Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Eve Abercrombie

I don't bore you with my personal life nearly as much as I bore you with nonsense about my writing, but I really had to make an exception on this occasion. My second daughter was born four days after term, on monday 23rd at 6.45 in the morning. She weighed five and a half pounds, tiny compared to Grace, who was a strapping nine when she was born. Anyway, mother and baby both home and doing well, but sleep, work, and posting may suffer in the next few weeks, if not the next eighteen years...


Say it with me: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Labels: Other Life

Friday, 20 March 2009

Still More Opinions

Opinions on Best Served Cold are continuing to spring up like mushrooms on a damp and misty autumn morning. Good thing they delayed the sending out of the ARCs to avoid loads of reviews appearing six months before publication. Now they're all appearing three months before. I only invite you to examine the review at Dreamwatch Total Sci-Fi from the youthful-seeming yet strangely hirsute Den Patrick:

"Harsh language, unrelenting violence and flawed or broken characters are de rigueur in Abercrombie's bleak fantasy world. However, it's the deft humour, the bruised wisdom and the entirely likeable (but no less treacherous, lethal, selfish and proud) characters that really keep the pages turning ... Fans of Abercrombie's work will not be disappointed by his latest offering, which features all his usual hallmarks: cold steel, black comedy, fully realised characters and internecine struggles, both personal and epic."

He gives me 9/10, which is scraping the bottom end of what I would consider acceptable, of course, but we'll let it pass for now... Meanwhile, Jared at the interestingly named Pornokitsch has taken a gander:

"Best Served Cold is packed with engaging characters that pin the reader from the first page and refuse to let go. Through their dark hours and their (brief) moments of brilliant triumph, Monzcarro, Shivers and Cosca are funny, fascinating, inspiring and painfully, wonderfully human. Although it is a treat for the reader to explore Abercrombie's world, the real pleasure is in the company we get to keep while doing so."

And finally Graeme with an 'e' (or two, in fact) has finished up the book and passes judgement upon it at Graeme's Fantasy Book Review:

"Best Served Cold is a sordid examination of the lowest points of the human condition. Everyone is out for themselves and they don't care who they have to step on to get what they want."

Well they say one should write what one knows...

"There are battles that are about as real as you could possibly imagine although you may not want to after you've read about them. People actually respond in ways that seem reasonable given the situations that they face. There's even a noble goat with important lessons to teach us... All of this results in a book that gives us a better look at a wider world only hinted at in the First Law trilogy ... Best Served Cold was sat fairly high on my Most Anticipated Books of 2009 list, now it's firmly on my Favourite Books of 2009 List. Read it."

I take no interest in numerical ratings, as you all know. But I note in passing that Graeme gave the book 10/10. Top Marks. I'm no mathematician, but I make that 100%.

Alas, unlike Graeme, you won't be able to read Best Served Cold until June. But you can get one over on him and turn the tables by doing something he hasn't. Yes, you guessed it.

You can buy the book right now...

Labels: reviews

Monday, 16 March 2009

The Dice Decide Once More

It is the 16th of March, day of the death of the Emperor Nero and (I need hardly point out) 349th anniversary of the disbanding of the British Long Parliament. All over the world, people are putting on their tricorn hats back to front, painting their faces puse, and setting fire to the traditional suet and gelatine Long Parliament Cakes. Here at JoeAbercrombie.com we are celebrating in a slightly different way. Yes, by giving away, YES, GIVING AWAY a signed, lined, and dated proof copy of one of the MOST IMPORTANT fantasy books to be released in the UK on 18th June 2009 - Best Served Cold.

Once again the dice will decide from the - now - 273 applications received.

And the dice say...

That the...

2 hundred ...

and 19th application is victorious.

Yes, Mark Rowell, you are a winner. And he must read Best Served Cold before everyone else because...

