Richard (K) Morgan

The question we need to ask ourselves is, is this the type of book you would want your wife or servants to read.

TSR was great post-apocalyptic fantasy and without doubt the homosexual sex was shocking for me…especially the borderline implications of pedophilia in Gil’s first sexual encounter.

Nevertheless, I think we heteros need more exposure to normal, consenting and positive homosexual relationships including the sexual angle. Six Feet Under and Torchwood are case in point examples where these relationships are well developed in conjunction with the sex.

I’m hopeful TDC will build the passionate relationships further, continuing the trend of representing same sex relationships with dignity alongside the passion.

Keep ‘em coming Richard…the world needs more unabashed and insightful prose on topics that continue to be closemindedly taboo!

River

Okay.. my plan, upon getting my grimy paws on a copy of “Dark Commands” was to re-read “The Steel Remains”, then jump straight to “Dark Commands”, figuring there will be a carry over and I could, then, not have to keep going back and looking up characters and et cetera.

Now,having read tchrist‘s little blurb here, I’m thinking I might have to read it twice. Either (s)he is a graduate of Evelyn Wood or just has a photographic memory. In either event, I’m embarrassed to say I totally don’t remember all that. Some of it, yeah.. but that much detail I could not recall, if my life depended on it.

Informative, to say the least.

Richard, I don’t know how you got your printers to put that Elders of Sodom Seal of Approval on the duskjacket in UV‐sensitive ink, but what a marketing coup! The Gay Mafia are completely delighted with how they’ve manipulated you into sneaking such a brilliant, hot, and subservise novel to the unsuspecting flocks. We’ll see who sqeezes the last baaaa out of ’em!

I can guarantee you that a lot of us enjoyed the gay scenes (even if a bit on the rough‐trade side), both out of prurient interest and for the welcome relief they provide from the gaggingly vanilla “princess saved by shining knight” claptrap so pervasive in fantasy.

Archeth is easily the most sympathetic of the main characters. She’s the only one who seems grown up enough to let her head override her gonads if needed. Her knife scene Ringil is a bit too damaged and unsubtle in comparison, although he’s undeniably hot.

I really like what you did with the Ljósálfar and Svartálfar tropes with the Aldrain and the Kiriath respectively. Not only do you reverse the more customary good‐guy/bad‐guy assignment there, you also show that alien though they each seem to the others, that underneath they’re just people. You hint the it may be so with Lizard Folk, too, and even the Dwellers are shown to see themselves without a bunch of idiotic mysticism. Only the priests and shamans in this book are loons. The fawning kitsch‐hoarding of what common people think to be Aldrain artifacts is amusing in a sad way.

Some images are still vivid months after reading the novel. The King’s Reach. The everliving heads. The black spike in the crater at Hennais M’hen left over from the nearly forgotten Aldrain–Kiriath war.

My favorite scene has to be when Archeth in cold, krinz‐edged fury recovers Elith from the Citadel thugs—righteously triumphant!

Now maybe it’s too obvious to say, but I haven’t read any reviewers mention your clever use of half‐familar morphology to evoke the right subconscious reaction: dwenda from Spanish duende; Aldrain hearking back to elder or alder, or even to he‐who‐must‐not‐be‐named’s Eldar; Welsh‐sounding Angfal, Kalaman, Pelmarag, Tarnval; the cyber‐connection between Greek κυβερνήτης kybernetes for “steersman” and the Helmsmen as sentient, organic, and possibly insane navigational computers; even the seseante townsman who can’t pronounce Kiriath properly.

There’s more subtlety here than I’ve seen critics mention. They complain about you hatefully beating on the hatefulness of organized religion, but they don’t notice the respect you seem to give Rakan and his Throne Eternal detachment by the end. They don’t notice that Jhiral isn’t completely decadent, just jaded by absolute power; he even reconsiders the wisdom of forced resettlement.

You’re not extolling drug use, just presenting it for the fact of life that in one form or another, it is. Would they be complaining if you called these alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine? No. You don’t glamourize it. It’s just what happens, and to pretend it didn’t would be fake. You show its unpretty costs and after-effects; Angfal warns Archeth it’s not a good idea.

