Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold meets George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones in the final novel in Richard K. Morgan’s epic A Land Fit for Heroes trilogy, which burst onto the fantasy scene with The Steel Remains and The Cold Commands.
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The Dark Defiles
Ringil Eskiath, a reluctant hero viewed as a corrupt degenerate by the very people who demand his help, has traveled far in search of the Illwrack Changeling, a deathless human sorcerer-warrior raised by the bloodthirsty Aldrain, former rulers of the world.
Separated from his companions — Egar the Dragonbane and Archeth — Ringil risks his soul to master a deadly magic that alone can challenge the might of the Changeling. While Archeth and the Dragonbane embark on a trail of blood and tears that ends up exposing long-buried secrets, Ringil finds himself tested as never before, with his life and all existence hanging in the balance.
… and to give you a few insights into this year’s nominated authors, we’ve asked them all a few questions…
Tell us one of your early favourite fantasy novels?
Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword (1954) – an alternative vision of the Norse tapestry
Tolkien borrowed so heavily from, published the same year as The Fellowship of the Ring, and a glimpse of what might have been had sensibilities in genre been a bit more grown up.
What fantasy novel was a real game changer, shifting the way you thought about epic fiction?
Probably Glen Cook’s The Black Company (1984). It was the first time I’d seen a genuinely modernist voice grafted onto fantasy contexts without falling into cheap parody. Also very
impressive for the way it underlined the essential vainglory and waste of the endless battles which are a staple of the genre.
What do you like to see on fantasy novel cover art? What puts you off?
Implication works for me, full-on subtle-as-a-brick doesn’t. So motifs and silhouettes, parchment and stone, weapons laid down – all good. And if it’s got to be a human figure or
figures, please recall that there’s an intensity to stillness when done right which a frozen snapshot of dynamic action can rarely match. Roaring muscled barbarians waving naked steel about feels passé and cheap. And don’t get me started on chainmail bikinis…
What classic fantasy themes always get your interest on the cover or in the write up of a new book? Any pet hates?
Disgrace, failure, weariness always appeal. Substantial backstory too, a genuine sense of In Media Res, as if this imagined world has existed for a long time prior to our story commencing, and got suitably grubby and complicated in the process. Pet hates, well – is it a sin to want your protagonist to already be solidly into adulthood, with all of the messy baggage that implies?
What’s the next big thing you’d like to see in epic fantasy fiction?
Regime Change and Reconstruction in Mordor – an epic tale of post-war chaos, corruption and greed.
Richard K. Morgan is the acclaimed author of The Dark Defiles, The Cold Commands, The Steel Remains,Black Man (published in the US as Thirteen), Woken Furies, Market Forces, Broken Angels, and Altered Carbon, a New York Times Notable Book that won the Philip K. Dick Award in 2003.
Richard is a fluent Spanish speaker and has lived and worked in Madrid, Istanbul, Ankara and London, as well as travelling extensively in the Americas, Africa and Australia. He now lives in Scotland with his wife Virginia and son Daniel.