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 . . .
12 comments so far
Always looking forward to hearing about your work, Joe.
I can’t wait to see what you can come up with a slightly faster plot, from the sounds of it this novel will very much suit your style of writing and I can’t wait to hear more about it.
Glad to know Gollancz is willing give us more Abercrombian goodness.
~Aidan
A Dribble of Ink
Hi Joe,
I notice they’ve even given it a page count of 560!
Reckon someone there has cracked time-travel?
Bob
If they have got a time machine I really need them to bring me back a copy of my manuscript.
Man, that would save some work.
Ahh… I’m a time-travel sceptic I’m afraid. Although I’ve read and heard some good theories I can’t help but think that if time travel was possible then obviously someone from the future would have come back by now and said, ‘Hey, look, it can be done, so stick that in yer pipe and smoke it!’
Perhaps going to the past is feasible, because if you did and even disrupted history, only the person who did it would know, no one else would (well, I imagine) as the timeline had been altered but to us seemed the correct one.
Julian May’s Many Coloured Land was a good explanation of this method.
Anyway, what it boils down to is you’d better get scribbling again 🙂
Enjoyed ‘The Blade Itself’ and now getting ready to dive into ‘Before They Are Hanged’ (Bet you played D&D; at sometime eh?)
Regards,
Bob
Great to know that more books are on the way. I too await next March with keen anticipation – for my money the First Law series has been the freshest, most exciting genre fiction for ages. I’d like to find a source of signed (by you) hardbacks – is there any signing activity in the pipeline or do I need to haunt the site to see? (Or is there info here and I’ve just been too idle to find it?)
Cheers,
– R
Thanks for the visit, Roy, and the encouragement. As far as signed copies goes, no plans to do any signings specifically before next March, when Last Argument of Kings is out. Hardcovers are getting quite hard to find, especially of the second book, since they only do a single printing, and a relatively short run. You could try Forbidden Planet on the internet – they may still have some signed hardbacks left.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll try and get one. I have an unsigned hb of the first one, maybe I could haul that along to a signing next year. Are you planning to be at Orbital (Eastercon) next March by any chance?
As it happens, yes, I should be at Eastercon. I’ll let everyone know nearer the time exactly when, but probably more or less throughout.
More elves than you can shake a stick at!!! Bring on the elves….only kidding but I’m sure at some point Bayaz mentions that all four sons of thingy have bitten the big one- but despite a rereading or two of the trilogy I can’t seem to find the bit where the one who can speak to spirits gets his…I mean sure, Bayaz probably murdered him or I missed a bit somehow where Glustrod does him in….glad to hear a certain redhead and maybe a mercenary are going to shuffle closer to stage center…or is it an ex guild leader…or all three- amazon claims I can pre-order it- if thats a lie stop reading this and get writing
Cannot wait, Sir! Adding this to my list of things to look forward to in the summer. I have every faith that it will be every bit as good as dark and bloody as its predecessors.
x x x
Hi Joe, I just picked up a copy of Best Served Cold and can't wait to get started. These are excellent books and I am a huge fan of your character development. Keep 'em coming!