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Ringil, the hero of the bloody slaughter at Gallows Gap, is a legend to all who don't know him and a twisted degenerate to those that do. A veteren of the wars against the lizards, he makes a living from telling credulous travelers of his exploits. Until one day he is pulled away from his life and into the depths of the Empire's slave trade, where he will discover a secret infinitely more frightening than the trade in lives.Archeth-pragmatist, cynic, engineer, and the last of her race-is show more called from her work at the whim of the most powerful man in the Empire and sent to its farthest reaches to investigate a demonic incursion against the Empire's borders.Egar Dragonbane, steppe-nomad and one-time fighter for the Empire, finds himself entangled in a small-town battle between common sense and religious fervor. But out in the wider world there is something on the move far more alien than any of his tribe's petty gods.Anti-social, anti-heroic, and decidedly irritated, all three of them are about to be sent unwillingly forth into a vicious, vigorous, and thoroughly unsuspecting fantasy world-called upon by an Empire that owes them everything and gave them nothing. show lessTags
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imyril Two very different authors tackle fantasy stereotypes and subvert them with glee. Abercrombie focuses on antiheroes - the coward, the torturer, the berserker - whereas Morgan takes more traditional heroes and then soaks them in noir. The results are delightfully wicked, blood-soaked and utterly readable.
dClauzel De la fantaisie noire, avec des sorciers à la volonté impérialiste, des guerres menées par des mercenaires, des révoltes opprimées dans le sang, et un sentiment éternel que de toute façon au final rien ne pourra changer pour le mieux, donc autant essayer quand même.
Member Reviews
Into every life a book that destroys the rating system must come--The Steel Remains is leading for 2016. Naomi and I were looking for a buddy read, and this was on both of our TBR lists. It was on mine because I generally enjoyed Morgan's science fiction Kovacs series. Still, I've been off on fantasy lately, unless it's the genre-bending type. Once I and heard that two of the leads were gay, I was curious to see how that would play out.
The Steel Remains opens in a scene familiar to many; an aging, somewhat slovenly former war hero being drafted into helping a scholarly friend. The setting seems solidly medieval, with intriguing hints of strangeness encroaching into inhabited lands. His peace doesn't last long before his mother appears, show more drafting him into a search for a cousin sold into slavery to pay her husband's debts. Ringil reluctantly acquiesces, realizing he misses some of civilization's perks. Before long, we jump to the perspective of Egar, leader of a group of plains tribesman. He too needs to fight off strange beasties, but his manner of managing the political fallout irritates. One more jump, this time into the perspective of Archeth, a mixed-race Kiriath who stayed behind after her people abandoned this world. The Emperor send her to investigate the destruction of a seaside town. It becomes apparent that the three fought together in 'the Dragon War' about ten years ago and have become tired of both fighting and politics. Eventually, their storylines and the strange things that are going bump in the night come together in a somewhat predictable fashion.
Characterization is very much of the anti-hero variety, with our battle-scarred heroes bitter at how they have been treated by their people. Unfortunately, because the narrative shifts between the three in third-person limited, complexity is slow to develop. Both the men were of the hard-living school where down time from fighting is spent having sex. Although I wanted to like Ringil, I felt mostly he was stuck in an adolescent stage of angry petulance towards almost everyone he interacts with. Strangely, for all that his mom supposedly motivates him to return, he barely talks with her and then spends his time reaffirming his disgust with everything in his city and his old home. Flashbacks to his friend's death by torture and to being raped in school were strangely emotionless from his angle. I don't know; there's this weird emotional distance where perhaps the reader is supposed to infer that his rage comes from trauma. I just don't feel like I'm in his head enough, except that he's always "suddenly angry" at almost everyone he interacts with. I feel like the only emotion I've seen is anger or bitter humor. Maybe Morgan has nailed the character type. Egar was flatly unlikeable. Archeth and her obsession with the ships of her people was the most interesting character and scenario to me, but as she had the least time it was hard to be invested only in her.
