Monthly Archives: August 2011

THE HEROES by Joe Abercrombie (Trade)Via Abercrombie’s blog:

So I’ve finished the first draft of the second part of my latest masterwork, workingly titled, ‘A Red Country,’ or possibly just, ‘Red Country,’ we will see on that score. For those who have failed to follow this blog religiously for the past few months (shame on you faithless scum), it is another semi-standalone set in the world of The First Law, and fusing fantasy elements with western elements, in the same way that The Heroes was a fantasy/war story and Best Served Cold fantasy/thriller-ish. That puts me about 40% of the way through a first draft, though I suspect there’ll be a fair bit of work to do once the first draft is complete. Isn’t there always? Now the terrifying wait for feedback from my editor and readers while I try and sort out what exactly I’m going to do with my next part. I guess one could say that if Part I was a little bit Searchers then Part II rolled into Lonesome Dove territory and Part III has something of a Deadwood/Fistful of Dollars motif.

I feel a fair bit more comfortable with this second part than I did with the first, as you’d expect or at least hope. One generally aims to get a better and better handle on the plot, settings and characters as one goes through a draft, until by the time you’re finishing your first draft you know pretty much exactly what you’re aiming at, and editing becomes largely a case of bringing earlier parts into line with that final one.

I’ve made quite a significant change to the personality of one of my two central characters – or perhaps not a change but a clarification, a shift of emphasis and a refinement of style – and he seems to be working quite a bit better now. In essence, I’ve made him a bit more of a shit than he was before, which tends to be a fruitful direction for me to go in with characters on the whole. Who knew?

It’s taken me a little longer to get this part together than I’d hoped, what with one thing and another, but if I can up the pace a little from here on in we should still be looking at delivery early next year and publication somewhere around late summer early autumn 2012. Such is the hope. But you know what they say about hopes.

Don’t make a parachute out of ’em.”

Abercrombie’s oft-rumoured, but never quite understood ‘western’ finally has a title to go along its bloody interesting sounding premise. I always love getting a look into Joe’s world as a writer. His efforts make his craft appear so effortless, but the comments quote above just go to show how much work goes into the novels. I mean, changing the personality of a character mid-way through a draft? That can’t be easy. And ‘more shit’? Has Abercrombie found deeper depths of human depravity from which to draw his characters? Can’t wait to find out!

THE HEROES  by Joe Abercrombie (Trade) BEST SERVED COLD  by Joe Abercrombie (Trade)

Photography by Michael Frost; Photo Illustration by Gene Mollica

Orbit’s had a few swings at the plate now with Abercrombie’s series (this is the third cover they’ve done for Best Served Cold, each vastly different from the other eg. 1 // 2). How’d they do this time? Well, I appreciate that they took a standard image of a badass dude™/badass chick™ and tilting expectations a bit by cropping in tight on the characters; but it works much better on The Heroes with the abstract arm, and less well on Best Served Cold, with the pretty leather-clad girl. One of my major issues with featuring characters on a cover, especially photo-realistic characters and models, is that rarely do they match the image in my head or, really, the characteristics of the person they’re supposed to convey. Abercrombie’s novels are known for their nihilism and no-holds-bar approach to the scum of humanity and the terrible things we can do when we feel justified; the girl on the cover of Best Served Cold just can’t capture the ruthlessness of Monza (the protagonist of Best Served Cold) or the proper tone of Abercrombie’s novels. The tight, blood-spattered sword, however, hits it out of the park. Strange that they didn’t go similarly abstract for both covers.

Still not in the realm of the UK covers, but the best stuff Orbit’s done for the series by quite a mile. Lauren Panepinto, creative director at Orbit Books, and Abercrombie have both posted some interesting reactions/thoughts to the covers on their respective blogs.

From Sullivan’s blog:

THE RIYRIA REVELATIONS by Michael J. Sullivan (UK Edition) THE RIYRIA REVELATIONS by Michael J. Sullivan (UK Edition) THE RIYRIA REVELATIONS by Michael J. Sullivan (UK Edition)

I like the layout/typography of the US editions much more. They both use the same art, but the UK edition’s emphasis on the characters (rather than the bold colour and overall design aesthetic of the US covers) takes away some of the adventure and mystery. They look, frankly, like every other menacing Fantasy book on the market. Somewhat reminiscent of the paperback covers for Abercrombie’s The First Law, which is a market I’m sure Orbit would love Sullivan to tackle. Not the most egregious covers I’ve seen, and admirably bold, but I prefer Panepinto’s take.

From Winter is Coming:

Roose Bolton cast in GAME OF THRONES

Irish actor Michael McElhatton has been confirmed by George as playing the iconic Roose Bolton, Lord of the Dreadfort. Though not well known here across the pond, McElhatton is a veteran of British stage and screen, and has starred in numerous indie dramas and comedies, and from what I’ve seen scouring You Tube, he’s exceptional.

Looks great. He’s certainly got his work cut out for him. Can’t wait to see who’s cast as his bastard son. That’ll be a tough role to fill.

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