132,564
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Dark Defiles by Richard Morgan (view source)
Revision as of 11:14, 1 September 2015
, 11:14, 1 September 2015no edit summary
Ringil Eskiath, Egar Dragonbane and Archeth Indamaninarmal have been through hell. Almost literally, in some cases. Now without fight or cause, they find themselves bored, searching for answers and fights wherever they can. But then the fight arrives, along with the Dark Court, the Empire and the greed of men. It soon becomes clear that a war fought thousands of years has not ended, but still rages fiercely on. A war that will take more than our adventurers to stop…
Richard Morgan burst on to the fantasy scene back in 2008 with ''[[The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan|The Steel Remains'' ]] – the first in the ''Land Fit for Heroes'' trilogy. Already a successful author of Science Fiction, ''[[The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan|The Steel Remains'' ]] was a revelation – action packed fantasy that honoured old fashioned Fantasy ideals, and yet introduced characters who felt, and acted modern – likeable, hugely flawed and mostly rather endearing. ''[[The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan|The Steel Remains'' ]] focused on rather personal quests – before the sequel, ''The Cold Commands'', pushed our characters into more of a larger scale conflict. ''The Dark Defiles'' does both – with personal quests blending into and eventually being rather overpowered by the massive threats that our characters come up against here.
That's not to say that the focus on character and development is lost – quite the opposite in fact. Morgan's consistent strong point throughout this series has been his incredible character work. Whilst they often do stupid, unlikeable and even vaguely reprehensible things, these characters genuinely leap off the page – and manage to be refreshingly different too. Ringil, essentially the lead character of the trilogy, is a somewhat downtrodden adventurer, a fearsome warrior, a passionate lover – and, as it happens, is gay. Whilst it has a large part in his backstory, it is not Ringil's defining characteristic – as often happens on the rare occasion when gay characters feature in Fantasy novels.
