Richard [K] Morgan's News and Views

35 Comments:

Great little story, Richard. I left your site to go look at the map but you posted the wrong URL. I believe it's http://www.cartographersguild.com/.

Just got a B&N gift card so I'm very excited to order a copy of The Steel Remains. Cheers.

By  lander, at 17 July 2009 18:30  

Follow up...after digging for a few minutes I was not able to find the map on cartographersguild.com. Perhaps Mr. Shankar could help us out with a direct link? Thanks.

By  lander, at 17 July 2009 18:52  

Wow, thanks Richard....so many undeserved compliments I don't know what to say except that your post underlines your mastery of fiction!

For those of you who can't find it, the direct link to the thread where the map (colour version) is posted is here:
http://forum.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2750

but you'll need to register on the site to see it. What you will find if you look at the other maps on the site is that I'm a bit of an old fraud and that there are people there are far more talented than I am.

Richard, I have your poster version ready to go but I haven't sent it yet as I'm waiting for the postal strike to come to an end just in case it gets lost in the backlog. It does look quite decent in a large format, I hope you're pleased with it.

My wife says: 'He's not a connoiseur of wine, just a consumer' - I think she's right.

Thank you for your very kind words Richard, and to turn the compliments about face for a moment, I have to say I was expecting to meet someone who scored quite high on the cynical and angry scale (purely judged from the characters in your books) but instead found an incredibly warm, educated human being with a passion for doing what is right and decent.

All the best,

Ravi.

By  Anonymous, at 17 July 2009 19:39  

I don't much like having to register to a website to see the map, but I'll grin and bear it. The location switching every chapter in Steel Remains is giving me jet lag! Part of the horrors of adapting to third person, I think.

Shame I missed the mark on the map-inclusive book, though. I just purchased the normal version after months of mulling it over.

By  Matthew P, at 17 July 2009 19:41  

oops sorry wrong link. Try this one:

http://forum.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=4741&highlight=steel+remains

Ravs

By  Anonymous, at 17 July 2009 19:45  

Message to Ravi:

Like you, I'm a huge fan of Richard's works (and I love maps). I was totally blown away by the painstaking effort and quality of your map. It's just beautiful (the only thing that would have made it better is if they could have printed it in color!). It would be so cool to have a poster size map to hang on my wall as well...

Congratulations!

Linda P

By  Anonymous, at 17 July 2009 22:27  

Message to Richard:

"He even included a couple of place names that don't crop up in The Steel Remains...but are in the sequel..."

Ah, that explains it.

Have to order another copy now. I've just given mine away!

Linda

By  Anonymous, at 17 July 2009 22:34  

Hi Linda,

I can't send you a poster sized map in colour but I can do the next best thing (provided the publishers and Richard agree) I can post a high resolution image of the map for download and you can take it to your local printers and print it up to about 60 cm(about 24") across (and whatever down). Provided I get permission from Richard (and by extension the publishers) I'll be happy to post it up for download.

All the best

Ravs

By  Anonymous, at 17 July 2009 23:08  

Hi Ravi,

That would be really nice. And I'm very curious whether or not you can get permission. I've no idea how copyright laws would work in this case.

By  Anonymous, at 17 July 2009 23:18  

That's a fantastic map! Now I need to go back to the book and remind myself of just what happened in each place.

By  eldar, at 17 July 2009 23:34  

I've no idea about the copyright either Linda (wrong type of law for me), but I would like Richard to be comfortable with the idea and the publishers too.

I'm so happy you like the map, I just see the bad bits in it which I could have done better.

Anyway, hopefully you'll get an a definitive answer in a few days or so.

best

R

By  Anonymous, at 18 July 2009 00:18  

Celia now owns Steel Remains! She heard you were attracted to women that like to kill and the intrigue spiralled (upward) from there.

I heard you thought good sex was dependent on Merge Nine and laughed at her. SHe is studying to be a sex therapist. I am thinking of going into neuroscience. We'll see who wins. Ha Ha.

By  Evalin, at 18 July 2009 03:54  

Hi Guys

Fixed that broken link, thanks for the heads-up.

Regarding copyright and re-prints, I have no objection (it's Ravi's work, after all, not mine), but I will have to check with Gollancz. Watch this space....

By  Richard Morgan, at 21 July 2009 11:48  

Thanks for checking, Richard. The map would look great alongside the other world/European maps I have hanging in my piano studio. So here's hoping!

Linda

By  Anonymous, at 21 July 2009 18:53  

Congrats to Ravi, I was very impressed with the map when I saw it in the new PB...

