Anne Lyle's Blog, page 20

BristolCon 2011

This weekend I was lucky enough to attend BristolCon 2011, a small SFF convention in the lovely city of Bristol (where I went to university). There were a few reasons for going: to see my alma mater again; to catch up with convention buddies; and of course to honour the memory of the late Colin Harvey, one of the founders of the convention, who died this August.

Sad memories aside, though, it was a fantastic little convention. The programme was packed with panels, interviews, talks and readings, and there were plenty of stalls in and around the dealers' hall, selling everything from new and secondhand books to steampunk weaponry! The venue was also very good, and conveniently placed for both Temple Meads station and Bristol's fine array of restaurants around the old docks.

Juliet E McKenna talks about the evolution of magic in her fantasy series

I attended two very interesting talks. The first was by Juliet E McKenna (above), about how she worldbuilds as she goes along and how this has affected the evolution of magic in her fantasy series. We learnt about the reasoning behind her island city of wizards, how a chance comment in an introduction to her novella led to an entire trilogy about the Lescari revolution – and how the runes for aetheric magic were brainstormed with her husband one evening over a bottle of wine! We also got a preview of the cover art for her new trilogy, conceived as a triptych of characters. If you ever have the chance to catch one of Juliet's talks, do so – she's a great speaker and has a wealth of experience in writing fantasy.

Mike Shevdon demonstrates a composite bow

The second talk was by Mike Shevdon, who is writing an urban fantasy series, The Courts of the Feyre, for Angry Robot and is also a keen archer. Mike brought along his collection of bows, from a fibreglass replica of the composite bows used by steppe nomads (see photo, right) to a decidedly steampunk-esque compound bow. He also showed us some film clips, the most interesting of which was the slow-motion movement of an arrow, showing how it flexes as it leaves the string, enabling it to fly straight despite the bow being in the way. Again, highly recommended for anyone wanting to improve their fantasy writing or just learn about this ancient technology.

Of course I wasn't just a spectator this time round. In addition to a short reading, I sat on two panels: "Tricks and Tools for Writers" and "The Life-cycle of the Author". I was a bit nervous beforehand, but the moderators made everyone feel very relaxed and ensured that all the participants got a chance to speak, so it was a very pleasant experience in the end. Both panels were recorded, so (sound quality permitting) they will hopefully be podcast at some point.

Overall I had a great time, made some more friends (and finally got to meet some online ones), so I'm looking forward to going back next year, writing schedule permitting!

Web presence 101.2 – Your Website

In the of this series, I talked about the importance of claiming your name online (before someone else does!). Once you have a domain name, you are probably going to want a website for it to point to – even before you have a book out, people such as agents may want to look for you online, and you want what they find to be interesting and professional!

Creating a website can seem daunting if you're not technically proficient, but it needn't be – and it needn't cost a fortune, either. Sure, if you make money from your writing, you might want to invest some of that in a more original design (all tax-deductible!), but these days it's not hard to put together an attractive site using standard tools and templates.

For a beginner, I would recommend using blogging software as the basis for your site. I will talk about blogging itself in the next post in this series, but modern blogging software can be used to run an entire website (like this one), not just a blog. Blogging software also comes with a user-friendly "control panel" that allows you to update your content without being reliant on a web developer.

You have two main choices, each of which has their pros and cons:

Free blog site

At the time of writing, the two main sites offering free blogging facilities are WordPress and Blogger (soon to be renamed Google Blogs). Both services come with a choice of free templates which you can further personalise with a header image, allowing you to set up a professional-looking website in a matter of minutes.

The disadvantage of such sites is that, being free, they are limited in the features they allow, and you are at the mercy of the blog site remaining in business and continuing to provide the features you want.

Blogger is the simpler of the two, allowing you to add up to ten normal web pages to your blog (e.g. About Me), and is therefore ideal if you are a total beginner. You can also customise your blog's template, including using custom stylesheets – if you don't know what that means, don't try to use it or you may break your site!

