What's happened to Richard Morgan?

[Gramm838]

I was in Waterstone's in The Strand the other day and noticed that there are few of RM's books on the shelves...which got me wondering whether he's lost his way somewhat, and that's reflected in the number of books available?

I think he really faltered with the The Cold Commands. I read it once but the sexualisation simply put me off - I don't read fantasy to read about peoples love lives (and I'm not gay so it had even less interest for me). But there were also few copies of his other (far better) books - the hard SF that he is, in my opinion, best at.

In my mind Altered Carbon is simply the best debut novel I've ever read, even better than Revelation Space...but the whole range of Alastair Reynolds' catalogue were there on the shelves, which is maybe another indication of Morgan's slipping appeal?

Don't get me wrong - if RM releases a new hard SF novel I'll buy it!

 

[Southern Geologist]

I can't speak to the issues you raise since you just informed me of this author other than to say that I find excessive use of sex scenes in fiction to be a bit pointless (in a serious work of fiction, at least), but thank you. I've added his first trilogy to my wish list. It doesn't hurt that I came across this on his Wikipedia page, which I find to be a quite realistic worldview and one that could make for some interesting reading:

"Morgan described his "takeaway" of one of his books as Society is, always has been and always will be a structure for the exploitation and oppression of the majority through systems of political force dictated by an élite, enforced by thugs, uniformed or not, and upheld by a wilful ignorance and stupidity on the part of the very majority whom the system oppresses."