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Mar

14

Joe Abercrombie on the conclusion of his debut series ‘The First Law’

Posted in: UKSFBN Talks To on 14th March 2008 by UKSFBN admin

The end of next week brings the official publication date of the final instalment in fantasy author Joe Abercrombie's debut trilogy, The First Law.

Part three, Last Argument of Kings is the culmination of a series that has - for the most part - been extremely well-received amongst fans and critics alike and has turned a legion of fantasy readers into fans of the exploits of Logen Ninefingers, Sand dan Glokta, Jezal dan Luther and the fantastic cast of supporting characters that populates Abercrombie's rich and vivid milieu.

We thought this might be an appropriate time to drop Mr Abercrombie a line and find out a bit more about how he's enjoyed the readers' reaction to the series so far, his distinct writing style, his focus on great dialogue, and what his plans for the future might be.

UKSFBN: The First Law has been hailed in various quarters alternately as one of the best new fantasy series for many a year, on the other hand as foul-mouthed and derivative. How do you feel about the polarity of this love / hate response, and what's your favourite example of feedback so far?

Joe Abercrombie: "On the whole the response has been good to very good, but of course there are always going to be a few sad, bitter little idiots out there who just don't get it.

"I'm joking, of course. Kind of. Obviously I'd prefer it if everyone loved me, but as a writer you can't aim for that, and you can't take it too seriously when people don't. In the end, the only opinions you can really listen to are your editor's and your own.

"So I'm gradually easing from utter rage and despair when someone says something negative, towards a resigned shrug and world-weary chuckle. I think a polarised response can be a sign that you're making an impact. Much, much better to be somewhat loved and a little bit hated than for no-one to give a toss.

"'Foul-mouthed'? Guilty as charged. Derivative? I'd like to think I dance around the backs of clichés before kicking them in the bollocks, but one man's reinterpretation is another man's same-old same-old.

"It may seem obvious to say that there's no right answer in books, there's no objectively good writing only opinions, but it's always surprising when one person hates a character another loves, or ridicules you for the very things that others appreciate.

"You can't anticipate people's tastes, really. You just have to write the sort of book you'd like to read, and hope some readers like it too."

UKSFBN: As we've said talked about before, one of the great strengths of your writing is your characterisation; another is the natural-sounding, flowing dialogue that takes place between those characters. How easily do these two elements of the writing process come to you - compared to, say, descriptive writing or plot exposition, or pacing - and to what extent would you say the two are inter-linked?

Joe Abercrombie: "For me, dialogue is the most important aspect of a book. Good dialogue equals good characters. Bad dialogue equals shite characters. Simple as that. It's vital that the talk feels real, and reflects the essence of the people saying it, otherwise the whole thing becomes immediately ludicrous.

"I'd rather get the story told through dialogue than any other method, where possible, and I usually try to strip it back to just what's said, with as little other commentary as I can get away with.

"Dialogue is definitely one of the things that comes easiest and quickest, for me anyway. I usually start constructing a scene around the dialogue and the thoughts and feelings of the character whose point of view I'm writing from (which is only another kind of talk, in a way), and then fill in the descriptive stuff later and gradually link the different clusters of speech together, which is a much more laborious process.

"I start with relatively neutral language, then as I revise (which I do over and over), I do passes where I try and inject more of the language and style of delivery of the point of view character into all the connecting prose.

"Plot and pacing are slightly different animals, in that I tend to plan thoroughly quite a way in advance – I know roughly what scenes I want to do, from what points-of-view, and what I need to get done within them in terms of the plot and the characters. Then perhaps some reworking is necessary once everything is drafted. So the plot work tends to be done before and after the main bulk of the writing."

UKSFBN: Despite your deliberate avoidance of excessive world-building, your milieu is one of the more politically, economically and socially astute I've read for a while. Did you spend time developing the social (as opposed, perhaps, to geographical) aspects of your setting, or is it something that arose naturally in the course of developing your characters and plot?

Joe Abercrombie: "I know I've got a reputation as the anti-worldbuilding guy, but you can't write secondary world fiction without putting some work into that area. Your background needs to be consistent and effective, hopefully interesting, I just firmly believe that it should stay where I think it belongs – in the background, and compliment rather than distract from the characters and the events.

