The Cold Commands (A Land Fit for Heroes Series Book 2)

A Land Fit for Heroes is one of the "Holy Quartet" of grimdark which I ascribe to be George R.R. Martin, Mark Lawrence, Joe Abercrombie. In short, if you want to know what the grimdark genre is like then you could do far worse than picking up any of their signature series. The premise of the series is there has been a big epic fantasy war like the kind you usually see in these series only for it to be over before the first page and everyone trying to pick up the pieces thereafter. The Cold Commands picks up some months later after the events of The Steel Remains. Ringil Eskiath has forsaken his title and home to become a would-be John Brown in a world which could not give less of a **** about slavery. Egar Dragonsbane has abandoned his tribal homeland for one of soft living as a rich woman's lover while living in dread of her husband's return. Archeth Indamaninarnal continues to support Emperor Jhiral despite being a transparent stand-in for Caligula because she hates the Citadel (the setting's ersatz Catholic Church) that much more. Richard K. Morgan regularly breaks the sacred cows of fantasy which have been mocked for decades by literary snobs with varying degrees of justification. It's a series which stars a sexualized gay man as its badass protagonist, a woman of color non-sexualized lesbian, and a more traditional barbarian hero who is usually the butt monkey of events. If Richard K. Morgan somehow became a female fantasy author then he'd sufficiently burn all of the expectations of heroic fantasy. The Cold Commands is an excellent book and I have to give credit for the fact I could have probably read it first and enjoyed it every bit as much as the first book. It's the best kind of sequel which doesn't lend itself heavily onto what came before but tells its own story while enriching the pre-established lore. Indeed, part of what makes the book so good is it's an anti-epic. Instead of rising action, it's largely a series of unrelated events in our heroes' lives which should lead to a big enormous quest but somehow never manages to get off the ground. Indeed, it feels like this novel is made as a deliberate send-up of many other fantasy novels. One large storyline in the middle of the book deals with a quest to rescue a slave-girl from the evil priests holding her captive. From the start to finish, not a damn thing goes right and it turns the traditional Conan the Barbarian pastiche story into complete farce. Another tale has a reasonable decent Citadel priest reach out to Archeth in hopes of developing a friendship with her despite their differences, only to be rebuffed completely with no hope of reconciliation. Part of what I like about this book is even if the antiheroes are trying to make the world a better place, they may well not be. Ringil's resorting to banditry to defeat slavery wins him no support to end the institution, Egar's aforementioned farce is embarrassing rather than heroic, and Archeth's belief the Emperor is better than the Citadel is based on severely twisted logic which amounts to the fact she is hated by them personally so they must be worse. I can't think of any complaints about this book save a few minor nitpicks. For example, the character Ishgrim is a trophy rather than a person. Archeth defines her morality by not taking advantage of the slave given to her by the Emperor but never bothers to actually talk to her and we never get any insight into her character until the very end of the book. Even then, this is somewhat questionable as we have no idea what her motivations for it is. Likewise, I felt a sympathetic Citadel character's death was a waste. A warning for those of sensitive stomachs or who simply don't want a dark and depressing read. The Cold Commands, like its predecessor, is a gritty and visceral book. There's a lot of awful going on here and none of it is satisfactorily resolved. In simple terms, this is a hard R sort of book and even then I'd argue it'd probably be unrated because it crosses lines Hollywood (like mainstream fantasy) wouldn't be comfortable with. Our antiheroes do some truly appalling **** in this book and the narrative is stronger for not shying away from it. It's not that the protagonists don't want to do good things, it's just the world warps and twists these things so it's all but impossible. How does one save a society which gorges itself on slavery, bigotry, fanaticism, greed, and depravity? Richard K. Morgan's answer? You don't. You just muddle through. Just like in history.10/10