WordPress is more flexible but also a bit more complex; some people find the WP dashboard a bit daunting at first! Unlike Blogger, however, you don't have to include a blog on your site. Just ignore the "Posts" section on the dashboard, and instead create some normal webpages. Then under Settings -> Reading, set one of the pages as the home page for your site. This is the option I use for my Night's Masque site, which is actually a separate WP "blog" (albeit hosted independently, as described below). You can do this and add a blog later, if you're undecided about blogging – just switch the radio button back to "Your latest posts".

The downside is that some customisations (e.g. tweaking the stylesheet) are only available as paid add-ons. In my opinion, if you are looking to customise your site more heavily than the free service allows, you are better off with an independent WordPress installation (see below).

More information (Wikipedia):

Blogger
WordPress

Paid web host

WordPress isn't just a blogging site; it's a free software package that you can download and install on any web server. So, for a few pounds/dollars/euros a month, you can have a WordPress site of your very own, with as many plugins and bells and whistles as you want, hosted on an independent web company's servers. Some web hosts will install WordPress as part of your package; if not, find an internet-savvy friend who will install it for you (a bribe of pizza and beer never hurts!). N.B. if your chosen web host doesn't offer WordPress, ask your techie friend to check what's included before paying up, to make sure you get the features (e.g. at least one free database) needed by the WordPress software.

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My WordPress dashboard

Once up and running, it's as easy to use as the free version, except that you have a lot more control. I run this website on WordPress, hosted by United Hosting, with lots of extra plugins that allow me to write and send out newsletters, create an event calendar, embed my Twitter feed on a page, and much more. Being a pro, I've been able to heavily customise the standard template and integrate multiple blogs into one site, so don't expect to produce something quite as complex as my website on your first attempt!

Note that there's no downloadable equivalent for Blogger; there are other blogging programs you can install, such as Movable Type, but these are beyond the scope of this simple tutorial series. Google "cms blog software" for more information.

Website Content

Apart from the blog itself, what else should you have on your website?

About me

An author biography is the obvious first item; agents and readers will be coming to your site and want to know more about you. Note that this page isn't meant to be a dry resumé, nor do you have to reveal personal information (home town, family details, etc) if you don't want to. Instead, focus on the things about you that make you a unique writer: interesting and relevant hobbies, quirky trivia about yourself, that kind of thing. Give it your voice and personality! A good photo of yourself is a bonus – people want to know what you look like, and it comes in handy when you need to meet someone at a convention. I had mine done by a professional portrait photographer, as I needed a publicity photo for the press release about my contract, but any good quality picture (i.e. not a drunken party snapshot!) will be fine to begin with.

Your work

Obviously if you have books to sell, you will want to feature those – but on the other hand, many readers don't like the hard sell. Make it easy for them to find and buy your work, but don't shove it in their faces either. I put my book details on a separate page, with a (hopefully clear) link in the navigation bar.

Contact me

A feedback/contact page is another essential, allowing visitors to get in touch – don't openly post your email address, as it will just get harvested by spammers! With the rise of social media (and of course comment facilities on blogs), most people will use those channels to contact a writer rather than email, but I think it's good to make some kind of direct contact available as well.

Other content

Readers of fantasy and science fiction love the genre because of the worlds described, so a bit of background information on your books can provide interesting content and avoid your site looking too spartan. You don't have to go overboard and provide a "world encyclopaedia" (save that for a spinoff non-fiction book when you're a huge success!) – a few tidbits are often enough.

Beyond that, it's up to you what you put on there, but I think it's best not to dilute your "brand" too much. For more about establishing your brand – and why you want to – see We Are Not Alone: A Writer's Guide to Social Media by Kristen Lamb. It's a bit dated (the author still seems to think that MySpace is an important social network!) but the basic principles are sound.

What features do you like to see on an author's website?

Research trip: Venice

The Grand Canal at sunset

This year my focus has been on the second book in the Night's Masque trilogy, The Merchant of Dreams. As the title hints at, this installment is set (partially) in Venice, a favourite city of mine. However I haven't been there since 2003, so I was very keen on making another visit to do some research – and of course enjoy some fabulous Italian food whilst there!

