Reaper's Gale: Book Seven of the Malazan Book of the Fallen

Can't say enough about Erikson and the Malazan Book of the Fallen. However, this trade paperback of Reaper's Gale had a packet missing in it. 32 pages were repeated after page 544, so I missed 32 pages of action. Very annoying. I don't know if it was just my copy or all of them, but I was pretty upset about this. TOR really should proof their ashcans before sending them to press, or at least pull the bad copies before shipping them to market.

With every book Erikson writes I become more and more impressed. In the beginning I thought it was good writing, interesting story and world, but wasn't too sure. Book 1 was pretty good, book 2 fell a little short, but book 3 picked up and from then on each successive book got that much better, which brings us to the most recent book, by far the best so far. Erikson writes epic fantasy on a level all his own. The world is massive and engaging. It is at once believable and yet otherworldly, creating a fusion of worlds that leaves your jaw hanging. I am amazed at how well he writes the characters and holds such a complex and huge story together, with each book at least 800 pages. In Reaper's Gale we finally see the two worlds, the Malazan and the Letherii, finally begin to converge. We get to see the Bonehunters as well as the Tiste Edur. But it wouldn't be Erikson if some new aspect were not introduced to add such color and flavor to an already mind numbingly full bodied book. We see the Awl, the Benetract, an Ascendent previously undisclosed and a bunch of Elder gods. I could go on and on but I wouldn't do the book or Erikson justice. His writing is amazing. His world is amazing. Everything is amazing about this series. I think he is by far my favorite fantasy author out there right now, and is one of the few authors who can write more than a three book series and make every single one of them an amazingly complex book that is also a page turner. Bravo Erikson. If I could give this a 10 out of 5, I wouldn't hesitate. And the upside? Book 8 is coming out in a few months so we don't have long to wait to indulge ourselves once again. 5 stars.

The brutal Tiste Edur tribe of the north rules the Letherii Empire that they only recently conquered, but their control is weak and shaky as most people oppose them and Chancellor Gnol still runs the government. The Emperor of a Thousand Deaths Rhulad Senger symbolizes all that is wrong with the monarchy as everyone believes he is insane even his own people yet he sits on the throne. As the Edur purists fear Letherii economic assimilation, opposition from within grows as each time Rhulad dies, he returns to life less lucid and coherent. That inside threat is still jelling but the external assaults are greater to the stability of the tottering empire. Redmask leads the belligerent Awl'dan tribes of the east against the Letherii and the powerful rival Malazan Empire sees an opportunity has sent its armada to take the capital by sea. Others also seek to usurp the Edur. REAPER'S GALE, tale seven of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, is an extremely complex fantasy and fans of the series will marvel at the epic scope; newcomers need to start at the beginning (see GARDENS OF THE MOON). The myriad of subplots are much more convoluted and complicated than the simplicity described above, but for the most part the often vividly brutal events tie to the beleaguered Edur and its rule over the Letherii Empire. The threads left dangling forebode quite a future in this saga as Steven Erickson provides his strongest entry in a deep series in quite awhile. Harriet Klausner

If I could sum it all up in two words, it would have to be "hot damn!" As Malazan fans, we all know how Steven Erikson enjoys using misdirection to fool us. Every single thread of this convoluted, multilayered plot seems to be twisted upon itself, and nowhere is it more apparent then in this novel. One piece of advice: Expect the unexpected. You think you know where the tale is headed? The author will rapidly disabuse you of that notion! There are more surprises in Reaper's Gale than in the rest of the series, it seems. On several occasions, I found myself closing the book, shaking my head, unable to believe that this had just happened. Although titanic in size (910 pages), the pace throughout Reaper's Gale keeps you turning those pages, eager to discover more and more. There is no sluggish plotline akin to the Mhybe in Memories of Ice, making this one a veritable page-turner. Still, a few storylines at the very end were, at least in my opinion, a little rushed. It doesn't take anything away from the tale, mind you, yet I would have liked for Erikson to maintain the same rhythm from start to finish, as the pace in this one was more or less perfect. After all, when a book weighs in at over 900 pages, what's 10 or 20 extra pages thrown into the mix!?! The worldbuilding is, once more, grandiose. No other fantasy series, past or present, can match The Malazan Book of the Fallen in vision, ambition and scope. Steven Erikson seems to delight in making us squirm, offering us tantalizing glimpses that make us beg for more. In a series that already resounds with more depth than anything ever written in the genre, the author still raises the bar even higher. Most storylines grab hold of you and won't let go. In addition, I felt that many scenes bring a new emotional level that had yet to be seen in the series. Much like The Bonehunters, this novel contains its share of cliffhangers. With so many different threads interwoven together, I don't believe that it's humanly possible for Erikson to write self-contained installments anymore, not with the action occurring on various continents and realms of existence. Having said that, even though the ending doesn't offer resolution of every single plotline, Reaper's Gale is brought to a satisfying conclusion. Unlike The Bonehunters, which ended with a series of cliffhangers, this one does provide readers with closure. The characterizations play a major role in this one. Erikson has the damnable ability to introduce us to characters on which very little is known and who somehow become fan favorites. Redmask and Silchas Ruin are two such characters. As for the rest of this immense cast, I must admit that character development made me like Quick Ben, Seren Pedac and Trull Sengar even more. A lot has already been said about the bodycount. As the title implies (Hood is the Reaper of Souls), no on is safe in this novel. There are a lot of casualties in Reaper's Gale, especially toward the end, when several im