The Cold Commands

AADL has no copies of this item

"With The Steel Remains, award-winning science fiction writer Richard K. Morgan turned his talents to sword and sorcery. The result: a genre-busting masterwork hailed as a milestone in contemporary epic fantasy. Now Morgan continues the riveting saga of Ringil Eskiath--Gil, for short--a peerless warrior whose love for other men has made him an outcast and pariah. Only a select few have earned the right to call Gil friend. One is Egar, the Dragonbane, a fierce Majak fighter who comes to respect a heart as savage and loyal as his own. Another is Archeth, the last remaining daughter of an otherworldly race called the Kiriath, who once used their advanced technology to save the world from the dark magic of the Aldrain--only to depart for reasons as mysterious as their arrival. Yet even Egar and Archeth have learned to fear the doom that clings to their friend like a grim shadow. or the curse of a bitter god. Now one of the Kiriath's uncanny machine intelligences has fallen from orbit--with a message that humanity faces a grave new danger (or, rather, an ancient one): a creature called the Illwrack Changeling, a boy raised to manhood in the ghostly between-world realm of the Grey Places, home to the Aldrain. A human raised as one of them--and, some say, the lover of one of their greatest warriors--until, in a time lost to legend, he was vanquished. Wrapped in sorcerous slumber, hidden away on an island that drifts between this world and the Grey Places, the Illwrack Changeling is stirring. And when he wakes, the Aldrain will rally to him and return in force--this time without the Kiriath to stop them. An expedition is outfitted for the long and arduous sea journey to find the lost island of the Illwrack Changeling. Aboard are Gil, Egar, and Archeth: each fleeing from ghosts of the past, each seeking redemption in whatever lies ahead. But redemption doesn't come cheap these days. Nor, for that matter, does survival. Not even for Ringil Eskiath. Or anyone--god or mortal--who would seek to use him as a pawn"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Excerpt
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Uh oh, plot bloat. submitted by eknapp on March 19, 2012, 10:39pm Follow-up to Morgan's The Steel Remains.

I was really of two minds about this book. On one hand, the world is fascinating, wonderfully developed, colorful, believable. The characters are fleshed out and I found myself caring what happened to them.

On the other hand, I spent an uncomfortable amount of time trying to figure out what was real and what wasn't. The protagonist keeps disappearing into a sort of ghost dimension; at different points in the book it's apparent that what happens there is real; at other times it's pretty clear that it's all--or mostly--in his head. After two books this still hasn't been resolved. Frustrating.

I'm also starting to experience something that I first encountered with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time: plot bloat. It's not as bad yet as that series, but Morgan set up a major plot step early in The Cold Commands, and then didn't come at all close to reaching it. Things have started moving sideways instead of forward.

Still looking forward to book 3 though.