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Joe Abercrombie: The Collected Works 2 (A new trilogy on the horizon)


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On 2/24/2019 at 3:55 PM, Jerry Drake said:

When is this said? Is it by Logen when he picks a weapon when Bayaz lets him choose from his arsenal?

I think I mentioned this before somewhere on here, it seems to me that Logen might be a demon actually, I seem to remember his wording suggesting something similar to what Fenrig said, how he was a part of ancient battles. I may have misremembered but at one point Logen mentions demons as part of him, but the way he phrased it can be understood in different ways.

 

You should have a look into the reread thread as both points have been discussed over there. Some of us wondered whether he may have broken the 2nd law at some point and I still think Logen's ability to speak to demons is somehow connected with the B9. At the end of "the blade itself" there's a bit where he cries out for help and shortly after he enters B9 mode and Logen seems aware of it and scared it is back.

And I'm pretty sure you're right about the origin of the quote - it's the first scene that came to my mind too

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On 2/24/2019 at 8:55 AM, Jerry Drake said:

When is this said? Is it by Logen when he picks a weapon when Bayaz lets him choose from his arsenal?

5 hours ago, red snow said:

You should have a look into the reread thread as both points have been discussed over there. Some of us wondered whether he may have broken the 2nd law at some point and I still think Logen's ability to speak to demons is somehow connected with the B9. At the end of "the blade itself" there's a bit where he cries out for help and shortly after he enters B9 mode and Logen seems aware of it and scared it is back.

And I'm pretty sure you're right about the origin of the quote - it's the first scene that came to my mind too

Just read that scene today, and that's not it.

Logen speaks to spirits not demons, unless I'm completely missing something...

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2 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

Just read that scene today, and that's not it.

Logen speaks to spirits not demons, unless I'm completely missing something...

You're not. I'm suggesting the b9 is either a strangely malevolent spirit or that logen can speak to more than just spirits. Eaters appear to need a certain "spark" that grants them powers when breaking the 2nd law. Maybe talking with spirits is a similar kind of mark that allows the first law to be accidentally broken?

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Joe's latest progress update on the new trilogy

Two months into the new year already and the new trilogy is rapidly coming together…

A Little Hatred is now copy-edited, so finished apart from the final proof-read, and some advance copies are already in the hands of authors, reviewers and other lucky persons, including translators in a few languages. The book will be out in September in US and UK in hardcover, ebook and audiobook.

Meanwhile, a second draft of the second book in the trilogy, The Trouble With Peace, has now gone off to editors on both sides of the pond. There was a fair bit of work to do to that book. I really smashed through the first draft as fast as I possibly could, which was the right thing to do, I think, but meant that a few events, plot lines, character movements were a bit skeletal, and needed some fleshing out. Every point of view needed at least one significant extra scene, plus a couple of major new chapters, which meant the whole thing got some 25,000 words longer in this round of revision – very unusual for me, usually I cut some, add some, and end up around the same. Still, it was the book that needed the most serious work, and I’m a lot happier with it now.

Then I read through the third book, The Beautiful Machine, just to get a sense of where it’s at and how much work might need doing. Generally when I’m writing a book my first draft gets a lot better towards the end as I work out where I’m going. So it proved with this trilogy as a whole. By the time I was writing those final parts I knew the characters and where they were headed, so most of this final book’s already looking pretty good. The usual work of tidying, refining, and replacing the bland with the specific and the detailed in all kinds of ways but I think it’s only the last quarter of it that needs major work. I slightly mismanaged a plot line at the end, so a character had to move about a lot after the main climax – all a bit lumpy. I’ve now worked out a more elegant way of doing it, I think, which has the added advantage of bringing all the central characters back together right at the end so we can take stock of how they and their relationships have changed. More effective and climactic in all kinds of ways, I hope…

I’d forgotten how much work is involved in putting a book out there. Briefing art and interviews and videos for the sales conference and etc. Not that I resent it – it’d be crazy to put years of work into writing something but not the extra few days into giving it the best chance to succeed – and I’m actually really enjoying the thought of getting a new novel out there after a fair hiatus. But you forget how time-consuming it can be. Plus I’ve got a couple of little side projects that need some attention. Which means progress on the trilogy may be a little fitful over the next couple of months. But then we’re very much in the home stretch, I hope. Looking back at the blog it was September 2015 when I first started giving this series serious thought, so we’re coming to the end of a long old road…

Next thing will be a second draft of the last book, with a particular eye on sorting out that final section. Then I guess send it to editors so we can consider all three as a series, make any necessary changes to books 2 and 3 together. Then it’s 3rd draft of those two, trying to get more richness and detail into character, setting and language, which’ll take a while. Still, my guess is that by the time A Little Hatred comes out in September, the whole trilogy will be very close to complete.

Better start thinking about what I’m doing next, I guess…

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11 hours ago, red snow said:

You're not. I'm suggesting the b9 is either a strangely malevolent spirit or that logen can speak to more than just spirits. Eaters appear to need a certain "spark" that grants them powers when breaking the 2nd law. Maybe talking with spirits is a similar kind of mark that allows the first law to be accidentally broken?