We flew out the evening after FantasyCon, which was perhaps a mistake – I soon discovered that I had a dose of "con crud", and the flight over the Alps was rather painful with bunged-up sinuses. However I kept my cold under control with regular doses of echinacea and paracetamol, and overall the trip was wonderful. The city was as beautiful and atmospheric as I remembered, the perfect setting for a historical fantasy novel.

Ca' Malcanton, a medieval Venetian house

First up: our accommodation. I found this place online, and the idea of staying in a real Venetian house rather than a hotel was irresistible. I haven't decided yet whether this exact house will appear in the book or whether I will just use some of the details, but either way, it was a useful part of my research as well as a brilliant place to stay.

My main research consisted of visiting a few locations I intend to use in the book, as well as just soaking up the atmosphere for inspiration. First up was a visit to the Doge's Palace, where we took the Secret Itineraries tour: a look behind the scenes at the offices, torture chamber and "the Leads" (i Piombi), the attic cells where Giacomo Casanova was imprisoned in the eighteenth century. The torture chamber was surprisingly civilised in appearance, just a high, narrow wood-paneled room, with a heavy rope hanging from the ceiling above a set of wooden steps. The Venetians' approach to torture was very simple: suspects were placed in adjacent cells where they could see and hear everything that went on, then one victim was subjected to the strapado, i.e. hauled up on the rope by his hands, which had been tied behind his back. Very, very painful, and thus very effective at loosening the tongues of both victim and observers. (Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos inside the palace or even make written notes, so I will have to rely on my memory for any details I might use in the book.)

Fondaco dei Turchi

We also visited the Fondaco dei Turchi (now the Natural History Museum), for reasons that will become clearer when the book is published! I was more interested in the building than the museum exhibits, which range from the fascinating (dinosaur footprints) to the macabre (a collection of stuffed animals formerly belonging to a big game hunter), It wasn't all dead things, however; in the garden area outside we spotted a hummingbird hawkmoth, though sadly he moved far too fast to be photographed.

Whilst not exactly research, I did make the most of our trips to various restaurants, including trying out local specialities like sarde in saor (sardines in a "sweet-and-sour" marinade). I can particularly recommend Ai Assassini, tucked away in a side street near La Fenice, where I enjoyed some amazing prosciutto crudo, as rich and soft as butter; and Poste Vecie, said to be the oldest restaurant in Venice. At the latter I had another delicious Venetian speciality, seppie in nero (cuttlefish cooked in its own ink) – the restaurant is right next door to the Rialto fishmarket – followed by a glass of grappa di prosecco in lieu of dessert. Poste Vecie was founded around 1500, so don't be surprised if it makes a guest appearance in The Merchant of Dreams

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Lace parasol and fan, brocade slippers, leather mask and Murano glass jewellery

Of course the reason Venice became so rich was that it was the nexus of a vast trading network transporting luxuries from the East into Europe. No trip to Venice would be complete without buying a few luxuries of my own, including some that you may see me wearing at a future convention! (see photo)

I also bought a gorgeous leather-bound journal – almost too nice to use! – and some comestibles: a small packet of chocolate-covered ginger, a jar of enormous olives, and a bottle of Prosecco to toast the handover of the manuscript of The Merchant of Dreams. I guess it'll be a while before I get to that one…

Book giveaway: October

September winners

Congratulations to Jane Lambert (Page After Page) and Jo Hutchinson (Mindstar Rising) – I'll be in touch!

October giveaway

Building up to the end of the year with some tasty goodies from my overflowing shelves…

Characters and Viewpoint, by Orson Scott Card

Vivid and memorable characters aren't born, they have to be made.

Award-winning author Orson Scott Card explains in depth the techniques of inventing, developing and presenting characters, plus handling viewpoint in novels and short stories. With specific examples, he spells out your narrative options–the choices you'll make in creating fictional people so "real" that readers will feel they know them like members of their own families.

Jack Cloudie, by Stephen Hunt

Another of my convention freebies, I confess – Hunt's steampunk is very popular but not particularly my cup of tea.

