Tor.com have put a brand new never before published story by me, Two’s Company. You can read it right now, over there, for free.
This is one of five stories from my forthcoming collection Sharp Ends that feature my female Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser style thief and warrior odd couple, Shevedieh and Javre, and that form a kind of spine to the whole thing around which the other stories are arranged.
So read it, don’t read it, enjoy it, don’t enjoy it, maybe even preorder the collection. The choice is yours. What a time to be alive!
29 comments so far
I’m having trouble pronouncing Shevedieh. Help?
Shev eh DEE eh
Thank you Joe. Great great story! Loved it. Cannot wait for April. Sooo good to be back in the circle of the world!
Hm, I thought Whirrun believed until “The Heroes”, that they call him Cracknut because “an old man up near Ustred taught him the trick of cracking a walnut in his fist”.
Anyway, great story, maybe the funniest for the time being…
You won’t get the same story twice out of Cracknut Whirrun. His nut’s cracked.
>You won’t get the same story twice out of Cracknut Whirrun
Hope to get any story out of him once more (may be in “Three’s a Crowd”? 🙂
Extremely impressed by this one. After the shattered sea trilogy it’s good to get back to the really gritty stuff. One question, is the illustration just for the site or will there be accompanying illustrations in the book?
Johnnyboy,
It’s tor.com’s artwork for this story. The book will have a map of the circle of the world, but no interior illustrations. Unless Subterranean Press decide to do a limited edition, that is…
Loved it! I was always going to buy it anyway but if I was only thinking about it, this would have been the deciding factor.
Joe, I want to read all of the First Law stuff again before your next trilogy, where can I find a list of chronological order for where all the short stories fit into the main books?
Thanks again for the preview
Great wee story. Shades of the Princess Bride, at one point. Looking forward to the collection coming oot.
Mark C
Awesome! April can’t come sooner. Any updates on the audio book? Will it be on Audible, and will Stephen Pacey do the narration?
Loving the new work Joe. Also after reading that post about the short stories fitting into the timeline with the 6 books im gonna have to do the same and read the lot in order. Hmmm, need a fresh copy of them all though from over reading.
So will the short stories all be dated in the forst law callander?
Li
I really liked the dialogue and dynamics between the two female protagonists…hope to see more of this pair in the future…
Loved this! Made me lol and left me with some disturbing mental,images …!
That was a great short story. Also, reading “Tough times all over” I had somehow gotten the mistaken impression that Javre was an Eater. Glad this one cleared it up.
Fun story. Whirrun is a great character.
Looking back at the table of contents of the book, I see that Shev appears in 4 of the 13 short stories. She and Javre seem to be the most prominent figures in the collection.
Loved it, a great way to combat the misery of the weather and a crapy January.
Do you plan on making another book(s) that follow the events after the First Law? I know you are making a book that has many stories in the First Law world but a full book? Or another series of books made in a different world?
Read it. Loved it. Want more.
Rob,
https://joeabercrombie.com//2015/09/17/progress-report-september-15/
The third paragraph answers your question.
Im sad you have switched from adults as target to teens. Sorry, as in late 20s I dont like these new books about teens for teens 🙁
ferotek, I think you are denying yourself a pleasure, and here is a simple way for you to consider it.
When they were made, originally, comics were for kids, and everyone “knew” that. Adults, many if not the majority of them, refused to read comics for this reason.
Was this stupid of them?.
Yeah the new books are going to be adult. I ve enjoyed everything thats been written in both the forst law world and the shattered sea. Its more about the writers ability than it is the target audience in my opinion.
Preordered. And I agree with Antmac. You are going to miss out some really great novels if you skip the Shattered Sea series for that reason. I am way older than you, but I thoroughly enjoyed them.
Nice Severard Easter egg! And glad to get more Whirrun, one of my top three characters from the world of the First Law.
Here’s what would make Sharp Ends even better. Change the release date to April 25, my birthday. It won’t mean much to most people, but I’d appreciate it.
Sharp Ends was a lot of fun, and it was enjoyable to revisit a number of characters and locales and side-stories across the First Law universe, but the Shevedieh and Javre stories really stood out for me as the best stuff in the book. I hope we get to see some more of their adventures in the future.
Having thoroughly enjoyed Sharp Ends looking forward yo your next book
Any idea what it will be and/or when it will be released?
Only learned of any of your books when Audible featured Hatred, or recommended to me or? Either way, I ordered that the 31st of
last October and have read all the books available now. Just finished Sharp Ends. Please, please, please,
more Shevedieh and Javre! What a perfect pairing. Thanks for all your books. While in another Genre altogether, like P. G. Wodehouse books, I can see rereading these as much for your talent as a wordsmith and the wit within all of your books as for the captivating stories.