Richard Morgan news

The author revealed that the sequel to The Steel Remains (Canada, USA, Europe)which was supposed to be titled The Cold Commands will now be titled The Dark Commands. Moreover, we are now looking at mid-2010 pub date.

From Morgan's website:

The title change alone is a big disappointment for me - I loved the alliteration of the thing (my London editor's idea, curse him, not mine), and the thematic implications. But unfortunately, the way the narrative is unfolding there's nothing remotely cold about any of it; worse still, there are a number of components that have fairly demolished any hope of using any title containing the word cold.

Dark, on the other hand..... Well - you know me by now.

I'm also pretty pissed off - with myself - about the publication push-back, but there's not a lot to be done about that either. Basically, I've spent the last year trying to kick start the second narrative for Ringil and Co, and the process has been fascinating and frustrating in about equal measures.

See, I'd always talked a good fight about making each book in this trilogy a self contained novel, but it wasn't until quite recently that I realised how deeply satisfied I was with the ending of The Steel Remains. Sure, there are loose ends, but when wasn't that true of one of my books? But my characters all ended up where I wanted them to be, they bedded down into the consequences and outcomes of what they'd seen and done with the pleasing clunk of emotional deadbolts falling into place - so rolling them all out of bed again, splashing water on their faces and getting them to open up and let in the morning light has proved a lot more problematic than I'd expected. I started at least twice and then had to tear up what I'd written because it was some weak-assed shit. Worse still, when I did finally get onto what felt like the right track, it involved at least a couple of scenes that I really didn't want to write. If you guys thought The Steel Remains was brutal, you ain't seen nothing yet.

And won't see it for a while yet, either. Sorry about that. [...]

3 commentaires:

ediFanoB said...

One more book to wait for. But I don't complain. Fortunately my pile of unread books is high. So no problem for me.

Anonymous said...

Good to hear he's taking the time to do it right. I wonder is the mid-2010 publication date UK only or for US too?

Anonymous said...

I didn't realise the main charecter was gay, if I had known, I wouldn't have bought the book. I wish you had mentioned this in your review. I couldn't relate to the charecter and was put off by the whole book.I'm going to return the book tomorrow. I have used your site many times to choose new authors to read and respect your opinions. This was a disappointment.