That first trilogy that I wrote, the First Law, was very consciously my take on epic fantasy my Lord Of The Rings if you like, with more filth and morally weird characters and so on. I’ve just always liked the idea of technology moving on. I like worlds that feel like they’re changing and progressing in the same way that ours does.Ĭonflict isn’t necessarily a question of good against evil, but the result of social changes, and the tectonic shifting of technology, and the nature of society. Yeah, classic epic fantasy takes place in this kind of very medieval world where the sun always shines and glints upon the armour, and you have kings and queens, and knights on horseback, and the world never feels like it ever changes it’s in a state of stasis, if you like. This is quite different from your standard fantasy… One of the really interesting things about it is that everything’s changed because we’re in the throes of industrial revolution. So it’s a period of great change and upheaval, from which flows a lot of delicious and exciting drama.

An early industrial phase, so there’s incipient factories, mills, every river is full of waterwheels, and pollution’s happening, smog’s in the cities, and generally the working class are being driven into the mills and foundries while a new class of investors and inventors become powerful alongside the nobility. A lot of them have parents or mentors that we know well from previous books, and the world has moved forward into an industrial phase. It takes place maybe thirty years after the first trilogy ended, and so it picks up a new generation of characters. The new book is set in the world of the First Law. Would you be able to tell us a little bit about the book? It’s lovely to be out meeting the public and seeing people react to something I’ve written again. Very exciting to have a new book out, it’s been some time since my last one. Your latest novel A Little Hatred is out today from Gollancz. Joe was in the Liverpool One Waterstones for the launch of his new book on September 17th, and was kind enough to speak with The Fantasy Hive there. His latest novel, A Little Hatred (2019), is the first volume in a new trilogy that sees him return to the world of the First Law a generation later. As the author of the iconic First Law trilogy (2006-2008), and the standalones set in the same world, Best Served Cold (2009), The Heroes (2011) and Red Country (2012), he has become one of the most popular and influential of modern Fantasy writers. Joe Abercrombie surely needs no introduction to the readers of this site.

Joe abercrombie shattered sea trilogy