The Richard Morgan Thread

[Sariel]

Morgoth, dude, how are you doing?! It's Noxchild here!

hey there, girl I'm doing pretty well considering i've been on a conferance with a 24/7 free bar for most of the week. Are you joining the next mafia game over at malazanempire? I'm modding for the first time in about a year

[Joanna vander Poele]

hey there, girl I'm doing pretty well considering i've been on a conferance with a 24/7 free bar for most of the week. Are you joining the next mafia game over at malazanempire? I'm modding for the first time in about a year

Nah, I just got back from a wonderful five-day vacation at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and now school is seriously going to kick my ass for the next few weeks. Plus, I have to find a job, buy Return of the Crimson Guard and the three novellas (I've gone to the Dark Side! Erikson wahoo!), and find a normal sleeping schedule and all that I'll play mafia when all that jazz gets sorted out, which is probably when Stonewielder's release date is finally given out.

[Argon]

I finished Altered Carbon the other day and while I was pretty much impressed with the prose and the (ZEN) philosophy, I felt that what happened on board of Head in the Clouds a bit anti-climatics. Yes, I think it's the right word.

Why? You know, Kovacs got this super-body with top-of-the-art Khumalo neurachem and we listened to all the talks about Envoy conditioning and how it was easily to kill than not. But in the end Kovacs sat, nicely chilled and relaxed, and had an afternoon tea talk with Reileen. Should I be ashamed that a brutish male part of me wanted him to go full on Ninja mode and through the cabins and chop the bastards to pieces?

Not that the solution presented was bad or something, she real died after all, but I wished Kovacs would have made more of this body.

Richard, if you read this still and I may ask you a personal question: Do you have any personal relation to Zen Buddhism or did you use it because of Japanese protagonist?

Looking forward to TSR! Sorry for not buying hardcover, though.

[Ran]

Funny, I just finished Altered Carbon last night.

It's hard for books to live up to the hype one sometimes find on the internet, and Altered Carbon was not quite as good as the hype. But it was almost as good, and that's saying a lot. Excellent SF noir. The world-building is quite nicely done (I loved the gradual way that you come to realize he's in San Francisco; if there was ever a city meant for noir interpretations, San Francisco is it). The action ... well, I find myself, as I get older (or maybe more jaded), not so interested in detailed punch-for-punch combat derring do. So there were bits in the books where I did skim, because they weren't pushing my buttons. But Kovacs is a great noir protagonist, and his ruminations, his interactions, his insights and ploys and everything else -- good stuff.

[Argon]

The action ... well, I find myself, as I get older (or maybe more jaded), not so interested in detailed punch-for-punch combat derring do.

Well, I'm Stone Age myself, comparing to the folks usually on the boards and I have really nothing against to talk a problem out, you know. Just, it's kind of waste using a Ninja body for it.

And thanks for validating my account.

[Ran]

Argon,

Sure thing. I wasn't responding to you as such, just setting down my own thoughts about how I reacted to the book. If you like action, you like action, no shame in that -- and Morgan's action scenes seem pretty well done! I'm just not as interested in them as I used to be.

[Richard]

Richard, if you read this still and I may ask you a personal question: Do you have any personal relation to Zen Buddhism or did you use it because of Japanese protagonist?

Hi Argon - no real personal attachment there - although I had read a lot on the subject out of general interest/curiosity. It was more the sense that eastern philosophical traditions seemed better at recognising models for non-conscious, non-analytical modes of function. I'd caught (very faint) glimpses of this in my own (very low-level) karate practice, and it seemed to me that for the Envoy system to work, it would have to dispense with structured thought processes in favour of a more holistic approach.

[Richard]

But in the end Kovacs sat, nicely chilled and relaxed, and had an afternoon tea talk with Reileen.

