The Dark Defiles

A Land Fit for Heroes, Book 3

By: Richard K. Morgan

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Ringil Eskiath, a reluctant hero viewed as a corrupt degenerate by the very people who demand his help, has traveled far in search of the Illwrack Changeling, a deathless human sorcerer-warrior raised by the bloodthirsty Aldrain, former rulers of the world. Separated from his companions - Egar the Dragonbane and Archeth - Ringil risks his soul to master a deadly magic that alone can challenge the might of the Changeling. While Archeth and the Dragonbane embark on a trail of blood and tears that ends up exposing long-buried secrets, Ringil finds himself tested as never before, with his life and all existence hanging in the balance.

©2014 Richard Morgan (P)2014 Tantor

Fascinating story

Third book in the series and clearly the best book of the series. The narrator makes it even more so enjoyable.

Fantastic conclusion!

Great ending to a great series. This has been an amazing ride, and Gil Eskieth is an anti-hero like no other. Morgan's detailed descriptions and all too human characters paint a story that's touched by human frailties and vulnerabilities as well as enlightenment and ascension. It's those details that make the characters come to life in the narrator's voices, that makes them live and breath and curse, and I think it's an amazing sign of the quality of the characters when you hear yourself guessing what they're going to say in a given situation.

A dense and sharp high epic with lots of twists

Richard maintains his sharp and edgy writing on this high epic. I took me few hours to get adjusted to the style of writing that it is dense and demands attention from the reader. Book is fast moving and hits the ground running requiring reader to be familiar with previous book well at the start. So, I recommend doing some reading (wiki page possibly) of previous books before starting this one.

Book starts with Ringil, Archeth and Egar on a journey to find the Illwark changeling. Journey takes them to various amazing places looking for the changeling where story breaks into two story lines. One follows Ringil where the other story line follows Egar and Archeth. Both are great, but Ringil's experiences are more abstract where he looks to master deadly forces for incoming conflicts. This element of the story is innovative and despite of high use of powers/magic, it remains mysterious and entertaining. During the book Ringil's character starting to remind me a lot of Elric and his sword. It has been a while since I have read the Elric saga, but I kept thinking of it.

Story line for Archeth and Egar is not simple either that their decisions are riddle with political and historical considerations. Banter between Archeth and Egar is entertaining as well along with mysterious actions of demonic helms. There arw plenty of twists in the plots which kept the book entertaining throughout.

Overall, book is very entertaining but will require concentration from reader. Like previous books in this series, it is dark edgy and sharp. Simon's narration is top notch as usual. He is able to capture the subtle tones of implications utilized by the character throughout the book. I enjoyed the book and I would highly recommend it to seasoned fantasy readers.

Dark defiles

liked the original variants of the hero type gritty realistic reminded me of the Kane saga.

Good golly damned, turn that shit to 11!

I can not stop praising this series enough! Personally, I thought the first book was gold, but perhaps a bit slow - not this book. The author said, enough character development, let's light some shit on fire! Not really, but also literally. Shit goes down. At first I didn't like the end, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized the genius of how everything came together and ended. Each time my brain tried to come up with a "But it could have..." I'm quicky rebuked with a "But in this chapter, he or she said XXX to explain why XXX happened and why and it's perfect like that." At first it feels like there are loose ends, but then you think about it and no, they're tied up, maybe in ways that aren't fully satisfying, but for this world and how it functions, unsatisfying and unjust are par for the course. I can absolutely see how and why things happened the way they did, and after much thought, can even agree with the choices the author made. It's one of the few books where I wish I had friends that had also read the book so I could discus it with them and argue about all the things because damn, it's just one of those book to want to argue about. You know the ones. And if you don't, read this series and then you will. Anyway, the author has his work cut out for him with all the alien sounding names and such, but he does a decent job. I bought the books after listening to them because that's how much I liked it - I needed to experience the series on paper. Seriously, read this book. It's amazing!

Excellent

What did you love best about The Dark Defiles?

Story line, narration, and characters are top notch. Listened to all three in one week, just because I had to know....

Amazing Finale

Vance changed the voices for a few characters but overall amazing performance, great story. Long live the Dragon Banes and Kiriath warrior!

Post-modern fantasy with all the complexity and irreverence you could hope for

Morgan takes all of the fantasy tropes and turns them upside down with a meta-narrative that blends seamlessly with an organic plot and compelling characters. The world and mythology that he has built has room for endless stories. There is enough social commentary, bold, unconventional relationships and moral ambiguity to make anyone who is tired of simple good vs evil hero stories jump for joy. Not for the queasy nor the judgmental, this series forges new territory for the genre and is a breath of fresh air. The prose is top notch, mature, ironic and lovely to experience. Dialogue is natural and often just plain funny. The narrator is also excellent, clearly differentiating characters through accent and tone while subtly embellishing the story with an actor’s magic.

Confusing writing at times, overall great series

At times the book is difficult to follow, context is missing and some chapters leave you wondering what just happened. The narration was ok, the series is good enough it could benefit greatly from a more produced recording with different actors, music, sound effects, voice enhancements of some of the other worldy characters etc.

A diamond in the ruff

Coming from the first law trilogy to this trilogy was natural. Lots of adult language, content, and situations. Excellent books.