The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan

[Werthead]

A review of one of the most eagerly-awaited books of the year:

Richard Morgan erupted onto the SF scene six years ago with his blistering debut novel Altered Carbon, a hard-edged thriller set in the 26th Century. Morgan has made his name with intelligent, intriguing ideas about science, technology and sociology, based around unflinchingly violent protagonists and often withering analyses of the human condition. The Steel Remains is his first foray into fantasy, the first book of a trilogy with the unofficial name A Land Fit For Heroes (which I assume is ironic, because this land is very definitely not fit for heroes, although it desperately needs them).

This world is a harsh, dirty and grim place. Some years ago a race of sentient lizards - the Scaled Folk - crossed the western ocean from a dying homeland and attempted to conquer the lands of humanity. The forces of humanity - somewhat reluctantly - banded together under the leadership of the Yhelteth Empire and their Kiriath allies and destroyed the invasion at great cost. After four thousand years amongst humanity, the Kiriath finally abandoned this world, fleeing in their vast fireships back through the subterrenean portals leading to other worlds. Humanity has been left to lick its wounds and rebuild.

Ringil Eskiath is the famed hero of Gallows Gap, who led the heroic defence that finally broke the back of the Scaled Folk's invasion. However, his temper and his sexuality have led to him being outcast from his homeland and he now makes his living as a glorified tourist attraction, showing gawping spectators around the legendary battlefield. However, when his cousin is sold into slavery, he is called home by his mother and asked to rescue her. Ringil's journey leads him back into the shadow of his old life and to the realisation of a devastating new threat that is arising now the one thing it feared, the Kiriath, is gone.

Archeth is a Kiriath half-breed, left behind when her people left. Now she serves the Emperor as his advisor on Kiriath technology, but her presence is anathema to the increasingly fanatical religious leaders and she survives on the Emperor's sufference. The devastation of a coastal town leads Archeth's research to the horrific conclusion that an ancient force, powerful beyond measure, may be poised to return to this world.

Out on the windswept steppes, the barbarian warrior Egar finds life back among the clans unbelievably dull after he fought for the Empire as a mercenary, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ringil at Gallows Gap, where Egar earned the name Dragonbane. When Egar's position in the clan comes under threat, he is rescued by a most unlikely patron and whisked into a battle he barely comprehends, alongside some old allies...

The Steel Remains is a pretty dark, full-on and - to use a cliche, gritty. Those easily offended best stay away, especially if you found GRRM too explicit for your tastes as Morgan goes way, way past anything that GRRM has ever done in a book. The violence is visceral, bloody and painstakingly described. The sex is full-on and explicit. To be honest, the levels of sex and violence are somewhat higher than the plot demands. Whilst Black Man/Thirteen was similarly explicit, at least there it could be said that it was only done when necessary for the plot. The Steel Remains is, at heart, a gratuitous story which I suspect a lot of people will be put-off by.

Those who can stomach those elements will find all of those things that have made Morgan one of the most striking authors of his generation: deft characterisation, increasingly accomplished worldbuilding and a fiendish plot which seems to dance out of reach just as you think you've got a handle on it, replaced by something even more cunning than you previously thought possible. Here Morgan takes on of the biggest cliches in fantasy history and turns it on its head in a manner which is probably not quite as original as he thinks (unless he's read Scott Bakker recently) but nevertheless is deftly executed, leading to a powerful final scene that leaves the reader demanding more.

The Steel Remains (****) is dark, brooding, bloody, visceral and absolutely takes no prisoners. But the story it is telling is compelling, the characters are well-defined and the world throws up some refreshingly new ideas and concepts (some heavily influenced by Morgan's SF background). Some may find it all a bit too much, some may find this world too full of pain and darkness to actually be worth saving, but amidst the gloom Morgan carefully plants a few seeds of hope and optimism which the reader can cling to.

The Steel Remains will be published on 21 August 2008 by Gollancz in the UK. A US release from Del Rey is apparently on the cards, but no date has been set as yet.

 

[Coolhand]

Awesome!
Thanks for the preview Werthead! I've adored Morgan's SF novels so I'm very eager to read his take on Fantasy. I agree that his work does tend to deal with violence and sex in a very, VERY graphic way, but USUALLY I've found it to be justified or at least not so UNJUSTIFIED that it's put me off the book. Hopefully, he'll stay on the right side of the knife-edge with his new stuff.
Roll on August, is all I can say.

 

[Culhwch]

Well, I finished reading this last night, and I must say it didn't do a whole lot for me. If it wasn't as short as it was, at three-fifty pages, I'd have definitely given it away and not bothered finishing. I'd definitely agree that Morgan goes too far with some of the explicit content. I don't have an issue with that as long as it serves the story, but much of it here really doesn't. For mine, lots of sex and pain and torture does not equal gritty and realistic, as seems to be the current line of thought.

While I thought the world Morgan created was an interesting one full of potential, I thought it was fairly poorly realised. The length of the book didn't help there, of course, but there was a lot that was fairly quickly glossed over. It was hard to get a solid grasp of the geography or the history of the lands. His descriptions seemed to me to be lacking, too - most of the time I never really got much of a visual picture of anything he was describing beyond inferred basics.

The contemporary tone and voice drove me absolutely batty, particularly in the dialogue. I'm sure there are folks who'll embrace that, but nothing dragged me out of this supposed fantastic realm quicker or more regularly than a tacked on, '..., man.' at the end of sentences. I'm amazed a, 'No way, dude!' never cropped up.

And the final straw - the Gollancz edition I read must be the sloppiestly copy-edited work currently commercially available. I know that's (not necessarily) the author's fault, but it really was pushing the bounds of professionality. I would say on average that there was a dropped quotation mark every two pages, if not more. Add to that numerous mispelt words and names (one gentleman named Eril was memorably refered to as 'Eli!' at one point) and it didn't leave one with a good impression.

In summary, I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[Connavar]

Culhwch im a like RM fan so i wouldnt steer away from this book since i bought when it came out without waiting for word of mouth or reviews but i just have to say the big problem with fantasy or rather more epic fantasy that people expect a brick everytime....

350 is never short in any genre but a certain subgenre in fantasy.

I would lose some respect for RM if he thought writing 800 pages is what he must do.

 

[Culhwch]

Certainly three-hundred and fifty pages isn't short, by any means, though it wasn't the densest three-fifty pager I've seen either - even though it wasn't really drawing me on and I still got through it relatively quickly is a testament to that fact. I don't have a problem with short. I like short. It means I can finish it before it's due back to the library. Believe me when I say I don't expect or want a brick everytime...

I don't think it would have been improved by being any longer (indeed, some scenes could have been easily cut), because in the end the short-coming was not in the length but in Morgan's style. This book is as long as Morgan needed it to be to tell his story the way he wanted to, and I respect that - I just don't think he did a particularly good job of it. That's a purely personal thing, though, and says more about me as a reader and what I prefer. I've read shorter books that do a far better job of taking me to another, beautifully-realised world. This one left me wanting more - and less, in certain ways.

 

[Coolhand]

Doh!
I'm a big RM fan, but haven't got round to reading this one yet. I loved Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, but got a slight nagging feeling that he was drifting a bit on Woken Furies, which was great but not quite as great as the other two.

I've heard A LOT of people complain about the nastiness in this book, which is a standard complaint about his work. Most of the time I find it justified in the context of the world and environment, but I hope he's not starting to slip into the habit of being explicit and nasty just for the sake of it.
Only one way to find out: (Sets off to purchse copy and make up own mind...)

 

[DeepThought]

I have a copy of The Steel Remains. Can't wait to read it!