'The nerds have inherited the Earth'
‘To call it alternate history is being too dignified about it... I almost like the idea that people would be able to see loads of inconsistencies in the worldbuilding, because it's meant to be stupid and ridiculous...
Fantasy means that you don't have to be too meticulous with any of that, you can just throw things at the wall and hope it sticks...
I like things that are familiar but doing something slightly surprising with them at the same time. A bickering werewolf and vampire seem like a classic combination, some sort of wizard seems obvious. The invisible elf? I don't know exactly how I ended up with an invisible elf...
There was a time when it (fantasy) was seen as proper lame and nerd stuff and now the nerds have inherited the Earth. This stuff is just totally centre of the road culture. It doesn't have that ghetto sense about it, not nearly as much as it once did...'
Joe Abercombie, author of The First Law trilogy, The Age of Madness trilogy with three standalone novels, The Shattered Sea trilogy and The Devils, which will be published in May, starting a new series, in the Bookseller.
