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Joe-Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie - Image by Lou Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie is a British fantasy writer and film editor. He is the author of The First Law Trilogy and other related works of fantasy. In 2014 he published Half a King, the first book in his new Shattered Sea series, which won the 2015 Locus Award for best Young Adult book.

In 2023, he announced on his personal blog that he is working on a live-action film adaptation of Best Served Cold alongside director Tim Miller.

Biography[]

Abercrombie was born on 31 December 1974 in Lancaster, England. He was educated at the all-boy Lancaster Royal Grammar School, and then Manchester University where he studied psychology. After graduation he worked in television production before becoming a freelance film editor. He currently lives in Bath, Somerset with his wife and three children.

During a break between jobs he began work on The Blade Itself in 2002, completing it in 2004. By chance, the manuscript came to the attention of editor Gillian Redfearn at Gollancz, a British science fiction and fantasy publishing company. Gollancz purchased the book and two sequels, publishing The Blade Itself in 2006. The novel was followed by two sequels, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings in 2007 and 2008. These three books comprise the First Law Trilogy. Abercrombie followed up the trilogy with three stand-alone novels in the same world, Best Served Cold, The Heroes and Red Country in 2009, 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Abercrombie is contracted with Gollancz for three additional novels after A Red Country, which will probably be another trilogy set in the First Law world. However, before returning to the First Law world, he wanted to write "something small", in his own words.(Source: Interview at Swecon, October 2012). The first part of his Shattered Sea series, Half a King, came out in July 2014, with the other two, Half the World and Half a War, published in February and July 2015. Since the publication of his short story collection, Sharp Ends, in April 2016, Joe Abercrombie has been actively working on a new trilogy set in the First Law World, The Age of Madness Trilogy.

First Law Bibliography[]

The First Law Trilogy[]

  1. The Blade Itself (May 2006)
  2. Before They Are Hanged (March 2007)
  3. Last Argument of Kings (March 2008)

Standalone books in the world of the First Law[]

The Age of Madness Trilogy[]

  1. A Little Hatred (September 2019)
  2. The Trouble With Peace (September 2020)
  3. The Wisdom of Crowds (September 2021)

The Shattered Sea[]

  1. Half a King (2014)
  2. Half the World (2015)
  3. Half a War (2015)

Short stories[]

  • The Fool Jobs (2010) - published in the Swords and Dark Magic anthology
  • Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden (2011) - published in a Waterstones-exclusive edition of The Heroes
  • Freedom! - published as an extra in the Waterstone's hardcover version of Red Country
  • Some Desperado (2013) - in the Dangerous Women anthology
  • Sharp Ends (2016)

Filmography[]

Links[]

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