Category Archive for ‘news’ rss

The Face of Black Dow and Other Stories

January 8th, 2008 • 12 Comments


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.

Progress Report

January 5th, 2008 • 11 Comments

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…

Baron Destructo & Me

December 18th, 2007 • 6 Comments

Joe Mallozzi’s in the midst of reading Last Argument of Kings at the moment. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Joe, he’s the executive producer, and therefore the supremo (I’ve always wanted to use the word supremo, and you have to use it emboldened) of Stargate: Atlantis.

Now this man, apart from being a serious writer, is a serious blogger. He makes a significant entry every day, without fail, often posts photographs of what he eats (I know, I know, but you can’t have everything), and gets over 100 comments on every post, sometimes more than 500 (a day, mark you!), replies to a frighteningly high number of them and still finds the time to argue the toss with restless fans. Does he ever sleep? I’m guessing not. Or maybe he’s actually five men working under one name. Or probably five men who never sleep.

Anyway, over on his (ludicrously well-attended) blog he’s laid out the enitre story of our deep and long-established relationship, and how he came by the precious ARC. Have a poke around while you’re there. His in-depth responses to spam-based swindlers are brilliant. I properly reckon there’s a coffe-table book in there. In fact I might have to suggest it…

Me? On TV?

December 4th, 2007 • 11 Comments

So, you’re never going to believe this, right, but I was interviewed for a TV show the other day. No, not as an eyewitness to/perpetrator of violent crime, but as a bonafide EXPERT on the field of FANTASY WRITING. I know what you’re all thinking, but wait, wait, it gets worse.

Contributors to the series include:

Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman, Guillermo del Toro, China Mieville…

And, among many eminent others, me.

I know.

Someone made a big mistake, right? Surely it was more of a vox pops, happened to catch me on the street with a camcorder sort of thing, right? NO. It was a full-on four-person-crew properly-lit and located hour-long interview. It was like WELL high-brow, and I used some of my best long and complex words like EXHAUSTIVE, ALLEGORY and IDEALISED.

As a video editor myself, and one who’s done a lot of documentary work, you’d have thought I’d have been expert at this, but it’s surprisingly different on the other side of the camera, I can tell you. It becomes strangely difficult to concentrate and articulate, or, at times, to come up with anything of value. It’s very hard to talk naturally, and you kind of drift into a parallel “serious pundit” personality. I’m not sure how much I like my “serious pundit” self. He’s a little bit of a pompous windbag, if I’m honest. It was not necessarily a performance replete with wit and humour. Of course, I know well from my own experience that of this hour it would be surprising if any more than a minute actually got used in various pithy soundbites, and it wouldn’t be surprising if it was less than that (or, perhaps, none at all). I’m counting on their editor to hone my bloated wafflings to razor-like insights and make me look like a fucking GOD.

Anyway, it’s a three-part series about Fantasy, and I’m going to be contributing (provided I don’t hit the cutting room floor, and HARD) to an episode about the creation of fantasy worlds. That’s right. Me, the anti-worldbuilding, non-map including, character-focused guy. Questions ran to Tolkein’s approach to worldbuilding and his influence within the genre and outside of it. Peake’s approach to worldbuilding and his influence on the genre. The New Weird and fantasy as a means of investigating the real world. Why authors feel moved to invent imagined worlds and the effect these efforts have on their lives. I know. Like I know SHIT about any of that, right?

Well, you shall find out, shan’t you?

The series will be airing some time in February/March on BBC4, which is a UK, cable or satellite based additional channel which carries a lot of high-brow artsy gear. I’ve been watching a very nicely made series about photography on there, in fact. Judging by the quality of interviewees (other than me) that they’ve got on there, it should be a fascinating watch for any well-cultivated fantasy fan. I’ll keep y’all updated as to exactly when it might be on as soon as I know myself, so you can tune in and wonder, when it’s just one massive Pullman interview with a bit of Pratchett spotted around and one quote from Mieville, “Hey, why wasn’t Joe Abercrombie in that documentary like he said he’d be?”

Going Dutch

November 5th, 2007 • 12 Comments

So a Dutch deal for The Blade Itself came through last week, which is nice, and made me think that a quick statement of the status of The First Law around the world might be worthwhile…

UK
The Blade Itself and Before They are Hanged are out, Last Argument of Kings will be out in March 2008. The UK editions are also distributed throughout the Commonwealth, in theory, so Canada, Australia, and South Africa should get the books around the same time.

