Book Review :: The Bonehunters :: Steven Erikson

The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a ride.

Wow.

I don't think anything I will ever read will come close to the magnificence and scope of Malazan books. These books not only tax your brain and your ability to understand, but also strain your brain when it comes to remembering all the plotlines that weave through the narrative like a complex web built by spiders that are high on fucked up drugs.

You can read one Malazan book every year and you won't need to read anything else. I am so happy after reading this book. The action sequences were way beyond anything I've read. The poetry of the words was exhilarating, the history of the Malazan world, the characters, the cities, the cultures, the friendships, the humor (oh the funny bits), the heartbreaks, the badassness of characters like Karsa fucking Orlong and Kamal Mekhar, it all creates such a heady mixture of literary accomplishment and storytelling excellence that nothing can come close.

George RR Martin, sit the fuck down and just give up. Your ASOIAF is nothing compared to even one book of Malazan.

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Book Review :: Midnight Tides (Malazan #5)

Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh god, i am still 5% to go in this book, but I'll read it when I pick up my tablet in next few hours.

Other than Tehol and Bugg, this book was a drag. But even through the drag, there were parts that were good, I liked the gold coin studded emperor and his visits to the crippled god's island. There was no Karsa in this, that made me sad. I have a legit hard-on for Karsa's antics. Guy is my spirit animal.

Also, I liked Iron Bars, the guy is a badass in his own way. There was some mention of the Crimson Guard in Gardens of the Moon, I think. One of these guys saved the thief from getting killed by a tiste andii. God, that was so long ago. I am half forgetting what happened in that book. This book was a ride in a way, even though it had slow parts. I fucking hated Udinaas. What the fuck is up with that guy? I have no idea. I couldn't give two shits about the feather witch or any of the secondary Edur characters. Fillers, all of them.

I could not make myself care about the other storylines, but the banter between T & B was amazing. That made the book worth reading for me. The jokes were funny, I can't remember how to write most of the names and right now I am too lazy to look em up. But yeah, it's an important book in the series.

Right now, I am just left with a sense of unease after reading this, but maybe that has to do with something else, something personal. But fuck that. I am not sure if I want to dive into the next book right after this one. Maybe I'll read something else to lighten the mood. This was almost 950 pages. More like 2-3 books. Phew. The new jack reacher book was out some time back, I got that, maybe I'll dig into that.

Bottom line, read this for Tehol and Bugg.


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Book Review :: House of Chains (Malazan #4)

House of Chains by Steven Erikson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

WITNESS!


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Book Review :: Memories of Ice (Malazan #3)

Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I cried when I finished this book.


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Book Review :: Deadhouse Gates (Malazan #2)

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Anything less than five stars for a book with such immense scope would be a travesty.

That said, it's not a book for everyone. It's a difficult book to read, and even more difficult to understand in the greater scheme of things. And anyway, the first three books in this particular series are not as well written as the seven others. I have one more so-so book to go through.

Maybe it will get better after that. I hope so.

Reading such a book is a tiring experience. Your brain gets so tired that you're unable to think anything else. When you think about the events in the book and their timelines, your whole sense of time gets warped, and even if it's fiction, you can't help but think in those massive timeframes.

It can get painful. There is absolutely zero hand-holding in Malazan books and you're mostly thrown in the middle of things to figure them out on your own.

So, if you like your fiction easy, pain-free, and light, give Malazan a skip, but if you like to torture yourself a bit, dig in.


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