marcusgipps (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} marcusgipps) wrote,@ 2008-06-11 20:04:00 |
|
The Steel Remains, by Richard Morgan
Oh wow, a book that's going to change the world of fantasy! Push all the boundaries! "Fantasy is about to get real", says the strapline on the back cover of the proof. Yadda yadda yadda. The rest of the blurb contains the usual stuff - Egar the barbarian, Archeth the half-breed, scarred hero, Scaled Folk. Doesn't sound awfully real to me, to be honest. Sounds like fantasy. Still, Morgan has a good reputation for his SF, Gollancz are keen on this one, Joe Abercrombie liked it (well, for a certain definition of 'liked', anyway, but he suggested I read it). So yeah, alright, I'll give it a go.
Look, most of the reviews I've read of this book haven't really mentioned (or have only hinted at) the most interesting thing about it (in my opinion, anyway), and I'm going to, so don't read the last paragraph or two if you don't want things a bit spoiled. In fairness, I won't bang on about the ending or twisty scenes or anything, and the thing I'm thinking of is made clear pretty early in the book, but still, I don't want people to get angry, so there you go. I'll come to it in a bit.
The first thing you notice that is a bit different about the book, to be fair, is the swearing. That's mostly because the front cover of the proof, which has about twenty lines of text on it, contains five 'fuckings'. Now alright, people do swear in fantasy books, a bit, and Abercrombie's stuff has a liberal spattering of fucks and so on, but right on the cover? I know that the actual release won't be the same, but still, that's a pretty bold statement right there. The scene that has been excerpted is a pretty tense moment, but the level of swearing throughout the book is about on a par with the cover. It can be a bit jarring, at times - not because I'm prudish, but just because it all sounds quite so modern. I'm really not suggesting we'd be better off with some sort of cod-historical cussing, but something, at times, doesn't sit quite right. Again, maybe that is a real attempt to change the boundaries of the genre - I certainly can't come up with a solution to the problem that doesn't involve 'swearing less', so perhaps there is something unusual going on here.
The trouble is, the basic structure of the book is fantasy through and through. No matter how much you dress everything up in modern language, heavy swearing, faux-technological explanations for magic and so on, what it comes down to is bitter swordsman Ringil setting off to free a relative from slavers and getting caught up in things beyond his control, discovering a 'bigger picture', getting into trouble of one sort or another and running into various people he used to know/fight with/fuck. Out in the distance there are hints at the beginning of the uber-story, the things that will let Morgan carry on for three books. That may sound a bit more dismissive than I intend it to, but to be honest the whole 'never been seen before' thing annoys me a little. If I had to think of books that have actually seemed properly, really different, then I'd mention Steph Swainston or (bit obvious, but there you go) China Mieville (yes it is fantasy, shut up). The plot here isn't something we haven't seen before.
On the other hand, I should point out that I thought this was a fantastic (hah!) book. Incredibly well-paced, smartly written and often very exciting indeed, it is exactly what I like in a fantasy novel. There are moments of proper, laugh-out-loud humour, but they don't ever seem forced or incongruous. The fight scenes are very well done, the slow drip of information about the world we're in (and the recent history of our characters) works well, and the prose has a tautness to it that fits perfectly with the tone of the novel but occasionally lets itself relent when needed. There's a point to the book, and even some decent motivations for our characters, and quite frankly I'm looking forward to the next two books in the series more than I should. And all that's before we mention the one thing that is truly different and interesting about the book (I say different, there's probably shedloads of books that cover this ground out there, but I haven't read them, alright?).
It depresses me, but the simple, different thing that this book does that most fantasy doesn't is (wait for it)... the main character is gay. Not in an implied way, not in a repressed way - full-on, sleeps with men on a fairly regular basis (often, in this book, in quite intimate detail), not ashamed of it, gay. Which I wasn't expecting because, well, that doesn't really happen in fantasy, does it? Or maybe it does and I just haven't read those books, but you know what I mean. And that is terrible. Terrible because there ought to be more books as good as this out there, terrible because in 2008 I shouldn't have to be mentioning this as a major part of the book, terrible because there will be some people who won't read it because of that one fact (although in the interests of fairness, if you're the sort of person to get squeamish at explicit gay sex, this probably isn't the book for you). I don't know, maybe I'm being overly worried. What it means most of all is that Morgan can throw in some interesting observations on bigotry and sexuality and all of those things, all of which strengthen the novel, and therefore Ringil's sexual preferences are an important part of the book - and the book is all the better for taking an unsual step. I just wish it didn't seem so worthy of comment.
