Review: The Steel Remains, by Richard Morgan

(Originally posted on Friday December 5th 2008)

Much was made of this title in magazines when it was released a few months ago and it was praised as something refreshing in the fantasy genre. Maybe the fact that Morgan was already a well respected writer of sci-fi coloured some of the reviews of this book, becasue while it's good, it's not the startling redefenition of the genre that they made it out to be.

Humans once shared the world with the technologically advanced Kiriath, but the black-skinned race have long since retreated into legend leving behind only relics and a few abandoned half-breeds. But the human nations of now fidn themselves threatened by an even more ancient race known as the Dwenda, feared even by the mighty Kiriath and a mystery to mankind.

War hero Ringil Eskiath is drawn into the intircate plots and politics as he searches for a lost relative. Kiriath half-breed kir-Archeth Indamaninarmal is dispatched by her masters in the Yheleth Empire to investigate rumours of strange attacks on remote settlements. Egar the steppe nomad is deposed and driven into exile by the treachery of his own people. All are old friends and all are eventually brought together by their fates.

Morgan certainly brings new elements to the mix by making two of his three central characters openly homosexual in a voilently homophobic soceity, but some of his efforts to move away from the common elements of the genre are obvious and often jarring.

In particular the replacing of elves and dwarves with dwenda and kiriath is at times rather annoying as the lengths to which the writer has gone to make them different means they lack any real feeling. The reader feels that their difference to the norm is somehow meant to make up for the lack of characterisation. In reality they simply come across like humans in prosthetics rather than distinctly different races with unique motives.

The world is also quite a disappointment as it strangely seems to be the one area in which Morgan makes no effort whatsoever to break with cliche. There is the motley collection of squabbling city states, the decadent and arrogant empire ruled by a degenerate and the steppes with their horsebound nomads thought of as barbarians to the rest of the world. That could be almost any fantasy world!

Another uncomfortable element is the treatment of sexulaity in the book. The homosexuality of two of the main characters seems somewhat overplayed as an element of the story and at times rather the reason for the character's existance as opposed to simply an aspect of their broader personality. For once it would be nice to have a character in this genre who just happens to be gay rather than a persecuted martyr or crusader for gay rights!

Perhaps these are all elements that work far better in the sci-fi settings that Morgan is used to writing in, but here they seem forced and out of place.

I'll read the inevitable sequel, but I hope it'll be a more easy read that focuses on the story rather than the sexuality of the characters.