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The Steel Remains

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The Steel Remains

By: Richard Morgan
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

Ringil, the hero of the bloody slaughter at Gallows Gap, is a legend to all who don't know him and a twisted degenerate to those that do. A veteran of the wars against the lizards, he makes a living from telling credulous travellers of his exploits. Until one day he is pulled away from his life and into the depths of the Empire's slave trade. There, he will discover a secret infinitely more frightening than the trade in lives.

Archeth - pragmatist, cynic and engineer, the last of her race - is called from her work at the whim of the most powerful man in the Empire and sent to its farthest reaches to investigate a demonic incursion against the Empire's borders.

Egar Dragonbane, steppe-nomad and one-time fighter for the Empire, finds himself entangled in a small-town battle between common sense and religious fervour. But out in the wider world, there is something on the move far more alien than any of his tribe's petty gods.

Anti-social, anti-heroic, and decidedly irritated, all three of them are about to be sent unwillingly forth into a vicious, vigorous, and thoroughly unsuspecting fantasy world.

©2009 Richard Morgan (P)2011 Orion Publishing Group Limited Fantasy Fiction Scary

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All stars
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I loved this book, it has the same edgy feel that Name of the Wind, Left hand of God and the Gentleman Bastard books have. It could have been sharper and allowed the reader more use of their imagination by restricting the long descriptions he is so fond of. With that said im going to start into his next book immediately. One of the few new Sci Fantasy authors that entertain without harking back to Tolkien. As one of the main characters is gay, this book is definitely not for the homophobic. it was good to see something different tried in this genre. hope the next one is as good if not better.

Up there with Hoffman, Lynch and Rothfuss,

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I very rarely re-read/listen to any titles. And I have several hundreds in my library.
But Mr Morgan's unique style has drawn me back THREE times to his entire bibliography!
And this series (land fit for heroes) is where his outstanding work was debuted. And just gathered strenght as he went along.

(Edit: After FIVE repeats of all his works, this series has been moved to my favourite, above the Altered Carbon series!
Perfect balance of complexity without an overall arch that leaves you lost in the world.
RKM always ties up all the loose ends and delivers a massively fulfilling experience)

Yes, some reviews critisize graphic and gratuitous content.
That is RKM style, and he executes it masterfully!
Yes, it's dark, violent, explicit, disturbing, raw.
No, don't let your kids listen to it.
It's genius and intricate work meant for adults.
Enjoy it as such!
And to boot another masterful performance from Simon Vance!
Worthy 5 stars!

Fantastic!

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One of the best books I've listened to this year. A raw, gritty fantasy with a touch of sci-fi invasion.

Brilliant, gritty fantasy!

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I am enjoying this book very much. Simon Vance does an excellent job as usual of narrating the multitude of characters. The writing itself is excellent, lyrically descriptive in parts and the story is everything it should be in this genre - fast moving, complex, violent.

A word of warning however. The characters language is coarse at times, absolutely filthy at others and there are scenes of graphic homosexual sex which are probably a little overdone for their context. You wouldn't want your mother or children to listen to this book, which is a shame because it's a great example of the genre.

Warning!

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Where to start reviewing a story that is entirely unique?

Ringil Eskiath, a war hero, is a man with a rigid morality. This makes him ill equipped to cope with his society's lack of morality. He finds himself in direct conflict with virtually everyone around him. Society, in turn, is unable to understand him. Instead, he is censured for his homosexuality and is either dismissed as naive or villified as depraved. He's a sensitive man who can only survive by alienating himself and his superlative sword skill makes him a reluctant killer.

Brief synopsis: Ringil is asked to track down and retrieve a family member who has been sold into slavery. He stumbles into a deep laid plan by a mythical race of beings who intend to take back Ringil's world that they consider theirs by heritage. He is forced to carve his way through people and and problems with his sword.

The story twists, turns, doubles back, confuses and thrills.

A word of advice: listen very, very carefully. All three books are out now and I had to go back to the beginning to re-read. The entire story line contains clues that only become clear by the end of book 3. The story is not linear, so some actions taken make no sense until seen in relation to the entire story.

Richard Morgan has created a detailed, unique world that will catch and hold you tight till the very end. His characters are deeply sketched and nuanced. The support characters are just as carefully crafted as the main ones. The writing is superb and Simon Vance is an experienced, versatile narrator.

Absorbing, unique, fascinating

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I was hoping for a strong story and gritty realism in this fantasy title and got what I was after. The narrator does very well with his voices and characters. Not as much dark humour as I might have liked but lots of clever observations and interesting motives to move things along. Well worth a second listen once you've gathered the plot.

Very well done!!!

Better & Better

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Was hoping for something along the lines of Joe Abercrombie's First Law series, which this does approach - some interesting characters/anti-heroes, humour, etc. To be honest though, what put me off were the unnecessarily long, overly-descriptive sex scenes (which are mostly gay) - they mostly seemed gratuitous, in the sense that the length/level of detail didn't really add anything to the story, and got a bit boring after a while. Nothing against a bit of rauchiness in a book (I made it through all the GoT audiobooks quite happily), but this seemed to be the author just indulging himself, and got a bit tiresome after a while.
Shame really, as I didn't make it through the first book.
Narrator was very good, as usual for Vance, though I found the choice of accent for the steppe nomads a bit odd (sounded like the orks out of Warhammer 40k).

Meh. Not bad, not great.

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what a great story. If you're a fan of gritty, dark fantasy, this is the book for you. The characters are all interesting and the story won't let you put this down until finished. thank God there are another two books!

Awesome!!

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What did you like best about The Steel Remains? What did you like least?

The narration was good, with excellent vocal delivery and expert differentiation of characters.

The narrative was passable. However; after a strong start the character speeches devolved into swear words. If I wanted to hear the F-Word repeated over and over again I'd watch a British crime thriller. No thanks.

I couldn't get through 'Altered Carbon' (one of the authors Sci-Fi outings) either. In that story I grew tired of the main character's weary dissipation combined with his barely-controlled hatred.

I'm sorry to find the author just as one-note in this genre. Morgan has written another 'hero' with a sad life who really, really hates some other people.

Not recommended.

Surprisingly tedious

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I really struggled following this totally disjointed, to me, book. Too much going on with too many characters in their own stories. Maybe it can mesh together at the end but I’ve 4 hours left and really can’t drag myself through it when there are other books waiting in the wings. Sorry but a huge fail and nothing like a good Abercrombie or Lawrence.
Simon Vance was good, not so much drawl as he has had in previous books which I found grating.

Disjointed

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