Review: The Steel Remains by Richard K Morgan
Blurb:
A dark lord will rise. Such is the prophecy that dogs Ringil Eskiath—Gil, for short—a washed-up mercenary and onetime war hero whose cynicism is surpassed only by the speed of his sword. Gil is estranged from his aristocratic family, but when his mother enlists his help in freeing a cousin sold into slavery, Gil sets out to track her down. But it soon becomes apparent that more is at stake than the fate of one young woman. Grim sorceries are awakening in the land. Some speak in whispers of the return of the Aldrain, a race of widely feared, cruel yet beautiful demons. 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.
Review:
The Steel Remains by Richard K Morgan is the first of the trilogy A Land Fit for Heroes. It’s a grimdark book with an emphasis on dialog and character development and it centers on three main POV’s: Ringil, a gay, grizzled veteran; Egar, a tribe leader; and Archeth, a woman who serves the emperor directly as a sort of special investigator.
The book’s premise is that Ringil’s aristocratic family contacts him to help look for a cousin that was sold into sex slavery. The plot does not get brighter from there. Slowly, we learn about the threat of the return of the Dwenda, an ancient, beautiful race that have unspecified powers. They reminded me of Cinder from Kingkiller Chronicle or the Druins from Kings of the Wyld. The first story we hear as evidence of the Dwenda return is that they delivered a human head being kept alive via demonic magic. The threat is expanded upon in each of the main POV’s story and we slowly begin to see the overall story taking root.
“The tongues of men are not much leashed by concerns for accuracy or truth.”
The absolute strongest quality of this book is its characters. Ringil is a cynical man, partly because of homophobia in the world and partly due to the things he’s seen in his past of war and bloodshed, but he still tries to stick to his morals. He abandons his life of comfort without much thought in order to save his cousin in need and he’s a leader at heart, but he also has something like an addiction to violence. Getting his hands bloodied is usually his first resort instead of his last. Egar is supposed to be serving as a leader, but he spends most of his time ignoring tribal customs, insulting shamans, and sleeping with girls that he himself admits are far too young for him. Archeth is a woman who’s seen things all over the world, but she has rash impulses against those who wrong her and a burdening drug addiction.
The result of these characters, as well as a world with rough edges and rougher people, is this feeling of reality: every single character, whether it be one of the main three or the side characters, feel like real people. Real people, people who make mistakes, or have uncomfortable flourishes in dialog or characters flaws, and despite the relatability, they’re never mundane. Morgan presents side characters like a wickedly intelligent but belligerently quirky emperor, or conniving younger brothers, or sympathetic villains in the Dwenda.
As a result of the characters that Morgan has developed, the dialog is consistently fantastic. There are more than a few moments that can make you laugh out loud, a few that can make you teary-eyed, and a few that take your breath away with either violent tension or abject beauty. I have a particular soft spot for arguments between characters where they’re both right and Morgan delivers multiple scenes that display these nuanced debates.
“He had successfully invited them all to die simply by promising to do it with them. It was all they would ask of any commander.”
The fighting in the book is well described. Due to the grittiness that Morgan has established in his world, there’s a certain amount of tension in each fight where you fear for the characters’ safety. It isn’t the most polished element, but it gets the job done.
My biggest complaint about the book unfortunately lies in the climax. I found it fell flat in comparison to the rest of the book and provided inconsistencies with the rest of the book. The book quickly redeems itself with a jaw dropping ending that left me eager to read more, but if you were to end with The Steel Remains you may be left with a bitter taste.
Overall, I’d recommend this to anyone who likes grimdark, strong characters, witty dialog, and a little bit of edginess. If you enjoyed First Law, Price of Power, or Second Apocalypse, then The Steel Remains should be very high on your TBR.
