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SammyWhereAreYou posted:Oh okay, cool. Thanks. I've never gotten a book signed before so I didn't know what was appropriate. So I met him and he was super nice and he seemed genuinely happy and appreciative to have fans. He smiled real big at the "thanks for writing fantasy that I don't have to be embarrassed to say I read" thing. Also his accent was pretty  My husband (who doesn't like fantasy) was shocked to see how little Abercrombie looks like a fantasy author. I was like "oh poo poo, there's Joe Abercrombie" and he thought I was pointing to the neckbeard standing next to him. We need more Abercrombies in this genre.
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Oct 11, 2010 14:03
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Axeface posted:Burned through First Law in about four days, just starting up with BSC now. About the short story: I don't have any interest in buying the anthology it comes packaged along with, so is there any other way to get my hands on it? I don't have a Kindle or iPad or anything, for what difference that makes. I'm happy to pay, I just don't often find myself a fan of fantasy and would rather not slog through (and put dollar down for) a whole collection of it for one story I'm interested in. Read this if you want to know whether that spoiler is true or not: It's false.
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Oct 11, 2010 18:35
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Axeface posted:Burned through First Law in about four days, just starting up with BSC now. About the short story: I don't have any interest in buying the anthology it comes packaged along with, so is there any other way to get my hands on it? I don't have a Kindle or iPad or anything, for what difference that makes. I'm happy to pay, I just don't often find myself a fan of fantasy and would rather not slog through (and put dollar down for) a whole collection of it for one story I'm interested in.
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Oct 11, 2010 18:35
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Axeface posted:Also, if that untagged spoiler about Shivers on the first page of the thread is true, I'm gonna be really full of impotent rage at the internet in about a day or two. It has a grain of truth, but is not actually true. Thats probably why it wasn't deleted.
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Oct 11, 2010 18:46
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In case anyone's interested, here's a panel from this past weekend with Joe Abercrombie, Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, Peter V. Brett, Deborah Harkness, and Naomi Novik: http://vimeo.com/15695484 (part 1) http://vimeo.com/15696007 (part 2) Recommended for fantasy nerds in general. There's a lot of talk about the direction fantasy is taking these days. edit: In the second part he talks about GRRM being an influence on him. This doesn't surprise me. HoAssHo fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Oct 13, 2010 |
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Oct 13, 2010 00:10
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SammyWhereAreYou posted:In case anyone's interested, here's a panel from this past weekend with Joe Abercrombie, Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, Peter V. Brett, Deborah Harkness, and Naomi Novik: Butcher looks a hell of a lot less goony than he does in his photo in the books He needs to get a new one done dammit
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Oct 13, 2010 00:26
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Okay, so I got to that part of the book, and yeah, I am impotent internet angry. And reading your warnings only made me more impotent, even though I appreciate the effort. Oh internet, why must I use you to destroy myself? On the upshot, yeah, why the gently caress didn't I think of just reading the story in a Barnes and Noble? This thread makes me feel dumb.
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Oct 13, 2010 00:35
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I just finished the First Law Trilogy last night and wanted to thank this thread. That was some very satisfying epic fantasy noir.
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Oct 13, 2010 08:58
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I'm not entirely sure why, but I thought it'd be a good idea to read Best Served Cold first. I'm about 100 pages into The Blade Itself now and a few things make a little bit more sense now. I used to get annoyed at people who said "Jim Butcher/JK Rowling has flaws as a writer, but...", but now I get to say that about Joe Abercrombie. I love the hell out of what I've read so far, and the guy can weave a drat good tale, but I find the gripes about Butcher repeating phrases and themes and whatnot are applicable to Abercrombie too, only a lot more noticeable. All that said, I can't wait to get through the First Law trilogy. As a fantasy hater, I can say the man comes proper with his poo poo. Looking forward to bugging my friends into reading his books.
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Oct 13, 2010 09:13
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DangerDummy! posted:I'm not entirely sure why, but I thought it'd be a good idea to read Best Served Cold first. I'm about 100 pages into The Blade Itself now and a few things make a little bit more sense now. Really, you aren't a fan of the repeating thing? I thought it was pretty cool, especially in the case of Logan.
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Oct 13, 2010 17:24
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nutnmunch posted:Really, you aren't a fan of the repeating thing? I thought it was pretty cool, especially in the case of Logan. I don't mind that, though I don't think it's great or anything. I'm talking more about phrases he reuses a lot, like horses eyes rolling madly when they're injured, such and such a person being a black outline against the blue sky. There're a couple more I can't think of the top of my head. It's such a stupid thing to complain about, considering how much I'm enjoying him so far. More of an observation, I guess.
