Author and critic Lev Grossman has posted his favourite five sf&f books of the year at NPR, and stone me if he hasn’t included The Heroes:
‘Abercrombie is a Brit who’s not nearly as well-known in the U.S. as he should be.’
I can only agree. I should be bigger than General Electric.
‘It’s as if Tolkien cared about the back story of every individual orc: Each soldier is one among thousands, floundering in the fog of war, but each feels like he’s living out a tragedy or a triumph with himself as the hero. There’s no right side and wrong side — even the warriors aren’t sure which is which — and in the end the question of who’s the real hero comes down to who survives to tell the story.’
In other news, the bookselling, fundraising, basement clearing drive has had stunning, touching, and impressive results. They’ve been flying off the shelves (or out of the boxes) and to varied corners of the globe (it has corners, right?). Still a few bits and pieces available but things are winding down now and we’ve sent out well over 100 books, freed up about six cubic metres of my basement (largely in packing materials), and after postage has been deducted made about £500 for charity. So thanks to everyone who bought a book. Enjoy them and their many hilarious dedications. We’ll probably give it another go next year…
19 comments so far
Good job Joe, much deserved! Now I think you should go for TWO books in a year end top 10! 2012 is out as A Red Country will be out in the middle of the year. So how about a January and a December release in 2013?! C’mon Joe, challenge yourself! 🙂
Hey! As someone who works for GE, I…. agree? Yeah, I agree! Keep writing them and we’ll keep reading them – we love you on this side of the pond and, yes, think you should be even more popular then you are.
Was wondering if someone could tell me why I can’t actually see the top 5 books when I click the link above? There is the whole article, minus the actual list..
And on another note, started with the ‘First Law’ trilogy on November the 13th and have finally worked my way through ‘The Heroes’ and I must say that I love your work man. I will be impatiently awaiting everything you release from here on out good sir, thanks a bunch for your awesome work. -Mitchell Lurie
Hell yeah.
Nicely done.
Hey Joe, small question. Dow’s second; Splitfoot. Is that the carl Logan Ninefingers split the foot on in the last chapter of Last Argument of Kings?
Dan,
Sorry to say that does not seem likely. Short story, maybe?
JT,
I cannot fault your logic…
Congrats on the award, Joe. And the charity effort. You’re a champ.
A good friend of mine e-mailed me that NPR article and I was just going to tell you how exciting it was that Grossman chose The Heroes, but you already knew about it and how exciting it is.
I was just happy that he highlighted you because he is correct that you aren’t as well known as you should be over here.
That article reaches a huge audience~~~ Congratulations!
Congratulations, Joe! For what it’s worth The Heroes was also one of my top 5 books of the year, too.
Hey Joe, I see Catherynne Valente published 6 ( six ) books this year… Then again I bet she didn`t complete Skyrim though…
Hey Joe,
Any chance of posting a synopsis for Red County by way of a Chrismast present ( assuming of course that a teaser chapter is totally out of the question this early)?
Catherynne valente’s work is trash compared to Joes. Keep up the great work Joe you deserve it.
Great news, Joe.
I’ve read all your stuff and then listened on audio. There’s a rumour at SFF that Pacey is going to record BSC and The Heroes – any truth in that?
I for one think he would be FANTASTIC!
Great job, Joe. The Heroes was an awesome book. What makes your storytelling so absorbing is your realism. Men with physical limitations putting themselves in harm’s way.
Throwing in the occasional Fenris or Shanka is a nice touch, but your strength is definitely in the muscle, bone & blood of man. And the iron they wield!
First time poster here.
I was exposed to your books on Amazon about 3 months ago, they seemed interesting so I picked them all up. I generally like to wait when I know there will be more books in a series until all are released, because I hate to wait, so it was bittersweet when I completed the last of your works about a month and a half ago.
In this case though, it will be well worth it and I’ll be buying the HARDCOVER (this is a big deal for me) as soon as its released!
Keep up the great work, and my favorite authors list now includes such names as Orson Scott Card, R.A Salvatore, and Joe Abercrombie.
Hey Joe, Congrats on the nod. Lev is also gaining some deserved notice as well this year. TBI, BTAH, LAOK & Heroes were all great books! Keep em coming and i’ll make sure to buy them.. haha.
Congrats Joe! Very well deserved. I read all your books this year and enjoyed them all very much. You’re the best thing to happen to the fantasy genre since GRRM.
@jacktop – BSC and The Heroes were already released in audio form and narrated by Michael Page. Initially, I was worried that Steven Pacey wasn’t doing them, since he was so fantastic on the First Law books, but Page was equally great.
Congrats! Not only do you deserve making the list, “The Heroes” frankly should have ranked a lot higher. Like #1.
Joe, I have a question: Why does everyone rank “A Dance with Dragons” so highly? Both here and in Amazon’s list, ADWD is way up there. I’m sorry, “A Song of Ice and Fire” is an excellent series, and Martin is a terrific writer, but ADWD was a massive disappointment.
Which reminds me – you haven’t really stated your feelings on it. Or are you too diplomatic to give an opinion on a contemporary/competitor? At least tell us what you thought of the first season of “Game of Thrones”.