The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan

I have read a couple of Morgan Sci Fi novels before but this is his first fantasy that I have read. Enjoyable setting in a world where godlike alien races once held sway but have recently left. When one of these races wants to return a mixed bag of three heroes must save the day. The roughest, toughest of these heroes also happens to be promiscuously homosexual which is unusual enough for a fantasy novel. The book has quite a few explicitly described man on man sex scenes so be warned if that is not your cup of tea. Personally I find the homosexuality a little bit at odds with the characters otherwise brutishly violent nature but nevertheless I probably enjoyed his novel more than Morgan's sci fi work.

Black Man by Richard Morgan

Sci Fi novel from the writer of Altered Carbon that shares the same gritty feel even though it is not set in the same story world. The main protagonist is a genetically modified "He-Man" who was bred and trained to be a super soldier before public unease about genetic variants led to him and his like being ostracised and exiled to Mars.
Contains lots of pithy stuff about the nature of humanity and about the changing needs of society as we moved from hunter gatherer society into more organised groups.

Pretty good with a solid sci fi detective story underpinning Morgans musings.

Richard Morgan: Altered Carbon

This an interesting blend of noir detective story and Cyberpunk with a hard jawed cigarette smoking anti-hero righting wrongs in a futuristic setting. In this future world digital transportation of human personas has become commonplace and physical bodies have become trade-able commodities. An intriguing corollary of this is that spaceflight is generally unnecessary. Instead you just hire a body at your destination and transmit your persona to it. The story keeps up a cracking pace and it makes for an enjoyable read but I felt that the whole affect was let down somewhat by the way the flawed hero softens as the book progresses. By the end of the book I felt he was more Wuss than Tough guy - not what I expect from my anti-heros.