Yes, celebrate, my cousins across the pond, for Half a King is published throughout the Land of the Free today. It’s the Sunday Times no. 3 Hardcover Bestseller that GRRM called, ‘A fast paced tale of betrayal and revenge that grabbed me from page one and refused to let go,’ while Robin Hobb found it, ‘Enthralling. An up-all-night read,’ and Rick Riordan said it had, ‘eye-popping twists and rollicking good action.’ I could go on, but I already have, over here. Take a look if you fancy seeing a trailer, reading an extract or further reviews or, I don’t know, maybe finding some buying options…
18 comments so far
And a rather spiffing tale it is, too.
I was so happy to hear the news! I went to Audible.com to download the audiobook… 🙁 … no luck, not available. Now I am so sad.
So excited to pick up my copy and dive right in! Cya at Comic-con, Joe. Hopefully I can score a signature. 🙂
I pre-ordered so I had it waiting on my Kindle this morning! I started reading on my commute and almost missed my stop. I can’t wait for the bus ride home.
@Bruno,
I pre-ordered it on audible and have been listening to it already. Hopefully you can get it soon.
Mine is delivered at home and awaits me there (hardcover).
I have one waiting for me at borderland books for the signing but I have to wait to get it cuz it takes me 7 hours to get to San Francisco but I’m so happy!!
Joe, I hope you make time to see us in SF. Great wine. I promise. MG, TG and GGG
Melinda,
Hey! Yeah, be great to see you in SF – dinner after the event, maybe?
Tremendous. Read it in lieu of sleeping last night and am very happy with my decision. Absolutely gripping.
Imagining Lord Grimdark elves – kind of like the drow, but cannibals. Possibly with machine guns.
Man I jumped outta my seat when I saw it in the library catalog..can’t wait to get it.
Pssht… who needs buying options when you already had it pre-ordered and waiting on your Kindle app! Can’t wait to tear into it! BTW.. hope you make a stop for a book signing near Chicago one of these days!
I really don’t understand this book. It’s written well, Mr. Abercrombie prose is unrivaled in the fantasy genre. But I don’t understand who this book is targeted towards. It seems like it is aimed at the young tens and dark fantasy audience. In my opinion, there is no audience for a combination of these two genres. Mr. Abercrombie has previously targeted the dark gritty fantasy audience. And in my opinion he owns that genre. But this book is like dark reading for teens, but it is missing fun, magic, or even a hero. Obviously the half king isn’t likable, heroic…nor is the oldest uncle. It’s basically a decent short story, but none of the layered perfection of his previous books. None of the epic background of the First Law world. Anyway, I hope Mr. Abercrombie makes a ton of money off of this. He deserves it based on his last six books.
Joe,
Did you make a conscious effort to reduce the number of swear words in Half a king or is that in US additions they are altered to have fewer. I notice a slave refer to his oarmate to ‘soiling in a bucket every day…’ rather than the more obvious way to say that statement.
Masrock
Masrock,
Oh, for sure, there’s very little swearing in it at all. US and UK editions are identical. If you’re going to market a book as YA then, generally, it can’t be riddled with swears and highly explicit sex and violence. If it was it would be basically the same as the adult books, and that would rather defeat the purpose of creating a separate but complimentary strand of work, y’know…?
Joe,
Thanks for the reply, I’d missed the part where the Half series was for “Young Adult”. As a Brit expat now living in the US it’s amazing how people need protecting form harsh words whilst buying pink rifles for their daughters 13th birthday.
Incidentally I let me nine year old daughter watch The Life of Brian and The Matrix after after testing her using the Pof. Brain Cox scientific method. I asked her to tell me all the swear words that she knew – some she’d read from books that I’d let her read from my collection (- non of yours yet). Since she knew all of the ones in the movies mentioned already – no more harm could be done.
Personally the ‘effin and jeffin in the right places adds depth and stick out like a sore thumb when noticeably avoided; -darn, heck, golly gosh, jeepers!
Masrock
Damn you!
Half way through, and getting that usual feeling of resentment,knowing that I’ll be finished in a few days and that everything else I read while waiting for the next one just won’t fill the void.
I get the feeling that Half a King, being slightly less epic in scale than earlier works, would be a lot easier to make as a 2-hour movie. Let’s hope.
Is Steven Pacey doing the audiobook? That guy is like the Meryl Streep of audiobook readers.