Wednesday, 25 June 2008

Czech Mate

Oh, that pun really stinks. It really stinks. But like strong cheeses, I find the worst-smelling puns the most enjoyable. Besides, it was that or "Czech it out," so just think, it could have been a lot worse.

Anyway, Czech readers rejoice because I have received my copies of the Czech translation of The Blade Itself, Sama Cepel, from the publisher Solaris. Apologies for the lack of appropriate accents which no doubt totally change the meaning. It's a surprisingly neat little book, quite densely set but only 420 pages in a mass-market-ish sized format, 100 less than the UK one. Surprising since translation usually adds some bulk - it's literally less than half the thickness of the behemoth 800 page German version. They've gone for the UK art, which seems to be proving popular in varied markets, though without the grip-friendly textured paper which is the most often praised feature of my writing.

Really been trying to think up a decent pun revolving around Sweden or Swedish, could not think of anything. "Swede dreams are made of these?" No. God no. Let's just cut to the chase, then:

Exciting news for the many, many English-speaking Swedish devotees of this blog. And the many Swedish-speaking English devotees who would rather read books in Swedish than English. For the Forma publishing group have secured rights to publish The Blade Itself in Swedish. It appears they'll be doing a hardback and mass-market paperback, and also a book club version in which the book will probably be split into two parts that it may fit through a letterbox. A common thing in the Scandinavian market, apparently, but since each book is in two parts, and publishing it as six small books rather than three big ones has always for some reason vaguely fascinated me, it shouldn't be a problem...

Labels: news

Thursday, 19 June 2008

Eighty-One

British SF&F Magazine SFX have run a poll of their readers of their 100 favourite SF&F authors. Can't be bothered to post the whole thing, so I'll link to a posting and discussion here on Westeros, where I am occasionally to be found shrilly singing my own praises. As such lists go, and barring a few eyebrow-raisers of the type you always get with public votes, it seems a really good one to my eye. It's certainly tilted towards the commercial end of the spectrum, as you'd expect from a magazine with a broad base of readers, but there are a few more literary/experimental writers in there. There's a pretty good mix of fantasy and sci-fi (I was expecting fantasy to be much less represented, on the whole). There's also a surprisingly strong showing for what you might call classic writers as opposed to recent ones.

But the thing I really wanted to discuss is ...

LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! I'M AT 81! WOOOOOOOOOOH! etc.

Very pleased to make it on there at all, in fact, as a pretty new author, especially since it's an honest-to-goodness broad based, relatively commercial sample. Even if that no-talent-hack George Orwell made it on a whole three places higher than me. I mean what the hell's he contributed to literature? 1984? However you cut it that's at least 25 years out of date.

It is a very Brit-o-centric list, as is only proper. I doubt some of the much-loved British writers like Pratchett, Gemmel or Rankin would score so high in a US version, and in terms of newer writers I doubt I'd appear, since I'm still pretty new across the pond, whereas someone like Pat Rothfuss I'm sure would do, since his success there with his first book has been most impressive. It's surprising, in a sense, that there isn't an equivalent publication in the states. The closest they've got, as far as I can tell is ... SFX.

Talking of Brit-o-Centric, you don't get more honest-to-bloody-goodness British than The Bridlington Free Press, news organ of the Yorkshire sea-side since 1859. How it came about, I couldn't say, but they have reviewed The First Law trilogy:

"TWISTED, gripping, inventive, gritty and utterly compelling - think of a positive adjective and Joe Abercrombie's The First Law series deserves it.
It is a feast of brilliantly-developed characters who, despite being a bunch of the most unlikeable creations you could (or rather couldn't) imagine, the reader can almost grow to like as their personas are peeled away through the three books."

You guys do know I'm from Lancashire, right? The strange thing is that I was in Bridlington last summer for the wedding of one of my wife's friends. I actually wrote some of Last Argument of Kings in the loo of the hotel there. Strange coincidences...

Labels: news, reviews

Saturday, 24 May 2008

Joe Mallozzi's Book Club Part 2

So I have responded to the questions of Joe's readers over here at immense and self-indulgent length. Check it out, it is a scream. And exciting. But also makes you think deeply. Kind of like The First Law trilogy, in fact.

So if you've somehow missed me talking about my general approach to fantasy here over the past few months, or if you wanted to know my answers to such questions as:

"Do you prefer sugar or no sugar in your tea?"

"How much research did you do into swords and battles?"

"Do you tone it down for readers of a sensitive disposition?"

And many more, or if you were curious about the difference between whinging and whining, there really is nowhere else to go. My thanks to Joe M for providing the forum, and, of course, for shifting some books to the unwitting public...

Labels: interviews, news

Tuesday, 20 May 2008

Joe Mallozzi's Book Club

No, not an offbeat episode of the Sopranos, but an exciting initiative from writer, critic, bon vivant, and Stargate Atlantis joint-supremo Joe Mallozzi. We go back a long way me and Joe. We first met at one of Baron Destructo's interminable drinks events, it's a long story, and since then we've never looked back. You'd be amazed the conversational mileage that can be derived from simply having the same first name as someone else - already I have more in common with him than almost anyone else I know.

Anyway, as well as a writer, exec. producer, blogger and prolific eater, the other Joe is also a keen reader of sci-fi and, more recently, fantasy, and has decided to present some of this high-class genre material to his many readers. He examines, discusses, and invites comments on a sci-fi book, horror book, and fantasy book each month. This week's choice? Why, only the first part of Joe Abercrombie's seminal modern fantasy trilogy The First Law, no book other than The Blade Itself!

But dial down your pacemakers, because to make matters more exciting still, Joe has managed to prevail upon many of the authors of his featured works (some of whom aren't even called Joe) to join in the discussions. He's already had my US editor, the wonderful Lou Anders on to discuss his anthology Fast Forward, and he's got folks such as John Scalzi, John Shirley, Kage Baker, and KJ Bishop upcoming. And yes, indeed, you guessed it, I'll be hijacking Joe's blog later in the week to answer questions/dodge sh*t flung at me by his readers in relation to the Blade Itself. There are already a few gems showing up in the comments section, including such stuff as:

"I can't really review 'The Blade Itself' because I only made it to page 100 before I gave up and turned to 'The Android's Dream'. I guess the book was just not for me."

A ha ha ha. But seriously, I think this is a great thing Joe's doing, and I'm delighted to be involved. By all means drop by yourselves, and join in the fun...

Labels: news, reviews

Monday, 19 May 2008

God of Publication Dates Part 3

Ah, forgot to mention one interesting detail (well, interesting to me anyway). Looks as if the UK trade edition of Best Served Cold will be hardback only, rather than the previous setup of a small hardback run and a general trade paperback release. However it'll be priced about the same as the trade paperbacks have been previously (so in the region of £12.99, I'm guessing). Then there'll be a mass-market paperback probably 12 months later. Lovers of hardcovers rejoice! Haters of trade paperbacks rejoice!

