• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Richard Morgan

Kelise

Maester
Have anyone read anything by him?

In choosing which books I'll review, I accidentally agreed to read the second in a series without realising it until later. 'The Cold Command' by Richard Morgan, which is started by 'The Steel Remains'. I've never heard of him, but it seems he has a lot out... A search on the forum didn't bring up any results of anyone talking of him though, and going by how many threads of favourite books or recommendations, I found that a bit odd.

This is the write-up the publisher emailed out:

RICHARD MORGAN returns to the retro-dystopic far past science-fiction fantasy noir world begun in THE STEEL REMAINS

THE COLD COMMANDS is set in the far past, in a world created by a couple of alien races who walked the earth thousands of years before the book is set… and they are conspiring with humans to return to control it… This is edgy, gritty stuff… think Game of Thrones, but a much much darker vision of the world and humanity. The book has more in common with Raymond Chandler than it does George R. R. Martin… this is essentially noir… a blackened view of the world where everyone, and everything, is a shade of grey.

Ringil, Egar, Archeth are some of the best noir characters I have read. Flawed outsiders. Outcasts. Fringe-dwelling minorities who are as comfortable partaking in drugs, sex and violence as they are trying to do the right thing. Whatever that is.

Richard Morgan can write. The language is sharp and sings like Kiriath steel. This is the best thing to come out of the Gollancz stables this year. It has classic written all over it.

It’s sexy. It’s cynical. It’s rock-n-roll.


So far I'm finding it more supernatural than science fiction, and, well, hardly hard or gritty at all. This may just say something for what I've read recently, as I'm judging the Aurealis Awards, which is a third made up by horror... so I've read a loooot of grit lately.

That's not to say I'm not really, really enjoying it though. Much more than I thought I would.

Anyhow, has anyone else read or even heard of Richard Morgan? If so, what are your thoughts?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
I'm actually reading Richard K. Morgan's book The Steel Remains now. It does have similarities to Abercrombie or Martin's flare for "colorful" language and the sort of realistic movement in fantasy. He's better known for his Takashi Kovacs books which are cyber-punk sort of stories. I would give Morgan a shot. He's not well-known in fantasy circles yet, but I think he'll be a name who will crop up more and more. One thing I've noticed is that he doesn't seem to write like a fantasy writer, which can be perceived as a good or bad thing depending on who you are. Very character driven with an interesting world.
 
Top