The Steel Remains

By: Richard K. Morgan

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

In just a few short years, Richard K. Morgan has vaulted to the pinnacle of the science fiction world. Now he turns his iconoclastic talents to epic fantasy, crafting a darkly violent, tautly plotted adventure sure to thrill old fans and captivate new readers.

A dark lord will rise. Such is the prophecy that dogs the footsteps of Ringil Eskiath - Gil, for short - a washed-up mercenary and onetime war hero whose world-weary cynicism is surpassed only by the quickness of his temper and the speed of his sword. That sword, forged by a vanished eldritch race known as the Kiriath, has brought him unlooked-for notoriety, as has his habit of poking his nose where it doesn't belong.

Gil is estranged from his aristocratic family, but that doesn't stop his mother from enlisting his help in freeing a cousin sold into slavery. Grumbling all the way, Gil sets out to track her down. But it soon becomes apparent that more is at stake than the fate of one luckless young woman. Grim sorceries that have not been seen for centuries are awakening in the land. Some speak in whispers of the return of an all-but-legendary race known as the Aldrain, cruel yet beautiful demons feared even by the Kiriath.

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.

©2009 Richard K. Morgan (P)2009 Tantor

amazing, inspiring, brutal

with fantastic character development and world building, transportation into the story came easy. I was invested all the way, laughed heartily and cringed at the right moments. sexy lead character and so glad to finally have a tantalizing representation of fantastical sexual relationships! love this story so much! performer was, as he always is, eargasmic.

On par with the best fantasy ever

I love the originality: the people, the religions, the names! I especially love that, finally, for once, the black guys aren’t the bad guys. I love that the protagonist is gay, but not portrayed as a stereo. Typical “fag.“ Absolutely loved this book. If anyone else is looking for high, epic fantasy, and is not deterred by the mirror, thought of a homosexual protagonist, or a black person who’s in charge, and no lesbian to boot, for those of you, who are not afraid to try something different, this is the series for you.

Great battles

The story itself was interesting, and I enjoyed the action of it, but found it entirely too full of male on male sex. I didn’t mind the main character being gay at all. It was a fresh take on the traditional sword wielding male protagonist, but Richard K. Morgan could have toned down the very graphic details and still had a great novel, with a gay lead, which would have appealed to a wider audience. The narrator was good and managed a sarcastic tone that really went well with the character. I enjoyed the book overall, but because of the vivid sex scenes, I doubt I’ll pursue the sequel.

Great story, not for the faint of heart

Excellent fantasy for the modern age, lots of gory action, violent and sexual. Not for young adults or those easily offended.

Has a lot of potential

OKAY so, I went back and forth over getting this book because based on the reviews I assumed it was something close to erotica with fantasy tossed in but in actually reading the book there was less gay sex than I anticipated and a lot more plot. It seems to me like many readers magnified the gay sex angle in proportion to their discomfort with the subject. I found the consensual sex scenes to be no more explicit than you might expect in a book that also contains other adult subjects such as war, drug use, torture and slavery.I would warn any potential readers that there are many very graphic descriptions of sexual assault in this work and at almost no time does any character, gay or otherwise, seem to feel all that bad about it. It struck me as really strange how many reviewers were upset by the gay sex but did not mention all the sexual violence. Anyway....

I understand the concept of the cavalier anti-hero, and I felt that overall the book was full of strong, well developed ideas, but unfortunately the main character is a little too jaded and self satisfied to really get behind; despite being really interesting in theory. He has seen war and experienced trauma and because of this he pretty much seems incapable of sympathy or genuine connection and it makes it hard to like him.

All in all I have come away from this book with pretty mixed feelings,It was well written and executed and was full of great concepts, but something fell a little flat for me. I think its totally worth the read, particularly if you are tired of the more typical fantasy archetypes.

Decent Grim Dark

Every element; world building, character development, plot, action is above average dark fantasy. But I’m not going to continue the series. It just didn’t quite grab me, but I enjoyed the listen and got through it quickly.

One note. The sex scenes that felt like porn. I’m no prude, but it was too much for my taste, distracting.

This other reviews are a travesty of the excellence put forth here

... and i was ashamed of myself for listening to the reviews and waiting .. and waiting and putting this book in the background for a couple years.

Big deal... the dude is gay... get over it. Yeah sure he eats a pickle here and there.. whatever.

The writing 10/10
Grim dark 10/10
Characters 10/10 (ALL of them)
Narration 10/10
Story 9/10 (makes you think a little.. like Malazan but to a less extent).. fwiw i don’t like to think

Do yourself a huge favor.. ignore the bad reviews. It’s 2020.. ppl are gay. If ur not a old crone set in your ways I’m pretty sure this is a hit for any fan of grimdark fantasy.

A labor of love

This is a very intelligent reading of a difficult book. I was frankly disappointed by the print version, but Simon Vance manages to get beyond the jokes, cliches, homages and frank missteps to find the vein of utterly unsentimental humanism I look for from Morgan. Passages (and profanity) that only grated on the page play better here. Fair warning -- there is a good deal of graphic sex in the first half. I think it works (well, mostly) as characterization and as plot device, but you won't want to listen to it in the grocery store.

A lot to handle at one time

This was a tough book to get through, and a tough book to evaluate/review.

1) Overall I liked it, although I would not recommend it to some of my friends who might be mortified by the graphic gay sex throughout the story. In fairness, this is, or should be, no different than graphic heterosexual scenes, so I figured that it was just different and therefore somewhat uncomfortable.

2) Throughout the novel I kept feeling like this was part of a bigger story that I had missed .. or was somehow missing as it unfolded. Because he has created whole worlds, it was a little hard for me to keep the character names and races straight .. probably a physical book would have been easier because seeing the words somehow helps me keep obscure references a bit straighter.

3) The main character is tormented, and I found myself wondering who he represented metaphorically.

4) There are key characters about whom we have to guess a lot because their circumstances were merely alluded to or hinted at .. hence my earlier comment about there being a larger story of which this is just a part.

The tale wound around so much it was hard somethimes to recognize the plot. I was delighted when our three "heroes" hooked up with each other .. but it was already the end of the book.

Way to graphic

I love this author, but this book had way to much homoerotica. I think that it really was over the top and added nothing to the story line. Should probably have been put into the sexual fantasy section.

But other than that it was pretty good.