With any luck the US edition should come out about the same time as the UK edition this time round as well. No longer need you cast your jealous eyes across the briny Atlantic. Americans Rejoice!

All details subject to confirmation and total change at short notice. You can preorder Best Served Cold on amazon.co.uk, which features a blurb I don't particularly like. They still say april, and they still say paperback. These details, as you now know, are WRONG. Ah, well. Everyone rejoice!

Labels: news

Saturday, 17 May 2008

God of Publication Dates Part 2

Well, here are two publication dates that I'm pretty sure won't move back. Why? Because the book's already written, that's why!


Last Argument of Kings will be out in the US in September, from Pyr books. You can order it now on amazon.com. Before they are Hanged actually shipped a month early, so you never know, this one might do too...


And Last Argument of Kings will be out in Germany in Oktober, under the name "Konigsklingen", which I'm taking a wild guess means something along the lines of "King's Blade". So the series is Kriegsklingen, Feuerklingen, and Konigsklingen, or Warblade, Fireblade, and King's Blade. Old skool, man, but they're doing pretty darn well over there apparently, so you won't catch me complaining. No sirree.

Anyway, it's available for pre-order on amazon.de for any german-speakers amongst you. Although, thinking about it, if you only spoke german you might have some trouble understanding this post. It's paired with the third book in the Eragon series, would you believe - not sure how good a match THAT'll be for the YA fantasy crowd, what with all the explicit violence, sex, and swearing but, hey, Eragon sells shed loads so, again, you won't catch me complaining. I could only find the cover at this rather poor resolution, but it appears to feature a kind of a halberdy thing on blue. I don't remember any polearms featuring particularly heavily in the text, but since the more common epic-fantasy staple edged weapons of sword (on green - Kriegsklingen) and axe (on red - Feuerklingen) have already been used, you know, where do you go? Mace or Warhammer? Blunt instruments. Dagger? Too short. Spear? Not really bladey enough. Scimitar? Too Gurkish. Falchion? Sabre? Estoc? Too obscure. Anyway, I digress. Konigsklingen - Oktober.

Woohoo! I love it when books I've already written come out in other markets. It feels like being paid for doing no work. It is being paid for doing no work! Or, ahem, you know, reaping the hard-won benefits of earlier midnight toil...

Labels: announcements, news

Friday, 16 May 2008

The God of Publication Dates

Gather round, my friends, for I have some (slightly) bad news. Publication Date for Best Served Cold has moved from April 2009 back to June 2009. Only a couple of months, which is probably small fry for some of you folks who are used to waiting for books, but I thought that you should be the first to know. Other than me. And my editor. And some other folks at the publisher. And some booksellers. But I thought you'd want to know, anyway, nice and early, to keep any disappointment as small and far off as possible. Nothing worse than camping outside the bookstore all night in the pissing rain, charging in bright-eyed and sweaty-palmed as the doors open only to be told the book's been put back a year, right?

Now I hang around some forums, so I see people get quite irritated about shifting publication dates, and I entirely understand. So in the interests of full transparency, let me attempt to explain a) what's going on with my writing process that has caused the publication date to be moved in this case and, b) why it is that you seem to get considerable delays even once you hear a manuscript has been handed in.

So, Best Served Cold. It's a simple story, in a way, a lot less complicated than The First Law, certainly. So why's it taken me a good few months longer to write than I expected? New characters is the main problem. New characters mean new approaches, new feels to create. For me the characters are the essence of the book, so getting them properly realised is key. That's taken time to a degree I didn't entirely aniticipate. The characters in the First Law had fermented in my mind over the course of years, then I'd taken two or three years with no pressure to happily work the approaches out in the first book before I ever got a publishing contract, and long before anything was printed. You know, when it was a hobby and fun, rather than the hideous drudgery of actual work. These new characters, particularly the central one, have had to be worked out from scratch and that's been (and still is being) a challenge.

Plus I'd got used to the pace I was working at with Last Argument of Kings, and foolishly extrapolated my likely writing pace from there. That was pretty damn fast, took about 14 months including all the editing. But that was writing the third in a trilogy, the characters, plots, endings long established in my mind and ready to be vomited out onto the page. This new project has proved more difficult. In a sense, since the trilogy was one long story, this book has felt much more like my "difficult second album" than the second book did, which was only really a continuation of the first. I am beginning to understand why people end up writing endless series...

Partly in order to make my life easier, and partly because I like books that tend toward the shorter and more concise end of the epic fantasy spectrum, I'd aimed for something tighter than the previous three (which were 195,000, 200,000, and 230,000 words respectively, oh yeah, real short and concise, Joe), somewhere in the region of 150,000-175,000, which I thought I could knock off in 12 months. Slight errors at the planning stage (chronic overambition, incompetence, failure, that kind of thing) have led to the book getting quite a bit longer than that - I'm guessing it'll work out about 220,000 now. Longer books take longer to write, you'll be surprised to learn.

Then there are the distractions and pressures that come with having books out there in the marketplace and (relatively) successful. Interviews, blogging, responding to email, endlessly searching for anyone talking about you, checking your amazon sales ranks every hour in four different countries, etc. That vital work all takes up time and energy one could have expended writing. And though I'm doing a lot less of the day job these days, it's funny how the pace of writing doesn't necessarily increase to match (more on this in due course, perhaps).

Then, given that this is a standalone book, I decided to take a different approach. With a series, one would desire to write the entire thing before the first book is published, so if some brilliant idea occurs while writing the last you can just alter the first here or there to match. In the real world this tends not to be possible, since a man's gotta eat and so on, and generally you'll have to publish the first book before you've written the rest, which means you need to be pretty damn sure of where you're going if you want your last book to be any good. It means a lot of revising and thinking as you go along. An awful lot, in the case of The First Law. Because Best Served Cold is a standalone I thought, aha, I'll just Bosh out a first draft quick sharp, not worry too much about getting it right, then revise and edit much more heavily than usual en masse, giving much greater economy of scale! The shackles are off! I am free! Free! Problem is I know I've left a lot of stuff that needs a lot of work behind, and that's going to mean more editing than with the previous books, which is going to mean more time after the first draft is finished to get things right, and etc.

So cut the sh*t, Joe, can you just tell us what authors will never bloody tell us, and say where are you actually up to with this book? Well, er, yes, thanks for asking. It's in seven parts, and I'm just finishing the first draft of the fifth part, so about three quarters of the way through. Well, that doesn't seem so bad, it's only May, a whole eleven months before the original pub date! True, I still hope to have the first draft finished and then thoroughly revised to my own satisfaction maybe end of August. Two months for some furious editing, polish and tidy up, and a month for copy edit and back and forth, have the bastard well and truly nailed by the end of the year. Proofs out, all hail my genius, unprecedented combination of critical and commercial success, buried under an avalanche of cash and awards, no, no, not another Hugo, I couldn't possibly, oh alright then just one more, mansion in the country with pool shaped like a magic sword, right?

But I know what you're thinking now. If it's all finished before the end of the year, why the f*ck does anyone need to move the pub date from April to June?

