top violence? Check.
Conflicted, treacherous, shades-o-grey characters, haunted by their pasts? Check.
Black humour in the midst of the most awful situations? Check.
A focus on the crazy randomness of every day life? Check.
Fast cut, parallel plotlines that interweave in shocking and unexpected ways? Check.
Realistic dialogue that finds pearls of humour amongst the hum-drum of normality? Check-ish.
An un-ignorable legacy that has forever changed the way people work within a chosen genre? Erm ... alright, alright, I'm working on it.
Lots of cool 70s hippety-hoppety music and the involvement of Harvey Keitel? Well ... not so much. But what happened to Harvey Keitel anyway? At one point congress passed a law that you COULD NOT RELEASE a film without at least a Keitel cameo. Can't remember the last time I saw him.
But I digress. You know what? On the whole, it is as if Tarantino wrote a Sword & Sorcery novel.
Kind of.
There have been a lot of Blade Itself style posts around the place lately, so apologies if I never got to yours. It doesn't mean I don't appreciate what you have to say. I definitely appreciate what they had to say at The Horror Review:
"Up and coming Brit author Joe Abercrombie has presented the rapidly tiring fantasy genre with the most refreshing, original, and entertaining tome it has seen in years ... I cannot recommend The Blade Itself enough. In fact, this was my favorite book of the year with ease, and I am not sure I can wait until March for the U.S. release of book two of the trilogy, Before They Are Hanged."
And lastly, but by no means leastly, JG Thomas, who was able to secure a proof in the competition recently, has reviewed Last Argument of Kings on his new blog Speculative Horizons:
"Last Argument of Kings has everything you could ask for: huge battles, political intrigue, masterly characterisation and surprises by the bucket-load. This book will by turns shock you, excite you, make you laugh, and above all entertain you."
What do you know, another reviewer with a deadly allergy to top marks. He gives it 9.75/10 as well, though I prefer to think of it as 39/40, or maybe 98%. SIGH. I suppose I'll have to be satisfied with that.
I wonder if - some day - I should present some more content on here that isn't just self-aggrandising excerpts from other people's reviews of my books. Maybe soon. Maybe soon, I will...
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Stars in my Eyes
Publisher's Weekly, that esteemed organ of the American book trade, was not entirely bowled over by The Blade Itself when it was published in the US back in September. They said, and I quote, though it hurts me to do it:"British newcomer Abercrombie fills his muddled sword-and-sorcery series opener with black humor and reluctant heroes ... The workmanlike plot, marred by repetitive writing and an excess of torture and pain, is given over to introducing the mostly unlikable characters, only to send them off on separate paths in preparation for the next volume's adventures."
Aaarghhh! The pain! Take it away! Take it away! I was expecting when they came to review Before They are Hanged, therefore, at best a little movement in the right direction, from awful to, say, quite bad. Well either my second book went to a different reviewer or I got a whole lot better:
"This grim and vivid sequel to 2007's The Blade Itself transcends its middle volume status, keeping the reader engaged with complicated plotting and intriguing character development... Abercrombie leavens the bloody action with moments of dark humor, developing a story suffused with a rich understanding of human darkness and light."
Starred Review. Yes, that's right, STARRED REVIEW. Don't look directly at me, mortals! You could be blinded!
Labels: reviews
Friday, 18 January 2008
Forthcoming Appearances
So you've probably bought one or two of my books, read them, maybe even liked them. You've turned up to my blog, read it, maybe even cracked a little smile, here or there. Come on! Just a little smile! You're doing it now!But what next? Is this all there is? You want more, I can see, but how do you continue your journey into the world of all things Abercrombie?
I'll bloody well tell you how. You meet me IN PERSON. Yes, that's right - over the early part of this year I will be extending to you the opportunity to breathe the same air as ME, proper fully published in more than one language and multi-award-elligible author, Joe Abercrombie.
