Beauty

What a beauty this beauty here is, can’t even get one bad word to say about this beauty

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Great Action, Sometimes Missing Direction

This book really does showcase this series as epic fantasy. This is my second time through the series, and I will say that I got a lot more out of this book the second time. Knowing where a lot of the foreshadowing goes, especially around the main characters and the war of the gods, really helped me to see how this book is the series’ turning point. Erikson uses this book to wrap up many of the plot lines up to this point in the series, and to open up new threads that will continue for the rest of the story.

The action is amazing too! There are 3 or 4 major climaxes in this book, and especially the last few chapters have gorgeous, crisp action for you fantasy fighting buffs to revel in. The action in this book, more than any other In the series so far, makes me wish this series was adapted into something like an anime for our viewing pleasure.

However, I do have a big criticism of this book, although with what Erikson plans this might be very hard to avoid. It feels like this book lacks an overall direction (although that may be a little intentional to mimic the 14th army). It feels like each section of this novel (each of the 4 in-book “books”) is telling its own story, so the overall plot becomes meandering and without much focus for a large part of the story. Of all of the books, I think this one is the worst for this, and it makes it hard to stay hooked as a reader when you don’t really know what the characters are trying to achieve for most of the time. If it’s thematically intentional, then that’s actually pretty amazing, but it still hurts readability.

I will say that I’m a little less pumped on the narrator than I was for the last 2 books. He’s still a big improvement on Ralph Lister for this series, but I’m realizing that he has quite a few inconsistencies between books now that the characters from House of Chains have returned. However, this was a better performance by him overall than the last 2 books were, so that’s good to see. But I docked a star for the inconsistency.

Finally, some suggestions to potential readers: if you’ve only read the Erikson books up to now, do yourself a favour and read Ian C Esslemont’s “Night of Knives” before this one. It’s a short and easy read, and all of that book’s characters, settings, and events show up again in this one in full force. You’ll get a lot more out of this book, especially the ending, if you’ve read that one first.
As well, consider reading Esslemont’s “Return of the Crimson Guard” after “The Bonehunters,” before you read “Reaper’s Gale.” It’s the best time to do it, and you will get A LOT of payoff from reading that one next, since it focuses on the consequences and events in the empire immediately following this book, and it’s ending is casually spoiled in “Reaper’s Gale.” Trust me, you will not regret getting into those books at this point now.

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1 person found this helpful

an excellent continuation of the series.

a mess of gods, mortals, and elder powers. with plans gone awry and schemes within schemes within schemes.... Erikson has built a world where nothing is certain, where you aren't always sure you are routing for the good guys, but they are your guys so you just hope that they get out of there alive.

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Reader Growing On Me

Really Great Fantasy. Erickson is masterful. His writing is fascinating, emotive, and full of humor. This continuation of the Malazan story is fantastic. The performance seems better than previous efforts or maybe just less irritating. It's a good effort - worth 8 stars out of 10.

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Absolutely fantastic

Great story, Amazing book, great job Michael Page. Starting Reapers Gale now. Thank a million

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Another masterpiece of fantasy world-building!

Erikson once again delivers a story that grips you from beginning to end, going through a vast range of emotions, in this epic tale of high fantasy!

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