"due to the credit crunch, I have taken to reading by candlelight to help reduce my fuel costs. Last night, in a fit of sheer pleasure whilst reading Last Argument Of Kings, I knocked over the afore mentioned candle, causing it to set fire to my book collection. My books are my only source of entertainment; they also double as my bed. You can only imagine my dismay when the books caught fire. I never even noticed it had happened until my large, unkempt pubic mound, was suddenly ablaze with a strange orange glow. At first the warmth was a welcome rest from the usual draft in my nether regions, but after a short while, the pain and panic set in. If it wasn't for my friend Barnaby Blowhard's quick thinking, and powerful lungs, the fire would have spread to my belly fluff and I wouldn't be here to tell you the story. Now, I am glad I survived; it's just that life really isn't worth living without books, and a left testicle. You are the only man who could ease my pain. Please, the book would mean so much to me and my remaining ball bag."

My god, it's almost exactly how I lost my left testicle.

Mark Rowell, you lucky thing, you should be in receipt of an email from me soliciting your address and desired inscription. The rest of you should swallow your crushing disappointment, though, because there is still time to win a proof of Best Served Cold. That's right. On April 1st I shall select the completion of the sentence, "I must read Best Served Cold before everyone else because..." that pleases me the most...

Can you smell the tension?

Labels: competitions

Friday, 13 March 2009

More Opinions

As predicted, reviews of Best Served Cold have started springing up like saplings in springtime. Some are very good, one is very bad. Let us look at the good ones first then turn our attention to the rotten, like having a lovely warm shower and then diving head first into a peat bog...

First to the punch was Adam at the Wertzone:

"The story is gripping and compulsive, the humour is blacker than midnight, the prose is a notable step up from the already-enjoyable First Law Trilogy (although the gloriously terrible sex scenes remain intact) and the characters massively conflicted. There are more enormous battles and some even bigger, eye-raising twists than those from the end of the prior trilogy ... if you like your books gritty, dark, funny and violent, than I can recommend this book without hesitation."

Five stars. Since you ask. You didn't ask? Well. Still five stars. Alice at Sandstorm Reviews has also read the book ahead of time:

"Abercrombie is a master at twisting expectations, and the familiar setup soon heads towards some very uncomfortable territory. There's violence enough for all, and some battle and siege setpieces to rival anything in the trilogy, but as usual, it's the character interactions that are the highlight ... I imagine that Best Served Cold is on a lot of people's Most Wanted lists for 2009 - well, you've not long to wait now, and you're in for a real treat."

I can only echo that last part. 9.5/10, by the way. Bit upset about that missing half point but, you know, nobody's perfect. Especially sf&f bloggers! A ha ha ha ha. Joining the chorus of approval is Marcus Gipps of the bookseller Blackwells:

"This is a really fun book, and if you've read the other Abercrombie's, you're going to like this. In fact, you're really going to like it. Everything that made those books so fun - the pointless gruesome violence, the well-defined characters, the moral greys and shadings, the incessant use of the word fruits, the harsh treatment of people we've got used to having around - are here, but ramped up another level ... It won't be to everyone's taste - it's too bleak for that (and a fantasy, of course) - but it really is very good, and another step upwards for Abercrombie. It'll go to his head, of course."

Go to my head? How absurd. Anyway, Marcus gave me seven broadswords out of seven. A ha ha again. I'm joking of course, Marcus doesn't have a numerical rating system on his blog. But if he did, I like to think I'd have got the full seven broadswords. What are you going to do with half a broadsword, after all?

So, as promised, three top-drawer reviews. But I haven't forgotten that I promised you a bad one too. We all like the bad ones really, don't we? The thing is ...

I lied. There are no bad reviews yet. Why not? Well, I guess it must be because the book is ace.

Why else?

Labels: reviews

Tuesday, 10 March 2009

Retribution Falls

For the last three or four years I've barely been reading at all, mostly because the times I would once have spent with a book (tube journeys to and from work mostly) I've tended to spend on my own writing - either staring into space and thinking about things or slashing at print-outs with a red pen. In an effort to redress this shameful situation and recharge the batteries of inspiration somewhat I've been reading quite a bit since the new year, mostly non-fiction about WAR by way of research and inspiration for my next project.