Plotting felt standard fantasy. Although Ringil is ostensibly pulled back to the city to look for his cousin, his route in doing so is so circuitous that I began to wonder if he was looking at all. Egar's situation is interrupted by the plotting of a priest and intercession with the gods. Again, Archeth's storyline felt the most interesting, with personality-laden remnants of the ship Helmsmen giving enticing hints about space-travel. However, when Ringil ended up in a parallel universe/fairy world, I lost interest fast. Too many fantasy tropes, too little explanation. By the last quarter of the book, it became clear that the plot wasn't each hero and their individual issues exactly, but that each issue was a piece of the whole Rising Of The Dark and the Plot To Take Over the World. Honestly, I was kind of disappointed that it took so long to gel. There's also a mystical part about the 'gods' working to stop this from occurring that ends up just being confusing.
The mood of the story was dark and bloody, leaping from fight to fight whether verbal or physical, seemly interrupted only by angry sex. I don't know that there's any joy or tenderness to be found in this book, although there's plenty of guilt, anger, humiliation and bloody death. Morgan describes fight scenes quite well, for those that enjoy a sense of blow-by-blow action it should amply satisfy. Word style is off-putting; Morgan occasionally has a turn of phrase that requires one to pay close attention in order to understand. He sprinkles in worlds particular to the world without much explanation. It generally works, but then it makes inclusion of words like 'faggot' disorienting. 'Flandrijn,' 'krinzanz,' 'fireship,' 'dwenda' all pop in and out of conversation while epithets like 'shit,' 'cunt' and 'fuck' are frequently used as well, a strange mix of imaginary and vernacular. One of the things I loved about the Kovacs series is the inventive world-building, and I think that is one area his writing talent shows. Unfortunately, I felt it was missing here.
I just could not enjoy it; there was too little that felt redemptive or that I could empathize with, in contrast to my reaction to Joe Abercrombie's book anti-heros in The First Law series. I will note that I found it both more cohesive and intriguing than the Prince of Thorns, so if you were interested in either of those series, you might enjoy this. Further, my reading buddy Naomi liked it a great deal. She was able to give it the careful attention that I couldn't due to discomfort with the violence and the emotion of it. Many thanks to her for the read and the discussion!
For me, this was a strictly one star book out of mood--I didn't enjoy it at all due to the violent, angry mood. However, it was not a one-star writing level--in that I'd give it three stars. I won't be continuing the series. show less
The Steel Remains opens in a scene familiar to many; an aging, somewhat slovenly former war hero being drafted into helping a scholarly friend. The setting seems solidly medieval, with intriguing hints of strangeness encroaching into inhabited lands. His peace doesn't last long before his mother appears, show more drafting him into a search for a cousin sold into slavery to pay her husband's debts. Ringil reluctantly acquiesces, realizing he misses some of civilization's perks. Before long, we jump to the perspective of Egar, leader of a group of plains tribesman. He too needs to fight off strange beasties, but his manner of managing the political fallout irritates. One more jump, this time into the perspective of Archeth, a mixed-race Kiriath who stayed behind after her people abandoned this world. The Emperor send her to investigate the destruction of a seaside town. It becomes apparent that the three fought together in 'the Dragon War' about ten years ago and have become tired of both fighting and politics. Eventually, their storylines and the strange things that are going bump in the night come together in a somewhat predictable fashion.
