The Cold Commands

The Gollancz Cover

I know I promised the review some time back, likely more than a week now, so my most sincere apologies. I'm sad to say that my main culprit is work, and I'm finding it hard to sneak time for reading and writing. But without much further ado, here's the review I've conjured!

The Cold Commands is Richard K Morgan's follow-up to debut fantasy novel The Steel Remains. I wasn't familiar with Morgan until I saw the hype for Black Man which I went on to read as a first sci-fi book outside of the Star Wars novels. Black Man is a sci-fi tale of futuristic super soldiers turned superfluous due to politics mainly, and it was a thouroughly satisfying read with Morgan's signature high pace and action packed to the brim. When I read that Morgan was releasing a fantasy trilogy I jumped at the first sight of the Steel Remains in my local bookstore.

I will say that I'm not familiar with Morgan's writing apart from Black Man and the Steel Remains but his style is something that hooked me directly. There's a high tempo, even when I feel like nothing is really jumping at me from out of the page the tempo is high and it sucks you in. I believe many are familiar with Morgan's "main hero" Ringil Eskiath because of him being a non-apologetic gay anti-hero, something which goes against most of the original (well most) fantasy troupes. I won't delve too far into those parts though, except to say that it is far from the only schock value of the books.
Morgan's series is cold and brutal, with cynical heroes in the modern many shades of gray perhaps past their prime, and you just feel that as the story goes on they are reacting to, and growing with, the events of the story.

Subterranean Press cover

Ringil Eskiath is coloured more fully after the events of the Steel Remains and we see his continued development through deserted comrades, butchered enemies and graphic sexual encounters. But you know what, it works. Morgan has definetely made him into one of my favourite anti-heroes with his ongoing development, reminding me of Caul Shivers descent into darkness in Best Served Cold but without the bitter aftertaste. I clung to words mentioned by Liviu Suciu at the Fantasy Book Critic, there are simply no dull parts in the novel where you have to skim through characters and events you're not particularly interested in. Egar Dragonsbane's storyline sees him fleshed out and evolving into quite a character on his own. The Dwenda make further appearances and it's good reading to see just what they, and of course the Dragonsbane, are capable of.

Even Archeth Indamaninarmal, who I found a bit of a tedious read in the Steel Remains, garners attention and grows as a character in her relationship with the Emperor Jhiral Khimran II. And it is also in her chapters that we see much of the plot development as well as the better parts of the worldbuilding. I've found that after having finished the second novel in the stories, while you've learned a bit more of the back story, you are still not anywhere closer to figuring out just what the big threat is. We've seen the Dwenda, and we know that they are not that numerous and while notoriously hard to kill they aren't that big of a deal. So I am very interested in seeing where Morgan is taking his three main characters. When you browse the internet and you look around other reviews you quickly find quite a few brandishing this a build-up novel and a typical mid-series jump off just to set the scene for the third and final book in the series. I'd agree in principle due in part to the facts that Morgan does seem to the set the scene for a showdown with the Illwrack Changeling and his allies but so far we've seen little threat to the threesome that is Ringil, Egar and Archeth. Especially now with Ringil's shadowy allies coming to the front. But I disagree with the Cold Commands being just a transport between book 1 and book 3 because we see a wealth of both character defining moments as well as more in-depth worldbuilding.

With the novels being as short as they are I suppose Morgan could've bandied the two books together and gone for an epic fantasy novel-sized book of somewhere around 900 pages. But I find this works, there's enough action and plotting to make you turn the page and I for one am quite looking forward to the final piece in the series, the Dark Defiles. My main concern is that I do not quite feel the all-encompassing threat that threatens the world, even if the characters and the worldbuilding has me turning the page anyway.
All in all I found it an enjoyable read, with gripping suspense through brutal action and intriguing character development and the groundwork for what will likely be a high pace ending to the series.

READSTER MAGNITUDE SCALE: 6.5

REMINDS ME OF: The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss in that both series do not exactly jump at you in terms of plot development. There are long periods of time where nothing really seems to happen but you are still gripped with a can't-stop-turning-the-page kind of fever.

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie because of the raw, gritty action and so many shades of gray characters and anti-heroes that are under development.

Finished the Cold Commands!

And I finally finished The Cold Commands last night! Been busy with work a lot lately but yesternight I finally dug into it and did the last 100+ pages in one last sitting (well lay, as I was in bed). Can't shake the feeling that Richard Morgan does himself a bit of a disservice with his graphic male on male sex scenes. The build up is great, the atmosphere and general feel of the books is dark and moody and his worldbuilding is neatly tied together with bits and pieces of backstory added along the way on the world- and charactershaping events of the invasion of the Scaled Folk. But when you discuss the book pretty much everything comes back to the gay sex scenes and their shock-value. But that's a completely other discussion, I'll just state that Morgan is, in my opinion, one of the powerhouses of the Sci-fi (and fantasy in part) genres of today and deserves a read no matter your sexual orientation or preference.

I'll try to have a review up in a day or two.

A friday like any other

Not much to report, been a long day at work but I've got the Cold Commands with me and will get some short reading done before training tonight. I've been working hard at staying away from the second season of the Game of Thrones tv-series. As much as curiosity has me piqued, I rather enjoyed the Tuesday-Night-Whiskey-And-Game-of-Thrones-orama from season one and look forward to completing the second season in one sitting with good friends and good drinks. I can make do with books in the meantime.

I noticed Tor has released an excerpt of Esslemont's Orb, Sceptre Throne (well, yesterday) which sparks some memories of good reading in the Malazan universe. I look forward to reading it, but where once I would throw myself at the chance to dive back into the lands of the Free Cities, and Darujhistan in particular, I now look at the pile of books that I still haven't gotten around to reading and feel like it can wait a while longer. The Crippled God, with it's inconclusiveness, satiated my hunger while at the same time letting me down a bit. I've been reading Erikson's Malazan novels nigh on 11 years now starting out with Gardens of the Moon after graduation in -01. I'm sure I'll get around to Esslemont's continuation in time, but the urgency isn't quite there as it was before. And I'm fairly certain it's not just the fact that Esslemont's writing is radically different from Erikson's. I quite liked both Night of Knives and Return of the Crimson Guard, and can't say I have a problem with his writing per se, but I just feel like the whole world has so many loose ends that the suspicion is slowly creeping up on me that what seemed a Kellanved/Dancer-esque masterplan has fallen far shorter of what it promised to be when they set out.

Might just be that I haven't re-read the novels for the last two installments in the series so I'm a bit out of touch with where I started. But at the moment there are entirely too many new faces to acquaint myself with so any rennaisance will have to wait a bit longer.