A few excerpts from upcoming releases

I'm currently 200-odd pages into Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes. Still under a third of the way through, but one thing I can say is that I've laughed more already than I did during the entirety of Best Served Cold. And this is undoubtedly a good thing, since one of the elements I liked most about The First Law trilogy was the wry humour that permeated the story - a trait I felt was noticeably lacking in Best Served Cold. Anyway, more thoughts later once I've finished the book (won't be long, given the speed I'm ripping through it).

A sample chapter was made available a while back, and incidentally it's one of the ones that so far has made me chuckle the most. Particularly the exchange between Corporal Tunny and his hapless new recruits:

“Damn it,” muttered Tunny, shouldering his way into his bracers. “We’d best get ready to move.”

“We just got here, Corporal,” grumbled Yolk, pack half way off.

Tunny took hold of the strap and tugged it back over Yolk’s shoulder, turned him by it to face down towards the general. Jalenhorm was trying to shake his fist at a well-presented officer and button his own jacket at the same time, and failing. “You have before you a perfect demonstration of the workings of the army – the chain of command, trooper, each man shitting on the head of the man below. The much-loved leader of our regiment, Colonel Vallimir, is just getting shat on by General Jalenhorm. Colonel Vallimir will shit on his own officers, and it won’t take long to roll downhill, believe me. Within a minute or two, First Sergeant Forest will arrive to position his bared buttocks above my undeserving head. Guess what that means for you lot?” The lads stayed silent for a moment, then Klige raised a tentative hand. “The question was meant to be rhetorical, numbskull.” He carefully lowered it again. “For that you get to carry my pack.”

Another book I've had on my radar for some time is Corvus, the sequel to Paul Kearney's The Ten Thousand, and an excerpt has recently surfaced.

Of particular interest (and amusement) is the 'praise' for The Ten Thousand on page two:

“I can certainly see why many people
consider Kearney to be criminally under-read:
poetic prose; a visceral, I’m-really-there sense
of battle; a sly eye for exposing the
realities of being human.”


Amusing because said quote is from none other than Aidan at A Dribble of Ink, who didn't actually like it that much. Funny old world. Then again, I remember talking to the agent John Jarrold and he mentioned how, in his editorial days, he used to like taking the one positive line from a bad review and using it as a cover quote, just to piss the reviewer in question off... I'm sure that's not the case here though!

Lastly, because he told me a really, really crap ghost story today via Twitter, I'll link to the recently released prologue of Sam Sykes's Tomb of the Undergates courtesy of Pyr.

"To consider the term “adventure,” one must consider it from the adventurer’s point of view. For a boy on his father’s knee, a youth listening to an elder or a rapt crowd hearing the songs of poets, adventure is something to lust after, filled with riches, women, heroism and glory. For an adventurer, it’s work; dirty, dusty, bloody, spittlefilled, lethal and cheap work."


Interestingly (or not so interestingly) the US cover for Tome is almost identical to the UK cover, save for the fact that the blue of the sky and waves is lighter. Now, I know the US and UK markets are different, but the point of this minor difference is beyond me...