In which I read a cinder block...
Jan. 30th, 2008 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
The Malazan series by Steven Erikson is an epic in every possible sense of the word. There are hundreds of characters spanning a rich and detailed cosmos and somehow the writing maintains a pretty high level of excellence.
It's also an epic in the sense that each book clocks in at around 800-1000 pages. After six of them...
I just finished the seventh.
Reaper's Gale is...a lot. I can't even really explain what's going on because we're knee deep in plot from the previous 6000 pages of book and with a year in between reading volumes, it's getting a little murky even for me.
But the short synopis: The Bonehunters are a renegade army of the Malazan Empire. They've crossed the ocean to invade the Letharii empire -- mainly because it's been taken over by the Tiste Edur (i.e. elves) who are lead by an insane Edur wielding a god-cursed weapon. Meanwhile, everyone is attempting to find the artifact possessing the soul of an ancient dragon for their own ends.
There's a lot of humor and action and sadness. The books continue to be rewarding despite the fearsome investment in time. I'd say this isn't the best book in the series, but it's above average (in a series that is generally above average). It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I will say that the Malazan series (beginning with Gardens of the Moon is fantastic. My only criticisms are that several relationship types continually show up (there are numerous odd-couple types) and the other problem is that as the series goes along, people turn up who seem to know all about the stuff that everyone else has had to laboriously piece together over the past several books. It's not terrible, but a bit irksome to run into Mr. Knowitall. And, as mentioned earlier, it's a big, honking, series with a lot of stuff to keep track of.
Still, it's very much worth the effort as this is a great fantasy series.
later
Tom
The Malazan series by Steven Erikson is an epic in every possible sense of the word. There are hundreds of characters spanning a rich and detailed cosmos and somehow the writing maintains a pretty high level of excellence.
It's also an epic in the sense that each book clocks in at around 800-1000 pages. After six of them...
I just finished the seventh.
Reaper's Gale is...a lot. I can't even really explain what's going on because we're knee deep in plot from the previous 6000 pages of book and with a year in between reading volumes, it's getting a little murky even for me.
But the short synopis: The Bonehunters are a renegade army of the Malazan Empire. They've crossed the ocean to invade the Letharii empire -- mainly because it's been taken over by the Tiste Edur (i.e. elves) who are lead by an insane Edur wielding a god-cursed weapon. Meanwhile, everyone is attempting to find the artifact possessing the soul of an ancient dragon for their own ends.
There's a lot of humor and action and sadness. The books continue to be rewarding despite the fearsome investment in time. I'd say this isn't the best book in the series, but it's above average (in a series that is generally above average). It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I will say that the Malazan series (beginning with Gardens of the Moon is fantastic. My only criticisms are that several relationship types continually show up (there are numerous odd-couple types) and the other problem is that as the series goes along, people turn up who seem to know all about the stuff that everyone else has had to laboriously piece together over the past several books. It's not terrible, but a bit irksome to run into Mr. Knowitall. And, as mentioned earlier, it's a big, honking, series with a lot of stuff to keep track of.
Still, it's very much worth the effort as this is a great fantasy series.
later
Tom