Come closer, closer. No, even closer. Not that close, I can smell you. And attend, as I reveal to you the hidden mysteries of the dark arts of publishing.

There's a lot more to it than just getting it typeset, proof-reading for errors, then boshing it off to the printers and counting the cash. For one thing the production department of a big publisher may have dozens of books going through at a time, from many different imprints, and everything has to take its place in the queue. They can't just be twiddling their thumbs waiting for that one author you like to finish their manuscript. These things can take some time.

But there are much more time-consuming processes than the obvious ones of physically producing the product. If you're going to give a book the best chance of selling well then booksellers need to know when it's going to appear some time in advance. The more warning they get, the further in advance they can plan their buying, the better chance of getting better display space and support. Editors need some time to get folks in their own company enthused about a book - the publicists, the reps who will try to sell books on to booksellers, the rights department who may be trying to sell the book to other markets. The longer you have and the firmer the date, the better chance of prising some marketing cash from the gripping fingers of the soul-less money men (I don't mean it, I really don't). The more time you have between finishing the final edit and publishing the book means more time to get proofs out to reviewers and more time for them to read the book, which means more chance of it getting reviews, of there being some buzz, or at least some awareness of the existence of a book before it comes out. All of this is going to help sales. Indeed, for a little known author it could make the difference between some exposure and none, between some sales and very few.

Then there is the question of scheduling. A publisher doesn't want to be releasing two similar books too close together, because they'll end up competing with each other, not only for the generous cash of the book-buying public, but also for the attention of the marketing within their own organisation, the reps who go out and try and sell the books to booksellers, and the booksellers themselves who need to fill their shelves. They don't want to be saying, "this book is the most important epic fantasy released anywhere this month ... apart from this one which we also have, which is just as good if not better, well, not better, but ... where are you going?" Schedules get filled up, books have to be moved around other books, and the later the delay occurs the worse the problem, which is why sometimes a small delay in delivery can mean publication has to be shifted months later, into the next free slot.

So you can see there are a compelling stack of reasons why it's in the best interests of a book to have 9-12 months between delivery of a first draft and publication. With the really big, well-established authors it's less important. Booksellers, reps and readers aren't going to say no to A Dance With Dragons because it doesn't turn up on time, for example, but if you push it down to less than six months you're limiting editing time, proof-reading time, putting added pressure on everyone involved and taking some risks with the quality of the output. Ever wondered why books that are long-delayed may seem sloppily edited? Wonder no longer...

Phew. So that's why we've decided to move the publication date of Best Served Cold back a couple of months at this early stage, to reduce the pressure on the writing somewhat, to ensure the editing time isn't squeezed, to give the book the best chance as it goes through the pipes of marketing, repping, selling and so on. The God of Publication Dates is a jealous god, and it's best to upset it as little as possible. Best to move the book now, nice and early, to avoid disappointment later. Yours and mine. We all want the best possible product, after all.

So, as I say, Best Served Cold, June 2009, stick it in your diaries. I'm entirely confident it won't have to go back any further than that.

Honest...

Labels: announcements, news, process

Thursday, 1 May 2008

Clarke, Morgan, Tiny Trousers

I was at the Arthur C. Clarke Awards last night. Richard Morgan won, for Black Man. Wooooh! Go Gollancz! Etc. Here he is, with award:


Thanks to Jon Weir for the picture, and many congratulations to Morgsy, couldn't happen to a nicer bloke. I know what you're thinking. They give you a book? Surely the one thing a writer could never need more of. But don't worry, they actually give you money as well for this one. Actual money. I'll be hitting him up for a loan later on today...

It was good, in a way, to see an award that gets some stick for leaning too far towards the literary extremes of the genre, go to an unashamedly sci-fi book from an unashamedly genre publisher. After the ceremony, folks associated with Gollancz repaired to a Chinese restaurant to bask in the reflected glory and ingest a lethal cocktail of msg and saturated fats. Mmmm. Smells like victory.

A cornucopia of award-winning SF writers were in attendance, including the aforementioned Morgan, Roger Levy, Adam Roberts, Paul McAuley, Geoff Ryman, Chris Wooding, Stephen Baxter, and none other than Harry Harrison, whose Stainless Steel Rat and Bill the Galactic Hero I well remember reading as a kid, in his 80s and still going strong, talking of collapsing short-story markets and immense Russian print-runs.

At one point in the evening I very definitely saw a pair of tiny trousers, in a poor quality plastic bag, passed from Adam Roberts to Roger Levy. A gesture the precise significance of which escapes me. Perhaps a kind of Sicilian insult from one Literary SF writer to another?

"Your writing has no balls."

Labels: news

Monday, 24 March 2008

Conventional Wisdom

Ha ha. See what I did there?

Just spent the Easter weekend at Eastercon, the sci-fi and fantasy convention, which this year was within relatively easy reach of me at a hotel near Heathrow. It's the second time I've been to a convention, but the first time was two years ago in Glasgow which, if one can believe it, was just before The Blade Itself was published. So this was my first attendance as an actual, proper, fully-paid-up, honest-to-goodness author.

Spent most of my time hanging around one bar or another (doesn't everyone at these things), with my editor Gillian and publicist Jon, with Sara and Mark from Orion (thanks for the support), with Stephane and Alain from French publisher Bragelonne (lovely guys even if they are from across the channel), Darren Nash and Bella Pagan from Orbit, Marcus Gipps from Blackwells, John Berlyne of SFRevu (always a pleasure), Paul Cornell, writer for Dr. Who (Hugo nominated this year, no less). Apologies to anyone I've left out. I'd been drinking, you see...

Went out for dinner on the Saturday night with a cornucopia of Gollancz persons, including the aforementioned Gillian, Jon, Sara and Mark plus editorial director Jo Fletcher, plus sundry authors - Adam Roberts (Robertsy), Chris Wooding (Woody), Tom Lloyd (Lloydy), John Meaney (no chance, the man's a master of multiple forms of unarmed combat), David Devereux (the name is impossible to create a nick-name out of simply by adding a 'y' or 's'), and Ian McDonald (whose victory at the SFWAs and nominations for pretty much every other major award this year make him simply 'Mr. McDonald'). Apologies again to anyone I've left out. I'd been drinking, had got up at 5.00 in the morning, which seems to be the time my baby wakes up now, and had come down with a cold. I was in bed by 10.30. Rock and roll, man, rock and roll.

I signed some books for some dealers, and some books for some readers, who all seemed like very nice folks, I must say. What they're doing reading my books, I've no idea. I spoke to some readers, some at some length and some at less length. Apologies to anyone I spoke rubbish at. I'd been drinking, you see...

What else? I visited some panels, sat in darkened rooms while wisdom was diseminated in my direction. I saw Charles Stross talk about technology. I saw China Mieville talk about Lovecraft. I saw Jo Fletcher and Darren Nash talk about 'what an editor does' and I'm still not sure. I missed Neil Gaiman because I was in the pub having an elaborate desert. I sat in on a panel about on-line criticism. When several of the bloggers there started talking about how it was unwise for authors to respond to their critics, for some reason I can't explain, Niall Harrison, who runs the reviews at Strange Horizons, looked right at me and grinned. Or perhaps he wasn't looking at me at all. I had been drinking, as it happens.

