Results tagged “richard k. morgan”

The following is an original essay by Richard K. Morgan. I hope you enjoy:

“I tell you, it’s no game serving down in the city”

- Gorbag - forgotten orc captain from Minas Morgul

I’m not much of a Tolkien fan - not since I was about twelve or fourteen anyway (which, it strikes me, is about the right age to read and enjoy his stuff). But it would be a foolish writer in the fantasy field who failed to acknowledge the man’s overwhelming significance in the canon. And it would be a poor and superficial reader of Tolkien who failed to acknowledge that in amongst all the overwrought prose, the nauseous paeans to class-bound rural England, and the endless bloody elven singing that infests The Lord of the Rings, you can sometimes discern the traces of a bleak underlying human landscape which is completely at odds with the epic fantasy narrative for which the book is better known.

That little twist of urban angst quoted above is one such trace. It comes at the end of The Two Towers and is part of an on-going set of dialogues between two orc captains at the tower of Cirith Ungol. And for a while - until Tolkien remembers these are Bad Guys and sends the wearyingly Good and Wholesome Sam up against them - we get a fascinating insight into life for the rank and file in Mordor. The orcs are disenchanted, poorly informed and constantly stressed by the uncertainties that lack of information brings. They suspect that the war might be going badly for their side, and that their commanders, far from being infallible, seem to be making some serious errors of judgment. They worry that if their side loses, they can expect scant mercy from their victorious enemies. They mutter their misgivings sotto voce because they know that there are informers in the ranks and a culture of enforcement through terror bearing down from above. They also seem possessed of a rough good humour and some significant loyalty to the soldiers they command. And they’re not enjoying the war any more than Frodo or Samwise; they want it to be over just as much as anybody else.

Here is a list of other book, DVD and theater new releases for this week!

BOOKS

• The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan

• City of Ember
• King Kong [Blu-ray]
• Max Payne [Blu-ray]
• Saw V [Blu-ray]

• Inkheart
• Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

I confess, I love the new cover for the forthcoming January 2009 US release of The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan. I also loved the UK cover art for The Steel Remains. It’s apparent to me that the time it took to create such moody covers—no doubt a reflection on the dark grittiness of the book within—bodes well for fantasy readers.

I will be reading The Steel Remains soon. It’s one of those books I’ve been impatiently waiting for the last few years! I can already tell you, based on Richard’s other work, that this book will be well-constructed, the characters will be flawed but real, and the prose will be outstanding—and the action will be unrelenting! I have no doubt Richard will delve into the darkest part of what makes us human, and he will do it in a sub-genre of fantasy that has needed a swift kick in the butt for a while!

Below is the summary of the book! I’ll be reading it soon and hopefully holding an interview with Richard. Stay tuned!