One question: how do you pronounce Yhelteth? Does it start just like English yes, or does the ‹yh› stand for IPA /ʎ/ (a palatal lateral approximant) or for some other sound?

“Cold commands” — now where have I heard that before? Ah right, it’s from Ozymandias:

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command…

As for a dark lord shall rise, well duh! Of course he shall; otherwise there’s no money shot! Remember, the Gay Mafia are watching.

Richard: Don’t change a thing. Ever. That’s all I have to say.

tchrist – what can I say, man?

It’s always nice to be appreciated, but to be appreciated at that level of engagement, to have someone pick out all the background notes that way, is just awesome.

You need to get a job reviewing for SFX. Reviewing my stuff, especially!

oops – sorry, completely slipped my mind, been all over the place the last couple of weeks.

Uhm, this being fantasy, you can pronounce the names pretty much however you like, really. Personally, I tend to roughen the Y, put an arabic throatiness on it. Imagine the word said by a guy with a thick Russian accent, and you’re pretty much there.

RICHARD K MORGAN
Agent of Subversion for the Homosexual Lobby Since 2008™.

There’s a t-shirt idea if ever I heard one.

Richard, I’m glad you were pleased; it was the least I could do. I felt it important to bring to light elements that get short shrift. You obviously put a lot of thought into them. Sometimes reviewers weren’t picking up on the background notes. Others seem too blinded by sex, drugs, and violence to see the story for anything but that, which annoys me—and probably exasperates you.

If I were to write a proper review, I’d have to tease out a lot more themes and grace notes, which would mean I’d have to read it again and keep written notes this time. Reviewers have touched on a few themes, but not as appreciably as they should have. And nearly none talk about what you’re doing with a genre that has almost always been too full of treacle and New Age pandering for any sane person to put up with.

The last time I saw an author creatively weave tired and over‐done fantasy tropes into something surprisingly new was probably Gene Wolfe’s Knight and Wizard diptych. His capricious denizens of Aelfheim were no airy‐fairy elves, but semi‐scary Álfar. Interesting with the nested world, but for some reason not personally satisfying. I’m getting a lot more out of the worlds you built in The Steel Remains. I just like what you’re doing a whole lot, and for no few reasons. No offence to Wolfe, whom I certainly respect: surely his Book of the New Sun is what fantasy can be but almost never is. I want things to make sense at some level, and BotNS shares with you a certain SF approach to fantasy that really appeals to me.

What other themes would I mention in a review? Not sure. I know I saw a lot of them, which means there must be many times that numbers I missed. I’d have to weed them down to a punchy subset, much smaller in number than you used.

There’s the changeling theme, like Skafloc and his brother from The Broken Sword, and no few others.

There’s a mortal spending time in the perilous realm wooing and perhaps winning an immortal bride, from The Queen of Air and Darkness or The Queen of Elfland’s Daughter. Hm, that makes Seethlaw the fairy‐bride. Slain by the mortal prince, too: how cool is that?

I wonder whether we aren’t due for the sword that drinks souls theme per Elric of Melniboné, Sethra Lavode, or Túrin Turambar.

I seem to detect in the burnt and disabled fire‐ships some echo of the Lebor Gabdla Erenn’s Tuatha De Danann, those semi‐divine beings that some thought magical demons and others proud men, who burnt their ships upon arrival from somewhere beyond, a you‐cannot‐go‐home note also found in the Fëanorians terrible theft and then similar burning of ships upon their own arrival to mortal strands. Anyone who thinks all elves are Tinker Bells should stop watching Disney.

The band bears a striking resemblance to Bifröst, the Eddaic rainbow bridge or shimmering path leading to Asgard as for the nomads, the Sky Dwellers’ Shining Road leads to their Shining Home. Intriguingly, the rainbow bridge was slated for destruction by the Sons of Muspell during Ragnarök, so you wonder whether the Kiriath might have some hand in that. Ringil carps to Shalak, “Yeah, and I knew Majak herders back in the day who thought the Kiriath were all fire‐blackened demons. [...] Rejected from the Depths of Hell to walk the Earth in Eternal Damnation.” The band could well be lunar shards left over from some catastrophe, natural or otherwise.

