Forgot about this in all the excitement! I am delighted to announce that Best Served Cold is now out in a most handsome hardcover French translation from those wonderful people at Bragelonne, under the title Servir Froid:
Bearing a strong similarity to the award winning UK cover art by Didier Graffet and Dave Senior, and why the hell not? It’s brilliant. Here’s the wraparound:
Further details over here. I understand the Heroes will be following in due course…
Kinda quiet round here the last week or two, huh?
Partly that’s because some of the stuff I used to put up here is better suited to twitter, where I’m now reasonably active and even occasionally quite amusing, though I say so myself. You can follow me there at @LordGrimdark.
Partly that’s because I haven’t recently drunk, watched or played anything that’s really stimulated a substantial response.
And partly it’s because a couple of things that have been a long time in the works are just now coming to a head, so there may be some significant announcements and discussion soon to appear…
In the meantime I’ve been writing some short stuff set in the First Law World:
Some Desperado is a Shy South story appearing in Martin & Dozois’ forthcoming cross-genre, multi-author anthology extravaganza Dangerous Women, further details of which GRRM has now announced, due to be published in the US December 3rd.
Tough Times all Over is a chunky 12,000 word story set in Sipani, the City of Fogs and Whispers, and featuring several familiar faces, due to appear in Martin and Dozois’ other forthcoming heavyweight cross-genre anthology Rogues, publication details for which we’re still awaiting.
Skipping Town is old school sword and sorcery for a forthcoming anthology of original stories in honour of David Gemmell, hopefully due later this year and featuring my hilarious odd couple pairing of Shev and Javre, Lioness of Hoskopp, the female Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Kinda.
Then we’ve got three other stories more closely related to the First Law and due (possibly, maybe, probably) to appear in new editions of the trilogy.
A Beautiful Bastard is told from the point of view of Quartermaster Salem Rews, and focuses on that daring fencing champion, infamous romancer, and dashing hero of the Union, Colonel Sand dan Glokta, and his attempts to defend a certain bridge in dusty Gurkhul…
Hell documents the fall of Dagoska from the point of view of a young and idealistic acolyte by the name of Temple.
Made a Monster focuses on the attempts of Bethod to finally end his spiralling feuds, bring peace, and pass on something to be proud of to his sons. The squabbling chieftains of the North are always hard to deal with, but the worst obstacle is on his own side – his terrifying champion, the Bloody-Nine…
Further details on where you can get hold of these as I have them. But additionally there will at some stage be a collection of all my short stories set in the First Law world, including these six. My rough guess on that (and it really is rough) is mid 2015.
Fantasy Foundation Publications are putting out The First Law in Taiwan:
Always fascinating how different publishers with different markets choose to present the same book. I believe this is the 26th translation deal for The Blade Itself, if you can credit that. It’s rather wonderful to think of such diverse people thrilling, thrilling I say, to stuff that I basically dreamed up in the middle of the night for my own amusement. So my thanks to the wonderful editors and rights agents at Orion who’ve put all these deals together over the last seven or eight years, and my thanks to all the far-flung publishers who’ve taken a chance on the books. I won’t thank the readers. MY FANTASTIC WORK IS THANKS ENOUGH.
Thanks, readers.
Should you have considerably better command of traditional Chinese than I, you can order a copy at one of these online retailers.
And while we’re about it, here’s their forthcoming Before They are Hanged:
GRRM has announced he and Gardner Dozois’ latest multi-genre anthology, Rogues, and look who wrote the very first story, why it’s only that nice Joe Abercrombie fellow. Mine’s quite a hefty 12,000 worder, set in Sipani, City of Mists, City of Whispers, and featuring all manner of thievery, roguery, skullduggery, tomfoolery, and unpleasantness, with a few old friends cropping up here and there. But even I would have to concede there’s an awesome range of other contributors and stories in all manner of different genres. The full table of contents:
George R.R. Martin “Everybody Loves a Rogue” (Introduction)
Joe Abercrombie “Tough Times All Over”
Gillian Flynn “What Do You Do?”