Characterization is very much of the anti-hero variety, with our battle-scarred heroes bitter at how they have been treated by their people. Unfortunately, because the narrative shifts between the three in third-person limited, complexity is slow to develop. Both the men were of the hard-living school where down time from fighting is spent having sex. Although I wanted to like Ringil, I felt mostly he was stuck in an adolescent stage of angry petulance towards almost everyone he interacts with. Strangely, for all that his mom supposedly motivates him to return, he barely talks with her and then spends his time reaffirming his disgust with everything in his city and his old home. Flashbacks to his friend's death by torture and to being raped in school were strangely emotionless from his angle. I don't know; there's this weird emotional distance where perhaps the reader is supposed to infer that his rage comes from trauma. I just don't feel like I'm in his head enough, except that he's always "suddenly angry" at almost everyone he interacts with. I feel like the only emotion I've seen is anger or bitter humor. Maybe Morgan has nailed the character type. Egar was flatly unlikeable. Archeth and her obsession with the ships of her people was the most interesting character and scenario to me, but as she had the least time it was hard to be invested only in her.
Plotting felt standard fantasy. Although Ringil is ostensibly pulled back to the city to look for his cousin, his route in doing so is so circuitous that I began to wonder if he was looking at all. Egar's situation is interrupted by the plotting of a priest and intercession with the gods. Again, Archeth's storyline felt the most interesting, with personality-laden remnants of the ship Helmsmen giving enticing hints about space-travel. However, when Ringil ended up in a parallel universe/fairy world, I lost interest fast. Too many fantasy tropes, too little explanation. By the last quarter of the book, it became clear that the plot wasn't each hero and their individual issues exactly, but that each issue was a piece of the whole Rising Of The Dark and the Plot To Take Over the World. Honestly, I was kind of disappointed that it took so long to gel. There's also a mystical part about the 'gods' working to stop this from occurring that ends up just being confusing.
The mood of the story was dark and bloody, leaping from fight to fight whether verbal or physical, seemly interrupted only by angry sex. I don't know that there's any joy or tenderness to be found in this book, although there's plenty of guilt, anger, humiliation and bloody death. Morgan describes fight scenes quite well, for those that enjoy a sense of blow-by-blow action it should amply satisfy. Word style is off-putting; Morgan occasionally has a turn of phrase that requires one to pay close attention in order to understand. He sprinkles in worlds particular to the world without much explanation. It generally works, but then it makes inclusion of words like 'faggot' disorienting. 'Flandrijn,' 'krinzanz,' 'fireship,' 'dwenda' all pop in and out of conversation while epithets like 'shit,' 'cunt' and 'fuck' are frequently used as well, a strange mix of imaginary and vernacular. One of the things I loved about the Kovacs series is the inventive world-building, and I think that is one area his writing talent shows. Unfortunately, I felt it was missing here.
I just could not enjoy it; there was too little that felt redemptive or that I could empathize with, in contrast to my reaction to Joe Abercrombie's book anti-heros in The First Law series. I will note that I found it both more cohesive and intriguing than the Prince of Thorns, so if you were interested in either of those series, you might enjoy this. Further, my reading buddy Naomi liked it a great deal. She was able to give it the careful attention that I couldn't due to discomfort with the violence and the emotion of it. Many thanks to her for the read and the discussion!
For me, this was a strictly one star book out of mood--I didn't enjoy it at all due to the violent, angry mood. However, it was not a one-star writing level--in that I'd give it three stars. I won't be continuing the series. show less
I love this book, but I understand those who aren't as enamoured of it as I am. It takes a while to get into, and the plot is slow and convoluted and sometimes confusing. The world-building is spare, but what is presented is fascinating, and a nice change from other fantasy novels where every tiny detail of the scenery is explained. It took me a while to become emotionally invested in the characters, but once I did, I was hooked. However, if you can't like the characters, particularly Ringil and Archeth, you probably won't like this book. There are lots of intriguing little details (and I wanted to find out more about the sci-fi-tech elements of the landscape) but the book's strength comes from its characters and their choices. I love show more strung-out, brilliant Archeth, and the completely messed up Ringil. The characters are definitely the products of their environments, and come off as completely human (even when they aren't). They make terrible decisions sometimes, but at least they are doing something. The world they exist in is bleak and tyrannical, and while the characters are heroes, they aren't exactly good. It's grimdark fantasy, and definitely has some disturbing scenes, but it's very much a worthwhile read. show less
Richard K Morgan’s The Steel Remains is gritty, bloody, violent, and explicit. It’s 400 pages but reads fast, especially once all the serious dying starts.
