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

This isn't your father's gay hero!

Richard K. Morgan (The new 'god' of Cyber Punk) jumps the genre to keep himself free from pigeonholes. All Mr. Morgan's books have had extreme feminist leanings and his comics where a feminist steroid of the next generation! This book does not disappoint on those fronts, but if you have issues with Male on Male homosexuality or any homosexuality for that matter than stop now.
Now that everyone with a pre-disposed dislike for a majority of the books interpersonal views has left, Mr. Morgan has written a good, strong book. This is not Cyber Punk, or anything remotely close to the corporate mechanisms of 'Market Forces' of the past. This is a book of swords, horses and wagons, and not in a War Hammer 40,000 version either. The book is well written, as can be expected of any Morgan book, and his character inter-play has lost none of its wit. Strong story, good characters and a lengthy listen. A good book that missed a five star for some over the top gay sexual verbiage that seemed to be there only to antagonize the intolerant and not to strengthen the story.
Even so this is not your average medieval dandy prancing the countryside. He is a strong male character who cleaves Demons, and annoying toadies. The character isn't a perfect specimen of human gayiety to spite the intolerant either. He is flawed, (as with EVERY RKM novel) with horrible family relations, misses what he sees as a simpler time who has been out of favor and action just long enough to not know the right people, who has the power, and seems to be complaining about a small widening of the midsection. Him and his sword still kick some butt. A well rounded book, and many thanks to Mr. Morgan for his hard work. The narrator's voice lends a gruff voice to polish off the strong male character Mr. Morgan has written.

Another strong effort by Morgan

I have read many books by this author and this is up to the usual high quality. Most important, the writing is good. Scifi/fantasy books often have interesting story ideas but the writing and language can range from mediocre to truly awful. Morgans stories are quite original [this one perhaps a little less than others], and writing is so consistently good the stories really come alive. This includes the plotting and especially the language.
As far as the sexual content goes, realistically, it was no more prominent in this story than in any other Morgan novels meaning that there is some and it is consistent in tone with the rest of the book.
And yes there is gay as well as straight sexuality depicted - you know- just like in real life! In Morgans other books as well as this one, we get plenty of scenes of straight sex graphically and imaginatively delivered, and dont forget one of the main plot lines of this story involves the legalized trade in female sex slaves! That seems to cause no alarm. But when male/male sexual interaction occurs suddenly it is over the top as another reviewer wrote-come on! [BTW one of the other important characters is a Lesbian, but that is not pointed out possibly b/c we dont have to endure any sex scenes with her.]
The protagonists sexuality is a natural, normal part of his life and is depicted as such. We see how he is hassled by ignorant bigots and betrayed by his own family over it [just like in real life too!] And we also get to see when he finds some pleasure and companionship. To handle it any other way would be stilted and weird. Thank you Richard Morgan! This will be refreshing especially for gay people but also any straight people who want to imagine a world where gays exist and are even sometimes the heroes and heroines [just like real life!]

Overwrought and unconvincing

Would you be willing to try another book from Richard K. Morgan? Why or why not?

After reading and enjoying no less than 5 other Richard K. Morgan books, I had high hopes for this one, but I'm sad to say that it did nothing for me. Everything just felt a little overwrought. I was excited about the prospect of a gay hero, but found that Ringil's character fit into Morgan's usual mold of hyper-masculine protagonist - only much more so, and to the point of being just being an asshole. With all that his character has been through due to his sexuality, much of his rage is justified, but he's just such an asshole to *everyone* that he's hard to sympathize with. And some of his one liners are just painfully over the top. For example:

""Simple enough," he whispered. "A cheap fuck doesn't need to have a name. But I like to know what to call the men I'm going to kill.""

Oof.

All the fantasy elements - the hard to pronounce names and places, titles, weapons, mythologies - felt forced. It's possible that listening to it in audiobook form with a less than stellar narrator had something to do with it, but there are plenty of books I've listened to in this format that didn't leave me nearly as weary.

Did Simon Vance do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

I think Simon Vance is great at voicing tough-guy male characters (as he did in Richard K. Morgan's "Thirteen") but when it comes to female characters, they all sound equally wispy and sibilant and ineffectual.

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 Master falters at last...

This is Morgan's worst novel, except perhaps for Market Forces. I found it needlessly hyper-detailed (to the point of obscuring the plot itself).
Both Morgan and Neal Stephenson need to brush up on Truman Capote's advice: go back through your novel 3 times and remove extraneous verbiage. Like Stephenson's "Anathem", this sounds like a rough first draft. Or, perhaps, the equivalent of a 4 hour long film. Editing please - for God's sake please!