US
The Blade Itself is out in trade paperback from Pyr, Before They are Hanged is due in March, Last Argument of Kings hopefully in September 2008.

Germany
Kreigsklingen (Warblade) and Feuerklingen (Fireblade) are already out in a kind of chunky mass-market paperback format. I’m guessing the third book will follow at some point in 2008, maybe late summer? Don’t know what it will be called, but one imagines it will have klingen on the end.

Spain
La Voz de las Espadas (the Voice of the Swords) is the Spanish title of The Blade Itself, and has been out in a very handsome hardcover from Alianza Editorial’s Runas imprint for a few months. A Spanish edition of Before They are Hanged should follow in 2008, though I’ve no idea what they’ll be calling it. Paperbacks at some point, maybe?

France
The Blade Itself will be published, I think in hardcover first, in February 2008 under the title L’Eloquence de l’Epee (The Eloquence of the Blade, doesn’t everything sound cooler in French?). The French publisher, J’ailu, have bought all three books, but I’m not sure how quickly they plan to publish the other two, or when/how/if they’ll schedule paperback editions.

Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, Finland, and now Holland
Translation rights have been sold to publishers all these countries, but I’m not sure when they’re planning to do the translations. Russian rights were actually the first to be sold, I think, well before the UK Edition of Blade Itself was published even, so a good couple of years ago. Still no sign of a Russian edition, though, which is a shame, as I’m looking forward to seeing what the cover’s like…

So, basically, as with many things, it’s a whole lot of what I don’t know. When they’ll be published, what they’ll be called, or what they’ll look like is anyone’s guess, though it’s always interesting to see the different approaches that are taken to covers and titles in different countries. The one thing I can guarantee you, is that you’ll know when I know …

American Edition

September 1st, 2007 • 1 Comment

American copies turned up in the mail a couple of days ago, and my thanks to Lou Anders and all the folks at Pyr for making a very handsome book. Minor changes to the cover – slightly different font, and some capital letters, which I like quite a bit actually – more authority. Same background, though, and the same fingertip-loving textured paper. If it ain’t broke, after all, why fix it? It’s also a slightly richer, orangey colour where the British is more buff/cream, but there you go.

It’s what they call a B-Format, so somewhere between those monster American trade paperbacks and a mass-market paperback. Similar to the British trade paperback in size, though intriguingly slightly squarer. The internals are different (text a bit less densely set, and it has book and chapter titles at the top of each page, which I kind of like) so there are quite a lot more pages (529 compared to 422). Paradoxically, however, due to the thinner, smoother, and basically (sorry Gollancz) better paper of the US edition, it’s a lot thinner, while still being a bit heavier. Go figure.

Content-wise, of course, it is equally excellent. Ha ha.

Hello America

August 25th, 2007 • 7 Comments

Although the US edition of The Blade Itself isn’t actually due in stores until 6th September, I’m delighted to report that amazon.com is stocking it from today, and at a generous discount. Only think, you could order that bad boy right now and crack the spine ten days before publication date. Only imagine: for those 240 hours, your friends will worship you like a god.

Simultaneously, a review from the appropriately titled Blood, Blade & Thruster, the magazine that mixes speculative fiction, satire, and self-deprecating humour (it’s like they made a magazine just for me). They say, among other things:

“A fantasy novel full of enough ironic and slightly self-deprecating humor and Scorcese-esque violence to make the average hipper than thou non-fantasy reader want to learn more about the genre (my favorite kind to convert), yet filled with enough touchstones to make your average Tolkien weaned fantasy reader quite happy indeed … This book is highly recommended by BBT Magazine!”

So any Americans out there, fantasy fans or otherwise, keen to find out what all the fuss is about?

You know what to do …

Best Served Cold

August 13th, 2007 • 12 Comments

Seems strange to be talking about it, what with the release of Last Argument of Kings still a good 6 months away, and The Blade Itself only just about to appear in the US, but a couple of people have been asking what’s coming next, so:

Reached an agreement with the good folks at Gollancz to write two stand-alone books set in the same world as The First Law, probably with a faster pace and some simpler, more focused plots. They’ll feature some new settings, some new characters, and a few well-loved (by me anyway) minor characters from the trilogy in more central roles. Can’t tell you who of course, that’d be spoiling.

