The Steel Remains: This is fantasy - just harder, faster and bloodier (Land Fit for Heroes)

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Si no me gustara comer pollas. Sí, ya lo sé —Ringil imprimió brío a sus pasos mientras se dirigía a la puerta, pasando con rapidez junto a Gingren para no tener que ver cómo la expresión de su padre se retorcía de asco. Se detuvo junto al hombro de su progenitor, se inclinó y murmuró— Pero el problema, papá, es que me encanta. Wow, thanks Richard….so many undeserved compliments I don’t know what to say except that your post underlines your mastery of fiction! Although ‘high-tensile’ is a shorthand for extra-strong materials, tensile strength is not usually the most important property of the steel or aluminium used in tipper bodies. There were however some fun moments (my favourite at the barricade leading to the slaving quarter), good fighting sequences, and a genius vision of how everything ends with no one remembering or caring or understanding and with the sword secured away behind a glass in a museum case (even if it peeves me that they should know a word “museum” in a civilisation clearly foreign to such concept). These occasional lapses into the beyond average did not stop the author to have his heroes miraculously saved by an unknown yet friendly higher power, miraculously bumping on each other in the heat of twisting plot or miraculously discovering or doing other things needed to propel the plot onward. Concerning your post, I will DEFINITELY be seeking out the map of the Yhelteth Empire and Trelayne League. I realize that hand-drawn maps of such realms are a bit a fantasy literature cliché, but I find them quite helpful when my mind’s eye goes to work whilst reading. Think maybe you could include Ravi Shankar’s map in future editions?

Into every life a book that destroys the rating system must come-- The Steel Remains is leading for 2016. Naomi and I were looking for a buddy read, and this was on both of our TBR lists. It was on mine because I generally enjoyed Morgan's science fiction Kovacs series. Still, I've been off on fantasy lately, unless it's the genre-bending type. Once I and heard that two of the leads were gay, I was curious to see how that would play out. Yep – been scribbling stories since I was about eight or nine. Only took me the best part of the next thirty years to get published! Egar Dragonbane, steppe-nomad, one-time fighter for the Empire finds himself entangled in a small-town battle between common sense and religious fervour. But out in the wider world there is something on the move far more alien than any of his tribe's petty gods. Anyway, he dragged the Ravensfriend from the scabbard with a single grating clang, slung it casually over his shoulder, and walked out into the street, ignoring the stares from the audience he had been regaling with tales of valor about an hour ago. He guessed they'd follow him at least part of the way to the schoolmaster's house. It couldn't do any harm, if his suspicions about what was going on were correct, but they'd probably all cut and run at the first sign of trouble. You couldn't blame them really. They were peasants and merchants, and they had no bond with him. About a third of them he'd never even seen before tonight.Grey-and-Grey Morality: Let's see, among other things our hero burns people alive, engages in Cold-Blooded Torture and organizes gang rapes. It leads to a lot of Not So Different Remarks. Anti-social, anti-heroic, and decidedly irritated, all three of them are about to be sent unwillingly forth into a vicious, vigorous and thoroughly unsuspecting fantasy world. Called upon by an Empire that owes them everything and gave them nothing. Ringil's expectations, the crowd thinned out as soon as he stepped onto an unlit thoroughfare. When it became apparent where he was headed specifically, his escort dropped by more than half. He reached the corner of Bashka's street still trailing a loose group of about six or eight, but by the time he drew level with the schoolmaster's cottage— the door still gaping open, the way its owner had left it when he fled in his nightshirt— Heteronormative Crusader: Both the League and the Empire take a rather intolerant view on homosexuality.

At this point, Ringil sees human heads on tree stumps. Seethlaw explains that they are warnings to the slaves they are keeping if they try to escape. The heads remain alive forever so long as the roots have water. They are keeping the marsh-blood slaves to honor them and they plan to sacrifice them. Thousands of years ago, the Naom plain clans were favored retainers to the dwenda, with which they mingled their blood. Women who are unable to conceive have the strongest bloodline. Probably the noir crime tradition. That, coupled with an intense political rage at the way the world is run.Yo siempre me hago expectativas sobre los libros que leo, no puedo evitarlo porque, debido a la cantidad de libros pendientes que tengo, investigo muy bien antes de lanzarme a leer uno. Así es que sí que tenía ciertas expectativas con este, pero no esperaba para nada que me gustara TANTO. In my time I've been a rent collector, a furniture mover and a barman, to name but three of the more interesting. Mostly, though, I worked as a globe-trotting English as a Foreign Language teacher, with spells in Istanbul and Madrid. Gingren se estremeció como si acabara de encajar un puñetazo. Con un suspiro, Ringil levantó una mano y le dio unas palmaditas en el pecho y el hombro. Archeth goes home and finds Ishgrim in her bed. She tells Ishgrim to go to bed, and they will talk in the morning. Archeth goes to the study to talk with Angfal. Ringil starts by visiting an old friend, Milacar, to find his cousin. Milacar is a self-described criminal, though he lives in a mansion in The Glades, he has ties with the Marsh Brotherhood. Ringil and Milacar had a sexual relationship when Ringil was about 15, which they rekindle during this brief visit. Milacar eventually warns Ringil about what he's getting in to, and tells him about a dwenda in Etterkal.

A yard and a half of tempered Kiriath steel, Ringil's broadsword hung above the fireplace in a scabbard woven from alloys that men had no names for, though any Kiriath child could have identified them from age five upward. The sword itself also had a name in the Kiriath tongue, SSAB (Swedish Steel) has done a terrific job of marketing its speciality steels such as Hardox and Domex; these have almost become generic names for abrasion-resistant and high-strength steel alloys. But other manufacturers also produce ‘high-yield’ steel alloys with similar properties to Domex, covered by standard BS EN 10149-2:2013 ‘Hot rolled flat products made of high yield strength steels for cold forming’. This defines a variety of alloys in terms of their yield strength (see box), ranging from S315MC (yield strength 315MPa) to S960MC (960MPa). Did you always want to be an author? If not, what did you originally want to be and when and why did you change your mind? Named Weapons: Kiriath blades tend to have names. Archeth's knives are named "Bandgleam", "Falling Angel", "Laughing Girl", "Quarterless", and "Wraithslayer". Ringil's sword is named "I am Welcomed in the Home of Ravens and Other Scavengers in the Wake of Warriors, I am Friend to Carrion Crows and Wolves, I am Carry Me, and Kill with Me, and Die with Me where the Road Ends, I am not the Honeyed Promise of Length of Life in Years to Come, I am the Iron Promise of Never Being a Slave"; though he usually calls it "Ravensfriend" for short.Si ni siquiera sabes cómo se llaman las personas que están a tu espalda, luego no te extrañes si no te siguen a la batalla"