However, my editor would not stop GOING ON about this book she'd been working on, and my disgust knew no boundaries when I realised it wasn't one of mine. Naturally I consider praise for any other author a wounding betrayal, particularly since I know the author in question, Chris Wooding, pretty well and run my life thoroughly according to Gore Vidal's principle of, "every time a friend succeeds a little part of me dies." So I picked up a proof with the intention of skimming a chapter or two and in the ardent hope of debunking the inflated myth of Wooding's talent. It hurts me, oh how it hurts me to have to grudgingly lend my mumbling voice to the choir of approval.

The book in question is his forthcoming Retribution Falls. I guess in rough outline you could say it's something like Firefly (something very like, really, though that's no bad thing) but with a little steampunky victoriana replacing the wild-west elements of the setting and a sprinkling of magical demon-dust on the top. The Firefly comparison is apt for me, not just in the general outline of "Charming reprobate ship's Captain tries to scrape a semi-criminal living from a messed-up world in a patched together heap-of-junk ship with the help of a mismatched reprobate crew each with their own demons in the closet (sometimes literally)" but also in the neat combination of swashbuckling excitement and wisecracking patter with sometimes surprisingly hard-edged violence, moral ambiguity, and a cumulative depth. Not depth of a universal point-making kind, necessarily, but depth in terms of its depiction and investigation of a set of flawed characters and the relationships between them. Like Firefly, it pulls the neat trick of sucking you in with pure entertainment value, and delivering substance while you're not looking.

Usually there will be things that will jerk me out of a reading experience, events or dialogue or constructions that get me thinking, "Yeah? Really? I dunno..." with my eyebrows all slanted. Not so here, really. Each element works well and adds to the whole. It's smoooooth, like the Commodores. I guess you could criticise it for things it isn't, if that's your bag. It isn't dark and heavy. It isn't massively original. It isn't immensely surprising. But that'd be a bit like criticising Usain Bolt for being not that great with a discuss. Erm, he's a sprinter. Retribution Falls picks you up, and it whisks you swiftly and entertainingly along, and it sets you down with a big smile on your face.

Can't say fairer than that.

Labels: reading

Wednesday, 4 March 2009

Best Served Cold Extract

Proofs of Best Served Cold have slaughtered their guards, escaped from captivity and burst out into the wild, so I daresay we can expect the blogosphere to CATCH FIRE with reviews over the next week or two. In the meantime, for those of you unfortunate (or should that be fortunate) enough not to be an internet sf&f reviewer, I have a little something to whet, and, indeed, wet, your appetites for high-quality hilarious yet extremely violent and morally questionable fantasy fiction.

For the ENTIRE first chapter of Best Served Cold is available HERE, NOW on my website, free of charge, for your READING PLEASURE.

You lucky bastards.

Labels: news

I'm a Big Number Two

Yes, indeed, SFSite have published their yearly readers' best of list for 2008, and guess what's sneaked in there at No. 2. It's only Joe Abercrombie's Last Argument of Kings. They said:

"Abercrombie burst onto the fantasy landscape with bloody murder in his eye and a snarling shout that was not to be ignored."

Raaaaaaarrrghhhhhh!

"Volume 2, Before They Are Hanged, was #5 on this list last year; that the concluding volume has moved into the #2 spot is a clear indication that the author has not disappointed with his first fantasy trilogy. Last Argument of Kings offers more black humour, realistic characters, bloody battle scenes, political intrigue, and all around high quality entertainment. And it provides an unyielding, cynical end to the series -- precisely what was demanded by what had come before."

Raaaaaaaarrrghhhhh again!

My meteoric rise from not appearing even in the also rans with The Blade Itself, to #5 with Before They are Hanged, to #2 with Last Argument of Kings is most gratifying. If the trend continues I will surely be at #-3 with Best Served Cold next year.

Some doubters might observe the delayed release of several key fantasy works has played into my evil hands this year and next year I might not be so lucky, but I say to them - "Mwa ha ha ha hah! Number 2, baby, number 2!"

And I do a little dance, just to rub it in.

Labels: review