Just finished the latest installment in what has undoubtedly become one of the most ambitious fantasy collections in modern times - an 11-book series and trilogy by one author, a trilogy done and trilogy planned by a second... this whole Malazan thing has sprawled out over so many continents, realms, and factions that it seems impossible to keep track of it all.

Yet here I am, finishing my 14th (!) book in the series, and still anticipating The Crippled God. So, here goes my ramblings:

What I liked:

The Crimson Guard is one of my favorite factions in the series, and I felt their treatment at the end of RotCG was a bit anticlimactic - yeah, they have a big battle with the Malazans, but then they just say "hey, truce?" and run off. Whatever, they were fun to follow. I likewise enjoyed the warrior mages' travels through Fist and the Stormwall and was really hoping for a confrontation with Skinner at the end. Alas, it wasn't meant to be, but I loved seeing them all finally acting unrestrained and kicking ass at the end.

Suth:
as the "soldier on the ground" POV, this character was a little more readable than Kyle in RotCG. This character actually had a few key things like motive, conflict, and change that made him interesting. I liked Kyle in both this book and the last, but he remains a very static character who just sort of goes with the flow - last time with Daseem Ultor, this time with Greymane.

Greymane:
Loved him. Well done.

The Blue Moranth:
What is it about these Moranth that make them so compelling? Their motives are never clear, their tactics are always brilliant, their weapons are the most technologically advanced in the Malazan world, and we have no idea what any of them look like beneath that "insect like" armor. I loved seeing the Blue take on Mare and dominating them with their alchemies. It was badass.

The search for Tayschrenn:
There was a lot wrong with this little subplot... but there was a lot I found intriguing as well. I enjoyed seeing the Queen of Dreams again (despite superficial complaints below) and meeting another member of her House. Having Shadowthrone along as some sort of tour guide seemed a bit odd... normally he uses proxies to do such tasks, but it was a nice cameo. It was pretty apparent from the start that it was either him or Iskaral Pust, and I just basically assumed that because I wasn't wanting to murder him halfway through that it was Shadowthrone. The journey through Emurlahn and encountering the Liosan was pretty interesting, though the end of this subplot was pretty uneventful.

Bakune:
It took quite a while for this character to become intriguing, but once he did I began to look forward to his PoVs. It's nice to find someone truly principled in a gray-shaded world like this one. In many other stories this character would have come across as self righteous and bland. Here, he really stood out as the only one who really stood for what he believed in. It was refreshing.


Here's what I hate about Esslemont:

He gets the details wrong. I don't care if he co-created this universe with Erikson, when Erikson provides descriptions or characterizations of things FIRST, Esselemont could at least email or text his buddy with the following questions:

"What color are Leoman's eyes?"
"Does Leoman have facial hair?"
"What gender is the Crippled God?"
"What does the Queen of Dreams look like?"
"What does the First Shore look like?"
"What sort of sorcery do the Tiste races wield?"

I would expect nothing less from Erikson if he started writing in Kiska or Kyle to his stories and I don't think it's unreasonable.

This shit just pisses me off.

Leoman:
Leoman, since freaking Deadhouse Gates, is described as having light blue eyes and a "wind blown face," the eyes being something rare for someone born in his part of the world - it's a characterization that stands out in one's mind and becomes ingrained with each mention of the character. Then Esselmont comes along and constantly describes him as having dark eyes and a mustache, something that requires me to either change my visualization of a character I have followed for FIVE BOOKS or just ignore the very words in front of my face.

The Lady:
And since when the hell do the different "fragments" of the crippled god have their own sentience? I thought the basic plot arc of the crippled god is that he is attempting to reanimate himself from his scattered pieces before the other gods reach his heart, somewhere on Kolanse, and drain it of its immense power. If his heart has such power and his pieces are sentient in themselves and we know from Baruk's delving into the CG's homeworld that he once had the form of a human (please don't ask me how an arm or foot or hip bone can be sentient, I'm just working with the dumb principle here) then why can't his heart defend its own damn self? Why does it need the Bonehunters to rush in and protect it? If the Lady was just another piece of the CG, let's say his nipple, or something, then it apparently had the ability to think, act, strike, retreat, kill, make alliances, and communicate. That's one hell of a nipple. I just don't get it. Even if there were other pieces of the CG in the area, there's only one brain. I naturally assumed this brain was possessed by the entity we all know as the CG, who hangs out in a little tent and coughs a lot. Was this wrong?

The Queen of Dreams:
Again, described has having different hair color and eyes in House of Chains, now having darker features.

The lack of consistency is sloppy. And it's lazy. It made an otherwise enjoyable book frustrating.

The Second Malazan Invasion:
What exactly was the goal of this whole thing? To oust the Overlord and then just let everyone go back to self-ruling? Because that's sure the way it seemed in the end. Huge prices are paid in lives and equipment. Rillish's (considerable) title is reinstated. Greymane is brought into the fold. The blue Moranth are contracted. For what? To depose a usurper and then go back home? Ivanr's PoV (which I was pretty ambivalent about) at the end indicates that everyone is going back to ruling themselves like it was before the first invasion. That just doesn't seem like the Mallick Rel's style...

The Riders:
So WHAT ARE THEY??????????????????? The destruction of the Stormwall was fun to read. However, I was really hoping to get an answer to this question that Esselmont has strung along for three books. All that we get is that they are pale and have features similar to the Andii. So, they're Liosan? Edur? Since when do either wield ice and water? Didn't Tayschrenn drive them back in NoK with his Thyr warren? Wouldn't Liosan be resistant to Thyr since they wield the Elder version of it? And what would the Edur care about an alien being that came to that world long after their arrival? For that matter, why would the Liosan give a damn about chunks of the CG either? The descriptions of their sorcery do not match anything else in the books, except maybe the Jaghut, who have not been tied to any of the Tiste in any meaningful way. If anything, it seemed like the used both Ruse and Omtose Phellack... I just don't get it.

At least Erikson attempted to answer as many questions as he raised in a book. Esselmont just raises them because they seem nifty and then never gets around to giving a satisfactory answer.

Anyways, not a bad book, definitely not the best in the canon. Can't wait for The Crippled God, in the mean time I guess I'll follow up with some Bauchelain & Korbal Broach.