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Joe Abercrombie - A Red Country


Topher

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With me it's more people going "Like the clothes store?" when I try to recommend/order books at a local bookstore.

You definitely need to put work into your Israeli fan base, because as far as I can tell it's made of three people and a dog.

I'm not sure theres a dog. Seriously, i've seen Bakker and Lynch in stores here, but never Abercrombie. No idea why.

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Dunno if she's still there, but the person in charge of stock in the Stiematzky in, of all places, Or Akiva (Orot Mall, right on road 4,) a couple years ago was a huge genre fan and I could always find recent stuff that seemed to be nowhere else in the country there. And I found Lynch in Beersheva once too.

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  • 1 month later...

Yesterday Joe replied the questions of the fans at Reddit’s fantasy forum, where he revealed some new tidbits about (A) Red Country:

  • He has finished about 75% of the first draft, and expects the release by the end of this year or the beginning of 2013.
  • The setting is an area of wilderness north of the Old Empire, so a rough analog of the old west, with colonists expanding into lawless territory and encountering unfriendly locals.
  • It takes place six years after The Heroes, and thirteen after the end of Last Argument of Kings.
  • None of the POVs of the book is a character we've met before, but there'll be "many old friends among the extended cast". Among them, there is the magi Zacharus.

A release I am really eager for, specially after the masterpieces that where, IMO, THe Heroes and BSC. I'm surprised by the amount of time happening between the books. If, as he says, after the Red Country he'll go back to Adua for another trilogy, Glokta will already be in his fifties.

ETA: You can read the full Q&A here.

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I'm surprised by the amount of time happening between the books.

I really like that aspect of the books. Things take time, excitement can't be happening non-stop for populace to survive and it is OK to jump over uneventful periods - a concept that for some reason seems quite difficult for many distinguished SF&fantasy writers to grasp and implement.

It is, perhaps, the most nefarious effect of Tolkien's legacy ;).

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Thanks for the summary HB. Hopefully he will make it to get the book out this year, it sounds really good. It's nice that he is so forthcoming about the status of the book as well, I appreciate that in an author.

Six more years after The Heroes, if Logen doesn't show up in this one he'll be quite old by the time Joe returns to writing in Adua again.

Maia

It is, perhaps, the most nefarious effect of Tolkien's legacy

I have to admit I don't get why Tolkien, of all the epic Fantasists is charged with this. His history actually does span thousands of years and has periods that are glossed over. Sure some events are mentioned in the timeline, which only adds to the sense of depth, but it's not like all major impact events happen closely after each other. The opposite, in fact.

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  • 3 weeks later...

And Joe had just given us a synopsis:

“Shy South comes home to her farm to find a blackened shell, her brother and sister stolen, and knows she’ll have to go back to bad old ways if she’s ever to see them again. She sets off in pursuit with only her cowardly old step-father Lamb for company. But it turns out he’s hiding a bloody past of his own. None bloodier. Their journey will take them across the lawless plains, to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feuds, duels, and massacres, high into unmapped mountains to a reckoning with ancient enemies, and force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, a man no one should ever have to trust…”

He had me at Nicomo Cosca. Actually much sooner than that, but Cosca is probably my favorite of all of his characters, so I'm quite excited to see him back yet again.

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"Lamb" will probably just end up being some brawler who has nine fingers, but bleeds a lot. Not who we hope he is, as he's missing the wrong finger.

But we won't find that out till he dies at the end of the book.

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Well...If Logen really really wanted to keep the Bloody Nine under control, there's only one possible way he could do it;

Never ever get into any kind of violent situation. One could certainly get a reputation for that kind of behaviour, and a nickname like "Lamb". It was the the "None bloodier" that sold me. Logen is back! :thumbsup:

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this would be great if Logen is in it. I guess it doesn't break the rule of the stand-alones which is No POVs for the TFL POVs but they can still appear as Jezal and Dogman have shown.

It will be hard to hide his ID though - although you can bet Lamb will wear a glove throughout the entire book until he is killed and it turns out he has 10 fingers.

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Bloody Nine - None Bloodier...

Yes, it seems to be clear, isn't it? Perhaps too much for Abercrombie... I wonder if he would dare to include a character in the books like this "Lamb", make him avoid all kind of violence, make him wear gloves, have him use expressions like "I reckon" or "say one thing for",... and at the end reveal that he is not Logen. It would certainly shatter our expectations.

In any case, I'm glad to see Cosca back. Not only because he's a really fun character, but also because he will give us some insight into the situation of Styria after the war with the Union. The fact the Cosca is in the West makes us conclude that he is not Duke of Visserine, the title that was promised to him by Monza. I'd say this strongly hints that the poor Duchess has been overthrown...

I guess it doesn't break the rule of the stand-alones which is No POVs for the TFL POVs but they can still appear as Jezal and Dogman have shown.

In a previous post Joe said that A Red Country would be told from the perspective of two main POVs, and this synopsis seems to suggest that they'll be Shy and Lamb. If so, and if Lamb is Logen, that'd break the rule. Although if it's for a good story, I'm all for it!

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