A tale of high adventure and derring-do set in the same Victorian-style world as the acclaimed The Court of the Air and The Secrets of the Fire Sea. Thanks to his father's gambling debts, young Jack Keats finds himself on the streets and trying to survive as a pickpocket, desperate to graft enough coins to keep him and his two younger brothers fed. Following a daring bank robbery gone badly awry, Jack narrowly escapes the scaffold, only to be pressed into Royal Aerostatical Navy. If Jack and his shipmates can discover what Cassarabia's aggressive new regime is trying to conceal, he might survive the most horrific of wars and clear his family's name. If not…

Same rules as always – only UK/EU residents may enter, owing to postage. Leave a comment below, saying which book you'd like (or either, if so inclined!), before noon (UK time) on the first Saturday of November. Please use a valid email address in the comment form so I can contact you to get your snail-mail address if you win (don't put either in your comments, for security reasons!).

Good luck!

 

FantasyCon 2011

This year was my third FantasyCon and the best so far (although last year's has a special place in my heart, of course). The venue was an improvement on recent years – albeit very hot owing to an unseasonably sunny October weekend – and the programme was a lot better too: awesome guests of honour like Brian Aldiss and Joe Abercrombie, lots of panels and readings, and a great disco hosted by Sarah Pinborough, Guy Adams and Rio Youers.

For me, the weekend fell into three distinct phases. Phase one was arriving and catching up with lots of old friends from previous cons plus trying to identify online friends and put faces to name badges. I met up with Laura Lam, one of the Angry Robot open door month "finalists", and introduced her to Lee Harris – who proceeded to take great delight in showing her his ereader, which was on chapter four of her manuscript!

I attended a couple of fellow authors' readings and went to the mass book signing, where I got my copy of The Blade Itself signed by Joe Abercrombie. Mostly though I hung out with the rest of the Angry Robot crew: Marc Gascoigne, Lee Harris, Adam Christopher, Mike Shevdon, Lavie Tidhar and David Tallerman, picking up some very interesting gossip and rumours that I can't possible reveal on this blog

Phase two occupied the middle of Saturday: getting nervous about my upcoming reading, doing the reading, then chilling out afterwards. The reading itself went very well and I was absolutely bowled over by the level of attendance; admittedly the room was not large, but all the seats were taken and a couple of people had to stand (or sit on the floor). I read the first half of Chapter One of The Alchemist of Souls, which seemed to go down very well, and then answered a few questions from the audience. Although I wasn't hugely nervous – I give presentations all the time at work – it was still a tiny bit stressful because I'd never done anything quite like it before, and it was a great relief to have it over and done with so that I could enjoy the rest of the weekend stress-free.

Sarah Pinborough introduces Brian Aldiss

The final phase of the con was the most fun – more hanging out with my friends, but now without the pre-reading nerves. I met up with some online friends including Vincent Holland-Keen, Mhairi Simpson, and Fran Terminiello and her writing partner David Murray; and made new ones: YA author Alex Bell, writer/blogger Harry Markov and probably a bunch of other people whose names are temporarily lost in a haze of post-con exhaustion (for which, my apologies). Part of said exhaustion may be put down to the fact that I was up until 3am, booging on down at the aforementioned disco…

On Sunday I went to the banquet and awards ceremony, the highlight of which (for me) was seeing the great Brian Aldiss in the flesh. Aldiss got a standing ovation, mostly (I hope) out of respect for his contribution to genre fiction, but also because it's always amusing to hear a man who looks like your favourite grandad swearing like a trooper!

Needless to say, I'm now feeling shattered – not to mention having a mild attack of "con crud" – and wondering if it really was a bright idea to fly straight out to Venice the morning after the convention, but I had a glorious weekend and am so looking forward to going back to Brighton in two years' time for World Fantasy 2013!

Web Presence 101.1 – Claim Your Name

NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org

Nowadays it's generally considered vital for an author to have a web presence, and yet a lot of writers don't really know where to start. I've been online since the mid-1990s, and a professional web developer for over a decade, so I thought I'd share some of my experience – what to do, and just as importantly, what not to do!