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Oct 13, 2010 18:58
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DangerDummy! posted:I don't mind that, though I don't think it's great or anything. I'm talking more about phrases he reuses a lot, like horses eyes rolling madly when they're injured, such and such a person being a black outline against the blue sky. There're a couple more I can't think of the top of my head. It's such a stupid thing to complain about, considering how much I'm enjoying him so far. More of an observation, I guess. Meh, it's not stupid. Writing is a marriage of amazing ideas and style, so if one of those falters it's noticeable. You can read an author who has an amazing loving world built, but is a lovely writer, or vice versa. I've alawys thought Abercrombie strikes a good middle ground. His world isn't nearly as developed/though out as it could be, but he writes great loving characters.
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Oct 14, 2010 12:20
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A Nice Boy posted:Meh, it's not stupid. Writing is a marriage of amazing ideas and style, so if one of those falters it's noticeable. You can read an author who has an amazing loving world built, but is a lovely writer, or vice versa.
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Oct 14, 2010 23:00
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A Nice Boy posted:Meh, it's not stupid. Writing is a marriage of amazing ideas and style, so if one of those falters it's noticeable. You can read an author who has an amazing loving world built, but is a lovely writer, or vice versa. Worldbuilding is just something people complain about. How many authors build immense worlds, societies, cultures, monsters and magics that never have anything to do with the story? Every bit of the First Law world has a role to play and a function to serve. ...well, except the Shanka. Never really figured out what their deal was.
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Oct 15, 2010 01:18
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anathenema posted:Worldbuilding is just something people complain about.
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Oct 15, 2010 01:22
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syphon posted:Disagree wholeheartedly. It's not as important as the story or characters, but it's a very important part of storytelling that a lot of people get a lot of enjoyment out of. It's great when it works, to be sure, and there are a lot of stories that have memorable worlds that become as big a part as anything. But it can't carry the story and the lack of it doesn't diminish a story that can stand without it.
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Oct 15, 2010 03:35
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I think Abercrombie gets the balance right. He's clearly got a lot of stuff figured out for his own use, and that includes his own maps so he can plot out the events, but he only gives the reader as much as is necessary for the story. This works a lot better for me than fantasy epics that insist on telling you the history of every village and so on.
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Oct 15, 2010 11:46
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anathenema posted:...well, except the Shanka. Never really figured out what their deal was. The Master Maker made them to be his army, after he died they went on killing and multiplying.
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Oct 15, 2010 15:49
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I saw The Blade Itself at a book store the other day and thought, "hm isn't that the author I saw a thread about in TBB?" So I bought it and have read the prologue. So far so good.
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Oct 15, 2010 16:44
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John Charity Spring posted:I think Abercrombie gets the balance right. He's clearly got a lot of stuff figured out for his own use, and that includes his own maps so he can plot out the events, but he only gives the reader as much as is necessary for the story. That was my point, yes. The Chekov's gun principle should be applied to worldbuilding: if a detail is revealed, it should be relevant to the plot. Abercrombie does this well.
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Oct 15, 2010 17:40
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anathenema posted:That was my point, yes. The Chekov's gun principle should be applied to worldbuilding: if a detail is revealed, it should be relevant to the plot. Abercrombie does this well. Whereas with Robert Jordan you get 800 pages of what dresses and coats everyone is wearing and then 10 pages of stuff happening.
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Oct 16, 2010 01:54
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Flatscan posted:Whereas with Robert Jordan you get 800 pages of what dresses and coats everyone is wearing and then 10 pages of stuff happening. Precisely. You have to strike a nice balance between encyclopedia and Hemingway.
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Oct 16, 2010 02:35
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Flatscan posted:Whereas with Robert Jordan you get 800 pages of what dresses and coats everyone is wearing and then 10 pages of stuff happening. Dont forget every chapter having " Rand would know what to do, he was so good with the women", " Mat would know what to do, he was so good with the women", " Perrin would know what to do, he was also so good with the women"..... Is there a map of the world anywhere? This is the only one I could find online and it doesn't seem to accurate.  Click here for the full 1024x791 image. As excited as I am for "Heroes", I wish Abercrombie would have picked a different setting, maybe Ghurkul or parts of the Old Empire. The Union invading Angland just seems like it's already been covered. Hopefully we'll get a glimpse of what Adua is liked under Glotka's rule. That was the only thing I didn't like about "Best Served Cold". I was hoping The Cripple would show up at some point and be awesome.
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Oct 17, 2010 10:26
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That's not a bad map at all, but yeah...I don't think it's very accurate.
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Oct 17, 2010 11:23
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That map pre-dates Best Served Cold, which actually gave us an accurate map of Styria. Post-BSC, this map was made by someone calling themselves Scubamarco: It's more accurate (Westport is no longer in Gurkhul) but it's for the same given value of accuracy that we have for all Abercrombie's geography except Styria.
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Oct 17, 2010 11:26
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John Charity Spring posted:That is one very tiny planet they have there.
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Oct 17, 2010 18:09
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sarsbar posted:That is one very tiny planet they have there. I assume he'll expand it beyond all that if he keeps writing in the same universe, like Feist did from Riftwar to Serpentwar.
