The Steel Remains
Ratings46
Average rating3.7
“Bold, brutal, and making no compromises—Morgan doesn’t so much twist the clichés of fantasy as take an axe to them.”—Joe Abercrombie A dark lord will rise. Such is the prophecy that dogs Ringil Eskiath—Gil, for short—a washed-up mercenary and onetime war hero whose cynicism is surpassed only by the speed of his sword. Gil is estranged from his aristocratic family, but when his mother enlists his help in freeing a cousin sold into slavery, Gil sets out to track her down. But it soon becomes apparent that more is at stake than the fate of one young woman. Grim sorceries are awakening in the land. Some speak in whispers of the return of the Aldrain, a race of widely feared, cruel yet beautiful demons. Now Gil and two old comrades are all that stand in the way of a prophecy whose fulfillment will drown an entire world in blood. But with heroes like these, the cure is likely to be worse than the disease. Praise for The Steel Remains “The award-winning author of Altered Carbon and Market Forces brings the same iconoclastic approach to his fantasy debut as he did to his sf technothrillers. . . . [Richard K.] Morgan’s storytelling talent and his atmospheric, hard-hitting prose make this a strong addition to mature fantasy collections.”—Library Journal “Spellbinding . . . There’s so much to like about the adventure.”—The Star-Ledger “Morgan has taken traditional sword and sorcery tropes and given them a hard, contemporary kick. The antithesis of the cosy fairytale, this one is for big boys.”—The Times (London) “[A] dark, gritty tale . . . The well-developed characters and realistic battle scenes ring true.”—Publishers Weekly
Series
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3 primary booksA Land Fit for Heroes
A Land Fit for Heroes is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 1862 with contributions by Richard K. Morgan.
Reviews
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I'm torn about this one. There was a lot of really neat stuff later on, but I had to go past a lot of stuff that felt like a twelve year old trying to be edgy and provocative. I don't mind modern cursing in my fantasy, but this felt like a square trying to fit in by saying fuck every other word.
Being a huge fan of The Black Man - probably one of my favorite scifi novels ever - I was quite disappointed with Morgan's fantasy and have quite a long list of grievances. First of all, the lack of originality - there's nothing really new here, and it reminded me not necessarily of other books, but a lot of RPG games (perhaps Morgan is a gamer like myself). Second, and probably the worst, is the lack of credibility: the characters sometimes act in certain ways not because their inner will asks for it, but because of exterior causes: the author's need to move the story to his chosen path. What annoyed me most was the main character himself, Ringil: he is supposed to be a hardened, fucked-up war veteran in his 30s (I think, maybe late 20s), but all the time he behaves like a 16 yo brat, with 16 yo passions (mainly fighting his parents. Really, true war veterans have other inner demons than... their mum and dad). Some other characters (Seethlaw and Arctech) also behave nonsensically - and at times I felt the world itself (the society) doesn't make sense. For example MINOR SPOILER> 4000 years before, the Kiriath invaded the planet in scifi ships and fought the magical Aldrain... and now the world is dominated by Medieval humans. When the hell did the humans show up and took over the world from much more advanced races? And... how??? It makes no sense, both in an evolutionary way and a historical one. END OF MINOR SPOILER.
Two other things bothered me: unlike many other readers, I did not feel Ringil's homosexuality to be unnecessary - it did explain correctly some of his anger and complexes. And there are only 2 gay sex scenes, so that controversy is actually way exaggerated by some. But why is a second character out of 3 (main characters) also... a lesbian? Isn't it really just a show off from the author?
The second thing is the writing. Most of the book, Morgan writes fast pacing, good straight on and fluently, but quite often he tries to be artistic and he fails badly with overlong, stuttered over complicated phrases.
In a more neutral observation, I felt the world building was good and captivating, but under-developed. I hope it is developed more in the rest of the series.
On the good side, though, it is not a bad book. It is a great read for a summer (or winter) vacation - entertaining, fast, action packed, with some well written characters (Dragonbane, Jhiril and, mostly, Ringil himself), with a dark-grim world, in general with good writing and an extraordinary end twist I did not foresee and I utterly loved.
Highly recommended for Morgan's own fans (but with lowered expectations compared to his scifi) and for Abercrombie's fans (feels very similar to his books). Also, in some ways, it is a good choice for the Witcher fans (mostly those of the games, which are darker and more cynical than Sapkowski's books), because Ringil is in many ways a Geralt - the book even starts with a typical Witcher mission.
So, is it good? Yes, but not very, and not memorable. Is it bad? only in some ways, that just jade its appeal, but not really spoil it. Will I read the sequels? Yes, I definitely will.
And, you ask, is it too gay? Definitely not :)