Yeah, looking back at the book, this is something I wish I'd pointed up far more overtly at the time - Kovacs goes into Kawahara's lair for the pragmatic purpose of extracting a confession, but at another level he's also gone looking for answers to questions about who and what he is (or has become). There is a general implication that Kovacs is in fundamentally no different (and no better) than Kawahara, both in what he's done in the past and in how he still behaves. This is something Kawahara sees and calls him on, and at some level Kovacs desperately needs to believe that she's wrong, that it's not true (hence his final gesture to the Elliott family at the end). The conversation spirals out of control and Kovacs' guard comes down because as much as any material victory, he is fighting (and arguing) for possession of his own soul. At the time I wrote Altered Carbon, I thought it was better to let all of that implication lie where it was, for the reader to pick up on or not; now, looking back, I think it could have done with a bit more polish.

Looking forward to TSR! Sorry for not buying hardcover, though.

Hey, forgiven. Not like I don't need the paperback sales too

[Balefont]

Just, it's kind of waste using a Ninja body for it.

Perhaps to an extent. But who wouldn't thoroughly enjoy driving a McLaren F1 in a rally race just once in their lifetime.

[Argon]

WOW, I hoped but as with emails to other authors I've never got any reply before. So, can I have my *OMG a famous author is talking to ME* moment please!

Thank you very much for your reply, highly appreciated.

I don't pretend to have grasped every nuance of the plot. The scene pushed on my buttons because on the way to Reileen you got me angry and I was sick in my stomach. That's maybe why I wanted him so badly to act. You see, like forget your inner consternation for time being and just kill 'em all. But now I see there so much more to it.

As for Zen. I was curious because I'd had a very bad time at some point in my life and Buddha's teaching helped me a lot. The Noble Truths: All life knows suffering, The cause of suffering is ignorance and clinging, and especially, There is a way to end suffering, carried me through (not only of course). I don't see Buddhism as a religion, it's more a way of seeing the reality that helps me to cope with everyday's mess. And the best part of this is that I don't need to believe or anything, it simply works.

What I forgot to write in the other post. I very much like your style of writing it helps me to picture the 'events' in my mind. I'm sort of visual type. Need I add that you got yourself a new fan. Well done.

Balefont, you're right, I didn't consider that from this angle.

[Rubies & Jade]

Just finished TSR over the weekend, and loved it! I was surprised, though, that unlike the Kovacs books, TSR seems more like the beginning of a story, not a terribly complete story in and of itself. Its one thing that I loved about the Kovacs books, that even though the books follow the same character, they really felt like they told complete stories in each of the books. I'm feeling a bit hanging with TSR. When is the second one scheduled to be released?

Map dudes - I feel your pain. But please, you really just have to let go and swim. TSR is all about the characters - it doesn't much matter where they are, it's what they do and say that counts.

I could have used a map, but I don't much care where exactly the characters were--it just would have helped me figure out the relationship between the cities/countries/allies etc which would have helped me figure out some of the relationships between characters. Its probably a failing on my part (I did have the flu while reading the first few chapters, in my defense!), and that I missed some important details in the beginning, but there were so many place names that I kept thinking "is this a city? a country? is this area part of the empire?" etc., and that information that would help inform about how the characters were acting. I'll probably catch more of that info on a re-read which I'll do before reading the second one.

the gay sex scene? I thought it was great. I actually didn't really read it as gay sex, though. More like human/alien sex. I also caught the changing dynamics between the characters so it all made sense to me.

I liked the three main characters-Gil, Archeth, and Egar, but was conflicted about what I wanted more of--sometimes I wanted the book to hurry up and get these three characters together so I could figure out where the story was leading, other times I wanted to know more about the histories and different environments of the three, particularly Archeth and Egar. I found Egar hilarous generally and wanted to see more of that. and why did he go back to his tribe where he was clearly unhappy? and how exactly did he and Gil form such a strong bond? For Archeth I was intrigued by her mixed heritage, and wanted know more about it. maybe that will come up in a future book. did her people leave her when they left because her half human self couldn't survive the journey? why does she seem to know so little about her father's people? etc.

