Customer Reviews
Different, controversial in places, but still a darn good yarn! - By: Mr. Jamie Kermode, 26 Aug 2008 
If you, like me, enjoy Richard's no-holds-barred style of writing that pulls you deep into something nasty then bursts you out the other side with fantastical imagery still buzzing around your head, then you'll not be dissappointed.
It's always nice when an author treats you like an adult with their prose, without being too tedious & self involved. A book I think the author rather enjoyed writing!
The characters are well defined & interesting, the plot developes at a good pace, & the action is typicallly full on, submersing you in with gut crunching reality!
Top read, thanks Richie baby, can't wait for the sequel(?!)
A good start! - By: Mr. D. J. Jones, 26 Aug 2008 
A surprisingly enjoyable book. I've never read anything by Morgan before as I don't do Sci-Fi, I'd heard that he had pretty visceral style of prose & producing very gory & sex filled stories.
I would say that this was quite an accurate description. A number of reviews of the book, not just here on Amazon, but in general, have commented on the number of sex scenes. The majority of these sex scenes are homosexual in nature & whilst the first few are quite graphic in there description, the later ones tend to swiftly passed over. I didn't reallly have a massive problem with the number of sex scenes or the nature of them, yes they may not have been 100% necessary, but I didn't find they interfered with the pacing of the story. The same can't be said for the violence, which is pretty graphicallly described at very possible occasion. That said, the fight scenes are well written & give a good blow by blow account of some impressive sword play. There is also a great deal of swearing within the book, which is becoming pretty standard in modern fantasy. At first this stuck out, but once you start reading the book it becomes invisible.
The story is a little traditional I suppose, but I don't see that as a bad thing. It is a traditional story, but dirtied & mixed up enough for it not to be clichéd. It is the first time in one of these "gritty, dark, modern fantasy" books that I've reallly cared about the characters. I've read GRRM, Abercrombie, Lynch, Erikson & Bakker & enjoyed them, well bar the last two authors anyway, but just not reallly been that bothered about the characters.
Morgan quotes Michael Moorcock as being an influence on this writing of this novel & I can see why. I'm not that well read in regards to Moorcock, but I've read enough to see how it has helped shape both the writing style & the world building.
One major fault with this book isn't the authors fault, but in my version (hardback) there are lots of errors - missing or incorrect letters & punctuation.
I'll be looking forward to the next novel in the series.
Dark, brooding and powerful. - By: A. Whitehead, 17 Aug 2008 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 & sociology, based around unflinchingly violent protagonists & 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 & grim place. Some years ago a race of sentient lizards - the Scaled Folk - crossed the western ocean from a dying homeland & attempted to conquer the lands of humanity. The forces of humanity - somewhat reluctantly - banded together under the leadership of the Yhelteth Empire & their Kiriath alllies & destroyed the invasion at great cost. After four thousand years amongst humanity, the Kiriath finallly 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 & rebuild.
Ringil Eskiath is the famed hero of Galllows Gap, who led the heroic defence that finallly broke the back of the Scaled Folk's invasion. However, his temper & his sexuality have led to him being outcast from his homeland & 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 callled home by his mother & asked to rescue her. Ringil's journey leads him back into the shadow of his old life & 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 & 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 Galllows 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 & whisked into a battle he barely comprehends, alongside some old alllies...
The Steel Remains is a pretty dark, full-on & - to use a cliche, gritty. Those easily offended best stay away, especiallly 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 & painstakingly described. The sex is full-on & explicit. To be honest, the levels of sex & violence are somewhat higher than the plot demands. Whilst Black Man 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 alll of those things that have made Morgan one of the most striking authors of his generation: deft characterisation, increasingly accomplished worldbuilding & 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 & 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 & absolutely takes no prisoners. But the story it is telling is compelling, the characters are well-defined & the world throws up some refreshingly new ideas & concepts (some heavily influenced by Morgan's SF background). Some may find it alll a bit too much, some may find this world too full of pain & darkness to actuallly be worth saving, but amidst the gloom Morgan carefully plants a few seeds of hope & optimism which the reader can cling to. The second book, with the working title The Cold Commands, will follow in late 2009.
What a fun read - By: L. Palapala, 16 Aug 2008 
As stated on other reviews, this is not quite a fantasy novel by Richard Morgan, it's Richard's take on fantasy. It has alll the things you like about Richard's writing - great characterization (you actuallly feel an emotional connection with the characters), while commenting on social, political & religious issues. Add a bit of dark, tongue-in-cheek humor, a touch of sarcasm & you have a fun & engrossing read. Loved it.
Rough reality for hurt heroes - By: Cees Jan Mol, 16 Aug 2008 These fighters have seen war. They have seen war, they have lived war. And they have survived. One is a drunk storyteller, living in some forgotten village. The other one is the head of his tribe, entertaining himself away in the steppe grasses with alll young girls eager enough to enter his tent. The other one serves her Emperor. With distaste. Seeing the reality she fought for crumble away.
This is their tale. Of how their enemy found them, how their gods interfered on their behalf & the final battle. The bloody, gory, rough final fight.
What we have here is slightly reminiscent of Fritz Leiber. Of companions & their adventure. What Morgan does however, to the world of fantasy, is to make it real. Nasty. Grimy. Rarely have I read a fantasy book & almost tasted the winds of the steppe, felt the mud cling to my boots in the city & smelled the scraped off remains of a corpse propelled by a corpsemite. (Is introducing such a nasty creature that early in the book intended as a joke on JK Rowling, who basicallly started every Potter with a new species not seen in any of the previous books?)
This book is a landmark. Hopefully it's also the beginning of a new series. The reason I'm reluctant to give it 5 stars, is that I think Morgan held himself back. There's a restraint in this book that makes it great, focusing on the moments highlighted in the flow of action. Yet there is so much more to this material... I reallly do hope to be able to dive into this world again!