On another topic, and it's probably not your style Richard, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on Adam Robert's recent rant against the Hugo awards. Found myself agreeing with a great deal of what he said...

By  Jamie, at 23 July 2009 09:15  

Yeah, I think Adam is right on the money with this - though, to be scrupulously fair, I do think that equating "fandom" in general with the Hugo machine is a bit of a stretch. In essence, the Hugo is a juried award like any other - just the jury runs to about eight or nine hundred people. I suppose those nine hundred are indicative of a pretty clearly discernible sub-trend within fandom, but then so usually are other juries on other awards. Guys like China Mieville and M. John Harrison will always make it onto the Clarke shortlist, for the same reason guys like Scalzi and Stross will habitually find themselves on the Hugo - because a certain operative mindset detects elements of value in their work. It's just that in the case of the Clarkes, the mindset in question is looking for things like stylistic accomplishment, startling vision, thought provoking off-road experiment et al; whereas the Hugo mindset is just looking for something that reads like Heinlein (okay, that's a bit harsh, but you know what I mean).

By  Richard Morgan, at 23 July 2009 17:05  

Finally signed up for the forums to see the map. Nice!

I also just finished The Steel Remains. Must sleep on it. Thought about emailling Richard Morgan a brief review. Figured it would probably just get lost in junk mail with promises of no debt and free medicine.

By  Matthew P, at 29 July 2009 06:02  

It's great to see the audience getting into the world-building (or -depicting) like this. Fantasy map-making (or -appreciating) is a pastime for lots of fantasy gaming fans (like me), and it's nice that the passion can be put to good use like this. Cheers, Ravi.

Can't wait until a copy of the book with that map makes it across the pond.

By  Will, at 7 August 2009 19:23  

DEAR RICHARD:

I finished reading The Steel Remains yesterday and enjoyed it a great deal, although I must admit I approached the novel with a little trepidation. I had already done the Tolkien books, the Thomas Covenant series, the Earthsea Trilogy, and I had pretty much had my fill of fantasy. So much so, in fact, that I've been somewhat dismayed at how the "sci-fi" sections in libraries these days have become increasingly dominated by fantasy and (ICK!) alternate history.

But I had already read ALL of your books and had become a pretty big fan, so I immersed myself in The Steel Remains. I'm glad I did, and I'll look forward to subsequent books set on that ringed world.

Concerning your post, I will DEFINITELY be seeking out the map of the Yhelteth Empire and Trelayne League. I realize that hand-drawn maps of such realms are a bit a fantasy literature cliché, but I find them quite helpful when my mind's eye goes to work whilst reading. Think maybe you could include Ravi Shankar's map in future editions?

AND ... if someone should ever attempt a film adaptation of The Steel Remains, you think they could get Colin Farrell to play Ringil Eskiath? [:o)

By  anziulewicz, at 8 August 2009 16:10  

Colin Farrell to play Ringil? I'd think more along the lines of John Barrowman.

Or maybe use the cast from LOTR...

Linda

By  Anonymous, at 9 August 2009 17:31  

I've tried sending you an email but for some reason it always fails to go through.

Could you state in clear terms what your email address is.

I have some important questions to ask you.

Just another pesky American.

By  Anonymous, at 20 August 2009 16:55  

I second the email-not-working inquiry. Mine seemed to work fine, but I'm questioning whether it actually went through. I tried sending you an mp3 as an attachment. Maybe the spam filters ate it.

By  DJ, at 23 August 2009 02:41  

Yeah, sorry guys - you are getting through (or at least so it seems from this end) but I'm totally swamped in work right now and haven't had the chance to even read my fan-mail for a solid two weeks, let alone reply to any. And....

I don't generally respond to mails anymore (there's a note on it in the archive, filed under October 08 - A Thousand Thank Yous and Goodnight) basically for reasons of sheer volume and time; but if someone is kind enough to send me something concrete like music or art, I will equally generally try to get to it and feed back. There is an MP3 file here (VNVNation? That the one?). but I really haven't been able to grab the time to download it properly and listen. So, ehm, thank you anyway - I will get to it at some point. Just right now that point is pin-prick tiny at the far end of a long tunnel of commitments that are kicking my ass.

By  Richard Morgan, at 24 August 2009 22:59  

That's the one, and no problem. Just glad it went through. You sound absolutely swamped. I hope you manage to wade through it all with sanity more or less intact.