In the first half, I found his prose a little florid; his descriptions a little overly dramatic. It’s not just the action that is gritty— it’s also the scenery, the clothing, the smells and sounds… Morgan spends quite a bit of time building up his three characters, crafting lifetimes of detail for each one. Sometimes, the detail became tedious.
I got a little lost in all of it, and later— as conspiracies mounted and events spiraled out of control— I didn’t have as firm as grasp on plot as I did on Ringil’s internalized anger, Igar’s detachment from his cultural show more home, and Archeth’s lost sense of self.
However, I loved the action. And all that detail does contribute to keeping the characters real as people even as they swing swords and chop up bad guys. At the halfway mark, the book ramps up a whole notch. Which is really kinda amazing! The first half may be slow, but it is by no means boring. There was never a moment where I was left wondering who was holding what sword or which fist punched whose lights out. I’m still not clear on what exactly everyone was fighting for, but I totally followed when everyone died.
But let’s address the pink elephant in the room shall we? GAY SEX.
Descriptions of this book (see above, add “profane”, “dark”, “twisted”, etc.) could be used to underscore the violence of the story, yes. But frankly, in a lot of reviews, I got the sense that it was more about the gayness. Instead of saying “hey this book is SOOOO gay y’all”, a reviewer will say “shockingly explicit” and “not for the faint of heart” and everyone tries to act like they are not thinking about all that gay sex they just read.
Yes, Ringil is gay. AND he has sex! AND he kills everyone, with the gutting and the garroting and the guts spilling! It is both explicitly gay and explicitly violent! Ringil’s gayness comes up early, and often, and usually quite violently. I found it pitch perfect, to a tee.
Morgan has crafted a world that rings a lot of bells for our own — where being a hero and being gay are seen as mutually exclusive. Except in our society, we don’t go around gutting people with our alien-steel swords for every homophobic slur. I certainly didn’t think The Steel Remains contains some kind of subliminal liberal agenda that bashes religion, raises taxes, and makes Ronald Reagan weep. It’s part and parcel of Ringil’s environment to be constantly confronted about his sexuality by all and sundry around him, and to be violently angry, lewd and/or shocking in return.
I guess, what I am saying is - the book is not apologetic about its violence or its gayness and I don’t think the reader (or the reviewer) should be either. And if you want to pussy-foot around the violence or the gay, then I’m not sure you should read this book. It’s too good for you.
Bottom line: Morgan writes sincere, character-driven action. Often with fantasy novels, it becomes all about the tropes or stereotypes of the genre— the epic hero on his hero’s journey to the heroic end, defeating villains, talking to dragons, and saving princesses on the way. And with noir, its often the just the shock factor. Just how violent can we make the third death in this chapter? Just how low can we drag the protagonist with this fifth betrayal? Instead, Morgan has three characters all on the brink, in a world itself on the brink, in a way that is both dramatically exciting and emotionally interesting. show less
In the first half, I found his prose a little florid; his descriptions a little overly dramatic. It’s not just the action that is gritty— it’s also the scenery, the clothing, the smells and sounds… Morgan spends quite a bit of time building up his three characters, crafting lifetimes of detail for each one. Sometimes, the detail became tedious.
I got a little lost in all of it, and later— as conspiracies mounted and events spiraled out of control— I didn’t have as firm as grasp on plot as I did on Ringil’s internalized anger, Igar’s detachment from his cultural show more home, and Archeth’s lost sense of self.
However, I loved the action. And all that detail does contribute to keeping the characters real as people even as they swing swords and chop up bad guys. At the halfway mark, the book ramps up a whole notch. Which is really kinda amazing! The first half may be slow, but it is by no means boring. There was never a moment where I was left wondering who was holding what sword or which fist punched whose lights out. I’m still not clear on what exactly everyone was fighting for, but I totally followed when everyone died.
