Abercrombie announces next novel - 'The Heroes'

Three months after the release of his much-acclaimed fourth novel Best Served Cold, Joe Abercrombie has announced that his next novel - another 'semi-standalone' set in the same universe as his other books - will be called The Heroes.

From his blog:

"Both because the action centres around a ring of standing stones called the Heroes, and because it's about heroism and that (meant semi-ironically, of course). It mostly takes place over the course of three days, and is the story of a single battle for control of the North. Think Lord of the Rings meets A Bridge Too Far, with a sprinkling of Band of Brothers and Generation Kill. It's about war, you get me? Principally it follows the (mis)adventures of six assorted persons on both sides and different levels of command, whose paths intersect during the course of the battle in various fateful, horrible, wonderful, surprisingly violent, surprisingly unviolent, and hilarious ways. With the Northmen: a veteran losing his nerve who just wants to keep his crew alive, an ex-Prince determined to claw his way back to power by any means necessary, a young lad determined to win a place in the songs for himself. With the Union: A depressive swordsman who used to be the king's bodyguard, a profiteering standard-bearer, and the venomously ambitious daughter of the Marshal in command. But of course a fair few familiar faces show up on both sides..."

Joe's revealed that he's about 85k words in, which he estimates is 2/5 of the way through if we're talking a 220,000 final word-count, with an estimated release date of February 2011.

The predicted release date doesn't come as a surprise, as Joe's dropped a few hints here and there that he thought the book wouldn't see the light of day in 2010 (and surely no one can complain, as he's done a terrific job getting four books out in four years). I must admit to being surprised by the amount he's got done so far, as I didn't expect him to be that far along...

The premise sounds really interesting though - I can't think of another fantasy book that focuses entirely on a single battle over a period of a few days. Really intrigued to see how this one turns out.