I also sat on a couple of panels. I must admit I was slightly nervous about this before hand, but they both turned out to be good fun, in fact, for me if not for the audience. 'Adapting Tolkien from Book to Film' probably had about thirty people in it, which wasn't bad considering China Mieville was on at the same time. Atmosphere was greatly enhanced by the winds of Mordor rattling the windows. 'Roughening up fantasyland' was probably more up my street, so I was able to talk, if not more sense, then just more stuff on that one. Pretty full, maybe eighty people or so? My thanks to anyone and everyone who turned out, came up, or contributed, and I'll hope to see you all again, out there...

Labels: news

Friday, 21 March 2008

Gongs

No longer will I be able to refer to myself as a "multi-award nearly-nominated author", as today I have actually been nominated for the John W. Campbell award for best new writer. My grovelling thanks to anyone who put my name forward for this utterly undeserved honour.

But Joe, I hear you cry, have you not written three books and are you not half way through a fourth? It's an odd selection criteria which allows for anyone who released their first professional work in the genre within the last 2 years (2006-7), so I was eligible last year but, like, Joe who? Patrick Rothfuss, I'm sure, would have been an absolute shoe-in for this, but due to a short story published way-back-when he's not eligible. David Anthony Durham, on the other hand, is eligible despite having some successful historical fiction under his belt, because Acacia is his first sf/f work. Them's the vagaries of the selection process, I guess. The absence of Rothfuss probably means that I can get urinated on from a great height by Scott Lynch instead. Well, bit of urine never hurt anyone, did it? Perhaps the benevolent God of Release Dates will come to my aid in this time of crisis, but I doubt it, and it's great to be on the ballot, in any case.

Sweeping my eye over the rest of the nominations I cannot but notice my US Editor Lou Anders, of Pyr, up for best Long Form Editor. He's a man who believes in, and puts great effort into, every title he publishes. It's testament to the great work he does that, even though Pyr is a small outfit compared to some and puts out less than twenty titles a year, he's got a nomination for the Best Novel Hugo via Ian McDonald's Brasyl, me AND David Louis Edelman in the Campbell section, and himself in the Best Editor. Round of applause for Lou, please.

You spend five years waiting for a bus to come along, then two come at once, because I've also been nominated for the Compton Crook Award which is given for the best first novel of the year written by a new author by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. But Joe, I hear you cry, was your first novel not written and released years ago? Ah, well, not in the US, you see. Better yet, this award actually comes with a cash prize. Worse yet, that fiend Rothfuss no doubt will be eligible for this one. Enjoy your Compton Crook, Rothfuss! Ha ha! I'll enjoy being ... pissed on ... by ... Scott Lynch. Hmmmm.

In other news, there were some fifty folks at the signing at Forbidden Planet last night, my thanks to anyone who turned out in inclement weather to be there. I've done one of these for each book, and the attendance has more or less tripled for each one, which is great. There was actually something you could reasonably describe as a queue this time. Astonishing. Also signed a big heap of 100 hardbacks for Goldsboro books as well, so if anyone has ordered books from them they should be on their way. Lined and dated half of 'em too. My hand hurts now. Off to Eastercon. Maybe see you there...

Labels: announcements, news

Wednesday, 19 March 2008

Worldbuilding and Tropes

Official release date for Before They are Hanged in the US is tomorrow, but the book's actually been available there for a month or more, and opinions currently abound. King of the Nerds had some interesting things to say about the worldbuilding, or lack thereof:

"I would be counted among the detractors regarding Abercrombie's scant attention to setting but, as I thought about it, I've decided that his lack of attention to setting (except where necessary) is completely intentional. In many ways, to go with an extreme analogy, Abercrombie's functions in many ways as the set from Our Town. Abercrombie sketches out bare details and populates a scene with what, at first appearance, are obvious archetypes but on closer examination stray much further from the fantasy norm. It is, as I said, an extreme analogy. There is one key thing to note, setting is mostly non-extant except for the major action set-pieces. Its an abrupt slide from black and white to full color but one that serves to enhance the action and leave a lingering image with the reader. As a result Abercrombie's richly textured and vividly imagined characters stand out all the stronger. It becomes about the people and their, often strange, relationships to one another."

Which encapsulates my approach to worldbuilding a good deal more succinctly than I generally manage to do, I'd say. I've got nothing against fantasies that emphasise worldbuilding, I'm as enthusiastic a fan of Tolkien as the next man, but there's an awful lot of that type of work out there. In having a go myself, I wanted to push the world into the background and bring the characters firmly to the fore. I'm more interested in those things that epic fantasy has in common with every other kind of story-telling (character, plot, and action), if you like, than those things that separate it (worldbuilding, magic, and monumental length, though let's face it, my books ended up pretty damn long). If it becomes, as the man says, about the people and their, often strange, relationships to one another, I'm well satisfied. Fantasy Magazine have also taken a look:

"There's no way to give a capsule description of this novel without making it sound generic. Indeed, many of the plot elements are familiar from any number of other epic fantasies, and the battle scenes and fast-paced action sequences and abundance of political intrigue, while well-crafted, are pretty much fantasy standard. Anything but standard, however, is the pitch-black cynicism with which it's all presented. Abercrombie creates a world in which every official is corrupt, every motive suspect, and virtue's only reward is death and degradation. Even characters who grow and change get no credit-the obnoxious Jezal learns the folly of his arrogance, but that doesn't make him any less of a fool. All this darkness is saved from monotony by frequent flashes of black humor, often popping up when least expected."

Which encapsulates my approach to the tropes of epic fantasy pretty neatly. The situations, the settings, the events we're used to seeing in the genre, but hopefully with deeper characters, a more realistic, less romaniticised feel, and (as the series goes on) very different outcomes. I feel you'll surprise people most effectively if you give them, at least to some extent, what they expect at first, then when they're snugly sure of what they're going to get, give them the opposite. For me that's the strongest appeal of writing within an established form with well established patterns. Finally, Rob Bedford's been reading the book for a review at SFFWorld:

"Joe Abercrombie has done it again. He's written another page-turner which plays with genre convention with a narrative style and pace that easily pulls the reader along for the ride. The only difference from his first book is that somewhere between finishing The Blade Itself and starting Before They Are Hanged, he became an even better writer. His plotting is tighter this time around and more focused."

If he feels that way about the first two, I think he'll really like the third...

In other news, the piece about George RR Martin's Game of Thrones I referred to in an earlier post is up on the interweb now at SFX's book club as a PDF, if anyone's interested in reading it. Probably nothing that's going to blow the minds of any serious fantasy buffs amongst you, but, hey. And I'm sure you'll all have this lovingly circled in your calendars, but I'm signing books, or anything else you care to bring, at Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury avenue tomorrow evening from six. Maybe I'll see some of you there...

