Joe Abercrombie
Joe Abercrombie is a British fantasy writer and film editor. He is the author of The First Law trilogy, as well as other fantasy books in the same setting and a trilogy of young adult novels. His novel Half a King won the 2015 Locus Award for best Young Adult book.

Early life
Joe Abercrombie was born in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. He was educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Manchester University, where he studied psychology.

Career
Abercrombie had a job making tea at a television production company before taking up a career as a freelance film editor. As a freelance film editor, Abercrombie found himself with more free time than he previously had. With this time, he decided to reconsider a story plot he conceived while attending University.

Abercrombie began writing The Blade Itself in 2002, completing it in 2004. It took a year of rejection by publishing agencies before Gillian Redfearn of Gollancz accepted the book for a five-figure deal in 2005 ("a seven-figure deal if you count the pence columns"). It was published by Gollancz in 2006 and was followed in the succeeding two years by two other books in the trilogy, by the titles of Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings, respectively. In 2008, Joe Abercrombie was a finalist for the John W. Campbell award for Best New Writer. That same year Abercrombie was one of the contributors to the BBC Worlds of Fantasy series, alongside other contributors such as Michael Moorcock, Terry Pratchett and China Miéville. In 2009, Abercrombie released the novel Best Served Cold.  It is set in the same world as The First Law Trilogy but is a stand-alone novel.  He followed with The Heroes (2011) and Red Country (2012), both again set in the world of the First Law Trilogy. The three standalone novels were later collected into an omnibus edition under the name The Great Leveller.

In 2011, Abercrombie signed a deal with Gollancz for four more books set in the First Law world. In 2013, HarperCollins' fantasy and children's imprints acquired the rights to three books by Abercrombie, aimed at younger readers. The three standalone but interconnected novels were released as the Shattered Sea trilogy.

Bibliography

The First Law
The First Law trilogy
 The Blade Itself (May 2006)
 Before They Are Hanged (March 2007)
 Last Argument of Kings (March 2008)

First Law universe standalone novels
 Best Served Cold (June 2009)
 The Heroes (January 2011)
 Red Country (October 2012)

The Age of Madness trilogy
 A Little Hatred (September 2019)
 The Trouble With Peace (September 2020)
 The Beautiful Machine (September 2021)

Short stories (published prior to the Sharp Ends anthology)
 "The Fool Jobs" – appeared in the Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery anthology (June 2010) and features Curnden Craw and his dozen in events prior to The Heroes.
 "Yesterday, Near A Village Called Barden" – appeared as an extra in the Waterstones hardcover version of The Heroes and focuses on Bremer dan Gorst on campaign prior to The Heroes.
 "Freedom!" – appeared as an extra in the Waterstones hardcover version of Red Country and focuses on the liberation of the town of Averstock by the Company of the Gracious Hand.
 "Skipping Town" – appeared in the Legends: Stories in Honour of David Gemmell anthology (November 2013) and features the couple pairing of Shevedieh (Shev) and Javre, Lioness of Hoskopp.
 "Some Desperado" – appeared in the Dangerous Women anthology (December 2013) and features Shy South on the run during her outlaw days before Red Country. Nominated for a 2014 Locus Award.
 "Tough Times All Over" – appeared in the Rogues anthology (June 2014) and follows courier Carcolf and the circuitous route one of her packages takes through the city of Sipani.  It also features Shev and Javre.
 "Small Kindnesses" - appeared in the Unbound: Tales by Masters of Fantasy anthology (December 2015) and features Shev.
 "Two's Company" - first appeared online on tor.com (January 2016), featuring Shev and Javre, a "female Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser style thief and warrior odd couple."

Short Story anthology
Sharp Ends: Stories from the World of the First Law (April 2016), collection of all short stories from the First Law continuity (8 previously published, 5 original to the collection):
 A Beautiful Bastard†
 Small Kindnesses
 The Fool Jobs
 Skipping Town
 Hell†
 Two's Company
 Wrong Place, Wrong Time†
 Some Desperado
 Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden...
 Three's a Crowd†
 Freedom!
 Tough Times All Over
 Made a Monster†
† story first published in Sharp Ends

Shattered Sea trilogy
 Half a King (2014)
 Half the World (2015)
 Half a War (2015)

Selected awards and honors