But let’s address the pink elephant in the room shall we? GAY SEX.
Descriptions of this book (see above, add “profane”, “dark”, “twisted”, etc.) could be used to underscore the violence of the story, yes. But frankly, in a lot of reviews, I got the sense that it was more about the gayness. Instead of saying “hey this book is SOOOO gay y’all”, a reviewer will say “shockingly explicit” and “not for the faint of heart” and everyone tries to act like they are not thinking about all that gay sex they just read.
Yes, Ringil is gay. AND he has sex! AND he kills everyone, with the gutting and the garroting and the guts spilling! It is both explicitly gay and explicitly violent! Ringil’s gayness comes up early, and often, and usually quite violently. I found it pitch perfect, to a tee.
Morgan has crafted a world that rings a lot of bells for our own — where being a hero and being gay are seen as mutually exclusive. Except in our society, we don’t go around gutting people with our alien-steel swords for every homophobic slur. I certainly didn’t think The Steel Remains contains some kind of subliminal liberal agenda that bashes religion, raises taxes, and makes Ronald Reagan weep. It’s part and parcel of Ringil’s environment to be constantly confronted about his sexuality by all and sundry around him, and to be violently angry, lewd and/or shocking in return.
I guess, what I am saying is - the book is not apologetic about its violence or its gayness and I don’t think the reader (or the reviewer) should be either. And if you want to pussy-foot around the violence or the gay, then I’m not sure you should read this book. It’s too good for you.
Bottom line: Morgan writes sincere, character-driven action. Often with fantasy novels, it becomes all about the tropes or stereotypes of the genre— the epic hero on his hero’s journey to the heroic end, defeating villains, talking to dragons, and saving princesses on the way. And with noir, its often the just the shock factor. Just how violent can we make the third death in this chapter? Just how low can we drag the protagonist with this fifth betrayal? Instead, Morgan has three characters all on the brink, in a world itself on the brink, in a way that is both dramatically exciting and emotionally interesting. show less
It's not terribly often a book makes it onto the tiny list of "things I loved like breathing" on the first go-around. Usually it takes a couple of re-reads before I realize that yes, this is one of them, this is a book I'll tell everyone I know to read with all the passion of a newly besotted lover.
This was an exception to the standard.
I sit here basking in the afterglow of this book, counting down the seconds until tomorrow when I can pick up the next one, and probably in no more than the four days this one took, I'll be fiending for the third. After that is something I'm not really ready to contemplate, which is parting ways with Gil and company, and this fascinating place that Morgan has conjured for us. This is the tl;dr. I loved show more this book and I hope you will too.
What's to love? Well, a lot. We can start broad and get smaller.
Let's touch on the elephant in the room, first: the genre. Grim-dark fantasy kind of has a rep for trying too hard, and frankly a lot of it does exactly that, leaving you rolling your eyes at how "edgy" everything has to be, picking your way through prose littered with absolutely unnecessary swears. Does this book have prose littered with swears? Oh you betcha. Are they unnecessary? Maybe sometimes, but mostly not. They suit the mood. Where it really shines in the genre is simply by not trying too hard. The story is what it is, it doesn't feel like anything has been tacked on just to shock or appall you.
The prose is not overly flowery, but Morgan does have a way with words. The action scenes are frankly my favorite out of any book I've ever read. Usually in books these are parts I skim, because it's difficult to paint a clear enough picture for me to imagine it, and without that they're pretty dull. Morgan makes them interesting and exciting, without getting too overly into all the horrible details. This is grimdark fantasy, so they're present, but he doesn't overdo it.