Labels: news, reviews

Tuesday, 11 March 2008

The Blade Itself to be Filmed!

Yes, you read that right. No lesser light of Hollywood than Ben Affleck is due to take the director's chair in a dramatisation of The Blade Itself. Brilliant news, one would've thought? So am I dancing around all over the house, or rolling about in a bath of 1,000 dollar bills today?

Well, not so much.

The tiny problem?

The book that's being adapted isn't Joe Abercrombie's ctically-acclaimed edgy debut fantasy, The Blade Itself, but Marcus Sakey's critically-acclaimed edgy debut thriller, The Blade Itself.

Say it with me now...

CURSE YOU SAAKKKEEEEYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still, you've got to look on the bright side. I suppose, if the film does get made, there are bound to be people who mistakenly buy my book looking for his.

Mmmmmmm ... mistake royalties ... there's no fruit sweeter than the one earned by accident and completely undeserved.

Labels: news

Wednesday, 5 March 2008

Gonzo Fantasy

First, some announcements. Worlds of Fantasy tonight, on BBC4, at 9pm, will include footage of me, saying stuff. About Peake, and Tolkien, and the "EPIC IMAGINATION", apparently. Possibly. Not to be missed. Anyone who sees it, by all means come back here and tell me how much I sucked ass.

Secondly, the good people of Romania will soon have the opportunity to join the fantasy craze that is sweeping the globe. Patrick Rothfuss, you ask? Well, no, not him, he's going there already, probably, but-- Scott Lynch, cry the crowd excitedly? Well, actually, I think he went there a while ago now, but-- Brandon Sanderson, Brian Ruckley, Alan Campbell, Tom Lloyd, Daniel Abraham, Felix Gilman, Robert Redick, or, or, or-- No, none of them. It's the First Law, I'm talking about. Yes, courtesy of Nemira, one of Romania's foremost genre imprints (Martin, Robinson, Herbert etc.), The Blade Itself should be coming within six months, with the other two books following about six months apart. Magic.

Now to some reviews. Do you remember Beezer? After reading The Blade Itself, he was left in two minds about my writing skills. "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 these deficiencies he will truly be a name to watch in the fantasy genre." Well it looks like some honing went on some time last year, because of Before They are Hanged he says:

"However, in this novel, there seems to be an exponential growth in both his writing and his overall story. If this type of growth continues with the next novel (and any future stories after that) I think readers will be more than pleased ... The First Law trilogy seems to be taking on the mantel of a fine painting. Taken piece by piece each book is solid. However, taken as a whole, as the entire trilogy, the true beauty of this work begins to stand out."

It is, indeed, a positive Sistine Chapel ceiling among fantasy series. Internet humorist Elena, meanwhile, who earlier in the year was so taken with my phrase "a face as red as a slapped arse" has also checked out Before They are Hanged. She begins by voicing her amazement that I apparently know everything that is said about me on the internet, almost before it is written.

"I think he must have written a program to email him the URL of any website that speaks his name."

Luckily, someone else has written it already, and gifted it to the world in the same way that a crazy biologist might gift the world a lethal mutated virus. It's called Google Blog-Search, the most dangerous piece of technology since the a-bomb, and with it I waste 90% of my writing time. Elena has some interesting thoughts on the book too, though:

"I find myself wondering if this new sub-genre of fantasy--Abercrombie, Lynch, Martin et. al.--should be termed gonzo fantasy after Hunter S. Thompson's gonzo journalism. Consider: Filthy language? Check. Copious amounts of weapons for every occasion? Check. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong--hilariously? Check. An unlikely and perhaps unaware hero who stays alive against all odds, including his own activities? Check. Drug/alcohol use/abuse? Check. Written by someone you can see hunched over a typewriter smoking a cig without bothering to ash, slogging whiskey instead of caffeine, and not bathing for days on end? Check.

Gonzo fantasy. Goddamn brilliant."

I do wash, though, you know. Going back to where it all began, Larry, from Wotmania's Other Fantasy board, has finally run his critical eye over The Blade Itself.

"it is due to the strength of Abercrombie's characterizations and the rather up-close and personal approach to the storytelling that manages to keep the plot just interesting enough for readers to want more ... The "action," such as it is, is more of a set-up for the following two volumes, but with the promise that what follows after will make these oft-meandering plot threads into portents of something rather moving."

By no means a slating, but I will hold off on my assesment of Larry's reviewing capabilities until I have read the entire trilogy ... of reviews, apparently due to culminate in a piece of something they call professional criticism on Strange Horizons. Keep your eyes peeled for that. Long established blogger of the sci-fi and fantasy scene, Joe Sherry, had a more positive first reaction to The Blade Itself:

"There is so much going on in The Blade Itself. There are fascinating characters, political maneuvering a plenty, sword-play, action, a dash of romance, class politics, a variety of cultures, more action, magic, empires and feudal warlords, still more action, foul language, inventive language, something called action – all this, and more. The Blade Itself has something for everyone all wrapped up in a violent, action packed, sometimes profane package.

And I like it.

A lot."

However, he then goes on to refuse me my due of a perfect 10/10 score on the paltry bases that a) the book has no ending, and b) he does not give books numerical ratings. As if such feeble excuses will save him when my righteous wrath descends like a crimson tide upon the reviewing community...

To be fair to Joe, I don't really expect any perfect scores for The Blade Itself - too many unanswered questions, too much set-up, too much that depends on how the series develops and concludes for anyone to be throwing top marks around. It's the forthcoming Last Argument of Kings that'll get me the big scores, if I'm ever going to get them. We'll just have to wait to see how the mainstream print media responds to ... what's that you say? Early copy from next month's lead review from Dave Bradley in SFX?

"You should always end with the best. Wow them in the final act, make the last chorus a belter, build to a climax and get them on their feet applauding when the curtain falls. Last Argument of Kings is the textbook example of this theory in practice."

Oooh. That looks promising. What else?

"The third in Joe Abercrombie's debut fantasy series, The First Law, reveals everything a finale should: conveys some answers, ties together the loose ends from various plot strands, knocks over pieces painstakingly set up in the preceding stories, and in the aftermath delivers character development that surprises as well as delights."

Better yet. Final thoughts?

"It builds to a tense final act which fulfils every facet of the phrase, 'leave them wanting more'"

And how did the world's biggest selling SF magazine rate the book, I wonder?

Well, 5 stars, as it happens.

5 stars, you say? Out of?

Why, out of 5.

5 stars out of 5? You mean the maximum possible score? The best score? Top marks, as it were?

That's right. 5 stars. Read 'em and weep. I bet Pat Rothfuss never got none of that 5 star top marks shit from SFX!

Yes, yes he did.

Bastard. Well, I bet Scott Lynch never did!

Yes, yes he did too. Both of them did. First books. Five star debuts. Right out of the blocks.

Right. Great. I'll just go, then, shall I?