Matthew Hughes “The Inn of the Seven Blessings”
Joe R. Lansdale “Bent Twig”
Michael Swanwick “Tawny Petticoats”
David Ball “Provenance”
Carrie Vaughn “The Roaring Twenties”
Scott Lynch “A Year and a Day in Old Theradane”
Bradley Denton “Bad Brass”
Cherie Priest “Heavy Metal”
Daniel Abraham “The Meaning of Love”
Paul Cornell “A Better Way to Die”
Steven Saylor “Ill Seen in Tyre”
Garth Nix “A Cargo of Ivories”
Walter Jon Williams “Diamonds From Tequila”
Phyllis Eisenstein “The Caravan to Nowhere”
Lisa Tuttle “The Curious Affair of the Dead Wives”
Neil Gaiman “How the Marquis Got His Coat Back”
Connie Willis “Now Showing”
Patrick Rothfuss “The Lightning Tree”
Lipsmacking, huh? It’s just gone into the publisher, apparently, so it’ll probably be a little while til there’s a firm publication date, but I’ll let you know. My wild guess would be … er … 2014?
Just as a reminder, I’ve also got a Shy South story in another of Martin and Dozois’ cross-genre anthologies, Dangerous Women, possessed of an equally awesome and various set of contributors. That one’s a little more imminent, with a publication date in the US of December 3rd at present.
Two of my favourite sci-fi and fantasy bloggers, Justin Landon and Jared Shurin, have collected together some of last year’s best essays and reviews from around the blogosphere into a single volume, including Joe Abercrombie’s review of Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself (I liked it, on the whole):
“Speculative Fiction 2012 collects over fifty articles from some of the top bloggers and authors in science fiction and fantasy, including over two dozen reviews. Contributors include Joe Abercrombie, Daniel Alexander, Kate Elliott, N. K. Jemisin, Aidan Moher, Abigail Nussbaum, Christopher Priest, Adam Roberts, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Sam Sykes and Lavie Tidhar.”
It is with the greatest pleasure of which my withered prune of a heart is capable that I announce the release of a project that has been a long time in the pipeline, which is, as many of you may already have guessed, a full colour, comprehensive Graphic Novel adaptation of that pillar of 21st century fantasy fiction: The First Law Trilogy.
It’s been put together by Rich Young of Blind Ferret, adapted by Chuck Dixon, with art by Andie Tong, colours by Pete Pantazis, lettering and design from Bill Tortolini, all done under the horrifying gaze of my single flaming unblinking eye. I am hugely pleased with the results, which, no lie, have exceeded every expectation.
But the thing that’s of particular interest to me about this project, and probably will be of some interest to you as well, is the method of distribution. Mainly – that we’re giving it away to anyone with an internet connection.
Yes, you heard me right. We’re serialising it, free, at www.firstlawcomic.com.
The first twelve pages are up there now. You can go look at them. For nothing. And there’ll be new pages added every monday, wednesday, and friday, if things go according to plan, for years to come. And you’ll be able to look at those too. For nothing. The hope is, that when we’ve finally completed this project, there’ll be well over a thousand pages of high quality First Law graphic novel up online. For nothing.
But, eager to give the hungry public as many bites of the cherry as they can stomach, and aware that some might not be satisfied by a page here and a page there, you can also get hold of it in advance, issue by issue, via the world’s biggest digital comic distributor, Comixology. The entire 24 page first issue is available there now, for 99 cents. Further issues will be available there for $2.99 when we start to serialise them for free at firstlawcomic.com. So the day the first page of an issue comes out for nothing, you can pay for all 22 pages, and enjoy the envy of your friends, acquaintances and colleagues for seven weeks. What could be sweeter? Plus via Comixology you get, as a bonus, guided view (which, for those unfamiliar, takes you through panel by panel in a cinematic styley), and a package of pencils, inks, and character designs with every issue.