Once I started jotting down ideas, I realised there were a lot of things to consider, so this is going to be a multi-post article. First up: laying claim to your online identity.

Register a domain name

There's really no excuse not to have your own domain name nowadays; they're very cheap (as little as $5 a year) and they look so much more professional on a business card or email footer. It doesn't matter if you don't have a website yet – the important thing is to lay claim to your online identity so that no-one else can. Buy a domain the minute you've decided on the name you will publish under. Seriously.

You can buy a domain name from any domain registrar – a company that looks after domain names and handles all the techie details for you. In the UK, I recommend 123-reg, as they've been around for a long time. Although they aren't the cheapest, they aren't overly expensive, and when it comes to a cornerstone of your online presence, reliability is too important to scrimp on. Do some research before you choose a registrar, as there are plenty of cowboys out there! For starters, your registrar should offer the ability to forward web addresses and emails for free, not as a paid add-on.

Caveat: If you are planning on putting up a website or blog, I strongly recommend not buying your domain name through the company that hosts the site. About ten or twelve years ago I had a web host go bust on me, and it took weeks, months even, to get my domain name back. During that time I couldn't use the address for email, and anyone following links to my site was presented with a holding page saying the site was no longer available. DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU. A decade ago it was an irritation; nowadays it would be a disaster. Register your domain with a well-established domain registrar and host your website elsewhere.

Before you register a name, you have to choose what it will be! I recommend not registering the title of your book – or rather, not as your sole domain. Firstly, the title may change. My first novel, The Alchemist of Souls, went through several working titles before I even submitted it, then my publisher asked me to change the title I submitted it under. Secondly, you're going to write more than one book, right? So you don't want your web presence tied to a single title. I have registered my series title, www.nightsmasque.com, but I forward that address to this website rather than using it directly.

Of course if your chosen name is common, someone else may have already nabbed the .com address. (I got lucky – whilst neither my first name nor my surname is rare, the combination had not been registered.) In that case, you may have to try a different TLD (top level domain) such as .net or .info, or choose a country-specific one like .co.uk (they are often cheaper because there's less demand for them than the generic ones).

Once you have your name, I recommend you start using it. If you're not ready (or don't want) to set up a website, forward the URL to your blog, Twitter profile, Facebook page – anywhere is better than your registrar's standard holding page! Similarly, emails to "name@authorname.com" can be forwarded to your existing email account, and your mail client can often be configured to use the same address in the "From" field. No-one need know you're still using Hotmail

Claim your name on social media

I'll get onto the ins and outs of social media in a later post, but right now I'll just say that it's worth at least trying out the various social media services. Some of them, like Twitter, allow you to use a unique name from the start, so it's a good idea to claim your author name there if it's still available. Twitter has a limit of 15 characters on user names, however, so you might have to be a bit more creative on that one (you can still display your full name in your profile).

That's it for names. Really. Why are you still here? Go forth and stake your claim. Now!

Next time I'll be looking at blogging – but not until after I've blogged about some events I'm attending in October…

Web Presence 101: Lesson 1 – Claim Your Name

NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org

Nowadays it's generally considered vital for an author to have a web presence, and yet a lot of writers don't really know where to start. I've been online since the mid-1990s, and a professional web developer for over a decade, so I thought I'd share some of my experience – what to do, and just as importantly, what not to do!

Once I started jotting down ideas, I realised there were a lot of things to consider, so this is going to be a multi-post article. First up: laying claim to your online identity.

Register a domain name

There's really no excuse not to have your own domain name nowadays; they're very cheap (as little as $5 a year) and they look so much more professional on a business card or email footer. It doesn't matter if you don't have a website yet – the important thing is to lay claim to your online identity so that no-one else can. Register a domain the minute you've decided on the name you will publish under. Seriously.

Of course if your name is common, you may not be able to register it as a simple .com address. (I got lucky – whilst neither my first name nor my surname is rare, the combination had not been registered.) In that case, you may have to try a different TLD (top level domain) such as .net or .info, or choose a country-specific one like .co.uk (they are often cheaper because there's less demand for them than the generic ones).