By  DJ, at 25 August 2009 00:18  

Personally, after reading these comments, I am quite impressed that Mr. Morgan (sorry, I just cannot imagine being on a first name basis) takes the time that he does to respond to comments and/or user emails at all. I cannot begin to imagine the sheer amount of time and energy it would take one person to respond and please millions of fans. In fact, I am so impressed that I decided I would take a little time out of my own busy day (ok, I wasn't that busy if I was reading this in the first place, but you get the idea) to write a little "thank you" for the time that he has taken out of his own life and continues to take for his fans. As if the books were not already plenty.

Thank you, Mr. Morgan.

By  uruk003, at 25 August 2009 21:05  

Some fans annoy and some amuse and some bewilder. Or perhaps all of the above. But this I know: at least the man is never at a shortage of people for an innocent date of drinks.

By  Anonymous, at 26 August 2009 18:06  

Finally managed to check out the map today. I was in a Borders and remembered the map was in the paper back copy of TSR and went and had a look.... its a cracker too! Well done Ravi!!

Mark C

By  Anonymous, at 29 August 2009 19:21  

Dear Mr. Morgan
This is probably not the place as it is about TSR and maps but I must let you know that your French publisher is not doing a good job. I have read all your books (including TSR) in English and, being a huge fan of your works, I have recommended your books to my French friends who have read them in the Bragelonne / Milady print in French. You should know that their disappointment over Woken Furies goes beyond everything I ever heard regarding poor translation. In these cost killing times it seems your French publisher tries to kill costs a little too much and in the end, your work is not translated but betrayed (interesting to note that in French, traduire - translate and trahir - betray have the same common Latin root). I thought that you should know and maybe stop the massacre before Bragelonne starts working on TSR.
Cheers,
Brigitte

By  Anonymous, at 3 September 2009 15:16  

With all the veiled women lurking about France in Muslim headress I can see why the publisher might need to tone things down a bit.

After all, Woken Furies narrates a gleeful Kovac decapitating some fanatics angered by Sarah's lack of headdress.

Traditionalism is taking root in a country that still partly celebrates existentialism.

So if the sex seems less steamy and the killing loses some of its appeal, I imagine it is to pacify the conservatization of a once liberal country.

I am way more interested to see how Morgan translates in Chinese. It is to my understanding that they are teaching Chinese youth tha nose bleeds are a sign of love. Which amused me because Morgan himself seems more like a capitalist who sympathizes with socialism than vice versa.

By  Lucifer's Lover, at 5 September 2009 06:01  

@ Lucifer's Lover, my girlfriend is actually mainland Chinese and after spending a summer there and from what she tells me, I'd be shocked to find out it was translated for the mainlanders. After all, books get banned there quite often and movies are reduced to half their length from sex and violence cuts.

By  Noah L, at 18 September 2009 16:48  

I just finished reading your bio. The words "I am born" in David Copperfield do lack flair, yet at least they fail to captivate. When asked of my birthdate I respond, "How do you know I was born. Maybe I just am."

There's a new book out titled 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived.

Batman, Hester Prynne, and Alice in Wonderland all made the list. So did Lucifer's Lover Lilith.

I can personally verify that three of those people above actually existed.

Alice is in fact fiction. That fat arse capitalist walrus and carpenter that ate all the oysters exists.

By  Lucifer'sLover, at 7 October 2009 08:25  

One more thing:

China censors less than America.

By  Anonymous, at 7 October 2009 08:29  

Is China giving rich men the finger? Let me explain. In Chinese, the term fu has several meanings...one is rich and another is bat. Another source has rich spelled fu yuo. My sources are my coursework at SIUC and a Tuttle Language Guide.

I suggest Rich Batmen everywhere hurry to join the For a Just Russia socialist movement pronto. If you are going to be capitalist pigs in China, then at least be pro labor in some part of the world where change can be instigated.

Cheers to Life and Health!!!

Lucifer's Lover

Reynard

By  LucifersLover, at 18 October 2009 04:51  

I should note that in Chinese culture bats are considered to be good luck. Yet why the f-u?

On a side note of your site: what does being in a wheel chair have to do with reading comprehension. I still have two legs after nearly dying of frost bite. LOL. And can read fine, thank you. Grin.

I hope Takeshi Kovacs is ready to kick some Arabic arse...the green zones in America are getting out of control!!!

By  Lucifer'sLover, at 18 October 2009 04:57  

Mr.Morgan--

Sir, we have a business contract to discuss. My phone is down. Contact me at SoICreateANewDawn@yahoo.com

Jessica Reynard

I won't bite. Hard.

By  LucifersLover, at 28 October 2009 00:13  

Post a Comment