Finally, for those who want something to grace their coffee table, we’ll be collecting every four issues into a hardcopy collection, with further bonus material. Availability and price of that to be confirmed.
When you work with an artist, my feeling is you’ve got to give them the leeway to draw it as they see it. I’ve had an awful lot of input at every stage. Full editorial control, indeed, though I’ve generally gone for a fearsomely firm yet lovingly gentle touch. But, in a sense, this is Andie Tong’s vision of the material, given extra verve and variety by Pete’s colours. It’s one possible interpretation. One that’s evolved as we’ve worked on it, and no doubt will continue to evolve. But it’s one that I fully endorse, and am very proud of. So some of you might not like everything about it. One option would be for you to close your eyes really tight and stick your fingers in your ears and shout, ‘blah lee lah lee lah, I’m not listening, I’m not listening!’ whenever I talk about it. That, believe me, will be no skin off my sizeable nose at all. I suspect, though, if you give it a chance, most will find a great deal to like. Not least among those things? It won’t cost you a dime.
You can see the first few pages right now. Tell me what you think. Moan about how this or that doesn’t look the way it did inside your head. Maybe even enjoy it.
Go on. I dare you.
For Nothing.
It just so happens that I’m currently signing a stack of signature pages which will later be bound into Subterranean Press’ limited edition of The Heroes, and I thought I’d share with you the first of five (count ‘em, five) black and white interior illustrations from the incomparable Raymond Swanland:
I’ve so far seen one other, and it’s just as good. Oh, yes, it is. The 26 lettered editions have long been sold out, but numbered ones are still available if you hurry…
God help me, I have resisted, but the dykes have finally broken under the burgeoning pressure of interconnected social media platforms, and I now have a twitter account. For the time being, while I struggle heroically with the interface in a way that reminds me horrifyingly of my dad struggling with our BBC Model B circa 1984 while I shouted, ‘For Gods Sake, Dad, gosub 120! GOSUB 120!’, that account may well do little more than link back to blog posts here, but we shall see.
Whatever may appear there, you can find me at @LordGrimdark, if you dare…
I fully expect that many regular readers of this blog will already have enjoyed the mind-expanding pleasure that is the act of reading The Blade Itself. But if any of you are still considering a purchase, or perhaps are interested in supplementing your well-thumbed dead-tree editions with one of these new techno e-thingies what everyone’s talking about these days, I note that for the next couple of weeks, up until the 26th March, that classic of modern fantasy The Blade Itself is available for a mere £1.99. It’s true for the kindle edition. It’s true on iBooks too. It may well be true everywhere! In the UK, anyway.
The big publishers have tended to impose relatively stiff rules on the pricing of their ebooks in order to protect their hardcover markets (at least I assume that’s what they think they’re doing) which has led to some profoundly odd pricing structures with enormously discounted hardcovers and stubbornly inflexible (and on occasion higher) ebook prices, but under the bitter onslaught of reality things are gradually loosening up, I’m pleased to say. Contribute to the revolution and strike a blow in the cause of righteousness by buying huge numbers of discounted copies of my books now! Or something.
I love that moment when I can once again step back and let Raymond Swanland kick your ass.
Click for far more detail. Cover art for the limited edition of The Heroes by the wonderful Subterranean Press, and it’s a total wraparound, front and back, double a-side. Lettered editions have already sold out, I am afraid, but the numbered is still available, at a price. But know that not three, not four, but five black and white illustrations by the incomparable Mr. Swanland will be included within, alongside all the maps that graced the original edition. It is the incontestably complete, wonderfully unique, and strictly limited version of The Heroes. You may order here, should you so desire. But do so soon, to avoid crushing existential disappointment. All of The First Law, lettered, numbered, everything, are now sold out, and but a few Best Served Cold numbered editions remain…
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