That said there certainly are some stories, and some long-standing character arcs, that come to a close of one kind or another with this book. In the real world, after all, the end of every conflict contains the seeds of the next, there are always loose ends left over.

I expect I will come back to write more books in it at some point, though possibly not for a while.īut I don’t think I’m one for wrapping everything up anyway – I was always a little frustrated with the neat endings you got in a lot of fantasy books – the great evil defeated, the rightful king returned, our heroes happily paired off, peace for a thousand years. Honestly hadn’t considered this the absolute end for the world. This being the third trilogy (we’re grouping the standalones into a trilogy) in the First Law world, was it hard to bring the entire series to an end? Was it hard to wrap everything up? Concluding the current story arcs whilst also reflecting on the iconic characters from the previous series? I don’t like to revist the same points of view, though, and I’d already moved time along a fair bit in the standalones, so coming back to a new generation of characters, with some familiar faces taking the role of the parents, masters and mentors, seemed to make good sense.

But I was always intending to come back to the First Law world, and some of the locations and people and hanging threads of the original trilogy. I think that helped to cleanse the palette a little bit. You can keep up with Joe by following him on twitter where he posts as back to the Fantasy Hive, Joe Abercrombie.Ĭongratulations on completing another trilogy! Had you always planned to return to the next generation or did something specific draw you back?Īfter the three standalone books I really felt the need to try something slightly different – to take a stab at some books in a different world, at a different length, with a different style – which is why I took a couple of years to write the Shattered Sea books.

Joe abercrombie the devils