Labels: announcements, news, reviews

Saturday, 1 March 2008

Magic March

March is upon us and, by heavens, I do declare that it will be the biggest month yet here at joeabercrombie.com. We're all very excited. Well I am, anyway. There is no we. There's only me here. But let's not dampen the enthusiasm, but look forward, forward, to good things this month! Appearances on TV and in person! Releases by the bucketload! New books! Old books! You lucky f*ckers!

March 4th - Official release date of Before They are Hanged, US edition courtesy of the wonderful Pyr Books. The shine has been taken off this a tad because the book's actually been available on amazon for about a month already. Will it stop me celebrating this very special day? No, it won't.

March 5th - The Worlds of Fantasy on BBC4 at 9.00pm, repeated at midnight - proper television, mind you - will be on the subject of the creation of fantasy worlds, focusing on writers the likes of Tolkien and Peake. It will feature comments from, among other proper authors such as Philip Pullman, China Mieville, and Terry Pratchett, me. That's right, if you've ever wanted to see me looking uncomfortable and talking bollocks in a darkened room, this is your chance.

March 12th - SFX 168 goes on sale, with a profile of that Joe Abercrombie guy - ha ha ha, that there is one rising star of the UK fantasy scene that always cracks me up - plus a lead review of his latest book, Last Argument of Kings. I've seen it already. It's good. Very good. The review, that is, not the book. Though the book is also very good. But don't take my word for it, take SFX's. On March 12th.

March 13th - Release of the UK Mass-Market edition of Before They are Hanged. You like it small and floppy? Handbag size BTAHs should be available in all good bookshops from this date, in good time for...

March 20th - Here's the big one, folks. It's only the UK release date of the final thrilling installment of The First Law trilogy, Last Argument of Kings! 11,000 copies sold already, incidentally, and it isn't even on the shelves yet. To mark the occasion I'll be signing books at Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue from 6pm to 7pm or even beyond, if necessary. If you've ever wanted to see me looking uncomfortable and talking bollocks in a well-lit cellar, this is your chance. If you want a book signed, this is your chance as well. Take those chances, people. Take them.

March 21st-23rd - Orbital. Eastercon will be taking place at the Radisson Heathrow, accompanied no doubt by the lilting purr of low-flying aircraft and the gentle whoop-whoop of drunken genre authors. I'll be one of them. Authors, that is, not aircraft.

I'll be there Friday, Saturday overnight, and Sunday, and I will be appearing on 2 panels, believe it or not. Adapting Tolkien from book to film, Tetworth Room, Saturday at 11.00 and Roughening up Fantasyland, Tetworth Room, Sunday at 21.00. All attendees are of course welcome to come along and see me make an ass of myself. Otherwise I'll be attending other panels and listening to some of the guests of honour, hanging around the bar, or around Gollancz's stand in the dealer room. If anyone wants anything signed, by all means come along to either of those panels or just collar me about the place. If anyone wants to buy any of my books, they should be available at the Gollancz stand, and of course I'm happy to sign those too. If anyone wants to attack me, not in the face.

And I think that will just about wrap it up for March. Are you as stoked as me? What's that? You're MORE stoked? Get out of here!

Labels: appearances, news

Tuesday, 26 February 2008

Tomorrow

Have YOU ever wondered what happens when six or seven sci-fi and fantasy authors are put in the same room with curry and beer paid for by a publisher?

Me neither.

But that's precisely what's happening tomorrow lunchtime (Wednesday 27th February), with a positive cornucopia of Gollancz authors in attendance. It's going to be me, Tom Lloyd (Or Lloydy, as we affectionately know him), Rob Grant (Grantsy), Adam Roberts (Robertsy), Mark Chadbourn (Chadders), and Robert Rankin. At least three of those people write proper, honest-to-goodness amusing books, with gags and everything, so you can bet some pretty damn hilarious shit is going to go down.

Richard Morgan (Morgsy) couldn't make it, alas, he'll be watching whales.

So to recap - me, Lloydy, Grantsy, Robertsy, Chadders, and Robert Rankin, in a curry house, talking that high-brow jive that authors talk to each other. You know, where Nabokov went wrong, the shortcomings of the third-person limited, who do you like for the Nebulas, and not at all the SAME OLD RUBBISH that everyone else talks.

Who knows what hilarious larks and hijinks will ensue? Well, actually, if you're in any way interested, YOU, JOE PUBLIC, can know, because apparently the whole thing is being filmed on VIDEO TAPE MACHINES. Not to embarrass the various horrified writers involved as they spill Madras down themselves, but actually for marketing purposes. Publishers, man. What will they think of next? More as I know it.

I believe that Editorial Director Simon Spanton (Spanty, as I affectionately call him) will have an exciting, though probably heavy, brown-paper package to give to me. Ooooooh. More on that mystery in due course.

Following that it's off for coffee with my editor, Gillian (I dare not even pretend to have a nickname for her), who's had the PROFOUND PRIVILEGE of reading the first 90,000 words of my latest book over the last week or two and has, in her own words, "a few vicious suggestions". Always she wants more blood. More torture. More gore. "The readers want gore," I can almost guarantee she'll say. "Gore, gore, gore, torture, and gore. Less of this namby-pamby characterisation bollocks, and more torture. There's only one hideously violent murder in the first chapter! Call yourself a writer?" In all seriousness, we need to come up with ideas for the cover. Something parchmenty, with blood? I wouldn't be surprised.

Then, finally, on BBC4 at 9.00 pm (though repeated at 12.00, I believe). There's the first episode of The Worlds of Fantasy, a TV series on Fantasy Literature for which I have been interviewed, would you believe. This episode focuses on the child hero, apparently - you know, stuff like Potter, Pullman, Pan's Labyrinth. Doesn't feature me at all. The next one (on worldbuilding) might feature some contributions from me, though, moodily lit in a strange old house on Wardour Street. Unless I've bitten the cutting room floor, and HARD (not unlikely). I'm a film editor myself, I know the game. That one (the one that might feature me) isn't until the following week (Wednesday 5th March) at 9.00 and midnight. Anyway, the show's been getting some good write-ups, and fantasy fiction gets precious little attention from the rest of the media, so I'm sure it'll be well worth a look for readers of the genre even if I'm not involved...

Labels: news, reviews

Saturday, 16 February 2008

Influences, Ideas, and A Game of Thrones

You lucky people! There's a positive onslaught of content here at the moment. There's an article by me in the latest SFX (no. 167, I think, with that cheerleader from Heroes looking sensitive yet spunky on the front) about George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones, a book which I daresay needs little introduction for the majority of you. It's one of their book club pieces, in which a well-respected author of today looks back on a classic of the distant (or in this case pretty current) past. Clearly they'd run out of well-respected authors, because they asked me if I'd like to do it.

I can't quote the piece here, obviously, since I sold it to SFX for an embarrasingly massive quantity of money that may have approached 10,000 pence. But in essence I talk about the book's great importance in the dark and seedy side of epic fantasy, leading on from stuff like Conan, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, and Elric, and how Martin's work seems to have spawned a whole subsection of 'gritty', realistic epic fantasy. What I didn't really talk about in the article was the book's (and the series') importance to ME, and the development of my own work. Of course I didn't talk about that. That would've been arrogant and self-indulgent, and you all know I'm just not like that.

