The Steel Remains

"Bold, brutal, and making no compromises – Morgan doesn't so much twist the clichés of fantasy as take an axe to them. Then set them on fire." – Joe Abercrombie

Ringil, hero to anyone who doesn't know him, and a corrupt degenerate to anyone who does, wielder of the kiriath blade Ravensfriend and scarred hero of Gallows Gap. With the war long over and with nothing left to fight for Ringil lives in exile nursing his rage. But now he has a final chance to crank himself back up to the same pitch of fury that sustained him like a drug all those years ago.

Archeth, abandoned kiriath half-breed, and last remaining advisor to the Yhelteth Empire on the abandoned kiriath technology she only half-way understands herself. She barely survived the war against the Scaled Folk, she has no family, no friends and no faith in the useless son of the ruling dynasty. But now a terrifying and apparently sorcerous enemy is threatening the Empire's borders and Archeth is chosen to find out what is happening.

And then there's Egar. Egar the Barbarian – or at least he would be, if he could just forget what it was like to fight for the reputedly decadent but really quite civilised Yhelteth Empire, what it was like to bring down a dragon single-handed in the war against the Scaled Folk. Egar the Dragonbane came back home to his people in triumph. But out on the steppe, something very unpleasant is coming to call...