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Tuesday, 28 October 2008

Legendary


This is nice - The Steel Remains just got nominated for the David Gemmell Legend award. Link is here

That's the good news. The bad news is that judging by the amount the book is getting discussed, it doesn't have a kitten's chance in a washing machine of winning.

Ah well, it's not the winning, it's the taking part, eh. That's what the British will tell you. Or that's what Bill Bailey will tell you that's what the British will tell you, anyway.

But feel free to zip along there and vote for it anyway. And thanks in advance if you do.

Ehhh....?

Waddya MEAN you don't think it was THAT GOOD ACTUALLY??? Heretic!! Stone him!! Stone him!! Where's my beard? Stone him!!


Item 'Legendary' posted by Richard Morgan at 17:46

17 Comments:

There you go.

By Blogger Swainson, at 28 October 2008 21:42  

Congratulations!

I'll be happy to vote for The Steel Remains! Best fantasy I've read this year.

But first you must explain how it's "a work written in the spirit of David Gimmell, a true master of high fantasy." (according to the site). I've forgotten--just what is high fantasy?

Never mind, I'll vote for it anyway.

Thanks..

L

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 28 October 2008 22:02  

I am a big fan, Richard, but TSR is at best an above average first step, with (hopefully) better parts 2 and 3 coming up. Perhaps it was a revelation for those fantasy fanboys, but it is not up to par with any of your previous works. Even Gibson had faltered with "Pattern Recognition", but he managed to get over it with the excellent "Spook Country". So I am not giving up yet. And Joe "Last Argument of Kings" will get my vote for sure...

-Joseph

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 29 October 2008 01:25  

I loved The Steel Remains. If I'm honest I actually enjoyed it far more than your other stuff.

By Blogger Big Flub, at 29 October 2008 06:09  

I really enjoyed TSR but am torn between it and "Last Argument of Kings"... still, got until the 26th Dec to make up my mind. Looking forward to the next instalment.

JK

By Anonymous JK, at 30 October 2008 14:30  

I found the first novel in Abercrombie's trilogy well-written, but glacially paced, so I haven't continued. Paul Kearney's The Ten Thousand was decent, but not up to the standards of his Monarchies of God or Sea Beggars series.

Greg Keyes' conclusion to his tetralogy, The Born Queen, is inexplicably missing from this list of nominees. (?) In any event, it wasn't as good as The Steel Remains.

That leaves the excellent debut by Redick, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, but your novel The Steel Remains is slightly better.

YOU WIN!!!!! If it was up to me, of course. :-)

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 31 October 2008 15:32  

I'm actually in a position where I can't judge my own worthiness (or not) for this award because I've read next to nothing on this list (and haven't really read anything much of Gemmell's either - Waylander, many, many years ago? Or was that Legend?).

Also, of course, I'm still standing way too close to TSR to be able to offer an objective self-assessment. I'll know how good I think it is in about another eight months to a year. What I do know right now is that I had a real blast writing it, and hopefully that comes through in the text.........

By Blogger Richard, at 01 November 2008 14:21  

Richard,

Rumor has it The Steel Remains is on the 2009 Hugo Recommendation long list. Anything we can do as fans to help the cause?

(I saw this on someone's live journal who attended a panel at Denvention)

Linda

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 03 November 2008 17:46  

Holy fuck - that's some rumour! Thanks Linda - Let's hope it's true!

As to what anyone can do, dunno - I'm not well up on how this stuff works, either awards in general or the Hugo in particular. Anyone else?

By Blogger Richard Morgan, at 04 November 2008 18:01  

Hi there Richard - I'm really pleased that you're really pleased(!) to be Nominated for the DGLA. It's our first year & we're still very much feeling our way with it - but so far, we are just thrilled with the response from the industry, the authors and the fans!

Don't worry - just because discussion of TSR isn't happening on the site just yet, as you can see from you own fan feedback, it doesn't mean people aren't thinking about who to vote for. We really don't expect the Forums to start buzzing until the poll opens for business on Boxing Day.

