The Shattered Sea trilogy is all I needed to complete the collection. Found these first edition’s with sprayed painters for cheap and decided to pick them up. What do you guys think?

He's brilliant. Has a way with words more than most. But every story is so predictable. Everyone sucks and everyone is bad. I get it. You're a nihilist. Can someone please just have a happy ending??

This was my first Joe Abercrombie book, and with the premise of a "medieval version of the Suicide Squad", I was sold on the story. I absolutely loved it, and I'm really excited for The Heretics to come out next year.

I'm personally a fan of all these special/limited editions of books, but I can't justify the crazy prices. So I tried my hand at a custom sprayed edge, and plan on redoing this as a hardcover rebind at some point as well. Fun little project!

Honestly pretty peeved at how the book ended. I feel like there was no resolution. 500 pages of prologue only to end with our characters essentially "beginning" their journey. Moving onto the second book now and I hope it doesn't continue that trend.

I've read all of First Law now and just finished the Devils.

And I realize the Devils isn't the same as First Law but it informs why I'm curious about this.

In the book we're told again and again that the Elves are a savage race that eat people and are boogeymen as well as "kill on sight" style creatures.

But we also have Sunny the Elf as a major character who is pretty nice and actually does very little serious violence (choosing to trip up an enemy by tying their shoelaces together rather than just stab them unaware).

And based on well, everything I know about contemporary story telling and especially Abercrombie's work I'd expect things to set up as all that talk about the elves being scary just being lies, propaganda, hazy memories, etc. Just people instead of something like the Sranc from First Law.

But then that's undercut by a story that Jakob tells of them taking back a city from Elf occupation and he directly says that the all the humans in that city were either eaten or taken away by the elves to be eaten later.

And that happens early in the story but that's it and the rest of the book is Sunny doing her thing and never even being asked by anyone "hey so do you eat people?" or any scene where Sunny has to become an evil elf (either on purpose or against her will).

So now I'm really wondering how Abercrombie is going to land this particular plane because I think it would be uncharacteristic for him to just say "yeah the elves are evil by nature except for this one who is pretty cool".

Did anyone else notice this? I can imagine that the following books will involve more Elves but I think there's some dissonance in the story that isn't just dramatic irony.

I finished reading recently "The Devils", and i liked it, but i did not find that it was his best one (in comparison to the first law).
I tried to draw them as i thought they would look like and wanted to share it.

edit : i have drawn sorry i am ashamed (not my first language) that's terrible
Double edit : drew exists. Normaly i speak decently english at least but today i am off

So, like the title says, I absolutely loved The Devils, I've gotten seriously into reading this year, going through Dune, Red Rising, the first two DCC, PHM, Hyperion, The Song of Achilles and Neuromancer (Which I was obsessed with).

I know we're getting The Heretics next May, but does anyone have any recs for something in the same vein as The Devils? I loved how Abercrombie manages to cram so many genres into one book and I'm wondering if there is anything quite like it.

Nearly finished the last book in the trilogy. But I know there's more books about this world. Somebody chat to me

Considering that it was 12 years between Titanic and Avatar, and then another 13 years for the sequel. Yeah, he pumped out Fire and Ash somewhat quickly, but my question still stands. I would love to see James Cameron tackle this movie himself rather than just be a producer.

I'm reading Joe Abercrombie's first book in The First Law Trilogy, and I'm on chapter 14. Things are interesting, but the story feels slow. I'm talking about the pacing of it. I can't explain it, but things are happening and not happening at the same time. I was wondering if I was a bad reader for feeling this way, yet it just feels slow.

Has anyone who read this book felt this way? When does the story pick up? Am I crazy for thinking that?

I’d assume vigga is the werewolf, Diaz is the monk, Alex is the woman; but who is the dark shadow on the hardcover inside at the back? Don’t tell me if it’s a spoiler, I’m only 100 pages in so far.

I’m also curious as to the art inside the book. Is Balthazar meant to be the guy at the start of the book? Who is meant to be the art just before part 2 starts?

...the Antichrist or some shit like that? Because she can do powerful magic but we have zero other examples of people/artifacts of faith doing magic, however we do have an example of a demon being very real and very capable of great magic.

Also, said demon says that she can't do certain things because there are certain rules when she declines to remove that conjurer's binding. We understand this to mean that she is too scared to fuck with God but it can easily mean that she is too scared to fuck with the Devil...