Morgan's world-building is top-notch, in my opinion. He gives you a lot without telling you what it is, and then slowly unveils details and information in a natural way. You are left confused at first, and it gives you sense that you should know, because everyone else seems to, and this actually works really, really well. You feel like a traveler in a strange place, waiting for things that make perfect sense to the locals to come clear to you. Since you're only an observer you can't ask; you have to wait and watch for all the pieces to come together.
Morgan is also not afraid to sprinkle a little of his scifi roots in his fantasy, and this is another thing that I think works very well. There's touches of realism in unexpected places, like characters' awareness that time marches on and that this medieval fantasy lifestyle cannot persist forever. Technology will change, swords will be outmoded. Too often a fantasy novel resists these things, as if afraid that bringing them to light will spoil the escapism. It could, but Morgan handles it deftly, and instead we are given the vision of a place that doesn't just exist in the time of the story, but will continue to exist after it's done.
Plot is not something I usually give much attention to in books, and that's kind of a good thing here, because the plot in this one flirts with anticlimactic. It's very clear that this is just setting the stage for where the story goes later, without having to one-up something tremendous that happened at the very beginning. It starts slow, and doesn't really pick up the pace until about 3/4ths in, by which point, well, time to wrap things up. I'm okay with that, not everyone will be.
For me the plot is a vehicle to deliver interesting characters and dialogue, and this is definitely my favorite part of the book. Dialogue is very well done, and not once did I have to roll my eyes because people don't talk like that. There's not too much of it, and not too little. Morgan managed to make it just right.
Every character you meet clearly has a past, and you're not always privy to that, because hey, you just met these people. They have their own inside jokes and their own relationship dynamics, which just like the world building, are doled out to you in natural pieces, uncovered through watching characters interact with each other, the world around them, and often themselves. There's clearly more to dig up, and that's one of the aspects of the sequels that I'm looking forward to most.
Oh, and Gil is gay, and while nobody else seems to be okay with that, he is, and that's really what matters. Having a gay male MC in mainstream fantasy is a bold move, and I was ecstatic to see it handled so well. Gil is definitely not a stereotype, and he won't hesitate to make anyone suffer for trying to paint him as one. show less
This was an exception to the standard.
I sit here basking in the afterglow of this book, counting down the seconds until tomorrow when I can pick up the next one, and probably in no more than the four days this one took, I'll be fiending for the third. After that is something I'm not really ready to contemplate, which is parting ways with Gil and company, and this fascinating place that Morgan has conjured for us. This is the tl;dr. I loved show more this book and I hope you will too.
What's to love? Well, a lot. We can start broad and get smaller.
Let's touch on the elephant in the room, first: the genre. Grim-dark fantasy kind of has a rep for trying too hard, and frankly a lot of it does exactly that, leaving you rolling your eyes at how "edgy" everything has to be, picking your way through prose littered with absolutely unnecessary swears. Does this book have prose littered with swears? Oh you betcha. Are they unnecessary? Maybe sometimes, but mostly not. They suit the mood. Where it really shines in the genre is simply by not trying too hard. The story is what it is, it doesn't feel like anything has been tacked on just to shock or appall you.
The prose is not overly flowery, but Morgan does have a way with words. The action scenes are frankly my favorite out of any book I've ever read. Usually in books these are parts I skim, because it's difficult to paint a clear enough picture for me to imagine it, and without that they're pretty dull. Morgan makes them interesting and exciting, without getting too overly into all the horrible details. This is grimdark fantasy, so they're present, but he doesn't overdo it.
Morgan's world-building is top-notch, in my opinion. He gives you a lot without telling you what it is, and then slowly unveils details and information in a natural way. You are left confused at first, and it gives you sense that you should know, because everyone else seems to, and this actually works really, really well. You feel like a traveler in a strange place, waiting for things that make perfect sense to the locals to come clear to you. Since you're only an observer you can't ask; you have to wait and watch for all the pieces to come together.
