Various First Law related curios and trivia from the interweb this week:
An interview with yours truly over on French website Elbakin.net conducted by Pat of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist in English or in French. It’s more of an introductory sort of an interview for the French audience, focusing on the first book, so those of you who’ve been slavishly following my every word (and I’m sure there are many thousands) will probably find nothing massively new. But hey, if you slavishly follow my every word (as everyone should), I’m sure you’ll love it anyway, because that Joe Abercrombie guy is a hoot. There’ll be some other interviews over the coming weeks that perhaps broach newer subject matter.
A very pleasing review of Last Argument of Kings from a man I’ve shared enough beer with to consider a friend. Mr. Marcus Gipps works for Blackwells and is a respected bookseller with an understanding of the fantasy genre both deep and wide – so you must believe him when he tells you things like this:
“It all works really well, is what I’m trying to say – I care about these characters … the plot all comes together nicely in the end, people are actually changed by their experiences, and along the way we get some lovely writing. There’s a battle scene here that rivals anything I’ve read in fantasy, quite frankly … I’m hugely impressed, and if you have any interest in modern fantasy with a (seriously) dark edge, these are well worth reading.”
Woo hoo! It’s particularly pleasing since Marcus, I think it’s fair to say, took time to win over. Someone who I’m still in the process of winning over is one Amras at A Slight Apocalypse. His reviews of The Blade Itself and Before They are Hanged tickle me much:
“I thought that the Blade Itself was one of the most over-hyped and poorly written fantasies I’ve had the misfortune of reading, and I could not believe why everyone was loving this trite bullsh*t … I reread The Blade Itself to better learn to love myself. That’s a horribly selfish thing to do, you might say, and you would be in the right. It was selfish and also a tad pompous, but somehow I believe that Joe Abercrombie would approve of it nonetheless.”
Selfish and pompous? How could I not approve of my two favourite qualities?
That’s all for now. I continue not to receive e-mail directed to joeabercrombie dot com, but will hopefully be picking it up within the next couple of weeks, and will respond then. Honest.
7 comments so far
Aww Joe, must you tempt us so, waving the Last Argument carrot around? A whole month and more yet to wait! I mope about slavishly.
Nice review, though. Well done, that Abercrombie! 🙂
You won me over with “Before They Are Hanged”, Joe. That book was superb and a lot better than tBI. It will easily be one of the best fantasy books I’ll read this year and LAoK should by all accounts be even better.
Thanks for the links 😉
‘ullo Joe
It wasn’t that you needed to win me over, as such – I enjoyed both of the first two books, I just wasn’t entirely convinced that you were going to manage to pull it all together. Oh me of little faith!
But I do think this is the best writing of yours (that I’ve seen, at least) – and I thought you improved from TBI to BTAH, as well, so the curve is going the right way…
And as a trilogy, actually, a lot of my criticisms of the first two become less valid, which is often the case – anyone who could pick up all three books and just read them won’t have a problem with the ending of book two, for example…
This is unneccesary nitpicking, but it’s “gipps” not “gripps”. Unless you ask half of the people who send me unsolicited credit card offers. Is that you?
You going to be able to come in and sign for me as usual? I see you’ve got an FP signing, hope it goes well…
M
Susanne,
Only a month to wait? You’ve never had it so good.
Amras,
If I’ve won you over with the second, just wait until you read the third…
Marcus,
Aaaargh. Corrected. Glad that the trilogy as a whole stood up well for you.
And of course I will come and sign for you as usual. Look forward to it.
Having just read the most recent posts on your blog, I feel compelled to say that you, sir, are an incorrigible tw@t. Keep up the good work.
I daresay you’ll be ecstatic to hear that I will shortly be reading The Blade Itself, after forking over a modest wad of my hard earned cash. If I don’t like it, I want your share back.
jdp,
I try, I try. If you don’t like the book, by all means contact my agent. I’m sure you’ll have no trouble getting him to reimburse you.
A ha ha ha.