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Abercrombie definitely takes a lot of inspiration (whether atmospheric or otherwise) from popular media - a good example of this was the entire table covered in wild-west-related films, novels, games, and history books that he amassed when he started to work on Red Country. I'd be surprised if Aeon Flux was something he was aware of at all, though.
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Jan 17, 2013 15:01
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1) It's Carlot dan Eider, who ran up against Glokta in Dagoska and then went to Styria and got hosed over in Best Served Cold. 2) Just a northerner who knows him by reputation and may have seen him in the past. They turn up all over.
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Feb 9, 2013 14:02
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It's never explicitly stated but it's heavily implied given the history of the character, her personality, and so on.
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Feb 9, 2013 15:41
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TheWorldIsSquare posted:Tried reading Malazan, bored the gently caress out of me. I can get how people like it, but I don't really like having to read multiple one-thousand page books just to understand the setting. Ketchup rocks though. I've only read Gardens of the Moon and am well aware of the supposed inferiority when compared with other Malazan books but I really didn't like it at all. I especially hated Kruppe, who I later learned was some sort of fan favourite, and resolved not to read any of the rest of the books. And I'm all but certain that I've made this exact post before.
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Mar 17, 2013 02:37
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Yep. I really hate Gorst but think he's a fantastic character, for pretty much those reasons.
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Mar 30, 2013 18:47
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Yeah, I've been meaning to update the OP for ages, honestly. I'm just lazy - I'll get round to it soon.
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Apr 5, 2013 22:15
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My favourite thing about that review is the little exchange in the comments where Joe locks down the 'she has a hot arse' stuff very quickly.
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Apr 5, 2013 22:46
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Yeah - I've posted about it in this thread before. It's called Yesterday, At A Village Called Barden... and is about what happened to Gorst immediately prior to the events of The Heroes - just a skirmish he's involved with and 'distinguishes himself' in. It's pretty good but nothing earth-shattering. Updated the OP, finally. Only about two years after I first intended to do so.
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Apr 6, 2013 14:13
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It's been brought up before in the thread - Abercrombie was aware of the debate surrounding that and wrote a lengthy and very self-critical post or two about it. He's said that the character of Terez and how he handled that entire plot is one thing he would change on a rewrite of the book. edit: Found the post of Abercrombie's. There's more after that one. John Charity Spring fucked around with this message at 00:02 on May 24, 2013 |
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May 23, 2013 23:59
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I don't know about looks, but Black Dow will always be Northern Irish for me.
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Jun 27, 2013 02:58
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Yep, that fits my own mental image of Logen perfectly. Certainly much better than the gigantic bald ogre in that picture upthread.
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Jun 30, 2013 14:09
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So Joe Abercrombie has a new book coming out soon, called Half A King. It's young adult. quote:In some ways this is a very different sort of book from what I’ve written so far. It’s aimed partly at younger readers (maybe the 12-16 range). It’s much shorter – 80,000 words compared to 175,000 for my shortest, Red Country, and 230,000 for my longest, Last Argument of Kings (though still over twice the length of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, believe it or not). It’s set in a very different world with what you might call a viking or anglo-saxon feel. It’s much more focused, with a single point of view. It’s not so overtly ‘gritty’ although it’s a long way from smooth. It is punchy. It has drive. I aimed to deliver a slap in the face with every page. Short version: the next First Law trilogy is still coming, but he's got a young adult trilogy in the works as well and the first book of that will be out soon. You can read the full blog post here.
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Jul 19, 2013 14:13
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Nevvy Z posted:What else are you going to do, root for the one who eats people? Try rooting for the people caught in the middle between the terrible, terrible power players.
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Aug 1, 2013 18:00
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Zeitgueist posted:I've always thought it was quite clear that the Bloody Nine is a part of Logen's personality...a part he is ashamed of, but at the most a dissociative/schizophrenic/mutliple personality disorder. Especially given that his entire arc in the trilogy is about subverting any idea that he is at heart a good person. I mean, that doesn't preclude the Bloody Nine from being some sort of spirit manifestation but it's super-clear that even non-berserk Logen is, well... Say one thing for Logen Ninefingers. Say he's a oval office.
