Book Review: Dust of Dreams

I don't know what I was thinking, but I started reading Dust of Dreams during finals week last quarter.  Considering that reading a Malazan Book of the Fallen novel can often times be an incredibly challenging endeavor, I threw caution to the wind and dove in.  I guess my brilliant stratagem behind this was that my holiday break would be filled with the latest adventures of The Bonehunters and their allies. So, with two books left to go in this EPIC ten book series, and with myself feeling like a slacker because I erroneously thought Seak had finished the series, I dug in my heels and cracked open the penultimate volume, Dust of Dreams.

This one takes place more or less completely in the empire of Lether and it's surrounding regions.  Flipping to the list of characters involved in this novel, there's lots of familiar faces to be had, and plenty of fan faves as well.  Not only that, but the story is more or less centered around one massive army, The Bonehunters, so that's pretty much a recipe for Steven Erikson awesomeness right?  Fun characters, and the promise of wide scale battle is pretty much what he does best.  So this one was great right? Right....?

Well, not exactly.

Its a bit hit or miss to tell the truth, and probably more miss than hit.

Like every other Malazan Book of the Fallen novel, this one is pretty massive.  816 pages of massiveness to be exact.  That massive page count isn't such a big deal if that's what the story requires, the problem here is that this one felt extremely bloated, and probably could have been half as long if not even less. Especially considering how much actually happened in this novel, which isn't much.  I think that as these gigantic fantasy series go on in time, the editing disappears as the publishers give a successful author a longer leash, and make less changes because they know the baby is gonna sell no matter what.

At least it felt that way to me, because as I said earlier not a lot happened here.  Without spoiling too much, the gist of what when down is that an army moved from point A to point B, then had a battle.  That's about it.  In many ways Dust of Dreams was basically a set up novel for the grand finale in The Crippled God and I've heard other places that Dust of Dreams is basically the first half of what is basically one MONSTER final book that is the combination of DoD + TCG.  Which makes me a little bit more lenient in terms of what happened in Dust of Dreams, but it still felt like there was too much of nothing going on, over the course of a shit load of pages.

Like every other Malazan Book of the Fallen novel I've read so far this one had its fair share of ups and downs.  The downs were, well...down there. Waaay down there.

There were definitely times when I wondered whether or not it was worth even finishing the series, that's how frustrating this book was at times.  Dull plot threads, tedious passages where nothing happens, and some strange barbaric torture rape that was just disgusting and unnecessary.  Not good.  Not good at all.  

The ups, though fewer and far between than usual, and vastly outnumbered by the downs, were just good enough to see me through to the end.

Like I mentioned earlier, the cast of characters here was, for the most part, a who's who of my favorite characters from the series, barring Karsa Orlong and a couple others.  It was good to check back in with Fiddler and the rest of the Malazan marines, and meet a few new interesting characters along the way.  Also, the parts that featured King Tehol, Queen Janath, Chancellor Bugg, Treasurer Bugg, and Ceda Bugg were always fantastic.  Not to mention every scene with Ublala Pung, which were equally hilarious and fun.

The polarizing effect of fun characters and great action versus dull characters, and tedious unnecessary plot lines really wore on me in Dust of Dreams.  Its been a problem that has plagued me throughout the series, and probably wont totally go away in the final book either.  It took an even greater amount of persistence to get through this one than any other volume in the series.  Thankfully, there was just enough here, not to mention a pretty major cliff hanger to keep me on for the finale, but make no mistake, this one was a slog.

In my opinion, this was the weakest installment in the series so far.  After reading this dud, I'm not exactly eager to cap off the series.  I'll likely need a pretty good extended break, to forget the pain of this read, before I hitch up my trousers and take the plunge on the finale.

Grade: D+

Review: Toll the Hounds

Normally, I can only handle about one Malazan book per year, but with the end of the series drawing near, I thought I'd get Toll the Hounds under my belt, and give myself the option of reading another Malazan book later on in 2011.

Anytime I embark on a Malazan Book of the Fallen novel written by Steven Erikson I do so with a fairly large degree of trepidation.  I'll come right out and say it: I struggle with these books.  For one, I always have the feeling that I'm either missing an important detail, or that I'm forgetting an important detail, (or a minor detail that is now important) from an earlier book.  Sometimes I'll be forgetting an entire character.  Another thing I struggle with is sheer size of each book.  Talk about daunting!   Toll the Hounds clocked in at a massive 1269 pages!  That is like three normal sized books.  Basically, what that boils down to is a month of reading for my slow ass.  Another Malazan thorn in my side is the fact that with each book I've read, I've felt like there is at least one story line that is totally pointless.  I tend to skim those parts, which might account for that earlier bit about forgetting details...