I will therefore be at world-renowned genre bookstore Forbidden Planet on Shaftsbury Avenue in Covent Garden on the evening of Thursday March 20th (in theory from 6-7 but potentially for a bit longer than that) to sign books, among them new hardback and trade paperback editions of Last Argument of Kings, and mass-market paperbacks of The Blade Itself and Before They are Hanged. But hey, bring along some unsigned copies of my books with you and I'll happily sign those too. I'll sign anything you want, in fact. I may even stoop to exchange proper spoken words with you. How good is that?
As though this were not enough, I will be at Eastercon at Heathrow in March. Certainly on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd, possibly also on Friday 21st and Monday 24th. What will I be doing there, you ask? Well, that remains to be seen, but the chances are high it will include booze, talking rubbish, and some form of self-glorification. More details as I have them...
Labels: appearances, news
Sunday, 13 January 2008
What THEY are saying this year
Ah, more reaction to Last Argument of Kings, this time from Ariel over at The Genre Files. Now in the interests of full disclosure, I should point out that Ariel has been known to do some work for, among many other genre writers, me. In fact he designed the rather wonderful website that you are currently looking at. However, I wouldn't want the fact that I occasionally give him money to distract you from this, his entirely honest and unbiased opinion on The First Law:"all in all it has been one of the most incredible, twisted, inventive and above all utterly enjoyable fantasy reading experiences I've had in a very, very long time."
Top stuff, my man. Next up, a really insightful look at The Blade Itself from the attractively titled Cesspit. I won't quote from it because it's quite long and involved - more a proper piece of criticism than a review, but suffice it to say that there are some interesting points about the pacing, the approach, the characters, the influence of theatre on the writing style, etc. etc. Alright, just one quote:
"Go buy and read it no matter of your personal tastes. This book won't disappoint."
Elena from Baton Rouge rated my phrase "his face was redder than a slapped arse" among her figurative language of the week, and Kay Kenyon, a much respected sci-fi/fantasy writer (of Bright of the Sky among others) and a stablemate at Pyr has also been reading The Blade Itself, and seems to like it:
"It's always fun to discover a new, talented author, and Joe Abercrombie is certainly one of those. You should read this book for the dialogue alone, and for the nasty and appealing villain, Glokta."
Thank you, Kay, glad you're enjoying the books. One of these days I should get my head out of my ass and read yours, among many others. It's just so warm and comfortable in here...
/dev/random has just finished Before They are Hanged, meanwhile. The series is definitely growing on him:
"The characters in this book jump from the page, with deeply carved characterisations, while still allowing for them to grow as the story progresses. Vanities and frailties are explored along with the meaning of strength. There is even some clever mixing in of the ugliness and stupidity of racism, neither heavy handed nor out of place.
To say that I love this book is an understatement."
Me too, dev, I love that book. "But Joe," I hear you cry, "we find it much more amusing when people think your books are shite! Surely someone's been cussing you off over the last couple of weeks?" Well, as it happens, Beezer had some criticisms of The Blade Itself:
"As a reader, I should not be expected to expend copious amounts of energy trying to determine just what the book is about."
Ah, well, you see, I thought, you know, that working it out might be part of the fun, and maybe--
"Secondly, inconsistent characters. Mr. Abercrombie is very good at writing the gritty, tough, characters. However, when the character shifts to a less sure, more naive character it becomes quite clear this is an area for improvement."
Sorry. Sorry. I'll get right on that, and--
"there are times when this book becomes severely bogged down and almost seems like a chore to read. I believe this is a combination of the lack of plot and inconsistent characters."
Oh. Oh dear. Well of course I wouldn't want--
"There are some positives with this novel."
Woo Hoo! Crack out the champagne!
"Mr. Abercrombie does show a knack for writing a solid tale. I think once he hones his craft and is able to correct some of this deficiencies he will truly be a name to watch in the fantasy genre."
Ah. Maybe put the champagne away. At least until I've honed my craft a touch.
"I would have liked a map to be included to give reference points,"
Don't get me started.