[shortstark]

Maps are important, i still dont know if Gallow's Gap is in the Empire or the League, i think its the league though...

[Werthead]

Interview with Richard Morgan here. Lots of topics covered, including American politics, capitalism and how the writing is going on The Cold Commands.

[Gormenghast]

That's a FANTASTIC interview. Very insightful.

And now I'll comment the most stupid point:

I don't really think he can believe the novel would be well received as a standalone. The problem is not the open ending. The problem is that invisible hand that leads the plot and never comes out completely.

So while the plot itself is relatively self contained and finished, that other aspect is left unexplained.

It's a book that misses a part.

[Balefont]

Finished it yesterday and wow.

Some might say there are characters that we have "met before" in other works of fantasy. While I'm not going to argue that point because it's not something that's ever really on my radar when I read, I will say that because it was written by Richard Morgan, I loved it all the more. And this is not fan-girl Balefont talking, here. It just is what it is. I more easily absorb certain authors' prose than others' and Richard is one of the ones that writes on my wavelength. After a brief shifting of gears from Abercrombie to Morgan, I sunk deeply into the story, drowned and when I finally resurfaced, I craved more.

Which leads me to another point: Aside from writing style, I also internally judge books based on the depth my sense of loss when I turn the final page. If I ache to pick up the book again only to be disappointed seconds later when I remember, "No, I've finished it already," then I know it was a winner for me.

Want.More.Now.

[Filippa Eilhart]

I don't really think he can believe the novel would be well received as a standalone.

funny, my first thought when i finished it was that it could well be a stand-alone but then I also thought that of Peadar's book.

[Balefont]

Finally got through the interview. Thanks for linking it, Wert!

I really like Morgan's point at the end about people's tendency to compare books with what they've read before and that being a bit of a shame. I feel I tend to open every book with an open mind and I can't think of any time I've read a book and compared it to another work at least in the way in which Morgan refers.

Every book is a new adventure - a portable vacation - where the only disappointment I would suffer is if I ended up on a cruise ship being catered to hand and foot. (I'd rather be backpacking.)

[JGP]

Finished The Steel Remains.

Quite often I'd stop with a curse, put it down and head to my studio whereupon I then proceeded to remove copious post-its, alter notes, and tear up umpteen illustrations- a great marsh, the great craft/weapon that'd crashed and thus created it, an entire culture of several tribes that had grown around in totemic worship. A decapitated head that isn't dead, but soaked in cedar oil and a sarcastic character in its own right.

Blah.

I'd then sit at my drawing table, simmering, pondering this seeming collective consciousness that authors unknowingly tap-- and from a probable cloud of inspiration draw forth very similar things.

1 tbsp annoyance

1 cup amazement

Anyway, enough.

Ringil [a gay 13] is a good character, as is Archeth, although I could've done without Egar. While I liked the idea of being brought into this land after a great conflict it didn't quite work for me, i.e. ethnic relocation, the fall of the victors, etc. Not sure why. But. For the few things that didn't work, a lot of it did. The dwenda and in particular their 'realm' in quantum superposition, the Kiriath, the Dwellers and so on.

Very curious to see where it all goes, and as usual, quite impressed with the unrelenting reality Morgan infuses his stories with.

[Argon]

whooohooo, finished reading the interview, classy done.

Loud and clear statement about the reviewers, cool.

The thing about that you need real life experience in order to write well, uhm, I'd say it depends what kind of stuff you write. I mean, there're certainly novels out there so screwed and surreal that imagination takes over everything. But I believe Richard is right in that that you need wisdom or experience in real life to tell a story that could teach you something, be kind of eye-opener, or though-provoking. And life is the best teacher.

[Procrastimancer]

Wonderful interview. In fact, it inspired me to go out and finally buy all of his books like I have been wanting to do since I read Altered Carbon. Of course, I would lack enough money to pick up Woken Furies, but I will get it soon enough. The Steel Remains just came in the mail and I look forward to reading it, just a couple things to read before it.