I read a proof, and the book is out in hardback from Gollancz in August, ISBN: 9780752891507.
Oh wow, a book that's going to change the world of fantasy! Push all the boundaries! "Fantasy is about to get real", says the strapline on the back cover of the proof. Yadda yadda yadda. The rest of the blurb contains the usual stuff - Egar the barbarian, Archeth the half-breed, scarred hero, Scaled Folk. Doesn't sound awfully real to me, to be honest. Sounds like fantasy. Still, Morgan has a good reputation for his SF, Gollancz are keen on this one, Joe Abercrombie liked it (well, for a certain definition of 'liked', anyway, but he suggested I read it). So yeah, alright, I'll give it a go.
Look, most of the reviews I've read of this book haven't really mentioned (or have only hinted at) the most interesting thing about it (in my opinion, anyway), and I'm going to, so don't read the last paragraph or two if you don't want things a bit spoiled. In fairness, I won't bang on about the ending or twisty scenes or anything, and the thing I'm thinking of is made clear pretty early in the book, but still, I don't want people to get angry, so there you go. I'll come to it in a bit.
The first thing you notice that is a bit different about the book, to be fair, is the swearing. That's mostly because the front cover of the proof, which has about twenty lines of text on it, contains five 'fuckings'. Now alright, people do swear in fantasy books, a bit, and Abercrombie's stuff has a liberal spattering of fucks and so on, but right on the cover? I know that the actual release won't be the same, but still, that's a pretty bold statement right there. The scene that has been excerpted is a pretty tense moment, but the level of swearing throughout the book is about on a par with the cover. It can be a bit jarring, at times - not because I'm prudish, but just because it all sounds quite so modern. I'm really not suggesting we'd be better off with some sort of cod-historical cussing, but something, at times, doesn't sit quite right. Again, maybe that is a real attempt to change the boundaries of the genre - I certainly can't come up with a solution to the problem that doesn't involve 'swearing less', so perhaps there is something unusual going on here.
The trouble is, the basic structure of the book is fantasy through and through. No matter how much you dress everything up in modern language, heavy swearing, faux-technological explanations for magic and so on, what it comes down to is bitter swordsman Ringil setting off to free a relative from slavers and getting caught up in things beyond his control, discovering a 'bigger picture', getting into trouble of one sort or another and running into various people he used to know/fight with/fuck. Out in the distance there are hints at the beginning of the uber-story, the things that will let Morgan carry on for three books. That may sound a bit more dismissive than I intend it to, but to be honest the whole 'never been seen before' thing annoys me a little. If I had to think of books that have actually seemed properly, really different, then I'd mention Steph Swainston or (bit obvious, but there you go) China Mieville (yes it is fantasy, shut up). The plot here isn't something we haven't seen before.
On the other hand, I should point out that I thought this was a fantastic (hah!) book. Incredibly well-paced, smartly written and often very exciting indeed, it is exactly what I like in a fantasy novel. There are moments of proper, laugh-out-loud humour, but they don't ever seem forced or incongruous. The fight scenes are very well done, the slow drip of information about the world we're in (and the recent history of our characters) works well, and the prose has a tautness to it that fits perfectly with the tone of the novel but occasionally lets itself relent when needed. There's a point to the book, and even some decent motivations for our characters, and quite frankly I'm looking forward to the next two books in the series more than I should. And all that's before we mention the one thing that is truly different and interesting about the book (I say different, there's probably shedloads of books that cover this ground out there, but I haven't read them, alright?).
It depresses me, but the simple, different thing that this book does that most fantasy doesn't is (wait for it)... the main character is gay. Not in an implied way, not in a repressed way - full-on, sleeps with men on a fairly regular basis (often, in this book, in quite intimate detail), not ashamed of it, gay. Which I wasn't expecting because, well, that doesn't really happen in fantasy, does it? Or maybe it does and I just haven't read those books, but you know what I mean. And that is terrible. Terrible because there ought to be more books as good as this out there, terrible because in 2008 I shouldn't have to be mentioning this as a major part of the book, terrible because there will be some people who won't read it because of that one fact (although in the interests of fairness, if you're the sort of person to get squeamish at explicit gay sex, this probably isn't the book for you). I don't know, maybe I'm being overly worried. What it means most of all is that Morgan can throw in some interesting observations on bigotry and sexuality and all of those things, all of which strengthen the novel, and therefore Ringil's sexual preferences are an important part of the book - and the book is all the better for taking an unsual step. I just wish it didn't seem so worthy of comment.
I read a proof, and the book is out in hardback from Gollancz in August, ISBN: 9780752891507.
