Morgan, Richard K. -- The Steel Remains [re-read]
Having re-read this one (but not yet started the sequel), I find it
nifty how the premises gain depth when they emerge from the D&D
stockpot. We have broad clues that this is a post-technological
future. (There used to be a Moon, long enough ago that it's not even
folklore.)
Now add some of what the Monster Manual calls "demi-human" races:
long-lived artisans from underground, eerie lovely ageless creatures
that can catch you out of time for a night or a year. Fine. But they
have nipples and cocks and get horny for human tail (and vice versa).
They interbreed with humans. In fantasy, this goes without saying. In
SF, this means something! Are these homo-sap offshoots from other
timelines? Tech cultures that have been off travelling? What does this
imply about the gods, who show up in the world and grouch at people?
When the characters (and, more blatantly, the gods) talk in modern
idiom, does that indicate a line of cultural descent? (I don't imagine
they speak American English as-written, any more than any other
high-fantasy setting, but the author isn't leaning on the style for
nothing.)
Morgan's writing is inevitably associated with the word "gritty". It's
an unfortunately broad term. In this case it means that if your D&D
campaign background includes a big war against the lizardfolk ten
years ago, it wouldn't be unrealistic to have some homeless veterans
in your gutters with PTSD and alcohol problems. Of course the
D&D-style setup is a ploy for fantasy expectations, and although there
are horse nomads and more-or-less-elves, the stockness is neatly pared
away piece by piece as the book goes on. (N. K. Jemisin pulled this
trick recently; I wonder if it's becoming a thing.) Anyhow, the
characters are all compulsively human -- including the half-elf -- and
I have a soft spot for a god who introduces himself by saying "Listen,
I was the thief of fire once, you goat-shagging thug.... Ah, fuck
it, never mind."
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