Jump to content

Joe Abercrombie: The Collected Works (and in what order to read them) SPOILERS


Rhom

Recommended Posts

Kroy was a little bit of a caricature in The First Law, he and Poulder being just comical characters that couldn't agree on anything in the middle of a war. It was fun, but it wasn't very "realistic" and seemed just a small contrivance to allow an outsider like West to be raised to Marshall.

But in the Heroes he was a fantastic character. I loved all his appearances, specially his short POV at the beginning of the chapter where he passed his orders down the chain of command.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
On ‎7‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 8:58 AM, unJon said:

Alternating first and last chapters while working towards the middle from both ends.  Christopher Nolan edited the book. 

It'd be trippy if Joe did some sort of Pulp Fiction-ish book where the order really was reversed and this kind of advice could be serious.  :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Let's Get Kraken said:

I'm still kind of surprised that he didn't like the Kill Bill comparison to Best Served Cold. I've always gotten a bit of a Tolkien meets Tarantino vibe from his writing.

Yeah, its such an easy comparison.  If he wasn't intending for it to appear that way, then maybe I can see the frustration... but its just there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 19/07/2017 at 4:04 PM, Rhom said:

Yeah, its such an easy comparison.  If he wasn't intending for it to appear that way, then maybe I can see the frustration... but its just there.

I can remember listening to him at a launch for the event in London back in the day and he stated quite clearly that it was a homage to "Point Blank" (Payback was a remake with Mel Gibson). Maybe he's just upset no-one has spotted that influence over Kill Bill? I guess Kill Bill and Point Blank have the same revenge plot at heart.

The big difference is that BSC is a team effort where the others are more of a lone wolf venture.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎7‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 3:59 PM, Let's Get Kraken said:

I'm still kind of surprised that he didn't like the Kill Bill comparison to Best Served Cold. I've always gotten a bit of a Tolkien meets Tarantino vibe from his writing.

The similarities with Kill Bill seem clear to me, but then all revenge plots are probably fairly similar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, Nicomo Cosca said:

https://www.joeabercrombie.com/2017/07/31/progress-report-july-17/

Don´t know what to make with that "dragon" and "Factory" mentions! But that progress report got me hyped!

Awesome, these are my most anticipated books at the moment and I like having a fantasy series I can actually look forward to reading. If the dragon comment is actually meant to reference something, I assume he means the (dormant?) clockwork dragon from Red Country. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, mine as well. I thought about the "dragon" that appeared in Red Country too, but I can´t remember the role it played lol it´s been 3 years since I read it! I`ll probably do a complete re read and finally get my hands on Sharp Ends before the new trilogy.

Looking forward to see how the "Industrial Revolution" affects the Circle of the World.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I just finished Sharp Ends. The chronological order in the OP is right but I don't feel like it is a good reading order. I would go with:

 

576: The Blade Itself (the trilogy works by going full circle at the end, therefore the first book must be read first)
566 (spring): A Beautiful Bastard (a flashback used to provide additional information about Glokta)
573 (autumn): Small Kindnesses
574 (autumn): The Fool Jobs (introduces Craw early so the reader already knows him when he starts The Heroes)
575 (summer): Skipping Town 
576-77: Before They Are Hanged
576 (spring): Hell (the fall of Dagoska from another point of view)
577: Last Argument of Kings
576 (summer): Two's Company (the war in the North from another point of view, and serves as a buffer between two big books)
579-80: Best Served Cold
580: Wrong Place, Wrong Time (Monza's revenge from other points of view)
584 (summer): Some Desperado (introduces Shy early)
584 (autumn): Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden  
584: The Heroes
587 (autumn): Three's a Crowd 
590: Red Country - Part I
590 (summer): Freedom! (preferably should be read between parts I and II of Red Country)
590: Red Country - Parts II to VI
592 (spring): Tough Times All Over
570 (summer): Made a Monster (it was presented last in the collection for a reason; this is intended to be the last thing we read before the next trilogy)
605: New Trilogy Book 1

 

Another acceptable reading order would of course be to read the seven books in order of publication. But if you want to meddle the short stories and the big books, strict chronological order as presented in the OP is to be avoided IMO.

 

Sounds like the reading order running gag actually has a reason to exist now :P

 

@Joe Abercrombie Do you approve of this order?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Let's Get Kraken said:

Idk if the next trilogy has anything to do with it. It might just be that this was the last impression Joe wanted us to have of Logen before he set the character aside.

Yes. This.

So it's maybe not something you should read at the very end, but after all the big books in any case. The story that I think does set up the next trilogy is Tough Times All Over (am I the only one who thought the package may have been containing the Seed?) so I guess the last two stories in my order could be swapped.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So Joe has released a page from the new trilogy. Apparently one of the POVs is called Peck and is an artillery engineer on a Union ship: 

 

EDIT: I actually read too fast. I thought he was on a ship for some reason but it's actually a siege.

There's another tweet where he says the page is actually from the second book but I'm not sure whether he's telling the truth or making fun of me for asking: 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...