The Blade Itself – reread
Over the last few days I’ve been reading Joe Abercrombie’s seminal work of modern fantasy, The Blade Itself. Alright, I confess, I have read it before. About 90 times. In fact there’s probably no significant body of text that I’ve read more times. In a week this book will have been published six years ago. […]
2011 In Review
37 today, and another year flows beneath the bridge. Go quick, don’t they? From a personal standpoint I moved back into my house and continued the long building project, only now lurching dysfunctionally to a close. Had a third baby. Published a fifth book. The good thing about babies is that they’re actually quite good […]
Lies and Firsts
I note in passing that my dark masters at Gollancz have re-issued Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora with a retro yellow cover reminiscent of the early 60s in order to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the imprint: THE fantasy debut of 2006, other than mine. The book, of course, is a wretched tissue of […]
Year End 2010
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear me-eeeee. Yes, indeed, the candle has almost burned right down on another year, and I’m thirty six today. When the hell did that happen? It’s been a busy couple of years, what with one thing and another. Five months looking for a house, finding […]
Best Of…
Happy Birthday to Me. Happy Birthday to Me. Happy Birthday dear me-eeeee… Yes indeed, another year of dry humour, wet nappies, sleepless nights, wonderful reviews, shitty reviews, and storming success drags to a close. So long 2009! Nice knowing you. A busy year, for me. I had a baby. I moved from London to Bath. […]
Wolfsangel
My 200th post. Who ever would have predicted that I wouldn’t have got bored and given up by now? But no, here I am, still avoiding doing real work. Perhaps it was kind of predictable after all… But Christmas is coming, and what better time to recommend things that none of you will be able […]
The Magicians
So some time back in June some guy called Lev Grossman emails me and asks (very politely), since his book is paired with mine on amazon uk, whether I’d fancy reading it, since he was getting a copy of Best Served Cold. I was like, “yeah, whatever, free book.” If I had known then that […]
The Brief, Wondrous Road of Oscar Finch
For a man who reads few books, I have read quite a few books recently. Three excellent pieces of fiction in particular, though only one of them could be considered fantasy and that of a rather peculiar and fungus-ridden variety. Still, I warmly recommend all three to anyone capable of reading in English, for they […]
Retribution Falls
For the last three or four years I’ve barely been reading at all, mostly because the times I would once have spent with a book (tube journeys to and from work mostly) I’ve tended to spend on my own writing – either staring into space and thinking about things or slashing at print-outs with a […]
Forthcoming Attractions
Ah, that long, slow lull at the start of the year. Always seems to take a couple of weeks for things to really get moving again, don’t it? Plus I’m in celebration/mourning for the end of my last book, and engaged in that thumb-twiddling period we call thinking about the next book. So, this month […]