A complete disappointment, and a bore

Maximum discouragement for anyone considering devoting 15 hours to this rambling, and sometimes completely confusing effort.
It's interesting to see a popular author strike out into new territory, but if this is the result, I judge it a complete failure. Mr. Morgan may decide to continue to explore this genre, but he should let a couple fans and, help us all, a talented editor provide some strongly discouraging advise.
It's the weakest listen I've encountered from Audible, after around 5 years of rather heavy use (I drive a lot.)
By the way, if anyone is intrigued by the gay sex that is occasionally thrown in - the main character is gay - don't bother. It's uncomfortable even for a gay man to read. I'm not sure of the author's motives, but for a guy who can write a reasonably erotic straight encounter, this is a puzzling and failed attempt. I can't imagine that a single living gay man could listen to this without bursting into laughter. If you must, at least find a gay consultant. Not good. In short, an embarassment to an otherwise interesting author.

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.

Another great Morgan tale

I came to this book as a great admirer of Richard K. Morgan's sci-fi, especially Altered Carbon and Thirteen. All the themes in those books are here--the embittered, burned-out warrior, who still possesses great ability, comes out of a kind of retirement to avenge the wrongs done to the weak and poor by the powerful and rich. The twist here, of course, is that in lieu of a 22nd or 25th century setting, we get a swords and sorcery fantasy.

The other reviewer is certainly right to warn that the book is filled with foul language, gay sex, and deep cynicism. But Morgan fans should take the leap. I think Morgan is only getting better with each book!

A Steely Character A Very Good Story

This is a very good story. I found it very satisfying and entertaining. I'm glad I purchased it.

Three notes about the writing. First, the writer's voice: The way he chooses his words and puts together his sentences and paragraphs is as good as I have come across in my multiple years with Audible.

Second, I enjoyed his decision to stick with modern vernacular when writing what his characters spoke.

Hearing them swear in modern English was actually a lot more enjoyable and made the writing more present than having the author hypothesize about some type of curses and oaths that might have been used by characters living in a world which to us is medieval, even if not an earthly medieval.

Also, I have noticed that there has been some focus on the lead character being a warrior who is a gay male. I found this a very pleasant bit of value-added writing. Throughout our history, there have been worthy warriors who were homosexual. To me, this character brought a good deal more humanity to the story, elevating the narrative of this work well above what one is likely to expect from even the better sword and dragon novels.

Third, the chapters alternate following the differing actions and points of view of the three main characters. Sometimes it took me a second or two to know which character in which space was being represented. I found that a bit confusing and it did take me out of the moment on occasion. It was not an insurmountable issue nor a deal-breaker.

The extremely accomplished Simon Vance puts in another effective and captivating performance as the narrator.

I don't spend time summarizing the narrative of the story. Nearly every other reviewer does that. I would rather concentrate on evaluating the technique and skill displayed in the author's efforts.

This is my first Richard K. Morgan book. Before too very long I will enthusiastically purchase the second book in this series.

Edit/Addition: I have now finished all three books in this series. This is the best-written action-fantasy series that I have encountered. This series hits all the marks and is a masterful bit of storytelling.

Goes nowhere, can’t finish, don’t care

A great narrator, a fan of Morgan’s other work, a new twist on fantasy without the Tolkien-esque tropes, gay masculine protagonist anti-hero... what could go wrong?

Everything. The default narration, and the narration of the main characters reflects - maybe even amplifies - a bored indifference. To paraphrase another reviewer “if the characters don’t care, why should I?

The world itself seems like it could be interesting, but there wasn’t enough detail or background given to fully pull me into the settings. It seems like the characters all knew a great deal about the world, but the reader is only given piece parts. It doesn’t unfold as the characters make there way through the story so the reader discovers something along with them. When the characters experience something, it seems they kinda knew about it already, aren’t surprised, or interested, shrug it off and plod along to the next scene.

Or, maybe those details are there but are cut up and buried so much in the sidetracked rambling thoughts of the main character.

I thought perhaps that the dull monotone narration (all supporting characters have great voicing!) might have something to do with it so I tried the kindle edition and wispersync feature for the first time (which is awesome by the way). Nope. Still dull.

I rarely stop reading, or listening to a book. I can’t finish this. It took me about a dozen tries to even get going. With eight hours left, I’m still not sure where it’s going, how the characters relate (other than serving together in some past conflict). All I know is - I don’t care. I’m uncompelled.

To see if I am missing something I’ve gone and read other reviews, forum discussions, and wikis about the books (yes books)... even material that should spoil the plot. That’s when I realized there isn’t a plot. Books two and three seem to suffer even more. It’s like a long crashing stock market. Starts high, drops in value, maybe bumps up a little before sharply dipping again. Over time you realize that the decline is the only constant.

I’m pissed I wasted credits on this and the other two books that I will never listen to.