"That said there were some things I wanted to do with the world that I think are sometimes overlooked in epic fantasy. I wanted it to feel real, to have a sense of history and ongoing change. I wanted small characters caught up in great events, and from that point of view the political, social, and especially economic factors are a lot more important than the geographical ones."

UKSFBN: Without wishing to give too much away, something that you explore in Last Argument of Kings is the concept of aftermath, which seems to be something that many fantasy writers either shy away from or simply avoid by stopping the narrative at the moment of victorious triumph. Was this something that you specifically wanted to examine, or was it just a question of wanting to tie up a few loose ends, whilst preparing the ground for book four?

Joe Abercrombie: "Traditional epic fantasy is very much about battles of good versus evil, of heroes versus villains, and I very much wanted to get away from that (not that I'm by any means the first to try to do so) and examine the grey areas a bit more.

"In a way, it's not the actions themselves that interest me so much as the reasons, and the consequences. If you stopped looking at the war in Iraq, say, at the moment of 'victory', and didn't consider the aftermath, you might be missing the point."

UKSFBN: Throughout The First Law you've taken great and deliberate delight in subtly subverting established fantasy conventions. Given that you freely confessed, last time you talked to us, to doing this on purpose, will you also admit to having increased the satire levels in the final volume, or has the trope-bashing been kept to a minimum this time around?

Joe Abercrombie: "The trope-bashing is certainly still going, more than ever in a way, since the trilogy is a single story and it perhaps diverges further and further from what the reader expects as we draw near to the end. Epic fantasy is a genre full of clichés, so you can't really write in it without reacting to them yourself in some way – whether you embrace them, consciously reject them, or try to twist them to your own evil purposes.

"But, you know, for all the attempts to do something surprising and rework the formula and all that, I hope that what I've delivered first and foremost is a cracking fantasy tale. I'm aiming more for Unforgiven than for Blazing Saddles, if you like. A re-examination of the classic form, perhaps, a self-aware comment on it, perhaps, but also a solid example of the form. I'm not taking myself too seriously (despite appearances), but I'm not taking the piss either.

"Not too much, anyway."

UKSFBN: You run a very active blog over on your website. Would you say that this has directly contributed to your increasing exposure and profile? And is writing a regular blog something that you'd recommend to other authors and publishers as a result?

Joe Abercrombie: "I blog more because I like shooting my mouth off and enjoy the contact with readers than because I think it's actually going to boost my sales in a big way. I don't think it can hurt, and I'm sure those who like the books appreciate being kept informed and having some contact with the author (maybe).

"Certainly blogging increases your profile on the internet – but it's easy to forget if you hang around chat-rooms and websites a lot that those folks who frequent these places are only a pretty small fragment of the market. An interesting and vocal fragment, sure, but I don't think you can make a book a big success yet purely on that basis."

UKSFBN: You've dropped hints on your blog about the next book you're due to write, Best Served Cold, with some of the supporting characters from The First Law making an appearance in the starring roles. Did you always intend to writer further novels set in the same milieu, or did fan response to the first two books help to steer you in that direction?

Joe Abercrombie: "I always planned to write more books in the same world, obviously providing readers and publishers wanted any more. New characters, new kinds of story, different lengths of plot, sure, but unless there's a specific reason for shifting to a different world – different magic, or races, or crazy geography you want to try for some given purpose – I'm not sure I see the point in burning down your sets just to make new ones.

"And I'm not someone who's particularly interested in different magic, races, or crazy geography. I'd imagine that, as long as I write fantasy, I'll write in the world I have. Worlds are big, man, there a plenty of possibilities."

UKSFBN: How many more stories set in the same world do you think there are left to tell (it was 53 at the last estimate, wasn't it?) Are you thinking any further ahead than your current two-book deal, and if so, can you let us in on any of your thoughts in that direction?

Joe Abercrombie: "How many stories, who knows? Planet Earth seems big enough to accommodate quite a few stories. For me a book is the story of the people in it, and there are always more people out there. The time may come when I run out of ideas and want to have a go at something radically different, but for the time being I've still got a few things in the world of The First Law that I want to try."

You can find out everything you always wanted to know about Joe Abercrombie (and more) over at www.joeabercrombie.com and catch up on the latest developments over at Joe's blog.

Source: Joe Abercrombie

Titles featured in this article
Title	Author	Amazon Info
The Blade Itself	Joe Abercrombie
Before They Are Hanged	Joe Abercrombie
Last Argument of Kings	Joe Abercrombie