Rumour: FIRST LAW TV show in the planning stages?

According to an eagle-eyed viewer, evidence has emerged hinting that an adaptation of Joe Abercrombie's The First Law is in the planning stages in Hollywood, possibly at Sony (who, interestingly, also have The Wheel of Time in development).

Rumours that a First Law TV or film project was underway began last year, with Deadpool director Tim Miller rumoured to be attached as a producer after he left the Deadpool sequel. Miller has since been attached to the latest attempt to get William Gibson's Neuromancer to the screen, but additional rumours have now put that project on hold as well, in the aftermath of the relative failure of Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner 2049. Either way, Miller's name being attached as producer would be interesting.

The evidence is a leaked photograph from what appears to be a planning session for an adaptation of the book. Copies of The Blade Itself were in evidence, a map of the Circle of the World was pinned to a wall and whiteboards have breakdowns of scenes and characters on them. Another board has photographs of actors in costume from shows like Vikings and The Last Kingdom on them, showing potentially the visual look they'd be looking for. This could be relatively easily faked, of course, but it'd be quite a bit of work to go through.

According to IMDB, a First Law project is indeed in development with writers Jack Christian and D.J. McPherson (presumably not the singer-songwriter) attached, but neither have any prior writing or production experience, which would seem unlikely for a project of this scale and scope. This may have been a wishful-thinking project put up on IMDB (which can be edited by public users).

Still, all very interesting. If something is happening, I'm sure we will learn more soon.

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).

Artwork for the limited edition of THE BLADE ITSELF

Alex Preuss's plate artwork for the Subterranean Press limited edition of Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself (click for a bigger version):


Very nice indeed.

Update: This isn't the cover, but one of the interior plates. The image being depicted is the shipyards at Gurkha that Ferro sees in the book.

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

In 2006 Gollancz asserted themselves as Britain's premier SF publishing imprint. This year, mainly thanks to the efforts of Simon Spanton, it delivered three very high-profile debut novels: the much-applauded The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, The Stormcaller by Tom Lloyd, and the superb The Blade Itself by Joe Abercombie.


At first glance The Blade Itself is pretty old-school: it's book one of a trilogy (entitled The First Law; the second volume, Before They Are Hanged, is out in March), it features an old wizard mentor character and a barbarian hero as well as an untried youth, a feisty young woman and an army of nasty barbarians on the march in the north, whilst a resurgent desert empire threatens our heroes' homeland - the Midderland Union - from the south. There's also the threat of a non-human species gathering its forces beyond the northern-most reach of humankind's lands (isn't there always?).

Yet Abercrombie invests these storylines with vigour and energy. None of our heroes are quite what they first appear to be and the author expertly deconstructs them throughout the book, revealing their true motivations when you last expect it. Abercrombie is also a dab hand are writing excellent battle scenes and swordfights. There is also a hint of otherwordly alieness in this book, such as the scenes set in the House of the Maker which are quite memorable. The only major complaint I had about the book is the lack of a map. Most fantasy novels with a map don't really need them, but with military campaigns getting underway it would be nice to tell exactly where Adua is in relation to the Northlands, and where both are in relation to Dagoska, for example. But this is a minor complaint at best.

By the end of the book the pace has been ramped up to a compelling level, as our heroes depart in different directions to face their various destinies and full-scale war seems about to erupt on all sides. The Blade Itself is a tremendously enjoyable novel and I count myself fortunate to have read it late enough in the day to only have a brief wait for the second book.

The Blade Itself (****) is published by Gollancz in the United Kingdom in trade paperback and hardcover. The mass-market paperback will be available on 8 March. Pyr Books will publish an American edition in September 2007 (no Amazon listing as yet).

The sequel, Before They Are Hanged, will be published by Gollancz in the UK in trade paperback and hardcover on 15 March 2007.