(to be continued)

tchrist – you are either an English major or didn’t do nearly as many drugs as I did in high school! I could not remember and 1/8th of what you have picked up.

Elric was my favorite fantasy character of all time. Really when he was possessed by Stormbringer : ) Now, Gil is definitely in the running.

Audible is the way to go… $14 per month = 1 book. Its great because I am a game dev and dont have time for actual reading anymore. I am either working on games or playing them to keep up with my industry. With audible/iPod I can listen and drive, do the dishes, fall to sleep, whatever. I also really appreciate good readers because they also add a lot of life to the story leaving my mind room to wander and custom tailer the visuals. When I sit down with a book my mind wanders too far and I have to go back and re-read the same pages over and over again, haha.

I have actually listened to all RKM books. Altered Carbon was the first audio book that a friend of mine gave to me. I have been hooked on RKM and audible ever since.

I just finished The Steel Remains and have been reading the comments here. Very impressed by those of tchrist. Way above my educational level. Just thought y’all might be interested in the first reactions of a US midwesterner steeped in christian religious education who also happened to view the semi-cartoon movie of Beowolf. Hence my following unedited first thoughts:

Certainly whole book deserves a re-read. I finished last night. Went WTF?! Clueless. Then slept on it and woke up Ringil as Grendel from Beowolf. Ringil’s cousin carries the genes of the Aldrain. Oh, so he must too.

In fact, take a pinch of Beowolf and and pinch of Christianity, stir vigorously and let rise. Ringil starts off seeing his friend die for his sins and carries that with him all his life. When he is seduced by the demon/god he enters an alternative universe where he experiences being the one who dies for his friend’s sins, keeps his sanity and somehow incorporates that into himself. He frees the slaves. There is no reason for that act expect to further define who Ringil is. He acts to “save the children.” He wants to end all wars. Yet he is the avenging lord, who comes in the night to slay the wicked.

If we are talking about a Jesus with sword in hand I get a little concerned. Isn’t that how the right-to-lifers see themselves when they off a doctor?

tchrist: I disagree we’re doing Richard a disservice – hey, it’s fun to look into the tealeaves. I mean, you seem to be the expert at the tealeaves anyway. It doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate Richard’s creativity – he’s both creative and clever. It shows the care Richard puts into his work – AND, I always learn something. It makes me think, wonder, and try to find the reference, thus learning happens. I appreciated del2007s perspective as well.

I’m re-reading it to put down some of my questions too.

Why did Seethlaw’s scent seem so familiar to Ringil? Did the sword jutting at an angle from Ringil’s shoulder represent his feeling impaled and wounded, just as his friend was literally? Is Takavacs really Takeshi Kovacs? Is Takavach also The Wanderer? My biggest question is, is Ringil too wounded and changed to ever heal? How will it all end? More questions to follow as well, but I’ve just started re-reading.

Re the moon, I took it to mean it’s another possibility, (alternate reality) not an earlier earth.

Please forgive me, Richard, for being presumptuous here by speaking for you, but tchrist, Richard might not answer all of these questions. If I remember correctly, he’s likes to leave a bit of ambiguity.

Linda

Couple of thoughts:

Maybe the Dwellers are just playing games.

Maybe the Akyia see Ringil could become all possibilities, since each experience in the Aldrain marches seem to be affecting him and tearing him apart.

Maybe we’re making it harder for Richard to come up with a new plot to surprise us all. In which direction will he take the story?

Linda, I would never ask Richard all those plot-relevant questions! That would be not just utterly crass, it’d be begging for spoilers. I’m way happy to see the story grown on its own without peaking ahead. I too much enjoy figuring things out at Richard’s own pace to want that spoiled.