Once you have your name, I recommend you start using it. If you're not ready (or don't want) to set up a website, forward the URL to your blog, Twitter profile, Facebook page – anywhere is better than your registrar's standard holding page! Similarly, emails to "name@authorname.com" can be forwarded to your existing email account, and your mail client can often be configured to use the same address in the "From" field. No-one need know you're still using Hotmail

I recommend not registering the title of your book – or rather, not as your sole domain. Firstly, the title may change. My first novel, The Alchemist of Souls, went through several working titles before I even submitted it, then my publisher asked me to change the title I submitted it under. Secondly, you're going to write more than one book, right? So you don't want your web presence tied to a single title. I have registered my series title, www.nightsmasque.com, but I forward that address to this website rather than using it directly.

Caveat: If you are planning on putting up a website or blog, I strongly recommend not buying your domain name through the company that hosts the site. About ten or twelve years ago I had a web host go bust on me, and it took weeks, months even, to get my domain name back. During that time I couldn't use the address for email, and anyone following links to my site was presented with a holding page saying the site was no longer available. DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU. A decade ago it was an irritation; nowadays it would be a disaster. Register your domain with a well-established domain registrar and host your website elsewhere. I use 123-reg, but there are plenty of companies around offering similar services. Your registrar should offer the ability to forward web addresses and emails for free as part of the registration service.

Claim your name on social media

I'll get onto the ins and outs of social media in a later post, but right now I'll just say that it's worth at least trying out the various social media services. Some of them, like Twitter, allow you to use a unique name from the start, so it's a good idea to claim your author name there if it's still available. Twitter has a limit of 15 characters on user names, however, so you might have to be a bit more creative on that one (you can still display your full name in your profile).

That's it for names. Really. Why are you still here? Go forth and stake your claim. Now!

Next time I'll be looking at blogging – but not until after I've blogged about some events I'm attending in October…

Book review: The Road to Bedlam, by Mike Shevdon

Another book review so soon?

There are two reasons: firstly, last week was a major deadline for my day-job, so I didn't have a lot of mental energy for writing, and secondly – this book is a fast read!

The Road to Bedlam is the sequel to Sixty-One Nails, picking up where the first book left off. Blackbird is nearing the end of her pregnancy when Niall's daughter from his first marriage is apparently killed in a freak accident. However Alex is not dead – she has inherited her father's fey blood and been bundled off to a secret facility for those who cannot control their powers (very reminiscent of Selma Blair's character Liz in Hellboy). Niall is desperate to find her, but the Courts of the Feyre have more important things on their minds…

I confess I found the opening chapters a little slow. Shevdon understandably doesn't want to short-change the impact on his protagonist of the apparent death of his child, but it does mean we spend quite a while with him in the mundane world as he tries to visit her in intensive care, attends a memorial service at the school, and so on. I felt this robbed the story of the forward momentum set up in the prologue, and it took a while to get going again. Maybe that's just me, though; I don't read much contemporary fantasy, so I'm accustomed to more "exotic" settings that are interesting in their own right.

Once Niall finds out the truth, however, it's a steadily escalating adventure as he tries to balance his duty to Blackbird and his new kinfolk with his impatience to find Alex, and the book ends with an all-action finale worthy of a summer blockbuster! On the way, we get more fascinating glimpses into obscure corners of English folklore and tradition, like Oakham Castle with its great hall decorated with horseshoes of all sizes.

This is the real strength of Shevdon's writing: the rich blend of ancient and modern, with a very English flavour (I would say British, but so far all the stories have focused on England, from London to Shropshire). I would love to see these books picked up by BBC Wales and made into mini-series – they would sit very comfortably alongside recent SFF productions like Being Human and Torchwood.

The third installment in The Courts of the Feyre is due out from Angry Robot next summer, so if you haven't read the first two books, you have plenty of time to catch up!

Book review: The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie

Back in 2007, when I was starting to revise what would become The Alchemist of Souls, I picked up a couple of books that sounded from reviews like they were in a similar vein. One of these (The Lies of Locke Lamora) I read straight away, the other – The Blade Itself – sat neglected on my shelf until a few weeks ago. I am now regretting that delay.

