The Steel Remains
core novel 2008 A Land Fit for Heroes
Record
| First published | 2008 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.74 (18,674 ratings, collected 2026-08-30) |
| Page count | 391 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780345493040 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The Steel Remains follows Ringil Eskiath, a washed-up mercenary and onetime war hero whose bitter cynicism rivals the speed of his sword, living in obscurity in his home town years after the battle that made his reputation and estranged him from the family who never accepted the man he actually is. Reluctantly dragged out of a quiet, resentful retirement, he is asked by his own mother to search for a missing cousin, a search that pulls him back into a world of court politics, slavery, sorcery, and violence he had hoped to leave behind for good. As Ringil's investigation widens, it draws in the fierce steppe warrior Egar and the ageless, dragon-blooded Archeth, both former companions from the war whose own lives have taken very different turns, and the trail eventually leads toward secrets about ancient, supposedly extinct enemies that the empire has worked hard to forget.
Where it sits
- Universe: A Land Fit for Heroes
- Series: A Land Fit for Heroes core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Richard K. Morgan
Notes
- From the series record (A Land Fit for Heroes): A single continuous grimdark trilogy following the same three protagonists.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series A Land Fit for Heroes: position 1 of 3: next The Cold Commands (2011)
Sources
← A Land Fit for Heroes dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.