The Heroes

Three men, one battle, no heroes. Thus is the tagline to another epic story from Joe Abercrombie. In truth, this is about the fourth time I have read my well loved, and much worn, copy of the book. It was in fact the first I ever picked up of his. I effectively went into the world of the First Law blind and came out star struck. As such, there were some contexts I missed the first time, but when I first read (and then reread) the amazing trilogy, I fell in love with this book all over again. Allow me then, to introduce you to the epic three days in the Valley of Orsung as we see The Heroes. 

From goodreads

Picking up roughly nine years after the events of The Last Argument of Kings we see that, once again, the Union and the North are at loggerheads. A disagreement between the southern clans of the North and the new Protector have exploded into open war and so the King of the Union has backed them in their fight. Now for interminable months the two armies have snapped at one another but not yet come to battle. It's time to change all that.

Fighting for the North we have Crunden Craw and his dozen, working in and behind the lines to support the main army's four war chiefs. Slithering among them is the former Prince Calder who claims the North in the name of his slaughtered father Bethod, but so must act like a hostage while dodging assassins. A young lad named Beck decides he wants to see a real battle like his father and leaves home to take part in the war.

For the Union we have the hulking warrior Bremer dan Gorst, formerly the king's First Guard and a warrior without equal in the whole of the Union. Then we have the infamous Corporal Tunney, the longest serving junior officer in His Majesty's army, a lazy standard bearer who does his best to stay out of the way despite his officers meddling. Finally, on the sidelines, Finree dan Brock, now married to the son of the most infamous traitor in the Union, schemes to raise her husband in society and hopefully become a power to be reckoned with in society.

Behind them all though, Bayaz schemes and plots, while the leaders in the North may have some secret agenda of their own.

One thing I have to mention is that the battlefield is just as much a part of the story as the characters. Laid out in loving detail with a map that changes with the battle, you can track the action and see where everyone is in relation to everyone else. A fantastic use of visual work to help the story and I really think it needs to be commended.

The story, as usual for Abercrombie, is a brutal affair. The folly and misery of war is well on display. Men drowning in mud, bad rations, the misery of the wounded, and the stupidity of men and officers can be seen everywhere. That doesn't drown out individual moments of heroism and mercy of course, but they're far outnumbered by the butchery.

It is a well put together story which takes place over a few days on a single field of battle, with intrigues, betrayals and numerous pitfalls for each side. It shows that any great event can make for an engaging story and have plenty of room for betrayal! It is also where he started on his wonderful little vignettes of characters experiencing the events of the battle, from officers on horseback to soldiers going toe to toe with their counterparts, and many of them meet grisly fates indeed! It's a wonderful piece of writing which brings the scope of the battle to life!

Our strong female character in Finree is a wonderful foil to the men, having to scheme and politic rather than stab and batter her way to the top. There's also Calder, a well know coward who will do anything to avoid fighting! They set themselves against seasoned warriors and commanders whose perspectives really livened up the story. My personal favorite was Beck, a lad who has only heard about war in songs. He goes to earn his manhood and finds war much more than he expected. I won't spoil it, but the end of his story is perhaps one of the most tear jerking things I've read, an amazing piece of writing.

As a stand alone in the greater First Law world, its one of Abercrombie's best books in my opinion. He does some phenomenal work with this one little piece of land and makes you feel the blood and mud spilled for it. It is an amazing war story and an altogether phenomenal work of grim fantasy fiction. It sits proudly on my shelves as one of my favorite novels! Definitely pick this one up!

Cover Art

So I was recently reading through the blog and Facebook page of fellow blogger Matthew Quinn, and he has been making some excellent observations and notes regarding the writing industry. Recently he made a number of good points about cover art.

Cover art is essential for any story. Think about it, one may write an excellent story but without a catchy title and some flashy cover art it is all but impossible to grab the attention of potential buyers. Cover art can almost be as important as the story itself. It's been said that first impressions are the most lasting, and if someone does not get a good first impression of your book then they simply won't even pick it up.

I'm going to look at some bits of cover work and examine them to give people an idea of what can be good for cover work and get people's attention, and then examine some terrible cover art which should best be left on the drawing board.

First is Mr. Quinn's upcoming e-book Melon Heads.

At first glance it is simple, yet engrossing. We have a good title which leads potential buyers to question what it is about. The style is eye grabbing and also let's us know this is a work of horror with what must be a rather unique creature set. In one glance we get genre, ideas, and interest. Effective as advertising as it leads to great potential for people to pick it up. I for one am buying this book and I would encourage readers to do so as well.

So for another bit of the horror (or more comedic) genre we have Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

This of course is the first film poster, but on the most recent mass market paper bound copy I purchased it was also the cover art. At a glance we have a moon lit scene with a shadow shrouded Lincoln with his signature hat at a jaunty angle. We get a view of his signature weapon from the book and a basic idea of what he is doing. Again it is informative, a good visual and gives the reader an idea of what to expect.

Moving on to a more recent mainstream selection we have Stephen King's most recent novel 11-22-63.

Now we know first off that this is a Stephen King novel (his name is larger than the title) and under that we see the image of JFK and a newspaper article proclaiming him slain in Dallas. This of course is not very informative and leaves readers wondering what exactly the book is about. It of course grabs attention and encourages someone to pick it up. The main selling point though is the authors name which will grab any longtime fans immediate attention.

Now here's one by one of my favorite authors. David Weber.

The first book in the grand Honor Harrington series. Simple cover, shows off the science fiction aspects of the story and of course we have the famous authors name. We get a good look at the main character and even some visual ideas of the general uniforms of people in the series.

I've been examining the cover art for various science fiction stories in order to formulate a rough idea of what I think would be an appropriate cover for my Service to the State series. More on that later.

Now for bad cover art we have a culprit none other than SM Stirling.

I've always been rather disgusted with the cover work for the Emberverse series. While it grabs attention it has always been rather tacky and generic, doesn't give you any idea of what is going on in the stories and has some ridiculous elements in it. For instance the two draft horse pulling the bus up there (a bus which, as my friend noticed still has its lights running). The series is a constant repeat offender of this and I sincerely wish Stirling would find a different cover artist.

Yet another is Micheal Z. Williamson

This book is marginally related to his Freehold verse. The title is rather awful, gives you no idea of what is going on and depends on a scantily clad woman to attaract attention. In any respect that is a sign of poor work and a desperate grab at the male audience.

So some good some bad. I think that a writer looking for good cover art should have a snappy visual, an intriguing title and of course a good story behind it. Good cover art should have images directly related to the story at hand, not something eye grabbing just because it looks cool. For instance if your writing a story about a starship captain stranded in space don't have your cover image of a man in a spacesuit standing on an alien planet. Nor should you put a picture of an alien in it just because you think it looks cool. Make the cover art about your story, not just another picture of a scantly clad woman.

So in pondering on cover art for Service to the State and for the first book I have decided I would like to find someone who could attempt to illustrate the male and female leads (Jessica and Laurent) in front of a generic world image. Since there are space battles in the book perhaps have an exploding ship in the background (rule of cool after all dear readers). I think with a snappy title and good visuals that would draw potential readers in.

So with this look at cover art and my thoughts on the subject I once again bid you adieu until next time readers, and return to writing my own stories.