Those were just questions I hope to understand better once I’ve read further books with these characters (whom I love, by the way). I fully realize Richard might never answer all questions in a future book. A good writer fills a believable world not just with older elements from that world that poke through to the present, but also has things that are never fully explained. We don’t have explanations for everything in our own world, so there’s no reason to expect a created world should come with all the answers, either. It all just needs to make internal sense, without (too many) paradoxes.

Anon@15:27, I was somewhat apologizing for appearing to pay more attention to possible source-inspirations than to the current story. And I was completely staggered by your musing on Takavach and Takeshi Kovacs, like seeing a new figure hiding in a familiar painting you’d never noticed there before. Brilliant! It’s even more compelling when one remembers that TK’s surname was to be pronounced [ˈkovaːtʃ] like the Slavic word for smith.

Anon@19:32, perhaps I’m going too far by presuming it is the Dwellers fucking around with Gil, not some other group. It just seems their style. Likewise with the animated corpse in the cage.

I’m thinking the grinning return question to Gil’s “Who are you?” of “Don’t you know?” might not be something we’re expected to know the answer to yet. I even wonder whether Gil is honestly expected to know that answer: it could be more Dweller wickedness there to distress him.

Getting back to the theme of Richard’s initial posting—that is, “I got one!”—how many of you (not Richard) think The Steel Remains would make a great film?

Do you think there’d be too much homophobia (or homophobia-phobia) for any filmmakers to touch it?

Even if someone did buy up a film optionl, would any studio or director have the balls to make a film that closely followed Richard’s novel, or would they pull some lame-ass Disneyfied cop-out?

Oh, this is too funny for words. The homosexual lobby???? Didn’t know one existed and, if it does, so what? I, for one, love your sexy homo character in The Steel Remains. My God, what have we come to that people are this close-minded about literature, about art, about life, about two people enjoying sex? Someone’s sexual persuasion doesn’t bother me in the slightest and it’s none of my damn business anyway. For the record, I am a HUGE fan of the proudly and openly gay singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright too. He is an amazing talent. Too bad this country treats men (and women) like him as second-class citizens. Apparently, that has now extended to works of fiction and fictional characters too. Absolutely amazing and so very, very sad. Mr. Morgan, I cannot wait for the next installment of this story. The first was wonderfully written and gave us a great hero/anti-hero who was HOT and home. Keep up the good work!

disappointed at your shot at the “mid-west”. by saying that you sound like the liberal elite.

fuck off.

Wow – the liberal elite, the homosexual lobby. All I need now is an in with the International Zionist Conspiracy, and I’ll have the full set.

What gave me the creeping thrill of fear was picking up something appearing to be a tired swords and sorcery story from a science fiction author whose stories I’d grown to love. Another one gone to the bad, I thought, and dismally settled to see how far I could get.

Then I read the book. In a longgg night.

Loved it. And the scenario that leads to the line “I’m with the faggot”. Exceptional. Rich, complex characters with individual motivations.

I ended up thinking it’s probably the best you’ve written, so far. Keep it up, please!

tchrist’s analysis is far beyond where I’ve gone. I’ve assumed this is another planet to which humans, human derived and others have come (assuming that at least some of the mechanisms are involving probabilistic technologies that allow for world-walking, and tunneling to the flat gravity spot at the centre of the world, as in The Algebraist, etc). I’ve chosen to believe that the book isn’t fantasy at all. It’s hard SF – but with Clark’s “sufficiently advanced technology”.

Anyone disturbed by the sex scenes in TSR is probably going to have real problems reading, ohh, The Naked Lunch, or Banks’ Song Of Stone or Complicity. IIRC, for all of Takeshi’s fearsome capacity for violence, I don’t recall any non-consensual sex. Maybe I need to re-re-re-read.

Do I have a richer internal life after reading any of these? Yes. Nothing finer than seeing the world from a different perspective!

So… Any chance of you writing a book in which we can be given a sympathetic portrait of Sarah Palin’s view of the world? As a near antithesis of everything you’ve written, that’d have to stretch your talents

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