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Oct 18, 2010 00:46
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A Nice Boy posted:I assume he'll expand it beyond all that if he keeps writing in the same universe, like Feist did from Riftwar to Serpentwar. Here's hoping. Keep the books coming, Abercrombie--I want a whole shelf of amazing tattered paperbacks to leave my future kids. 
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Oct 18, 2010 20:12
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Read the trilogy after glancing through this thread, and I wanted to say thanks! Real good stuff. If there was a such thing as a drinking game for books, though, the First Law trilogy has some good material to work with. Drink whenever: -Severard's eyes are smiling -Anyone "throws themselves carelessly" into a chair -Anyone swallows sour spit -Anyone says "poo poo" and nothing else in response to a shocking thing -A horse is described as well-lathered -Whenever an intimidating man's eyes bulge out Take a shot whenever: -Jezal says something daring, but it's revealed he actually just thought it because he's too chickenshit to actually say anything -Whenever the phrase "X needs Y like X needs the cock-rot" is written (to be fair this only happened twice, but goddamn that is a phrase) I can't really think of anything worthy of finishing a drink, but I guess coming across "Ah." "Urr." "Ah." "Urr." "Ah." is about the only thing that qualifies.
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Oct 19, 2010 02:43
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Finish the bottle whenever Glokta talks about his own penis and/or making GBS threads himself. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen, and you'll need a drink afterward.
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Oct 19, 2010 03:42
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Clinton1011 posted:The Master Maker made them to be his army, after he died they went on killing and multiplying. Which I see as points in Bayaz's favor of not being as evil as everyone here seems to think him to be. Yeah, he's a megalomaniac and not a great guy, but I never saw him as EVIL. If the Maker made a horde like that, and then Bayaz killed him more cold bloodedly than his version of events says, which the book does seem to imply is what really happened... was that really so bad anyways when the Maker is basically making orcses?
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Oct 26, 2010 19:11
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That's kinda how I interpreted Bayaz. He's not EVIL per se, just super aggressive and assholish about keeping the world 'safe' as he sees it. It reminds me of back when BSG was airing... In the thread, we all started discussing how Adama and Roslyn basically set up a military dictatorship, and their actions were pretty objectively 'evil' in some ways. However, they were cast in a positive light, so the viewer can't help but like them. It's the opposite with Bayaz, we see his actions through some of the people he's screwing over, so he looks evil by the end of the series.
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Oct 26, 2010 19:58
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Khatib posted:Which I see as points in Bayaz's favor of not being as evil as everyone here seems to think him to be. Considering nearly everything Bayaz said in the house of the Maker turned out to be false (Tolomei, Juvens, ect.), can we really trust his statement on the Shanka as well? I think Bayaz was the best character to be honest; such a great twist on the cliche Gandalf figure.
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Oct 27, 2010 15:13
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Plucky Brit posted:can we really trust his statement on the Shanka as well? Touche.
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Oct 27, 2010 18:19
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I saw Abercrombie and the First Law Trilogy mentioned in a few other Book Barn threads and got around to reading the first one two weeks ago. Since then I've been reading them at every spare moment and finally got through Best Served Cold today. These books are real bummers but it's a blast to hang out with each character. Really looking forward to Heroes.
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Oct 28, 2010 21:39
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 The utterly gorgeous cover for The Heroes has been revealed. Look at that drat battle map! Several features of the battlefield bring to mind battles like Waterloo, Hastings, and even Arnhem. This battle's got it all.
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Nov 12, 2010 00:24
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Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie... Say that god drat he writes good fiction but holy poo poo after marathoning the trilogy and finishing up BSC, I feel like I should get some zoloft or xanax or something. Great books, just loving bleak as poo poo even during the actiony parts. Gotta agree with the opinion that BSC picks up about halfway through. If I hadn't read that here, I probably would have given up on it. Any news on if he is going to write a prequel trilogy? I would love to see more of the Master Maker and the towers being built.
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Nov 12, 2010 21:05
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It may fall under the category of he doesn't want us to know too much about the past. It takes out half the fun if we have a clear idea of how big a douche all the characters were or were not. I mean, our only view of the past is basically from the winner.
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Nov 13, 2010 10:29
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I had these books recommended to me at a bookstore , I read the first one and was just completely blown away and devoured the next books fairly quickly. I did not realize these were Ambercrombies first series. I read a lot of fantasy fiction , I think Ambercrombies style has gotten loads better with each book. I thought Best Served Cold was amazing. I really wish I could find another writer who even came close to his style he's basically writing pulp noir fantasy. What do you even call that? If anyone can recommend anything close to similar to him I'd love to hear about it. The closest I can even say in theme is Bakker's Prince of Nothing series. That's not even close though really.
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Nov 15, 2010 05:25
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Hollis posted:I had these books recommended to me at a bookstore , I read the first one and was just completely blown away and devoured the next books fairly quickly. I did not realize these were Ambercrombies first series. I assume you've read Martin's Song of Ice and Fire? Probably a stupid question, but they're pretty close in terms of themes and how loving dark they are.
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Nov 15, 2010 05:35
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