That's why I'm doing it here.

A little background. As a kid I was very into the Lord of the Rings, and read it every year for a while. Wizard of Earthsea also had a strong effect on me. So did Michael Moorcock (particularly Corum and all the crazy names). I watched Conan the Barbarian many times more than is healthy for a teenage boy (there's boobs in it, and I'm not just talking about Schwarzenegger's). I started playing an awful lot of roleplaying games around this time, and with supplements from that, early fantasy-styled computer games such as Dungeon Master, Bloodwych, and Legend, cracking through a load of Dragonlance, and David Eddings first two series (or are they the same series with different covers?) I probably glutted myself on the cheesier end of the fantasy spectrum. Nothing wrong with cheese, you understand, as long as you get some fibre in your diet at the same time. But it did appear (and apologies to any of the glaring exceptions, because I lay no claim to being immensely well read in the genre) there wasn't a lot of fibre to be had in epic fantasy as the eighties turned into the nineties.

So I more or less stopped reading it in my late teens. No grand decision to fling it aside in dismay, just I went to college and got into other things. You know. Luge. International money-laundering. Semi-professional knife throwing. Russian roulette. And Street Fighter II, of course. During long walks after midnight at around this time, I was still thinking about some of the ideas I'd had earlier, as a reader and a gamer, for world and storyline of an epic fantasy, and characters like Bayaz and Logen Ninefingers were named and gradually taking shape in my mind. In the summer after finishing college (so about 13 years ago, now), with time on my hands, I started writing a book very similar to the one that would finally become The Blade Itself as an exercise to improve my touch-typing. I say similar, because it lacked key elements of the later approach. It was a much more straight-up epic fantasy, cheesier effort, without the sideways, world-weary self-awareness, or most of the laughs. Without Inquisitor Glokta at all, incidentally, who was much the most recent character to emerge. It was, in short, not very good. I'm sure if I read any of it now I would vomit with embarrasment. In fact, I may have vomited a little bit just now thinking about it.

Anyway, I moved to London (summer of '94?) and had other things on my mind - cokroaches, flatmates on the borders of sanity, and so forth, started working and pretty much shelved any plans to write. I started reading a lot of history around this time - Shelby Foote, John Keegan, Alan Clark etc. and had more or less no interest in fantasy. Then someone prevailed upon me to give Game of Thrones a go. Yeah, yeah, I thought, whatever. It blew my doors off.

A Game of Thrones, and its sequels, seemed to bring to epic fantasy a huge amount of what I felt it had been desperately missing. There was relatively little debt to Tolkein (not that there's anything wrong with debt to Tolkein, it's just there's a shit-load of it around already). Martin's world was low on magic, low on romanticism, high on realism, very high on ruthlessness. There was no lame-ass, two-dimensional battle of good and evil. There were no lame-ass, two-dimensional characters. It was an (more or less) entirely human world, with man-made evils, very much like ours. The series was recognisably fantasy, it had enough that was familiar, but it was groundbreaking (at least for me) in all kinds of ways. Above all, the books were extremely unpredictable, especially in a genre where readers have come to expect the intensely predictable. Suddenly, from knowing what was going to happen from the first page and always being right, you found yourself with no idea who'd die next. Sudden main character deaths have become almost de rigeur in the genre since then, or at least in the grittier corners of it, but A Game of Thrones was profoundly shocking when I first read it, and fundamentally changed my notions about what could be done with epic fantasy.

It was also interesting from a technical standpoint - Martin uses the third person limited approach, as it's called, with the events always narrated from "inside the head", if you like, of one of the main characters. All the action is seen powerfully close up, coloured by the personality of the narrator. For me, fantasy went suddenly from being all about the huge, the spectacular, the sweeping wide shot (following on from Tolkein's approach) to being about the experience of individuals. You feel the sweat, the pain, the fear, the blood, you understand the motivations. You see how no-one is a villain in their own mind, even if they are in everyone else's. The great achievement of Martin's books, for me, is that they cover vast, epic, immense events, but never lose that sense of tight involvement with the characters. It wasn't a new approach in wider fiction - I guess Tolstoy was doing something similar in War and Peace - but it was the first time I'd seen it applied so rigorously and effectively in fantasy, and it seems now to have become pretty much the standard method of narration in the genre.

I must confess I haven't read A Feast for Crows yet. I'm waiting on the next and will probably read them both together. Though there was still a load of brilliant stuff in the third book, A Storm of Swords, it seemed more spread out than A Game of Thrones had been. I know a lot of readers love that sense of scale, but I was frustrated by the apparent loss of focus - the adding and divergence of the points of view, the steady increase in the simple spine size of the books without a matching growth in overall narrative movement. The books seemed to get fatter, if you like, but not taller. The story expanded sideways but shrunk lengthways. Maybe I'd been expecting a trilogy, or maybe I was just disappointed as it became clearer and clearer there'd be no final resolution any time soon. Probably there was an element of diminishing returns, in that the first book was, for me, so smack-mouth amazing that it was near impossible to turn me upside down in the same way afterwards. They were great, don't get me wrong, just not as great. I imagine I'm not the only one who's keen to see whether Martin can pull it all together in the long run...

Looking at my own (insignificant) development as a writer, if I may be pretentious enough to do so (mmmmmm ... yeah, I think I can be that pretentious). Between that earlier, suckier effort at writing an epic fantasy, back in '93, and the much more successful effort (at least in my opinion) in '02, what changed? Well, I grew up considerably, for one thing, experienced working life and broader horizons, and learned to take everything a bit less seriously. I read a lot of history, which I think gives the books a much more convincing texture, if you like, than they otherwise would have had. I read a fair bit of heavyweight literature - the sort of thing one boasts about at dinner parties - Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn, and Bulgakov, Dickens, Trollope and Sterne and blah, blah, blah which definitely improved my technical reach (as pathetic as I'm sure some people think it remains). I read quite a bit of noir and crime, particularly James Elroy, which taught me some good lessons about hard-hitting prose and twisty plotting. I worked as a documentary editor which gave me some understanding of how to construct a narrative, of how to streamline and cut down (says the writer of enormous 200,000 word books, but hey, I like to think they're pretty tight). I watched a lot of interesting films, including Tarantino's stuff (Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction had strong effects on me), John Woo and manga, the list is endless (well, not actually endless, but bloody long). TV changed, I think, in this period, starting to throw up some really interesting series which were shifting media in general in a more realistic, complicated, ruthless direction - stuff like the Sopranos, the Shield, 24 (at least to begin with), Band of Brothers, and later Deadwood, Nip/Tuck and the Wire (man I love the Wire) - a movement that seems to be creeping into SF TV now with shows like Heroes and Battlestar Galactica. All of that settled on me as well, I'm sure, and I think my approach to action writing probably owes more to what I've watched than what I've read.