Morgan is also not afraid to sprinkle a little of his scifi roots in his fantasy, and this is another thing that I think works very well. There's touches of realism in unexpected places, like characters' awareness that time marches on and that this medieval fantasy lifestyle cannot persist forever. Technology will change, swords will be outmoded. Too often a fantasy novel resists these things, as if afraid that bringing them to light will spoil the escapism. It could, but Morgan handles it deftly, and instead we are given the vision of a place that doesn't just exist in the time of the story, but will continue to exist after it's done.
Plot is not something I usually give much attention to in books, and that's kind of a good thing here, because the plot in this one flirts with anticlimactic. It's very clear that this is just setting the stage for where the story goes later, without having to one-up something tremendous that happened at the very beginning. It starts slow, and doesn't really pick up the pace until about 3/4ths in, by which point, well, time to wrap things up. I'm okay with that, not everyone will be.
For me the plot is a vehicle to deliver interesting characters and dialogue, and this is definitely my favorite part of the book. Dialogue is very well done, and not once did I have to roll my eyes because people don't talk like that. There's not too much of it, and not too little. Morgan managed to make it just right.
Every character you meet clearly has a past, and you're not always privy to that, because hey, you just met these people. They have their own inside jokes and their own relationship dynamics, which just like the world building, are doled out to you in natural pieces, uncovered through watching characters interact with each other, the world around them, and often themselves. There's clearly more to dig up, and that's one of the aspects of the sequels that I'm looking forward to most.
Oh, and Gil is gay, and while nobody else seems to be okay with that, he is, and that's really what matters. Having a gay male MC in mainstream fantasy is a bold move, and I was ecstatic to see it handled so well. Gil is definitely not a stereotype, and he won't hesitate to make anyone suffer for trying to paint him as one. show less
A miserable book that mistakes that mistakes being dark and violent for being serious. Absolutely every awful thing you ca imagine -- rape, child murder, torture, religious violence, the list goes on -- they're all here on every page. There is no escape from it, no momentary lightening of mood.
This is not to say fantasy novels can't be dark and depressing, but it can reach a saturation point where it overwhelms the novel.
This is not to say fantasy novels can't be dark and depressing, but it can reach a saturation point where it overwhelms the novel.
Basically, this book takes high fantasy tropes and screws with them. This is not a parody; it's not so facile. But the author has clearly read and loved a great deal of fantasy in his life, and knows the basic stories well. And when he grew tired of the easy answers and Light vs Dark epic battles, he created this.
The elves have left Middle Earth--but they were actually aliens, driven half-mad by their flight across the stars, and the half-Elven Princess they leave behind them is a black lesbian with a drug problem. (I found Arceth to be the most fascinating character of all. Her eldritch family taught her modern concepts of morality, but she's been stuck in a feudal society for hundreds of years--her high-minded ideals are beginning to show more wear thin.)
The "elves" also left behind a magical sword, wielded by war hero Gil. Like many war heroes in fantasy novels written lately, Gil has become a washed-up mercenary, only pulled back into the Epic Battle for Civilization by the danger posed to a long-lost female loved one. But uh, Gil is gay, and his main resistance to helping is that the *last* Epic Battle turned into a slaughter of civilians, and his city tortured his lover to death before his eyes.
His former sword-brother, the barbarian Egar, is also pulled into the fray. Egar is a great play on the usual "savage tribe" trope.
This book is not a criticism of High Fantasy--it takes it to the next level. The queer characters, the characters of color, the atheists, the questions of consent and privilege, the logical next step for a country that's just defeated their Big Foe...Morgan uses all of it. And the adventure is better for it. show less
The elves have left Middle Earth--but they were actually aliens, driven half-mad by their flight across the stars, and the half-Elven Princess they leave behind them is a black lesbian with a drug problem. (I found Arceth to be the most fascinating character of all. Her eldritch family taught her modern concepts of morality, but she's been stuck in a feudal society for hundreds of years--her high-minded ideals are beginning to show more wear thin.)