Just to clear up a few queries - actually, the website describes DG as a "true Master of heroic Fantasy" - however, we may, in our efforts to not leave any corner of Sword and Sorcery invited - used the term "High" somewhere on the site. I'm not going to get into an extended discussion of sub-sub-sub genres - all we really meant was sword-wielding, magical, mythical, epic, war-torn.... yada yada... We hope most Readers of the genre know exactly what we mean because, like us, they've been reading and loving the stuff for years!

We've come in for some flack for being too narrow in our definition (we're not taking urban, slipstream, horror etc)but we're actually choosing to celebrate an area of genre fiction that is all too often ignored - or even scorned. Some people seem to have reached the conclusion that by discounting other areas of the genre, we are making some qualitative judgement on those areas - that's simply not the case - I read Fantasy of all stripes - not to mention SF & Horror! We're just choosing to celebrate the type of work DG himself wrote. (In future, we may add further catagories and extend our remit - but for now, we are following the KISS pinciple!)

So far, our 'narrow' definition has resulted in around 67 Nominations for the Longlist!

I'd like to invite your readers to come over to the site soon - don't wait until the poll opens - we've got lots going on & lots of free books to give away before then! Also, just look how happy you'll make Richard if you just start a wee discussion! :-)

Oh, and very best of luck re the Hugo Richard - I believe only attendees of the WorldCon (or the previous year's WorldCon by post)are allowed to vote on the Shortlist, but I have no idea how they arrive at those books...

Cheers
Debbie
(DGLA Admin)

By Blogger Debbie, at 10 November 2008 13:05  

The Steel Remains will stay with me for a long time. I loved every word. The world you created is so rich that I believe it to be real. After I closed the book I felt a bit like Ringil, slightly depressed with the coming darkness, and excited by the allowance of absolute truth in his nature. Needless to say, I'll be passing it on to my friends.

Camelia R. Finley
author :"Architext"
supernatural horror/fantasy
short stories

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 22 November 2008 18:42  

The Steel Remains almost certainly won't be nominated for the 2009 Hugo Award due to the problem of its split publication: in the UK in 2008 and in the USA in 2009. This is pretty much the death knell for any non-American book wanting to win the award, as most of the Americans (who make up the majority of the voters, especially for any North America-based Worldcon) won't get a chance to read it until next year, way too late to make an impact for the nominations.

I'm not sure on the eligibility rules so its 2009 US release may make it also eligible for the 2010 award. If so, it may stand a better chance as the 2010 Worldcon is in Australia, and Commonwealth authors and books tend to stand a better chance in votes outside the USA.

By Blogger Adam Whitehead, at 24 November 2008 22:04  

I own and have read all of your books, Richard. I am about half way through "The Steel Remains" I think that it's excellent. I am already dreading finishing it, so I checked this web site in hopes of reading that there would be a sequel. So who cares if it does or doesn't win some award. It's an excellent book. A very unique and creative take on what would usually be called Fantasy.

By Anonymous Ian Kaplan, at 26 November 2008 20:07  

Hi Richard, I would really like to say how much I enjoyed this book.

I do actually own quite a few DG novels but would class them as 'comfort reading.'

TSR however, this I would call a masterwork! I think this is at the absolute apex of the genre you are writing.

One of the best reads I've had in quite a while, thanks!

By Anonymous Patrick, at 02 December 2008 09:13  

I don't know if you know but there is an increasing Fan group in Facebook, here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=2253376096 and I just created an Italian one here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=38157477507&ref=ts
ciao,
Francesco

By Blogger Francesco Troccoli, at 06 December 2008 19:21  

Just voted for The Steel Remains. If you haven't voted, vote now!

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 03 January 2009 06:15  

One of my favorite series of all time, is The Black Company. I've long admired Glen Cook and his ability to shift from the dark side of TBC and move into his Garrett P.I. stories. Croaker's voice is one I sometimes here.

Your Gil's voice is one I wish to hear more of. Degenerate or not, the man simply kicks ASS. I also must confess to having a massive crush on Egar...where can I find me one of them???

A fine novel, win or lose. The Steel Remains is on of the best books I've read in years.

By Blogger BeckyB, at 27 February 2009 05:43  

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