The first is going to be called Best Served Cold, is set in the warring city-states of Styria, and, in case you hadn’t guessed, is about revenge. It’s largely planned out and the first couple of chapters drafted. If forced to sum it up I’d probably call it a fantasy thriller, light on the magic and heavy on the blood, treachery and poison, with the usual hefty portions of dark grey characters and black humour. And there’ll be elves. An awful lot of elves.

Only kidding.

It’s scheduled for an April 2009 release and, believe it or not, is listed on amazon.co.uk already. I note that, at the time of writing, it has reached a heady amazon sales rank of 1,549,626. Which I don’t reckon is bad for something that won’t be published for 20 months. By my estimate, it means I must already have shifted at least one unit.

Woo Hoo!

Now I only have to write it . . .

A Tale of Four Covers

August 8th, 2007 • 6 Comments

Covers. We all know about the dangers of judging a book by ‘em, but it’s amazing how many people do. I imagine that most publishing folks would agree with me that they’re the most important marketing tool when it comes to selling a book, especially by an author who may *ahem* not necessarily yet be a houeshold name. This is why the publisher likes to remain in firm control of this key element.

For those of you who are unaware, we authors (even unlike me, proper, big-selling ones) have no contractual say in the covers of our books. Of course, it behooves our editors to seek our opinions and take some notice of them, lest we become tetchy and difficult. Just as it behooves us (strongly behooves, in fact) to take careful note of our editors opinions about the text, lest we be dropped by our publisher.

A great deal of work goes into the covers for my books, therefore, before I ever get close to them. Some, I’m sure, would even say more work than the inside of the book, but that’s another story. So the first version of the cover for Last Argument of Kings that I saw looked a little something like this:

Loved the background. Loved, it, and still do. For me it maintained the basic theme of the other two books (which I’d always liked, despite having nothing whatsoever to do with the idea) while adding more colour, more sense of action, more impact. I was a lot less sure about the lettering. Hard to take in at a glance, which is always a worry, and just the slightest bit, for want of a better word, girly. The big vase of flowers on the ‘L’ I found particularly ill-advised. I wanted to go less Jane Austen and more Frederick Barbarossa on the font, prompting this response:

Once I calmed down from my towering rage on seeing my first name spelled wrong, I realised that it was a definite improvement. The ‘L’ was now much more butch, but had lost legibility somewhat, and had slightly the appearance of an overgrown climbing frame. I also felt that there was a degree of twee about the whole thing. A touch Yorkshire tea-house menu although, admittedly, a menu blood-spattered and on fire.

Plus there was that issue of foil to consider. The previous covers had both featured some shiny stuff to hook in the jackdaw-like fantasy fan. Could we not give ‘em the old razzle-dazzle this time, too?


Now we were really getting there. The whole thing was bursting with testosterone. I feel more manly just looking at that bad boy, don’t you? (Ladies need not reply).

Of course, I’m a pedantic git (as Gillian, long-suffering editor, and Laura, long-suffering designer, tell anyone who will listen, mostly each other). The lettering on my name was still perhaps somewhat spindly. The ‘L’ was perhaps now too scintillating in comparison to the rest of the text, and the gold needed to be spread out around the other letters to give the whole thing a valuable flavour. Also, the sharp-eyed among you may have noticed that there were still some letters near the bottom of the page, just below my name, left over from whatever document Laura had torched to make the background in the first place.

This version came in today, and I’m sure will be very close to the final one. The foil has spread out and become a darker and more sinister bronzy colour, the mysterious letters are gone, and my name is now bold as Boromir. The finished version will be on textured paper, and the lettering and certain parts of the burned surround will be de-bossed to give it yet more depth. Mmmmmmmm.

Thanks Gillian. Thanks Laura. Job done. You could sell any old rubbish with that round it.

Now to start whining about the back cover …

The State of Things

August 1st, 2007 • 7 Comments

So, the final part of the First Law trilogy, Last Argument of Kings, is edited and sent back to the publisher. It finally weighed in at a beefy 235,000 words – a good 15% longer than either of the other two – but there’s not an ounce of fat on that bad boy, I can tell you.

Most recent version of the cover art here. Still a little way to go, but basically very impressed with what the designer (the eternally talented Laura Brett) has come up with. Keeps the theme going but injects a much greater sense of action and danger appropriate to the rip-roaring content. Good stuff.

The UK hardback and trade paperback are slated for release in March 2008, but some of the lucky few may find proof copies in their hot little hands over the next couple of months. And the quality of the content? You’ll find a little taster on the site, but for the rest, let me only say what I always say.

It’s the best book ever written . . .

by me.