The thing that put me off for a long time was that one of the viewpoint characters, Glokta, is an inquisitor. A torturer, not to put too fine a point on it. And having been so grossed out by a torture scene in The Lies of Locke Lamora that I had nightmares, I wasn't about to launch into another book that might do the same. Thankfully Abercrombie has a much lighter touch than Lynch, and it's a credit to his writing ability that Glokta is one of my favourite characters in the book.

Spoiler note: I've tried to avoid major spoilers, but it's proved impossible to explain why I like this book without at least a little detail!

The Blade Itself is in some respects a typical first volume of an epic fantasy. It introduces a cast of colourful characters, including the obligatory white-bearded wizard, a huge "barbarian" and a handsome, sword-wielding nobleman, and ends by sending them off on a quest – but none of these characters is much like the clichés you're familiar with. Also, the wizard and his quest are practically a subplot in this first volume, most of which is taken up with the political machinations in the city of Adua, as the Union (a large kingdom somewhat resembling Georgian England) teeters on the brink of war.

To be honest, it was the main plot that really caught my interest and attention; it's a dark fantasy-of-manners – think Jane Austen meets The Borgias – packed with intrigue and humour. This part of the story rests on the shoulders of two very different characters: the aforementioned Glokta, and Jezal dan Luthar, the self-centred young nobleman who is destined to be dragged into the magus Bayaz's quest.

Sand dan Glokta is a lonely, broken man, a former fencing champion who, during the last war against the Ghurkul Empire, was captured and tortured beyond the endurance of most men. Faced with a choice between going home to his doting mother's country estate, or working for the Inquisition using the skills he learnt from his tormenters, Glokta chooses the latter. He is set by his superior to root out corruption amongst the merchant class, and uncovers a conspiracy that could threaten the fragile peace with the Ghurkul Empire to the south, even as the Union is about to go to war with the northern barbarians.

Jezal dan Luthar is one of the latest hopefuls entered into the same fencing contest that Glokta won in his youth. Unfortunately Jezal would rather drink and play cards with his fellow officers, to the despair of his trainers. However when Jezal falls in love with the sister of his friend Major West, he discovers new motivation…

Abercrombie's strength is most definitely in his characters, all of whom are complex and, in their own way, sympathetic, despite some pretty deep flaws. I particularly liked Jezal's objet d'amour, Ardee West, who starts out as a vivacious cross between Lizzie Bennett and Mary Crawford, but is revealed to be a much more complex (and, somewhat inevitably, tragic) character. And then of course there's Glokta, whose dry humour and stoicism in the face of constant pain (both physical, from his war wounds, and the emotional impact of the contempt of others) makes him totally sympathetic despite the horrible things he has to do for his job. Thankfully Abercrombie skips over the gruesome details, knowing how to give you just enough information to be creeped out rather than nauseated – something I wish Lynch was better at!

If anything, the Adua sections were so enjoyable that I found the more traditional epic fantasy parts rather dull in comparison. Maybe I'm just jaded by a lifetime of reading such things and, more recently, seeing amazing CGI in movies, but for me the Big Magic felt at odds with the gritty realism of the rest of the story. I suspect I'm out of tune with the majority of the fantasy audience, however, who seem to demand this kind of thing, since practically every epic fantasy has this kind of buildup from the mundane to the ZOMG SFX'n'dragons!!1! (Not that there are any dragons in The Blade Itself, thank the gods.)

Some readers may find the complex, multi-threaded narrative hard to follow, and I confess I found the conspiracy plot particularly hard to keep a handle on because of all the switching back and forth, but on the other hand the writing was so assured, it was that rare kind of book where I could just sit back and enjoy the ride, without worrying where the author was heading.

In conclusion: excellent stuff, and I'll definitely be picking up the second volume – whilst hoping the epic doesn't overwhelm the intrigue!

Alchemist of Souls: finished cover

Got a nice surprise in my email today – the final version of the cover of The Alchemist of Souls, complete with lettering. Like, my name on it, and everything!

Awesome or what?