Anyway, all my trepidation aside, Toll the Hounds was fairly easy to dive into because it marked the return to Darujhistan, the locale of many of my favorite characters from the series.  Aside from reuniting with Kruppe, Murillio, Rallick Nom, and all the other denizens of the Phoenix Inn, this book delivers a healthy dose of Anomander Rake, badass supreme.  Anytime Anomander Rake is involved you know something awesome is going to happen, and his role in this one is definitely pretty damn epic.

One detail I found interesting about Toll the Hounds is how small of a role the Malazan characters play in the novel.  To me it seemed like Erikson had a lot of big pieces to move around on the board, Karsa Orlong, Mappo Runt, Gruntle, to name a few, and this novel was sort of all about getting them into position for the final two novels.  Even though parts of the book felt like a set up for the final stages of the series, this still managed to be a solid novel.  There is a strong corps of characters present, many of which are some of my favorites in the series, so it was a joy to check back in on them and read about their adventures.

Anytime you get some of the major players from the series in the same Malazan book, you can pretty much rest assured knowing that their paths with converge at some point during the book.  So with so many of the "big" names in this novel, I had a good feeling things would be pretty epic.  Erikson does not disappoint.  The climax of Toll the Hounds is one of the best convergences in the Malazan Book of the Fallen thus far. 

I gotta say, Erikson is probably the reigning master of writing incredibly gripping balls-out action scenes.  There were many nights when I absolutely could not put this book down because something insane was happening.  On the times when Erikson does manage to draw me in, he draws me in completely, and everything else in the world falls away.  This is a rare gift for a writer, and a quality the man only seems to improve upon with each book.

Despite it's monumental size, and a couple plot lines that I felt were superfluous, this was a damn good Malazan novel.   With only two books to go, I could possibly crank them out in the next year, or I might dawdle and draw this series out for another two years.  Hard to say, but if you are plugging your way through this series, and fighting the good fight, I for one think it is worth carrying on.  Erikson always manages to deliver a good ending so I have high hopes for the tail end of the series.

Grade: B

Review: Reaper's Gale

Reaper's Gale By Steven Erikson



Two and a half weeks ago, with a giant intake of breath, I embarked on the seventh Malazan Book of the Fallen. Reading a Malazan novel is unlike most any other reading experience. It takes a heightened sense of attention, a large degree of dedication, and some patience as well.

As usual in this series, Reaper's Gale drops down into the middle of things with little or no explanation. At the start of this one, Erikson introduces a new group of people, the Awl. Then, in a matter of pages, he flits around between multiple story threads, with a huge cast of characters; some new and some familiar. All of this requires the reader to stay focused, and be patient, as Erikson slowly reveals just what the hell is going on since the last time the series visited the continent of Lether.

This is also a flippin' huge book, weighing in at over 800 pages. I always need to steel myself for a visit to Erikson's world, knowing that it will take me the better part of a month to read one of his books. Reaper's Gale could have been a bit shorter. There were many parts that I skimmed simply because nothing important was happening, with characters I cared nothing about, or could not remember who the hell they were.

Perhaps more so than other Malazan books, this one suffered from a truly massive cast of characters, and multiple story threads. I particularly had a hard time keeping some of the Letherii characters straight, as some had similar names, and little character development to help tell them apart. I find that after each double paragraph break, when Erikson switches to to new point of view, that I spend a minute or so placing the proper characters in my brain and figuring out where exactly shit is taking place. This is often a pain in the ass.

All that being said, like all Malazan books I've read so far, Reaper's Gale rewards the reader with some absolutely spectacular moments that live long in the memory. This book includes some of the most iconic characters from the entire series, (Karsa, Tehol, and Fiddler being favorites of mine), and does great things with them.

While I thought that maybe I had a good grip on where the series was headed after reading the 6th book, Reaper's Gale actually seemed to broaden the focus, instead of the narrowing that I expected. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but reading this book, I felt a sense that Erikson was carefully placing dominoes in preparation for the series finale, which is only three books away. In that sense, I felt slightly disappointed by the end of the book, and the outcomes felt slightly predictable, and lackluster.

I realize this may sound harsh, but while I did enjoy parts of it, this is far from a great book. I noticed dozens of grammatical errors, which is annoying as hell and break up my reading flow. It is a common complaint that the reader has to put up with certain annoyances when reading a Malazan book, but they felt more overt in this one.

There was just enough interesting things going on, and enough characters that I love to keep me going through this book. It is one of, if not my least favorite Malazan book so far. However, the end is now firmly in sight for this series, only three more books to go, and I'm excited to see where it takes me. This is a series that is massive in scope unlike any other fantasy series that has come before. The end should be a spectacle.

Grade: C-