The Steel Remains (A Land Fit for Heroes Series Book 1)

One of the more interesting problems of science fiction and fantasy is a lot of people are more interested in the war than the peace. It's a conceit of the majority of novels that everything will roughly end like WW2 where one side is dismantled completely or outright destroyed. One of my favorite early aversions was the Star Wars Legends universe where it took a couple of in-universe decades for the New Republic to make a treaty with the Empire because destroying it turned out to be harder than they thought. The Steel Remains is the first book of the Land Fit for Heroes trilogy which is about the aftermath of a massive fantasy war. We get frequent reference to the war against the Scaled Folk, battles where dragons were slain, and all sorts of tales which indicate they had a very typical conflict between "Good and Evil." This book is not about that war. Instead, The Steel Remains is about the aftermath of said war. The poverty, the classicism, the social changes, and the other consequences from a massive fantasy war. Ringel is a legendary military hero from the war as well as a nobleman but he's a homosexual and that puts him on the outs with the rising fundamentalist streak of society following the conflict. Egar Dragonbane is a barbarian hero in the Conan mold who finds exposure to civilization makes him ill-suited to return to his people. Archeth Indamaninarnal is a half-kiriath champion who finally answers, "So what happens when the elves finally DO leave?" In a very real sense, The Steel Remains is a deconstruction of the Happily Ever After story and I can say I'm inherently biased towards it because that's a premise which I've tinkered around with myself (Wraith Knight). Real life is complicated because there's no such thing as a happily ever after. World War 2 was a defining moment for the Greatest Generation but they continued their lives for decades thereafter, shaping society and themselves in ways both great as well as bad. I've been informed by fans A Land Fit for Heroes is one of the holy trilogy of grimdark. After you read George R.R. Martin you need to read Mark Lawrence, Joe Abercombie, and Richard K. Morgan to consider yourself an "expert" in the subject of grimdark. Given I've written plenty of essays on the subject, I naturally disagree but I've got to say their recommendation here is spot-on. Richard K. Morgan is definitely an author who deserves to stand with the others as well as gives a sense of what the aethstetics for a grimdark world should be. Indeed, using those books solely as a guide you can get a functional guide to the genre as: "What happens when classical fantasy stories function more like real-life history with all the ugliness and ambiguities?" Indeed, a big appeal of the book is how it displays individual people being washed along with the tide of history. Ringel is a character not defined by his homosexuality but when dealing with many of his fellow warriors, that's the only thing they care about. Egar Dragonbane finds the simple noble savage life of fiction to be boring as well as offensive while they hold their ignorance as a badge of pride. Archeth's lesbianism doesn't come up nearly as much as her race because of her political ties but the very person who protects her from persecution is a selfish monster. Like if you were friends with Aragorn but his son was Joffrey yet Joffrey was the only one who actually listened to you. That's a special kind of hell. The story itself isn't complex: Ringil is hired by his mother to recover his cousin, who has been sold into sexual slavery because of her husband's debts. Egar is, meanwhile, being plotted against by his jealous siblings who consider him a disgrace to their religion as well as culture. Archeth, meanwhile, wants to investigate reports of an ancient godlike race of fairy-like beings who are apparently returning after the abandoning of the world by the Kiriath. The plot is really just an excuse to explore the wonderfully dark and gritty world the author has created. Of the three major characters I have to say I approve of Ringil the most. Not the least because it's a good thing to see a complete badass who is also gay in fiction but also because he's such a complicated nuanced character. A nobleman who has embraced every nasty gritty stereotype because if he's going to be treated like dirt by his family, he might as well be dirty. He's a delightfully anti-patriotic character as he comes to hate what his country has done to its citizens. Honestly, a few centuries later and he probably would have been an outlaw biker. I also love Archeth as she struggles to reconcile the fact the perfect Kiriath didn't accept her but the human race (mostly) does despite them being a murderous bunch of ignorant savages. Is the book perfect? Not quite. I was taken out of the story a few times by the way the characters moved from somewhat old timey and formal talk to guttural modern world swearing. Real life people in the Middle Ages were as, if not more, foul-mouthed than Modern man but the dialogue did seem to switch between types a bit too much. There's also the fact Egar's plot seems to be somewhat half-finished by the time he joins the rest of the group as with the events with his people seems like it should have had a bigger consequence than it did. In conclusion, this is a great book and I have to say it's must for grimdark readers. It's a dark and seedy story with the backdrop of a war which should have initiated them all into everlasting glory but, instead, just meant they have to live in its shadow as what they fought for becomes unrecognizable.10/10

