Once in awhile, an author distinguishes himself from the literary crowd to stand alone as the voice of a decade, a man whose work, albeit fictional and fantastical, perfectly harmonizes with both the tastes of his readers and the socioeconomic climate of his environment. This synergy, when it occurs, is something to behold, for it creates in the sympathetic and receptive reader a love for the text that is both rare and exquisite. These experiences must be cherished. For there is no guarantee the reader will ever again enjoy the unique sensation of appreciating every page and all the moments of brilliance they contain. Mr. Morgan is, in all his power and brutality, is just such an author and The Cold Commands is just such a book.
On a difficult world of deserts and tundras, of banished demigods and entitled elites, peace and justice are vanishingly rare commodities. There are, of course, moments in which the light of truth and fairness shine through the darkness of iniquity to provide some relief to the oppressed, but mostly the commonfolk live and endure under the bootheel of selfish nobles and extravagant emperors who think nothing of grinding them up in their internecine schemes. Though this swamp of inequity does its best to choke out the hope of all of those it touches, three battered souls occasionally bob up out of the fray to combat, each in their darkly cynical ways, the most intolerable of their world's excesses. It may well be that their efforts are futile, failing to enact lasting change for good, but who is to say the right cut throat, the properly smited demigod won't inch forward the hope for something like fairness.
Their bond forged in the last great war which swept across their world, threatening the very existence of man, Ringil, Egar and Archeth are allies in blood. Lord Ringil, exiled from his homeland for his homosexuality and his inconvenient politics, emerged from the war with a hero's reputation, but an affinity for the dark corners of the world and a propensity to reap nihilistic vengeance upon those who oppose him have left him open to the sweet seductions of powerful forces that stretch far beyond his little planet. Egar, his closest friend, and one of the few men alive who can rightfully call himself a dragonslayer, is a warrior of legend who, now that he has entered middle age, finds his personality incompatible with the nomadic people of the Step that birthed and shaped him. But where Ringil and Egar have chosen to reject their native peoples, Archeth's forefathers have abandoned her, choosing to flee a world they could not save,leaving it to her, a half-breed and outcast, to bring slivers of civilization to a violent empire.
Though their missions are different, their obsessions unique to themselves, the fates have conspired to reunite these three, brooding heroes in anticipation of a vital voyage into the northern seas where a city created by Archeth's vanished kin has re-emerged from centuries of somnolent obscurity. But before they can embark on this mission to divine the depths of the dark forces stalking their world, they must confront a zealous threat at home that might well crush their fledgling venture before it has even begun.
The Cold Commands, the second instalment in a proposed trilogy, is a far more contemplative novel than its action-packed predecessor. Though it is characterized by Mr. Morgan's customary intensity -- episodes of savage violence, carnal sex, merciless oppression and delightfully dark humor abound --, it is a transitional work that must act as connective tissue linking the saga's explosive beginnings to its undoubtedly cynical conclusion. In lesser hands, this would be cause for both boredom and concern; however, Mr. Morgan uses the relative lull in the narrative to fill in vital details about the world and the war with the Scalefolk which both improve our understanding of his antihero protagonists. This, combined with a swift and decisive conclusion make the two-and-a-half-year wait for The Cold Commands well worth it.
Mr. Morgan is a poet of war and an avatar of violence. I have never encountered another author who so capably weaves together the inequities of society, the dark nature of humanity, and the subversive power of coarse language into a single tale of humor and despair. He is not a perfect scribe; his tendency towards nihilism can tip over into chaos, as it did with Market Forces and the latter entries in the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy. However, when he is on his game, as he is here, as he was so memorably in Altered Carbon and Thirteen, he is a dark sage, a man capable of injecting more realism, more humanity, and more emotion into a world of his creation than authors of contemporary fiction can grant to our to the real world around us! He is intensely of the tumult of the first decade of the 21st century and for this, for the sublime nature of his work, and for his willingness to throw over all the idols and cliches, the niceties and the crutches, he deserves to be elevated to his rightful status among the greats of SF. (5/5 Stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment