Joe Abercrombie announces new novel - The Heroes

Big news!

After his recent release of Best Served Cold, I thought it would take a long time to know what was coming in the future for Joe Abercrombie. Well, it didn't take long. Joe posted this on his blog today:

'With Best Served Cold already three months out (can it really be so long?), perhaps the time has come to talk a little about my next book. Like Best Served Cold it's intended to be a semi-standalone, which can be read on its own (hopefully) but has a few characters and settings in common with the First Law.

It is called:

The Heroes

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...'

He also mentioned that has already 85 000 words written so far. The book is expected to be release in February 2011 ('hopefully' as he put it).

I think it's really a good idea to continue with another "stand-alone" novel set in the same world, with new characters and old faces. The recipe worked great with BSC and I'm sure he can pull it off a couple more times. Although I think it will be kind of hard to center the story around a three day battle... but then, with what Joe showed us so far, the characters will probably make us want even more.

You can find the post on his blog here.