So I started this book because it has been on recommended lists and overall seems to be well-recieved. I will preface with I have not even gone twenty pages in. I found the opening of the book to be bland but not unmanageable. I haven’t read anything else by this author but the world building could have been more exciting, more fluid and less choppy. The beginning action scene felt less like that of a novel and more like lines for an action film on how the scene should go (flat with little suspense and an overall lacking of proper flow between sentences and happenings.) This inability to get me invested in the fight scene at the beginning and ultimately the main character put me off of this author’s work. Then the choice of language to refer to the main character’s sexuality straight from the beginning of the book turned me off. I would rather my fantasy be reflect less of the negative aspects of society and allow characters to be themselves. I may attempt to finish this book a second time but so far I am not inspired to read more.

This book was not for me. Nothing wrong with the writing skill - the author has a gift for describing settings beautifully - but if you're not down for explicit sex and violence, you may want to steer clear. The violence wasn't too much of a problem for me, and the various action scenes are well-described, but the sex was...not to my taste. And there's a lot of it (from both gay and straight couples). I wouldn't mind it much if there was any affection displayed between those engaged in it, but for the most part it felt to me like sex just for sex's sake. About the healthiest relationship on display was between a 16-year-old girl and her twice-her-age tribal chief, as they at least seemed to like each other.As for the rest of the book, it follows three main characters, and alternates between their viewpoints. I quite liked Arceth, the last of an apparently scientifically advanced race and possibly the most rational person on her planet, but the other two, not so much. The aforementioned tribal chief is very crass (except for the nagging influence of culture from his old friends, which at least gave him promise), which was annoying, but the main character's development was most disappointing. I hated his final decisions so much that it made it hard for me to finish the book - true, his enemies were alien and monstrous, but I wasn't convinced that negotiation and persuasion would have been impossible. I looked ahead in the series to see if he turns out to become a bona fide villain, which would have at least explained his behavior here, but that doesn't appear to be the case.Some good things: I did like how the main three characters felt connected despite not interacting until the very end, as they are always in each others' thoughts. The world is well-realized, though it's nowhere I'd ever want to visit. Being LGBT myself, I like my fantasy books to at least be something of an escape, but this was as bad as some of the worst places in the world are now. Realistic, perhaps, in its way, but as it didn't really have much to say about the persecution of gay people allegorically (other than that it's horrific), I didn't see the point of designing the world that way. At the end, the main character is asked why he bothers to defend the people of his world. Good question, I thought, but his answer was unsatisfying.

The main characters are all likeable and interesting.Ringil is quite amusing and gets in a few good lines.There is plenty of action and the pace is good.There are dark and violent aspects to the plot which keep you guessing throughout.It is slightly spoiled by two things: the first is that the romantic angle is over-played and seems a bit forced, the second is the use of the gods as a crutch, they aren't an integral part of the plot and although there are two involved the motives of one of them doesn't really make sense.A good book but a little short of great.

I found his science fiction writing intelligent, interesting and fun to read. This is nowhere near as good. It's not without merit and I continued to the end but it all feels like a bit of a joke. I would have said it's pitched at 12-13 year olds, except some of the content is very adult, although again even the adult content is presented like kids talking about adult stuff.

I have been looking for a 'Game of Thrones' equivalent for a while and this book fits the bill nicely. I am not going to say that it was a huge surprise, the gritty environment and the not-so-heroic heroes are the reasons I picked it up in the first place, but it is still a good read. I will highly recommend it unless you feel uncomfortable with homosexual erotic scenes. There are a couple of really spicy bits there that might annoy you.

I'm only about a third of this book, and it is not your normal kind of book.It's like a 13th setting, but it could also be some time ahead. It is quite savageand the words are very much up to-day and earthly as well.

Gritty fantasy, written in what I've come to realise is Richard Morgan's unique, fast paced, slap you in the face with a nasty (fictional but totally imaginable) reality. I really like this guy's books. This is (as far as I'm aware) his first forray into fantasy, and sometimes the finer details of the plot seem to twist away from understanding. If you're like me and will read books over and over again, you will pick up on anything you missed before. It's totally worth the re read. You gotta read all three to get some of the answers...which is totally worth it. For a fantasy book it hits pretty close to home in how relatable the characters are.