It doesn't have to be a recommendation - and white out (or just leave out) spoilers. Comments welcome of course, but guys, everyone's taste is different so they are not an idiot if they like something you don't. And other people had better post! I don’t wanna look like I’m just wanking on about bollocks!

Oh, and I’ve put an “out of 10” score to help things along.

______________________________

For a kick-off:

The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan
10 out of 10!

To get you in the mood, this is an ace book.

It's a fantasy novel- which I can sometimes be a bit put off by, as they all seem so, well, silly. But this baby is a thing of beauty. A lot of that beauty relies on you not minding too much knowing what noises weapons make when they go inside people. There is a lot of violence, and a fair amount of sex - not over-indulgent, but more graphic than I remember reading in a while.

One huge plus-point to me on opening the book - there is no map on the first page. This writer only needs you to know the basics of his world - three basic nations, a few basic cultures, a delicately woven-in knowledge of it's history, and bang - you're equipped for the ride without knowing it. Not that it’s oversimplified, but no information is there just because he thought it was too cool to leave out. I like that. Morgan inhabits the world he's created effortlessly, without having to shoe-horn in explanations, or parachute a tweed-patched teacher in half way through with lots of important diagrams. Too much fantasy gets so far up it's own arse in explaining the history, politics, geography, customs, peoples, cultures, grievances, magics, weapons and foods of it's tiny universe that you wish the writer would just go out and play D&D like he clearly wants to. Morgan, in contrast, creates a world you believe in utterly and instantly with a delicate touch that leaves you wondering where he got all that information in.

Then there's the characters - three main ones: Ringil, Egar and Archeth.
Ringil is a war-hero, gay (significant in this world, and if you can read the descriptions of what they do to people without wanting a hug then you're a stronger man than me), has a big fucking sword (careful, Freudians!) and a shed-load of issues all of which are entirely understandable given the flashbacks we see to his life, and the fact that people find homosexuality so 'degenerate' they can hardly bear to hear it mentioned without flinching. He is also very funny, and the sort of person that, lets face it, you’d love to be.
Egar is probably dealt with least of the three, but is genuinely likable and also rather adept at killing people, having once killed a dragon (there are no dragons in this book, fortunately). He’s a nomadic herder who was a mercenary in his youth, and now a rather unenthusiastic tribal leader.
Archeth is *gasp* a lady-person with lady-bits and everything! She’s also gay, although her being a) female, and b) in a different country to Ringil (where there's Spanish Inquisition type things, but not quite on the same scale) makes it not so much of an issue for her. She is part of a race which caused quite a stir when they were about, but have since buggered off to another world, and she’s now about 200, advisor to an emperor who’s a bit of a tit, and something of a drug addict. Therein lie her issues. She also manages to fight people without baring her midriff.

Now, back to the sex and violence (you know you want it). There isn’t more of it than you’d expect in a book when people run around with pointy things, but it doesn’t hold back. There’s blood, there’s guts, there’s things biting into bone and eyes falling out and muscles severed and other unpleasant things for people with a visual imagination. No one dies that you don’t know what organs they lost to doing it. Similarly, a couple of the sex scenes, while not as frequent, are at least as graphic as some things I’ve read on the internet, if you know what I mean. If you’re terribly offended by man/man then there’s a few pages you might want to skip. Oh, and a lot of the people in it swear almost as much as me!

The story, without giving too much away, is not your standard Quest to Find Summat (tm) although there is a person to be found on Ringil’s part. The fact that the other two characters are up to completely different things stops it from being a search-for-Smaug and gives it a different flavour altogether. This is not a book where if only we could find the macguffin everything’ll turn out just peachy. It’s messy, it’s complicated, and no one gets to sail off into the metaphor-for-heaven. The three stories also complement each other perfectly, and make a beautiful idea three times better. The characters are all flawed, but all likeable and have a shared past which means if you trust one you trust them all.

There are also several Strong Women Characters, but not in that way that beats you over the head and shouts “look at me! I‘m inclusive! LOOK AT MEEEEE!” - it’s smooth, natural and just like real life! Similarly, the homosexuality of Archeth and Ringil is matter-of-fact, and the only reason it’s an issue at all is their societies (particularly Ringil’s) are obsessed with it almost to the point of a witch-hunt.

It’s not perfect, because nothing is, so here are my little bugs - the bit where Ringil’s in the Aldrain marches does at points feel a little like the bit in the last Harry Potter book where they just wander around for a bit. But it’s so absolutely stuffed with flashbacks and might-have-beens (you’ll get it when you read it ) that you forgive it. Also, the Dwenda swearing just seems a bit off-kilter somehow, but that’s a tiny quibble.