I've always wondered if it's possible that by speaking to spirits it makes one susceptible to demonic influence. For example: in The Exorcist, Regan McNeil is playing with a Ouija when she makes contact with "Captain Howdy" which is in fact the demon Pazuzu. That's how the demon is able to possess her. So in the same vein, does Logen's ability to converse with spirits leave his mind open to domination, i.e. The Bloody Nine.

One interesting note is that to my knowledge, we never have found out what happened to Euz's 3rd son, Bedesh. Euz gave the High Art to Juvens, Making to Kanedias, and the ablity to converse with spirits to Bedesh. We know he joined Juvens in the war against Glustrod and survived because the three remaining brothers took the "Seed" to that far away island it required all 3 of their skills to seal it away. He was, however, dead by the time Bayaz murdered Juvens.

He could have died of anything and I'm probably barking up the wrong tree but I'd love to get more info on his fate.

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50 minutes ago, Trebla said:

One interesting note is that to my knowledge, we never have found out what happened to Euz's 3rd son, Bedesh. Euz gave the High Art to Juvens, Making to Kanedias, and the ablity to converse with spirits to Bedesh. We know he joined Juvens in the war against Glustrod and survived because the three remaining brothers took the "Seed" to that far away island it required all 3 of their skills to seal it away. He was, however, dead by the time Bayaz murdered Juvens.

He could have died of anything and I'm probably barking up the wrong tree but I'd love to get more info on his fate.

Where did we learn that?  I hadn't realized that we knew that.  Is it from someone reliable (ie not Bayaz?)

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4 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

It comes from Bayaz in TBI when he is recounting his battle with Kanedias in the house of the maker chapter.

Hm.  I'll have to reread that.  I don't remember Bedesh coming up in that discussion. 

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Just now, Maithanet said:

Hm.  I'll have to reread that.  I don't remember Bedesh coming up in that discussion. 

He doesn't mention him at all. Once he recounts how he killed Kanedias, he says something along the lines of: the last of the sons of Euz passed from the world.

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Just now, Consigliere said:

He doesn't mention him at all. Once he recounts how he killed Kanedias, he says something along the lines of: the last of the sons of Euz passed from the world.

Oh ok.  Yeah, the problem with these is always that Bayaz lies so much.  And he never seems to give Bedesh much importance anyway. 

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12 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

Oh ok.  Yeah, the problem with these is always that Bayaz lies so much.  And he never seems to give Bedesh much importance anyway. 

He seems like a type of person who would belittle anything and everything that is beyond his control or knowledge or simply better than him at anything.

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7 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Anyone here received advance copies? I know Wert, Lord Patrek and some others often do. If so, phooey to you all!

No, but I need to specially request them these days. The days of getting buried under 20+ ARCs a month are long past.

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11 hours ago, Werthead said:

No, but I need to specially request them these days. The days of getting buried under 20+ ARCs a month are long past.

Off-topic, Wert, but I've a paperback ARC of my novel, Resurrection Men, if you're interested. I couldn't find an email link on your site when I got my copies. If so, please PM me.

On topic: Always found it odd that Shy regards Logen as her stepfather when she was almost an adult when he appeared. I'm guessing Joe was constrained by the timeline.

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8 hours ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

Did anyone else get whe Logen was supposedly to have married Shy’s mother? Her mother was married to another man while she was 17, but the way Logen talks about it it seems he came into her life a few years prior to that.

Lamb says that he has been as Squaredeal for 10 years, meaning that he witnessed the births of Ro and Pit. I think the proper assumption is that Lamb was hired by Shy's family to help at the farm and only became involved with "the mother" after Pit was born.

8 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

On topic: Always found it odd that Shy regards Logen as her stepfather when she was almost an adult when he appeared. I'm guessing Joe was constrained by the timeline.

I guess Logen acted as some kind of father figure. Shy says at some point that she hated her stepfather, and suggests that her mother was with many men. Logen may have been the only one that stayed there.

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On 2/24/2019 at 8:55 AM, Jerry Drake said:

When is this said? Is it by Logen when he picks a weapon when Bayaz lets him choose from his arsenal?

I think I mentioned this before somewhere on here, it seems to me that Logen might be a demon actually, I seem to remember his wording suggesting something similar to what Fenrig said, how he was a part of ancient battles. I may have misremembered but at one point Logen mentions demons as part of him, but the way he phrased it can be understood in different ways.

 

It's at the very beginning of the chapter titled "Tea and Vengeance" - the final chapter in Part I of tBI.

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  • 4 weeks later...

"Key selling points" for A Little Hatred (from Edelweiss catalog):

https://www.edelweiss.plus/#sku=031618716X

  • Abercrombie is in the absolute top tier of epic fantasy, and he has hit both New York Times Bestseller List and the USA Today Bestseller List.
  • His novels set in the First Law world have sold over three quarters of a million copies. This is the first full novel set in the world since 2012's Red Country.
  • Abercrombie's backlist continues to steadily sell, and now his fans are more than eager for a new novel of the First Law.
  • A Little Hatred functions as a great starting point for readers who have heard of Abercrombie, but have yet to read his work. He's an extremely well known quantity in the genre, and any reader of fantasy will love his work.
  • Perfect for fans of: George R.R. Martin, Patrick Rothfuss, Brent Weeks, & Brandon Sanderson.

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