As a huge fan of Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series of hard sci-fi novels, I was tremendously excited when I saw our local library also had "The Steel Remains," a Morgan foray into high fantasy. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.
Let me first say that "The Steel Remains" is absolutely not for the faint of heart. It's exceptionally well-crafted in terms of shock value, containing graphic descriptions of gay sex, ultra-violence, and some truly creative swearing. However, none of this is particularly out of place when one considers Morgan's basic premise: what happens to heroes? It's ten years after the climactic battle of a Lord-of-the-Rings style war between races, and the heroes of that battle are now dissatisfied, down-on-their-luck ordinary joes whom few people even recognize any more, resigned to living the flawed world that they helped to build.
There's a good story and a lot of conflict in "The Steel Remains" but that's not the reason to read the novel. The real draw is Morgan's exquisitely crafted feeling of weariness, imparted through careful prose and dialogue and internal monologue, that is so grindingly depressing that it's hard to read except in small chunks. It's a face-paced and gripping tale, but whatever you do, don't expect it to cheer you up.
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