SFX May 2013

I'm pleased to say there's a "New Author" interview with me in the May edition of SFX magazine, on sale now at all good British newsagents. It's fairly brief but interesting, and there's a new photo of me looking impressively moody.

The Grim Company also receives a fairly positive write-up in the very same issue, with the reviewer awarding the book 3 1/2 out of 5 stars and saying: "Debut author Luke Scull packs an impressive amount of violence, hazy morality and betrayal into these pages, crafting an energetically cynical read. Showcasing thrilling action sequences alongside effective plot twists, it'll please fans of the darker edges of epic fantasy... An entertaining page-turner."

Though he also goes on to commit the cardinal sin of pointing out the similarities to Joe Abercrombie, and the slightly less cardinal sin of saying the book is not perfect and that he found the story slightly predictable. That's always a highly subjective thing, of course, and I've always been of the opinion that a well-crafted story where everything fits together will often feel a tad predictable to someone with more than a passing familiarity of the genre.

But who wants to hear authors pathetically trying to rationalise the fact that someone, somewhere found their beloved magnum opus to be less than perfect? Not me, that's for sure.

I'm probably going to end up saying this an awful lot over the next couple of years, but in a sense The Grim Company is really only part one of a longer story (despite the fact it ties up fairly neatly), and a lot of expectations and assumptions readers will have about where the story is going and how certain characters will follow a similar arc to characters in other series will ultimately prove to be off-base.

I can't prove that at this stage, of course. I can only say wait and see. But you'll see...