Paweł’s Comments (group member since Jun 21, 2012)

Paweł’s comments from the Joe Abercrombie Fans group.

Yes, definitely!

Hey folks,

I noticed that we are now 165 strong in this group so maybe there's a chance that we can organize a Joe Abercrombie fan club meet-up somewhere?

I am currently based in Munich, Germany. Would be willing to travel to Berlin for example or perhaps anywhere with a reasonably good / cheap flight or train connection.

What say you?

Yeah I must say I almost completely gave up on looking for similar authors... I can't read another blurb for "hot and new" fantasy author's book which ends with something like:

"'Angels are dead. And I killed them. Now I'm a lonely and silent assassin/magician doing unspeakable things.'

He is the unknown heir of the whole kingdom. He was gone for 50 years but now he's back... and he is the only one standing between complete doom and rainbows. Will he make it? Will he save the world or will he die on the 10th page?"

Umm, no, thanks. Wake me up when you write something from multiple point of views and your characters and stories are multi-layered (and let's not confuse this with "plot twists") and there are background threads like Bank of Valint and Balk tying everything nicely together in a somehow non-obvious ways. Then throw some "everyday stories" on top like Sharp Ends and I'm happy.

I'm not ready yet to reread First Law so in the meantime I switched to some cyberpunk...

It was good but I couldn't help but feel like it's somehow a more "palatable" / "accessible to people" version of the First Law world (in terms of characters, stories, language, ...)

I am just now reading Sharp Ends and who do you think appears in one of the chapters? None other than Corporal Tunny!

Because I am an avid player of the Battlefield video game series, one of the elf weapons immediately reminded me of the M32 MGL multiple grenade launcher - in the game (and also in the real life) it is basically a revolver that shoots grenades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkor_MGL

This sounds quite similar to what was happening when Mother Scaer kept reloading her weapon with "drums".

Yeah you are probably right although I remember reading somewhere that the YA classification has been removed from Half a King. Not sure if this is true or not, maybe I misremembered something but I guess this (mis)information changed my expectations for the book a lot and I got burned :(

I hate to say this but I don't really like the book :-( It feels much more straightforward than any of the previous ones and most important of all - the characters are not that interesting... the only one I liked was Shaddikshiram (?) which kind of reminded me of Nicomo Cosca but other than that I don't like the coming of age / revenge narrative.

Half a King feels a dumbed down and toned down version of Best Served Cold and certainly it is nowhere near The Heroes or The First Law trilogy.

Oh well, I hope that with the next book Joe will return to his original style with full force...

Love the graphic novel!

Recently Joe wrote a blog post about a new short story collection that will include his story:

http://www.joeabercrombie.com/2013/01...

He also listed all short stories he wrote and where they were published:

The Fool Jobs – in Swords and Dark Magic, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders

Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden – in the Waterstones hardcover edition of the Heroes (I think these two are also with the enhanced ebook of the Heroes)

Freedom! – in the Waterstones hardcover edition of Red Country

Some Desperado – forthcoming in Dangerous Women

Tough Times all Over – forthcoming (probably not soon)

I have not read any of those. Have you?

I'd love it if some minor characters would make a comeback, especially Corporal Tunny.

Also it would be nice to know what's going on with Jezal these days.

Matthew wrote: "Do you have the link? Sounds good."

I can't find it now... maybe it's something I heard in Joe's interview here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ohEf5...

Or maybe something I read in his Reddit Ask Me Anything interview:

http://www.joeabercrombie.com/2012/12...

Or maybe I just made it up? I will try to recall...

Hi Matthew, welcome to the group.

Joe better bring another book out soon as well, or it'll be back to the mud with me!

I read somewhere (Joe's blog?) that he plans to take a break and then start on a new trilogy.

Dab Sweet was the navigator, Curnsbick was in business with the other guy (I forget his name).

In any case by spending a lot of time together I meant Logen with Bayaz (in First Law trilogy) so Logen would know for surehow Bayaz looks.

Whether Logen met Curnsbick I'm not sure but I think they must have met at some point in Crease when Temple was building the headquarters for the business (even though I can't recall any interaction between Logen and Curnsbick...).

Oh, and also - wouldn't Logen be able to identify Curnsbick as Bayaz? They spent a lot of time together after all and I don't remember any mention of Bayaz being able to shape/body shift.

When I read about Valint and Balk opening a branch in Crease I thought it was a hint at the fact that Bayaz now has eyes and ears there as there possibly could be some stuff going on with regards to the overall "urban" development of the region and maybe the ongoing border disputes nearby.

That's an interesting thought, however I think Bayaz would probably not get involved at such a "day to day" level as inventing something or tending to a business. The cannon tests make sense as you mention but still I think it's not Bayaz.

For me Bayaz is a very high level player, an architect of sorts - gets involved when it's really necessary (as in the First Law trilogy) but otherwise just pushes the pieces around on a chessboard from afar.

James wrote: "Paweł wrote: "James wrote: "A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin is another great fantasy story with a lot of grey characters and a dark, bloody story with heaps of political intrigu..."

I liked the first two books very much but at some point later on I became tired with the myriad of characters and plot twists. I guess I might come back and at least finish the "A Feast for Crows" which I started and gave up...

James wrote: "A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin is another great fantasy story with a lot of grey characters and a dark, bloody story with heaps of political intrigue and backstabbing."

I read 3 or 4 books and gave up... There is just too many characters and places and stuff. I also hated all the descriptions of what people are wearing and other fillers like that.

I think it requires more skill to fit a vast world into 3 books like Joe did with the First Law trilogy than just produce books endlessly (and thick ones, too - I remember that one of the books was ~1600 pages on my e-reader).

However, I agree that the story and (some of) the characters are interesting. If it just weren't that bloated...

I definitely second the Richard K. Morgan recommendation. I am currently in the middle of The Steel Remains and it is not bad although I was hoping for something better after reading first two books of his Takeshi Kovacs trilogy. I especially recommend Altered Carbon.