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Reading Joe Abercrombie's The First Law for the first time. (Spoilers for Books 1-3)

Ded As Ned

By Ded As Ned,
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KingGendry Sellsword

KingGendry

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My timeline says at the start of the book Shy's 24, Temple's 30, and Lamb's about 50.

And you won't get more canon than that.

An answer from the man himself, can't really argue with that so thanks! It's pretty much what I had in mind anyway so a job well done I would say...

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The hairy bear Council Member

The hairy bear

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My timeline says at the start of the book Shy's 24, Temple's 30, and Lamb's about 50.

Death of the author and all that.

I guess the characters are whatever age each reader thinks they are...

I agree with MisterOJ. They should be younger. :P

Let's see: the text says that Logen is 25 year older than Shy, so that fits ("Shy mightve been half his weight, but had the easier task and a twenty-five years advantage").

But then Logen says: "Last time I tried to stop Shy she was ten years old and it didnt stick then". If Shy was 25, that would mean that Logen met her at least 15 years ago. And that's not possible, because ARC takes place 13 years after TLAOK. There's another quote from Logen ("Knew right off I could put an end on ten years of lying") that suggests that he has not been living with Shy for 15 years.

Everything would work if Logen was 45 and Shy 20. It's either that, or Logen has a shitty memory (which could be explained by too many blows to the head)

(Yeah, I aknowledge being an utter fool, trying to contradict the author about his own creation... :blushing: )

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Goodbye World Hedge Knight

Goodbye World

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(Yeah, I aknowledge being an utter fool, trying to contradict the author about his own creation... :blushing: )

Not really, the ages are not definitively established in the book so you can interpret the text whichever way you want.

I think that Joe A. is wrong about Logen misremembering how long it had been.

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Gillio Council Member

Gillio

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My timeline says at the start of the book Shy's 24, Temple's 30, and Lamb's about 50.

And you won't get more canon than that.

I'm pretty sure you're wrong. I read somewhere that the author said Lamb was in his mid 40s.

Death of the author and all that.

I guess the characters are whatever age each reader thinks they are...

Not really, the ages are not definitively established in the book so you can interpret the text whichever way you want.

I think that Joe A. is wrong about Logen misremembering how long it had been.

Damn Logen! You have to be realistic, when giving estimates to fans who'll overanalyse everything you say!

Anyway, thanks Joe for clarifying! :thumbsup:

Joe, if you want to write something, it might be best to check with the committee first! :idea: :P

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williamjm Council Member

williamjm

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But then Logen says: "Last time I tried to stop Shy she was ten years old and it didn’t stick then". If Shy were 25, that would mean that Logen met her at least 15 years ago. And that's not possible, because ARC takes place 13 years after TLAOK. There's another quote from Logen ("Knew right off I could put an end on ten years of lying") that suggest that he has not been living with Shy for 15 years.

I think the inconsistency in the quotes could be explained if we assume that Logen can't count higher than 10 (admittedly 9 might make more sense).

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The BlackBear Council Member

The BlackBear

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Just started Heroes, got a question, not a spoiler but I'll spoiler it anyway.




How tall exactly is Stranger? Are we talking just about possible in our world like Gregor Clegane 8 feet. Or Impossible in ours 10 - 12? Presumably he's bigger than Tul, bigger then the Feared? If this is answered later on I'll feel the fool by the way... :lol:


And since Gorst (by the way Joe glad he's back) fought Jezal 9 years before, have the Union and the North been dodging each other for the last 7-8 years straight?



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Rhom Council Member

Rhom

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So... did some reading in LAoK today..

Luthar is king :rofl: I couldn't stop laughing.

I'm loving this book so far. Lots of stuff happening - makes me wonder what the other 500 pages are filled with.

To steal a quote from Clubber Lang in Rocky 3: Pain.

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Maithanet Council Member

Maithanet

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Just started Heroes, got a question, not a spoiler but I'll spoiler it anyway.

How tall exactly is Stranger? Are we talking just about possible in our world like Gregor Clegane 8 feet. Or Impossible in ours 10 - 12? Presumably he's bigger than Tul, bigger then the Feared? If this is answered later on I'll feel the fool by the way... :lol:

And since Gorst (by the way Joe glad he's back) fought Jezal 9 years before, have the Union and the North been dodging each other for the last 7-8 years straight?

Very minor spoilers about character heights

Spoiler

I'll admit I don't have Heroes in front of me, but I never pictured Stranger being that large. Maybe it's just because I always take descriptions of the monstorous size of men with a grain of salt, because it is easy to exaggerate that kind of thing. I thought that Stranger was approximately as tall/big as Tul Duru and definitely not as large as Feared. I more or less imagine Tul/Stranger to be in the 7 and a half foot range. Having stood next to a well built man who is 6-6 (myself being 6-0), I could easily imagine someone a full foot taller than that being almost unimaginably big.

Fenris was clearly described as inhumanly big, so I thought of him as in the 8-9 foot range. Even outside of the scars and crazy armor, there's a reason noone wants to fight him.

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Lord Syv Aldlark Landed Knight

Lord Syv Aldlark

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Just finished the trilogy last night.. it took quite a bit to get into it I will admit but once I was in, I was in.



Now to see if I can pencil in the standalones :P



As you frequent the forums and this thread: Great series Joe, really enjoyed it.



Am I the only one who wanted someone to do something to Bayaz at the end? Guy rubbed me the wong-way.


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Rhom Council Member

Rhom

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Just finished the trilogy last night.. it took quite a bit to get into it I will admit but once I was in, I was in.

Now to see if I can pencil in the standalones :P

As you frequent the forums and this thread: Great series Joe, really enjoyed it.

Am I the only one who wanted someone to do something to Bayaz at the end? Guy rubbed me the wong-way.

I felt the same way early. Took me a bit to get the hang of it, but once I was hooked there was no looking back! I think Abercrombie's work has improved with every release.

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Maithanet Council Member

Maithanet

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Am I the only one who wanted someone to do something to Bayaz at the end? Guy rubbed me the wong-way.

Really? I thought he was a pretty stand up guy on the whole.

Like remember when he started a war that caused hundreds of thousands of his own citizens to die, and then dismissed their deaths as inconsequential? Class act.

FYI, this is a spoiler thread for the first three books, so you don't have to spoil that part. Was there....anything else you wanted to talk about from the trilogy?

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