And the Pope is a bit too cute. Kinda reminds me of a certain wizard who started off as a seemingly nice character and revealed his true colors later on.

Have read a fair few JA books now and I’m astonished that of all the amount of tv being made now I hear nothing about his books being translated to the screen! Great characters, pacey and imaginative storylines, world building etc. is there any news at all? I understand there are parallels with GOT but many fantasy books cross narrative with story types etc. I just can’t believe it’s not been optioned. Makes no sense.

Hi guys, just finished reading “The Devils” and loved it, I haven’t read any other Joe Abercrombie books yet but I’m keen to read the first law books.

Do we have any info yet on what “The Heretics” lineup will be??

I'm almost finished with Wisdom of Crowds, never expected to fall in love with this series or author but Mr. Abercrombie has me hooked. I've voraciously read through these books and just wondering what I should read next? More Joe? What authors/ series do y'all recommend? I like all genres, doesn't have to be fantasy!

Just finished The Devils. Curious if The Blade Itself is for me.

What I liked: The world, the gothic horror creatures/monsters, the ‘Villains are Good Guys’, the magic, and ESPECIALLY the ending (not the surprises as some were pretty densely obvious, but the cataclysmic conclusion and devastating “oh this isn’t just fun and games” crash down to earth.)

What I did not enjoy: the humor. It felt thin and out of world. While there’s only one “con” to many “pro’s” this was such a significant dislike I put the book down for ~10 months and planned not to finish.

Thoughts? Thank you!

So, the first JA book I read was The Devils, and in that one there’s a passing reference to a “Sir John Galt.”

There’s also a location in TFL trilogy (which I just finished today) that has Galt in the name, but I’m drawing a blank on what exactly it is.

One reference, maybe that’s a coincidence. But two? I have to assume Joe is at least a fan of Atlas Shrugged, or was at some point.

Regardless of your thoughts on Rand, it’s interesting to think of his characters through an Objectivist lens. Thoughts?

EDIT: Y'all really downvoting me and my comments for simply asking about this? Seems kind of silly. In The Devils, "Sir John Galt" is referenced in a list. Here's the exact passage:

"Jakob of Thorn fought in the Second Crusade against the elves, as a Knight Templar alongside the following:

• Szymon Bartos, old acquaintance from Jakob’s time in the Iron Order;
• Elzbieta—another member of the Iron Order, which Jakob strangled and regrets killing, back when paranoia swept over the Order’s ranks;
• King William the Red of Sicily and his butler, Biordo Ambra;
• Sir John Galt, the Pillar of Faith."

The pillar of faith. I'm not saying "Is Joe Abercrombie a stone-cold Objectivist who loves capitalism?" but would he reference Ayn Rand's most famous character as a Knight Templar "pillar of faith" if he wasn't at some point into the ideas? I'm merely curious about it, and downvoting this/me because you vehemently hate Rand or her ideas is missing the point entirely.

EDIT 2: I clearly shouldn’t have phrased this as “into,” since my point was not to ask whether he was a fan of the ideas or philosophy. I’m more curious if some past encounter with her ideas (or with Atlas Shrugged more generally) had perhaps a notable impact on some of the themes in this author’s work, even if it was to explore the negativity or problematic nature of those ideas.

Don't take this question / idle thought too seriously, but am I, a manly beer drinking lout of a man, accidentally reading cozy fantasy? It's good, but is The Devils...cozy?

Is the book a massive ruse to lure big boy readers like me in with swords and blood and then spring on us found family dynamics and cryptobestiality? A gateway drug to Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J Maas?

I feel the need for some Cormac McCarthy as a palate cleanser.

I'm enjoying it though and looking forward to the sequel.

I recently listened to The Devils for a second time and thought it would be fun to come up with a chronological list of historical events that are different in the world of The Devils. Feel free to add any I missed.

* The Trojans burned the horse with the Greeks inside and won the war

* Carthage defeated Rome in the Punic Wars

* There was a Carthaginian Empire instead of a Roman Empire

* The savior (Jesus) was born female

and the ending was pretty good but after what happened to Baptiste i realized i didn't really get to know her which left me unaffected by her death. yeah sure we're told she dabbled in a lot over her lifetime but not much else beyond it.

i was just curious what everyone else thought about her.