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).
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8 comments:

  1. Vagner Stefanello28 April 2016 at 12:49:00 GMT

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

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  2. Adam Whitehead28 April 2016 at 13:19:00 GMT

    Yes, these short stories are all in SHARP ENDS.

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  3. Laura28 April 2016 at 22:23:00 GMT

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

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

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  4. John Sable10 June 2017 at 13:10:00 GMT

    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...

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  5. Vagner Stefanello2 July 2017 at 21:57:00 GMT

    Some update after John Sable's comment?

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  6. Adam Whitehead3 July 2017 at 18:47:00 GMT

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

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  7. Bydloman30 July 2019 at 17:47:00 GMT

    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.

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  8. Anonymous17 March 2024 at 00:00:00 GMT

    I read Last Argument first, then First Law, don’t think it’s necessarily better to read chronologically. Now I wish I had a family tree/region/alliance map/timeline. Is there something like this out there? If so where? If not where would be the best place to publish? I do this for “real” places/times, would like even more to do it for these worlds. Maybe even “archival” research to cross-references with other series (definitely some here).

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