You could make a pretty persuasive case for The Steel Remains as a standalone novel. Sure, it lays the groundwork for The Cold Commands, but when you finish reading it, you can comfortably stop there, if you choose, and still feel as though you’ve read a story with an actual ending. Not so with The Cold Commands. Ringil, Egar, and Archeth return, worse for wear, angry and weary, to the continued decay of the world around them. A plot, not so much new as developed out of the ashes of The Steel Remains, begins and slowly takes form over the course of the entire book. By the end, things are resolved only enough to avoid the stigma of being called a cliffhanger. From a negative perspective, one may dislike the pace. The action comes in staccato bursts, with long moments of leading up to and recovering from, and the links between sub-plots are at first invisible, and still pretty thin (but thoughtful) by the end. This isn’t a book to read quickly, or to passively enjoy. It demands your full attention, and for some, may not reward it. Plot mechanics aside, the characters are extremely well formed. They deviate more from the standard archetypes they begin in, and behave as erratically as you’d expect actual heroes to act; at least heroes of this land. Which is really the crux of what Morgan is trying to do here. Logically, a land fit for heroes is one that is in pretty bad shape. The phrase may conjure up a world where heroes are plentiful, but its actually the opposite. This land is ‘fit’ for them. And the heroes themselves are more akin to heavily armed sociopaths with a life’s worth of scarring, bigotry, and religious extremism to guide their moral paths. Sounds not unlike another world I know of, come to think of it.It is difficult and more challenging to find time to read a book that you have to make character notes for, and if you just have a handful of time, or are on a plane or something, forget it, The Cold Commands requires more attention than that. As a result, it took me a long time to read, and I had to do some reviewing each time I stepped back into it. That said, the positives far outweigh the negatives. The writing is rich and literary, more polished when needed in reflective moments, but just as edgy as it was in Steel Remains. The buildup here is so subtle and well done, that I noticed myself sucking a breath in through my teeth toward the end. Morgan set out to write a fantasy for grown-ups (I think he said somewhere), and he really has. This isn’t just a fantasy novel sprinkled with bad language and graphic sex, it’s a fantasy novel with difficult ideas that require thought and a narrative structure that doesn’t hold the door open for you. Despite feeling like more of a part one to a two part ending of this trilogy, I liked the Cold Commands better than the Steel Remains. It may just be that here, more so than in other similar genre novels, the characters really live and breathe. While I had only just begun to know them in Steel, I felt close to them now, like I also have something at stake in their well-being. On one hand, I’m eager to read the concluding novel. On the other, I fear for what comes next.

I initially thought this would be better than the first book in the trilogy, since it gets on with the story relatively quickly, rather than indulging in more world building. About 20% of the way through I changed my mind.There was a really long wait between the publication of the first book of the trilogy and this one, the second – and it appears that the author did not think about it at all in the intervening period. The overall story is not moved any further forward, at all. The ‘teasers’ from the first book mostly aren’t addressed. The protagonists are not developed any further. We learn nothing more of significance about the villains and their aims. While the original plot lines lie fallow, some new stuff is introduced (satellites?) to give the appearance of narrative development, but it is not taken anywhere. A final battle is pulled out of nowhere as a finale. And that’s it.The whole is very slow and grotesquely padded out.This book left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It felt like the author did not actually have a book and just threw some stuff down on paper because volume two was overdue. But I paid money for this, and spent time reading it, and that is not okay.

This is similar to the first book in quality although darker in tone.The main characters are still likeable, Egar gets a bigger part here and Ringil is changed.There is plenty of action but the plot is more straight-forward than the first.Ringil's occasional use of magic is a bit odd, or perhaps more correctly it is odd that he doesn't use it more.This has a similar weakness in the use of gods as a crutch although we do get a slight insight into what the gods are.Unfortunately the ending is weak, everything is just finished too easily and cleanly, it is clearly leaving it open for further books but even so it needed a better ending.

stop book one was good, but to crude and written like a 15 school boys idea of gritty realism. this one is not nearly so childishly full of terrible sex scenes and gratuitous language.it is a bit confusing, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the plot points are also quite clunky; there are several events that don't seem to move the plot along, or make very much sense, but are just too position the characters. they don't even seem to be very necessary for positioning either.I'll have to read the third one now, but I have kind of lost interest.

The second part of Morgan's trilogy is a steady buildup to events that I presume will unfold in part 3. Ringil Eskieth is such a fascinating character, that he is fast becoming one of my favourites in fiction. The world of a Land Fit for Heroes is grim,dark and compelling. The violence and torture are often horrific and not for the faint of heart. The book picks up a rapid pace at the end to deliver a great finale. Richard Morgan is a formidable talent and when I finish this series I will try out his sci- fi.

Re-reading this, I had not realised how much the Archeth is weirdly child-like even by the second book. Surely she would have been ground down herself too, by now? Regardless, this is another beautiful, beautiful book, of fury and with characters that grow