The "elves" also left behind a magical sword, wielded by war hero Gil. Like many war heroes in fantasy novels written lately, Gil has become a washed-up mercenary, only pulled back into the Epic Battle for Civilization by the danger posed to a long-lost female loved one. But uh, Gil is gay, and his main resistance to helping is that the *last* Epic Battle turned into a slaughter of civilians, and his city tortured his lover to death before his eyes.
His former sword-brother, the barbarian Egar, is also pulled into the fray. Egar is a great play on the usual "savage tribe" trope.
This book is not a criticism of High Fantasy--it takes it to the next level. The queer characters, the characters of color, the atheists, the questions of consent and privilege, the logical next step for a country that's just defeated their Big Foe...Morgan uses all of it. And the adventure is better for it. show less
che potenziale!
tre protagonisti così promettenti! veterani decorati, eroi di una guerra incredibile contro una razza rettiliana, ognuno con il proprio diverso bagaglio di traumi, shock culturali, abbandoni e tradimenti:
una giovane semi-aliena di 200(?) anni
un nobile reietto
un selvaggio delle steppe
così tanta diversità in cui scavare profondamente...e invece no!!
queste tre persone così diverse pensano nello stesso modo, agiscono nello stesso modo, parlano nello stesso modo e cioè come un adolescente meschino ottuso e volgare
poteva essere un capolavoro ed è solo una cialtronata di 1400 pagine, fanculo!!!
e a proposito di cialtroneria:
concludere (ripetutamente) un azione che non si sa come chiudere con "e dopo tutto si fece buio" show more è veramente da cialtroni!!!!!
PS: copierò questo commento su ogni libro della trilogia perchè proprio come non c'è nessuna differenziazione ne crescita nei protagonisti non ce n'è nei tre libri
ancora fanculo! show less
tre protagonisti così promettenti! veterani decorati, eroi di una guerra incredibile contro una razza rettiliana, ognuno con il proprio diverso bagaglio di traumi, shock culturali, abbandoni e tradimenti:
una giovane semi-aliena di 200(?) anni
un nobile reietto
un selvaggio delle steppe
così tanta diversità in cui scavare profondamente...e invece no!!
queste tre persone così diverse pensano nello stesso modo, agiscono nello stesso modo, parlano nello stesso modo e cioè come un adolescente meschino ottuso e volgare
poteva essere un capolavoro ed è solo una cialtronata di 1400 pagine, fanculo!!!
e a proposito di cialtroneria:
concludere (ripetutamente) un azione che non si sa come chiudere con "e dopo tutto si fece buio" show more è veramente da cialtroni!!!!!
PS: copierò questo commento su ogni libro della trilogia perchè proprio come non c'è nessuna differenziazione ne crescita nei protagonisti non ce n'è nei tre libri
ancora fanculo! show less
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- Canonical title
- The Steel Remains
- Original title
- The Steel Remains
- Original publication date
- 2008; 2010; 2009
- People/Characters
- Ringil Eskiath; Egar the Dragonbane; Archeth Indamaninarmal
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- Gallows Water; Earth
- Epigraph
- 'I think you look on death as your friend,' she murmured. 'That is a strange friend for a young man to have.'
'The only faithful friend in this world,' he said bitterly. 'Death is always sure to be at your side.'
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Poul Anderson
The Broken Sword - Dedication
- This book is for my father, John Morgan, for carrying me past the seaweed.
- First words
- When a man you know to be of sound mind tells you his recently deceased mother has just tried to climb in his bedroom window and eat him, you only have two basic options.
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- "Forget the law. It isn't going to help. They'll cite it where it suits them, ignore it where it doesn't. They're clerics, Archeth. They spend their whole fucking lives selectively interpreting textual authority to adv... (show all)antage."
Emperor Jhiral to Archeth, p.325 - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)He waited, patiently, for the flicker of blue fire to show itself again, and for whatever else might come with it.
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- Abercrombie, Joe; Erikson, Steven
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