The Great Change (And Other Lies) is Joe Abercrombie's second collection of short stories, set within The First Law world. It was published in September 2023 by Gollancz in the UK and Orbit in the US.
Publisher's Synopsis[]
The Great Change (and Other Lies) is a novella-length collection that gathers four short stories related to Joe Abercrombie’s The Age of Madness, featuring old friends and new: from smugglers to kings, from diamond-cutters to dress-makers, from the most apparently insignificant of slaves to the most feared man in the Union, Old Sticks himself.
We follow the thread from the cotton-fields of Gurkhul to the heights of Aduan society, we follow a stone from the rivers of Kadir to the crown of the Union, we follow the iron from the prison-mines of Angland to a knife in the back of the old regime. And we follow the slow gestation of the Great Change itself, a revolution which will turn the whole world upside down…
Table of Contents[]
The Thread - Follows a thread, from the ex-slaves working in the fields of Gurkhul, through the mills of Adua and the overworked seamstresses, to a dress that’s just not quite good enough for that infamously fastidious leader of fashion Lady Savine dan Glokta.
The Stone - Follows one exceptional rock from the rivers of the parched south through the smugglers, spivs, merchants, and jewellers of the burgeoning diamond trade each taking their cut, and ends with the stone that so many have sweated, schemed and haggled over being not quite good enough for the King of the Union’s new crown.
The Point - Iron comes from the penal mines of Angland, it's forged into a dagger, and the dagger, by a circuitous route, finds its way into the hands of a certain member of the Burners and…well, you’ll get the point.
The Great Change - A chain of varied points of view following not an industry, but an idea—the idea of that grand revolution, that blow for the common man, that effort to sweep the past away wholesale—the Great Change itself.
Characters[]
The Thread[]
- Sabra (POV)
- Kurin
- Baseem (POV)
- Foreman Jens (POV)
- Hanner
- Grette Brine (POV)
- Maree Brine
- Freid (POV)
- Lady’s Companion Zuri
- Lady Savine dan Glokta
- Metello
- Lisbit
The Stone[]
- Faris (POV)
- Hafedieh
- Eater Zaida (POV)
- Manok (POV)
- Sergeant Jovidi
- Gabresi (POV)
- Vettel (POV)
- Gort dan Breyer
- Foske
- Sontice (POV)
- Royal Jeweler Villem dan Bronkhorst (POV)
- King Orso dan Luthar
- Lord Bayaz
The Point[]
- Jesper (POV)
- Inquisitor Swift
- Smolof (POV)
- Canter
- Ridge
- Salmon
- Fettel dan Sarova (POV)
- Lady’s Companion Zuri
- Lord Sempter
- Sarlby (POV)
- Bremer dan Gorst
- Sparks
- Luvonte
- Gunnar Broad
The Great Change[]
- Arch Lector Sand dan Glokta (POV)
- Lady Savine dan Glokta
- Superior Pike (POV)
- Judge
- Inquisitor Risinau (POV)
- Collem Sibalt (POV)
- Vick dan Teufel
- Grise (POV)
- Tallow (POV)
- Moor