My first Book Review of 2006
Jan. 15th, 2006 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So I started off with a brick. I read Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson. This is the fifth book in the Malazan empire series. It's also something of a prequel as the events happen some unspecified time before the rise of the Malazan empire discussed in the other books. Since the overarching foe in the Malazan series is a god, he can be unstuck in time and strike in different times as well as places.
Erikson has really gotten into his writing stride here. The book picks up very quickly and drives forward at a good clip. As each character comes up, their introductory scenes bring them into sharp focus and they're all pretty engaging. The dialogue has a good mix of comedy, drama, thoughtful introspection and poetry. His big themes in this book are materialism and empire and while he clearly comes down on the side of modern-day anti-globalists, he does show the issue from many sides along with the slippery slopes tha come from tyring to fight the system. The only down side is that while there is some level of resolution, there's clearly a second half being set up. If Erickson follows his standard plotting, that means that well get the rest of the story in Book 7. Book Six (The Bonehunters) is coming out in March/April and it's clearly picking up from Book 4.
Still, despite the size, the Malazan books continue to be very good reads and I'm enjoying them a great deal.
later
Tom
So I started off with a brick. I read Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson. This is the fifth book in the Malazan empire series. It's also something of a prequel as the events happen some unspecified time before the rise of the Malazan empire discussed in the other books. Since the overarching foe in the Malazan series is a god, he can be unstuck in time and strike in different times as well as places.
Erikson has really gotten into his writing stride here. The book picks up very quickly and drives forward at a good clip. As each character comes up, their introductory scenes bring them into sharp focus and they're all pretty engaging. The dialogue has a good mix of comedy, drama, thoughtful introspection and poetry. His big themes in this book are materialism and empire and while he clearly comes down on the side of modern-day anti-globalists, he does show the issue from many sides along with the slippery slopes tha come from tyring to fight the system. The only down side is that while there is some level of resolution, there's clearly a second half being set up. If Erickson follows his standard plotting, that means that well get the rest of the story in Book 7. Book Six (The Bonehunters) is coming out in March/April and it's clearly picking up from Book 4.
Still, despite the size, the Malazan books continue to be very good reads and I'm enjoying them a great deal.
later
Tom
