Leigh Bardugo on Re-Entering the Grishaverse in Six of Crows

Six of Crows takes place in the same world as the Grisha Trilogy. I’m curious whether you came up with the idea of the world first and then filled it with stories, or if you had the idea for the narrative and then fleshed out the world.
Definitely the latter. For me, worldbuilding basically breaks down into the reader’s sense of order and of place. The Grisha Trilogy began with the characters and the demands of the story I wanted to tell. The first draft of Shadow and Bone was all about sense of order, how power—political, magical, personal—functioned in the world. The feel of Ravka, its culture and mythology, all came later. Six of Crows was a little different because Kerch and its capital, Ketterdam, are mentioned in the trilogy, and I’d been thinking about setting a story there for a long time.
Had you always intended to explore different parts of the world you built? Do you intend to explore even more? (Please say yes.)
“Always” sounds so grand. I’d like to tell you I knew how many books I’d write and where they’d be set, but I’m not that good a liar. When I sat down to write Shadow and Bone, my only goal was to finish the manuscript and see the story through. Somewhere in the middle of that process, I began to realize the story was bigger than one book. And as I got deeper into the trilogy, I gained confidence. I began to look at that map and think, “Why not?”

At the heart of Six of Crows is Kaz Brekker, the teenage criminal prodigy who sets this whole quest in motion. He’s complicated, mysterious, and known as Dirtyhands. How do you make an antihero so enjoyable?
I’m glad you enjoyed him! I did wonder what the response to Kaz would be. I mean, he’s really despicable—cold, brutal, amoral. But he’s also spectacularly good at what he does, and I think we forgive a lot because he’s so damn competent. I just really didn’t want to write a bunch of merry, harmless, “hail, fellow, well met!” criminals.
Part of Kaz’s incredible efficiency as a leader is his ability to turn adversity to his advantage, adding layer upon layer to his self-created mystique. This includes his pronounced limp. How did you decide on the details you added to the character?
I wish I had a tidy answer to this. I’d had this character named Dirtyhands rattling around in my head for years, no deed too low, no job too dangerous—the kind of guy you only went to when things got truly desperate. Then I got the idea for this heist, and it was like Kaz emerged in perfect focus—gloves, cane, all of it. Then I had to pull the story out of him because otherwise those things would just be affectations. I guess it’s also worth mentioning that I have a condition that makes walking pretty painful. So if you catch me on the wrong day or at the end of a convention, I’ll probably be limping or even using a cane. I didn’t think about it at the time, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Kaz has a limp.

To its great credit, the story rotates point of view between five of the six main characters, each very distinct from one another. How much does that add to the degree of difficulty for you?
The real challenge was in the construction of the heist. So many of our expectations for heist narratives are defined by movies and television, but many of the twists in those heists rely on visual sleight of hand that doesn’t work in a novel. So the multiple points of view became a way of controlling the release of information to the reader. I really enjoyed getting to know each of the characters and finding their individual voices. But Six of Crows is my fourth book, and I don’t think there’s any way it could have been my first. I didn’t have the chops.
In the future, might we see Wylan, the odd man out, get a POV chapter or two?
More than a chapter or two. I just turned in the first draft of the sequel to Six of Crows, and Wylan is definitely getting his own POV. Also, if I ever write a novella about Wylan, I’m stealing the title “Odd Man Out.”

Though this story takes place in Kerch instead of Ravka, Ravka’s presence is still felt through the memories of two characters: Nina and Inej. We’re also introduced to ice-cold Fjerda. Did you have particular inspirations for each of these locations?
Ravka is inspired by Tsarist Russia of the early 1800s, and Fjerda uses Scandinavia as a cultural touchstone. Kerch is a little more complex. It’s heavily influenced by the Dutch Republic of the 1700s, but it’s also got a little New York (New Amsterdam), Las Vegas, and Victorian London mixed in there.
I got Kaz on the “Which Six of Crows Character Are You?” quiz. How concerned should I be?
I’d be more concerned for your enemies.
We leave Kaz’s group in a precarious position. Can you give us any hints about where the sequel will take us?
The next book is very much about settling scores. There’s a heist element, but a big con element too. A lot of powerful people are about to converge on Ketterdam, and I really enjoyed stacking the odds against Kaz’s little crew all over again. 
Six of Crows hits shelves September 29, and is available for pre-order now.