So there's an awful lot of different stuff in the pot, as I'm sure there is for every author, and most of it from outside the genre. But in terms of influences from written fantasy, between '93 and '02, Game of Thrones (and A Song of Ice and Fire in general) is definitely the outstanding (if not the only significant) one. I doubt The First Law would look quite the way it does without my having read those books. Hell, maybe I wouldn't even have written it at all.

Labels: influences, news

Thursday, 14 February 2008

American Edition

Jeez. You spend all week waiting for Joe Abercrombie to make another post, and then three come at once. But it's good news, folks, it's good, good news.

The US Edition of Before They are Hanged wasn't due to be available until March 25th, but I'm delighted to announce that due to the heroic efforts of the folks at Pyr, it is shipping NOW from amazon.com. Not sure when it will appear in olde-fashioned bricks and mortar bookshops, but probably over the next couple of weeks. Deprived citizens of America, your wait is over!

In order to whet your appetites, I must just quote a bit of opinion on the books from a member over at the Westeros boards which quite tickled my funny bone:

"I actually don't care for Abercrombie as a whole but I do think he writes very accessible work. It is snarky in a not so clever way and it has a great patina of being gritty without actually having characters do gritty things (bar one good slightly gritty but still moralistically heavyhanded moment in the second book). Abercrombie is solid easy to read fast food fantasy. It comes off as filling but ultimately I found it empty ... Abercrombie is fastly turning into the Big Mac of the genre and you might as well take a bite along with everyone else."

Abercrombie is fastly turning into the Big Mac of the genre?

I LOVE IT! I'm getting in touch with my editor now to see if it's not too late to get it on as a cover blurb...

Labels: announcements, news

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

Back on the Grid

Woooo! Got my computer back and it works, and now makes a noise like a quiet exhalation of air rather than an orc dying slowly of an agonising bowel wound. Got to be a good thing. Five star service from Sony, which has quite bowled me over. Six days between leaving the house and coming back fixed, all data intact, they even cleaned it top to bottom, put a nice letter in there apologising for any upset they'd caused me, included a new cleaning cloth, and all completely free of charge. I feel like a VIP. Damn it, I am a VIP! It's amazing the low priority a lot of companies seem to put on customer service these days (he says, bitching like a grumpy old man). As a result of this experience I feel more fondly disposed to Sony than I did before the malfunction. By contrast, I will never buy another Dell product as long as I live. Surely that's worth the relatively small investment in the customer service, one would have thought? Truly, it is a world gone mad...

Anyway, email and other services should now be resumed as normal. You've probably all been missing me during the five days since my last post, right? You've probably been feeling a sense of aimlessness, emptiness and depression. You've probably all been checking your browser every ten minutes to see whether I'd made another post. Fear not. Here is an interview with me run by Aidan over at A dribble of ink. Should clean up those sweaty shivers of withdrawal quick sharp...

Labels: interviews, news

Monday, 4 February 2008

Off the Grid

Aaaargh. my second computer in ten months has started to produce a really horrible noise, and now has to go back to the manufacturer, almost certainly to have its fan changed out, and probably to have the hard-drive purged while they're doing it, no doubt giving me days of endless fun trying to reinstall all my software, reconfigure all my settings, and put all my files back on, no doubt to find I failed to back up something vital. Ah, how computers have made all of our lives so much easier.

I must give some credit to Sony, here, though. Their customer service has been (so far) very good, and in a world in which customer service seems to have become ubiquitously utterly shite. I contacted one very pleasant man, who competently investigated the problem and arranged for the computer to be picked up, next day. They then phoned me back if you can believe that, twice and I spoke to the same person each time, who gave every impression of the whole business being of some interest to him personally.

This contrasts sharply with the indescribably awful experience I had last year with the incompetent cretins at Dell. Contacting their Indian call centre was something like Kafka meets Fawlty Towers, but without the laughs. I rarely raise my voice on the phone. They had me, on several occasions, literally screaming with rage. In the end, after a litany of cock-ups that make the occupation of Iraq look competent, I had to send the whining piece of shit they sold me (and also the wrongly specified replacement - long story) back and get my money returned. Alas they could not refund the many hours of my life they had stolen. Those are gone for good. My advice? Never, ever buy anything from Dell.

But I digress. The bottom line is that there may well be some interruption in the usually smooth flow of information from me to everyone and anyone else. I may well lose all my e-mails, I may well not be able to pick up any e-mail for a while. If, therefore, you sent me, or send me, e-mails over the last or next couple of weeks, I may not immediately reply. If I haven't replied after a couple of weeks, it might be worth e-mailing me again.

Apologies. Bloody computers. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Labels: news

Saturday, 2 February 2008

Bonjour, tout le monde!

For everyone's safety, I think that's about as far as my French should ever go. Yes, today is French Publication day for The Blade Itself, or, as they say across the channel, "L'eloquence de l'epee," the first book, of course, of "La Premiere Loi". Ha ha. Is it sad that I get a kick out of just hearing it in French? Yes, yes it is. "La Premiere Loi." Ha ha.

The publisher is J'ailu, a long established imprint who publish Mass Market editions of such well-known fantasy names as George RR Martin, Robin Hobb, Neil Gaiman etc. etc. This is a new project for them, though, in that they're making a move into trade editions. So the book is first available as a hardback, but will later, I believe, appear in trade paperback and mass-market editions. Because it's a bit of a new endeavour for them they're giving it a big push, which is always very nice to see. If there were to be any French speakers among you (and as far as I can tell there's not that many among you who can manage English to that high a standard), there's actually an interview with my French Editor, Thibaud Eliroff, online about this very collection.

The cover is an interesting one. It's the first representational artwork I've seen of anything from the book yet, and that kind of thing is always going to be surprising for an author. The whole style is just a long way from my first, vague conception of what the characters might look like. Still, the purpose of a cover is to sell the book, or perhaps more accurately, not to deter people from buying the book, and the tastes of different readerships, in cover and in content, differ widely. Witness the black covers with a hint of red/green/blue that seem wildly popular in Germany. My job is writing the books, the selling you have to leave to the publisher, and that's especially true of a foreign market where you know even less what the rules may be. I haven't actually seen any copies myself, yet, but I'm guessing it will be done to a pretty high standard. Even on the proof, the internals are very nicely done.

More news as it appears and my Google translator allows me to make some kind of sense of it...

Labels: announcements, news

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...

Labels: news, 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

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.

Labels: news, reviews

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...

Labels: news, process

Tuesday, 18 December 2007

Baron Destructo & Me

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...

Labels: news

Tuesday, 4 December 2007

Me? On TV?

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?"

Labels: news

Monday, 5 November 2007

Going Dutch

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 ...

Labels: news

Wednesday, 12 September 2007

Germany on FIRE...blade

The German language edition of Before They are Hanged is available on amazon.de - Feuerklingen (or Fireblade for the Engish-speakers amongst us). This is, of course, the breathlessly awaited sequel to Kriegsklingen (or Warblade to you and I).