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Aug 12, 2013 22:21
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Rurik posted:I too subscribe to this theory, because it adds more depth to his character and makes a lot more interesting story than "oooo spooky spirits Oh, sure. But the whole progress Logen goes through in the trilogy is to realise that he can't be a good person as long as he's in the North, and that's presumably why he flees to the Near Country. Where it turns out he can't be a good person either, really. Certainly nowhere near as good as he'd like to be.
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Aug 13, 2013 09:52
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The Rat posted:If that's a premise you find interesting, check out Flashman by George Macdonald Fraser. Yes. Hearty endorsement of this recommendation.
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Aug 29, 2013 23:32
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The Rat posted:Figures that someone with your user name would endorse it. Paucis carior est fides quam pecunia, eh? Ex Abercrombie thread semper aliquid novi.
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Aug 30, 2013 09:51
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Jeffrey posted:No more First Law books until 2017 then. Pack it in it's gonna be a long thread. As thread creator I hereby decree that this doesn't become another Bad Thread. For the love of God please.
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Sep 9, 2013 03:09
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'Pussy-rear end philosophy' is the funniest thing I've seen in this thread in ages, well done.
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Jan 26, 2014 03:43
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Abercrombie's point was that good and evil don't give karmic rewards and are complex in themselves, not that such moral judgements don't exist at all. The First Law is very much a response to heroic fantasy where the good side triumphs; Abercrombie shows both that you can't easily pick a 'good' side and that good people might end up with a raw deal.
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Mar 18, 2014 00:10
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Exactly right, yes. They still continue the story from The First Law trilogy but they're self-contained rather than open-ended.
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May 14, 2014 12:23
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"Tolkien  " is kind of the theme of the trilogy so you'll get along just fine.
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May 19, 2014 15:02
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Red Country has a backgrounded critique of the effects of industrialisation, too. It's made clear that industrialisation is not an Incontrovertible Good.
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Jun 7, 2014 13:17
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the JJ posted:Cool, so long as the pay off is there. Personally I think some of the payoff comes in Before They Are Hanged, but aye.
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Jun 18, 2014 09:12
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I enjoyed Half A King - it's very readable and it gets the obvious, predictable twist out of the way almost immediately so that the more interesting story can take precedence. It's nowhere near as good as Abercrombie's adult books (and noticeably more 'YA' in that regard than something like China Mieville's Railsea, which retained a fair bit of complexity) but it's a good quick read nonetheless. Satisfying ending and I'm sure I'll enjoy the rest of the trilogy too. It's just not another Heroes.
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Jul 17, 2014 09:04
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Jeffrey posted:The OP should definitely be edited with a warning if we allow spoilers - looks like the OP still posts on these forums so that's viable. I think any book is hurt by even spoiler-warninged discussion of it, unless its a book club type deal where everyone reads to a certain point and discusses it. What sort of thing would you want edited in? Just a warning that most of the books are fair game for spoiler-tag-free discussion in the later pages so get out if you haven't read them and don't want to be spoiled?
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Oct 18, 2014 11:33
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I started it before Best Served Cold was out if I remember rightly. Also there's a big troll spoiler on like page 1 and 2 so even those aren't safe, exactly. I should probably just put a warning in the first post and be done with it.
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Oct 23, 2014 15:42
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I'd be interested to hear your fuller thoughts once you've processed it. Also, you've got another three books in the same setting (and with plenty of returning characters as well as new ones) to get through!
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Dec 3, 2014 11:48
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The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch has a similar vibe although I've only read the first book of those. I really liked it, but I've heard the quality drops off after that - thankfully it stands alone pretty well.
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Dec 15, 2014 02:34
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Peztopiary posted:Locke Lamorra books are someone's D&D campaign world on paper. They're no better and no worse than the Malazan stuff, but that is what they're most similar to. I enjoyed them, but they're nothing like Abercrombie. Are the other books really that different, then, because this description doesn't ring true to me at all for the first book. If it did I'd have run a mile; I bounced right off Malazan, couldn't stand it.
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Dec 19, 2014 14:20
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Fire Safety Doug posted:There's no universally agreed best book for Abercrombie, really. All of them have their fans and their detractors. BSC probably just isn't for you in the same way as TFL. Yeah BSC is some people's favourite but not mine for sure.
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Feb 21, 2015 02:50
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