And the ending, my god the ending. It just… sings.

One last thing - the parts where people speak of the future pleased me. Not to give it away, but what the guy says about the sword if fuckin’ ace. Some of the things you learn about Archeth’s people also hint at Morgan’s usual territory. And the Dwenda armour? C’mon!

Excellent review and it makes me wanna try it. It's doubtful my library has it (I love libraries, but mine tends to not have the stuff I wanna read. This is not a slight on my library, because it is generally ace, but the whole interlibrary loans seem to never happen - they take my info and then... nothing)

Can we review books we've read a bazillion times? 'Cos frankly, that's about all I've done lately. (with the exceptions of Nation and The Graveyard book)

you can review any book you like! (it doesn't have to be fantasy/sci-fi either)

my library has lots of copies of this - i shall pick it up when i have finished reading a couple of the 5 or 6 books i am currently trying to get through!

It does seem to have almost hit the mainstream - it was out on the front display in hte airport bookshop too.

I'm just annoyed that I ordered the hardback from Amazon, becuase it said the paperbac wasn't ou for months - but it's in paperback now!

That review makes me want to read it, too.

I'll do Temeraire when I've finished with it. It HAS dragons innit, which put me off when looking at the blurb, but the author has got it just about right.

quote:

Originally posted by Domitella:
a search-for-Smaug

OMG! What happened to Smaug? Who lost her? Quick, everybody, we gotta find Smaug or the board sky will drop!

quote:

Originally posted by Domitella:
The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan

it seems a strange departure given his first 5 novels were SF. though the sex and violence sounds pretty consistent. i've still got his last novel "black man" sitting unfinished, got to something like chapter 6, where four characters stood and had a conversation which beat the reader over the head with the plot so far and i haven't touched it again since.

Ah, I'm keen on reading his others (I don't read much sci-fi) but I might skip that one in that case.

This one doesn't do that (that I noticed) honest!

altered carbon his first novel is an interesting mix of far future earth given a sort of noir feel, with off worlder recruited to play the role of private detective. some folk think its a bit cheesy, i know a few folk quite enjoyed it, i did. its probably a good place to start. the follow ups broken angels and woken furies are both interesting in that they are different enough not to be clones of the first - each set on a different planet, with lead character takeshi kovacs taking on different roles. problem i find with his work is that he seemed to get more violent as they went on

Domitella, that sounds very interesting. I'll have to look it up. Here are a few books (aside from Neil's, of course) that have rocked my world in the last year or so. Your description of

Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone by Carol Berg (9/10) kind of remind me of the book you reviewed. They have elements of High Fantasy but are told from a first person perspective and don't overdo the details of the world. And what a protagonist! Valen is in hiding from his pureblood family at the start and is wounded from battle and suffering from a drug addiction called "Doulon Sickness" when he is rescued by a group of monks. Also, he has in his posession a magic book of maps he inherited from his grandfather. Another bonus is that this is no annoying goes on forever series. It is just the two books.

The Book of Lost Thingsby John Connolly 10/10 - A young boy in WWII England has lost his mother and is jealous of his stepmother and new baby half-brother. He loves stories as his mother did and, when he hears the books whispering to him at night and sees the shadow of the crooked man, things turn very "Grimm" indeed. This book has a child protagonist but is definitely not for kids, though it is excellent.

The Witch's Boy by Michael Gruber 10/10
This one can be for older kids and has similar themes to The Book of Lost Things, while being a much different book. It is about an ugly infant left on a witch's doorstep and how he grows up. Not quite as grim as "Lost Things" but definitely very Grimm. This book also has one of the best witch characters ever.

Right now I'm reading The Totally Useless History of the World, by Ian Crofton. This book starts with the earliest recorded "fact" and moves forward in time until reaching modern day. The facts selected are not the important ones that mark the flow of humanity from one paradigm to the next. Rather its a collection of oddities, missteps, and unusual laws.

This book is an easy read, each fact is its own paragraph, about 3 or 4 facts per page. The content ranges from the silly, to the scandalous, to the gruesome. Its the gruesome facts, however, that are giving me pause. Now we move into the more editorial portion of the review:

It seems that humans have an endless list of ways to torture and execute each other, and this book lists several of them. The context of the book is light-hearted, but the details are from from it. I find myself both depressed at how wicked people are and have been, and also thankful that I live when and where I live.

I mean (*spoiler!*):
The cat organ? A contraption invented to cheer up a melancholy prince, where cats with voices of different pitch are locked into a harness, and a spike is then driven into the cats tail to make it cry out. This invention made this prince happy?!?

So, this reviewer is in a dilemma. I mean what does a reviewer do at this point? Its not the books fault that these things happened.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mudpuppy,