Thursday 28 April 2016

Timeline and Map of Joe Abercrombie's FIRST LAW world

Joe Abercrombie and his publishers have unveiled the complete world map (well, the explored bit, anyway) for his First Law novels, and a timeline of when the works take place.




The map shows all the lands that lie within the Circle of the World. Midderland, the island in the centre, is the heart of the Union and the location of Adua, the capital city. Styria, the setting for Best Served Cold, is the island or subcontinent to the east. The North lies to the, er, north with the Orsrung Valley (the setting for The Heroes) located in the mountains and hills south of Carleon. The Far Country, the setting for Red Country, is located to the west of Midderland. Dagoska and the Gurkhal Empire are to the south.

The timeline of stories and books is as follows, with novels in bold and short stories in italics. These short stories can all be found in the new First Law collection Sharp Ends, which was published this week.

566 (spring): A Beautiful Bastard
570 (summer): Made a Monster
573 (autumn): Small Kindnesses
574 (autumn): The Fool Jobs
575 (summer): Skipping Town 
575 (spring-autumn): The Blade Itself
575-576 (autumn-spring): Before They Are Hanged
576 (spring): Hell
576 (summer): Two's Company
576-577 (summer to winter): Last Argument of Kings
579-80: Best Served Cold
580: Wrong Place, Wrong Time
584 (summer): Some Desperado 
584 (autumn): Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden 
584: The Heroes
587 (autumn): Three's a Crowd
590 (summer): Freedom!
590: Red Country
592 (spring): Tough Times All Over
605: New Trilogy Book 1 (due in 2017 or 2018)

The new trilogy, which Joe is writing now, will begin 28 years after the events of Last Argument of Kings (although this may change).

7 comments:

Vagner Stefanello said...

These short stories are all in the new book Sharp Ends or can I find them in another place?

Adam Whitehead said...

Yes, these short stories are all in SHARP ENDS.

Laura said...

Two's Company is also available on Tor.com.

http://www.tor.com/2016/01/12/twos-company-joe-abercrombie/

John Sable said...

You have "Hell", "Skipping Town" and "Two's Company" out of order. "Skipping Town" should be after "The Blade Itself". "Hell" is after "Before They Are Hanged" and "Two's Company" is after "Last Argument of Kings". Also, "The Blade Itself", I believe occurs between 574-575, "Before They Are Hanged" between 575 to 576 and "Last Argument of Kings" between 576-577. There was a timeline posted somewhere by Joe Abercrombie, but I cannot remember if it was a Reddit AKA or a reply to someone asking on Twitter...

Vagner Stefanello said...

Some update after John Sable's comment?

Adam Whitehead said...

It was on Westeros.org a while back, so yup, updated.

Bydloman said...

And (to John Sable's comment) "Made a Monster" cannot be in 570 - it is a mistake in "Sharp Ends" (Joe confirmed by email). I guess it is about 565.