REVIEW: The Steel Remains (A Land Fit For Heroes) by Richard Morgan
Written in third person, the story follows three veterans of a war fought several years back. The world painted is creative and introduces many unique elements and, especially at first, shows a lot of potential.
And then it all begins to fall apart.
The biggest problem is that the characters have little to no agency. Or no, that's not right, they do have agency but for some reason never use it unless the plot demands it. In every other instance they are just dragged along with whatever happens to be happening nearby.
Another thing was the presence of explicit (gay) sex scenes in the novel, which I felt didn't fit at the points they appeared (save for one).
The 'twist' at the end you can see coming a mile away, the story structured in such a way it's hard to miss. The book does try to subvert the standard fantasy tropes and succeeds... somewhat.
Final verdict:
Considering the final twist of the book with the lack of character agency, I don't see future plot lines in this series improving. Will not read further.