"The few bumps that were present can easily be corrected with more practice...In the end I will give it a 3 out of 5, because I truly believe Mr. Abercrombie can do better and has a bright future."
Get the champagne out again! Let's saddle up those three stars and ride them bad boys off into my bright future! Yeee-Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Labels: reviews
Tuesday, 8 January 2008
The Face of Black Dow and Other Stories
Ooooh, look what I found while messing about on the internet when I should have been writing in direct breach of my new year's resolution. Entirely independently of me, I might say, a computer artist by the name of Chris Archer has posted some 3d character sketches of Black Dow over on a graphics forum . If you're reading, Chris, hope you don't mind me reproducing them here. I should point out it's supposedly a work in progress, but I reckon it's a bloody good one, and not a million miles from my own impression either. Here's some of the earlier models, before Dow grew his hair and lost his ear:
Cool no? Kind of spooky to gaze upon the face of your own creation, or at least someone else's idea of it. Perhaps this is how Tyrell felt when the replicants turned up at his apartment in Blade Runner ... but less scared. It's always a kick to see someone else pick up your ideas and run with them. Particularly when they do something nice, of course. Anyone does anything crap, they'll hear from my lawyers. I'm joking. Or am I?
In other news, there's a review of Last Argument of Kings over at most excellent site Graeme's Fantasy Book Review. Among other things, he said this:
"Joe delivers his normal dose of intrigue, action and black humour but ramps it all up a gear and smacks you in the gut with some stuff that I guarantee you will not see coming. And then (while you're gasping for breath) he does it all over again, rendering some of the most powerful battles I've seen in fantasy literature almost pointless with the revelations that follow ... 'Last Argument of Kings' will be one of the best fantasy books (if not the best) that you read this year."
Not satisfied with the Wertzone's insult of 4.5 stars, nor even Sandstorm Review's slap in the face of 9.5/10, Graeme has made me his enemy for life by awarding 9.75/10. Like a beautiful woman without a nose, one's eyes are inevitably drawn to that one small thing missing. He's promised me an extra quarter on the next book of mine he reviews though, so I am somewhat mollified. Won't stop me leaving him with three quarters of his head should I meet him at another publishing function, however...
And finally ... you all know how I ABSOLUTELY HATE self-promotion, but I note in passing that nominations for the 2008 Hugo awards have opened. I note also (again without any personal feeling) that, since The Blade Itself was published in 2006, I am eligible for the second year running for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, having narrowly missed out on a nomination last year on account of no-one outside my own family having ever heard of me. It would appear that, regrettably, Patrick Rothfuss isn't elligible because of some short fiction published way back when (Yes! Yes! Fist Pump!). Scott Lynch is still a possible however (Boo! Boo! Curses!), so I'm sure I have about as much chance of winning as I do of seeing the Queen's tits. A nomination would make my American Editor very happy, though, and he deserves it, so for Mr. Lou Anders sake if no-one else's, anyone with a membership of the 66th Worldcon in Denver might want to consider voting for Joe Abercrombie. Sorry, did I not say that loud enough? JOE ABERCROMBIE.
Transmission ends.
Saturday, 5 January 2008
Progress Report
I've noticed that readers can sometimes get a little ... irritated ... when authors don't keep them informed as to what's going on, particularly with regard to publication dates etc. So in the interests of full transparency, I thought I'd begin the year with a little progress report:The Blade Itself is coming out in France with J'ailu in February in hardcover under the title "L'eloquence de l'epee" (The Eloquence of the Blade). That'll be the third foreign language edition to appear (as well as Spanish and German). Looks like Russian and Dutch will be out at some point later on this year as well. Czech, Polish, and Finnish rights have been sold but I've no news on when those editions might be published. You'll know when I know...
Before They are Hanged will be out in UK Mass Market Paperback in February, then in Trade Paperback with Pyr across the US in March.
Last Argument of Kings will be out in UK Hardback and Trade Paperback on March 20th, then hopefully in the US a brief few months later (maybe September). And my trilogy will stand complete before the world! Woooooooh!
Best Served Cold. Hmmmm. I've done the first draft of two and a half parts out of seven, and the rest is basically planned out to a point which I'm mostly happy with. So around 70,000 words, somewhat over a third of the way through. Trying a slightly different approach of forging ahead then revising large blocks, rather than constantly reading over and tweaking as I go. It should prove more efficient, but is tough on the confidence since the product day-to-day is lower quality. Still, slightly behind my ideal schedule to make the delivery date of mid-May '08. A variety of factors are responsible - one year old kicking me in the face all night, heavier than anticipated workload of the day job, an increase in interviews and distractions and other little bits of writing as more books get out there in more countries.
Chiefly, though, it's just the difficulty of writing new characters more or less from scratch. I'm finding they take a while to mature and settle in the mind. A couple of them have worked well from the off, but others, particularly the central character, are proving more elusive. With The First Law a lot of the ideas had been hanging around in my mind for years, and I spent two or three years writing The Blade Itself and another six months or so editing, so there was plenty of time with no pressure of deadlines for the characters to take concrete shape to the point where writing them was, well, not effortless, but certainly instinctive. Then Last Argument of Kings was particularly easy to write, since the characters and situations were all well established - I pretty much knew where I was going, the towers were built and it was just a question of knocking them down as effectively as possible. This is proving a lot more difficult.
Ironically, the positive responses that the other books are producing only make work on new material harder (not that I'd rather have bad reviews, oh no). The weight of expectation does begin to tell on one, especially given that the new work is something of a departure - hopefully keeping what's good about the trilogy and delivering it in a more compact form, but with less of the familiar epic fantasy trappings. Will people like it less? Will they get all teary-eyed for the sunny valleys of long ago when I wrote stuff they liked? Will I pick up some new readers, but lose a load of old ones? Will it be too much of a departure for them, or not enough? Worse still, will I like it less?
It's strange that, as a writer, you're always at least one book ahead of your readers, so while people are still reading and discussing The Blade Itself for the first time in the US, I'm writing stuff that probably won't even be published there for a couple of years (if it ever is, of course). "Yeah," you think, "you liked that, but how about some appreciation for what I'm doing NOW?" Even your editor is unlikely to read things and have an opinion until you're some way into them. In a way the approval for those old projects, that were completed so long ago that they almost feel like someone else's work now, only tends to undermine confidence in the new one. In the words of the narrator from Conan the Barbarian (who has taught me some of my most important life lessons), "truly, success can test one's metal as surely as the strongest adversary."
So it's been going slower than I'd hoped. But doesn't everything always? And publication is set for April '09, so there should still be ample time. Although it wouldn't be ideal (since it would eat into development time for the next book), I think I could still deliver as late as August if I really had to and still comfortably hit the pub date. Which is just as well since I have a feeling this will need a good deal more editing than The First Law books did. Still, day job commitments should drop off half way through January and I hope that work rate will improve drastically at that point, and the whole thing will become way easier.
As for specifics of content, I'll probably leave off talking about that until Last Argument of Kings has been out a while, as there are some characters in common, and I do hate spoilers. Let me only say this:
"A very dangerous woman is betrayed by her employer, her brother killed and she left maimed. So she sets out to seek vengeance on him and the six men who helped, and recruits a set of mismatched and untrustworthy allies - a master poisoner and his unlikely apprentice, a psychopathic convict obsessed with numbers, a Northman trying to escape a life of violence and failing (not who you're thinking), a torturer (not who you're thinking), and an over-the-hill mercenary who'd do anything for one last drink. Soon the most deadly killer in the world is dispatched to put an end to their schemes for good, while in the background, and then the foreground, a bitter war rages for control of Styria. The results, as one would expect, are fast and furious, occasionally humorous, always unpredictable, and very, very bloody."
The bottom line, then? It's going fine, and you'll get it when it's done. The same shit that all the other authors say, basically.
Not that anyone was asking...