World Famous Comics: The Bonehunters (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 6)
The Bonehunters (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 6)
By: Steven Erikson Publisher: Tor Books Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Tor Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 800 Publication Date: September 18, 2007 Release Date: September 18, 2007
The Seven Cities Rebellion has been crushed. Sha'ik is dead. One last rebel force remains, holed up in the city of Y'Ghatan and under the fanatical command of Leoman of the Flails. The prospect of laying siege to this ancient fortress makes the battle-weary Malaz 14th Army uneasy. For it was here that the Empire's greatest champion Dassem Ultor was slain and a tide of Malazan blood spilled. A place of foreboding, its smell is of death. But elsewhere, agents of a far greater conflict have made their opening moves. The Crippled God has been granted a place in the pantheon, a schism threatens and sides must be chosen. Whatever each god decides, the ground-rules have changed, irrevocably, terrifyingly and the first blood spilled will be in the mortal world. A world in which a host of characters, familiar and new, including Heboric Ghost Hands, the possessed Apsalar, Cutter, once a thief now a killer, the warrior Karsa Orlong and the two ancient wanderers Icarium and Mappo--each searching for such a fate as they might fashion with their own hands, guided by their own will. If only the gods would leave them alone. But now that knives have been unsheathed, the gods are disinclined to be kind. There shall be war, war in the heavens. And, the prize? Nothing less than existence itself... Here is the stunning new chapter in Steven Erikson magnificent Malazan Book of the Fallen--hailed as an epic of the imagination and acknowledged as a fantasy classic in the making.
I really liked this one Not perfect by any means but I did enjoy reading it more than Midnight Tides. I didn't like the huge gaps in the storyline that was apparent here and there but it was overall very good.
There were some plots "Patched" that were not very good to me but overall I enjoyed it and will continue on with the series it really is wonderful reading compared to the cookie cutter fantasy these days.
Overall a good read and will be getting the next book ASAP.
I finally gave up on the Malazan books thanks to this one Having bought the first 7 volumes of the Malazan Tales, largely thanks to all the glowing reviews, I was forcing myself to read them all as disposable material for the bus commute (see my reviews for the first 5). But The Bonehunters has finally annoyed me and bored me into submission: no more Malazan Tales for me! Warning: SPOILERS follow.
I have long wondered if Erikson has ever met a soldier in his life. I come from a military family, and the dialog of the soldiers - particularly during combat! - is ridiculous and ruins one's sense of the suspension of disbelief. Not all soldiers are pacifist Lefty activists who want to study war no more and think all war is bones and graves and fultility. Most professional soldiers I have known (and are related to)have a high moral sense, as well as a sense of purpose and a sense of mission utterly unknown in the Malazan world, despite the fact that they have massive standing armies of professional soldiers, which exist just to be slaughtered en masse by non-military forces every time. If miltary force is so useless why are there armies everywhere?
I simply cannot believe in these soldiers and their attitudes, let alone the superheroes and gods that abound. In this one, a little girl happens to be a High Mage without realizing it (happens all the time in the Malazan world), the betrayers of the Chain of Dogs (the most ridiculous and unbelievable story in Fantasy, which is saying something) are now the favourites of the Empress . . .
And I just don't care. I lost all impetus once the insufferable Kruppe showed up. I just sped-read the rest of the volume and Reaper's Gale in about an hour, and won't bother with Toll the Hounds. I don't care about any of the characters, beyond wanting them all to suffer a cruel (if imaginary) fate.
Spare yourself a similar fate and avoid Malazan books. That's my heartfelt recommendation
Erikson is Excellent! All the Steven Erikson books are excellent. This series is one of the best fantasy series I have ever read, and I have read thousands of fantasy novels. These are not for the faint hearted however, Erikson is not afraid to kill off characters, the plots are deep and complex and the series is not written in chronological order. Often the books start in the middle of an ongoing story, making the first 100 pages or so confusing until you get into the book. I would recommend reading them in the order they were written to avoid serious confusion, and to stick with the first book, even if you feel confused in the beginning. This book, the sixth, is very bleak, but brings back beloved characters and explains more of the over acring world story.
A step backward except the last 200 pages Mignight Tides was probably the most polished book of the series so far. It had a tight well laid out plot structure that defied all the "Erickson needs an editor" comments.
Sadly, Bonehunters is a probably the worst edited book of the bunch. Plotlines are often dealt with in 2 page chunks and after reading 5 different plotlines in 15 pages, there is just no emotional payoff for a lot of the book. In this way, much of the book is very disjointed and you wonder why the author and editor didn't simply combine ten of the two page chunks into one 20 page chunk to give the reader some continuity.
Erikson also invents 15 or so characters with no purpose and gives them a perspective. So instead of reading about a particular plot point from Fiddler's point of view, you get the plot from 10 different just introduced sodiers that you never hear from again. I guess Erikson was trying to experiment by showing the events from varias points of view, but it did not work. I did not care what these throw away characters had to say or what happened to them.
This brings me to the last 200 pages of the book which were just fantastic. Finally, we get a continuous sequence of events with familar characters including a deadly chase through a major city in the empire.
Why Erikson couldn't write the whole book like this, I have no idea.
Anyway this is a very flawed book, but if you've made it this far in the series you will read it as I did because you love the world Erikson has built. Stick with it through the low points as the end of the book is a huge payoff for slogging through the worst edited book of the series.
Kitty litter box lining... A truly worthless story and what could have been a good story, winds up being what could only be called psychopathic's bad acid trip.
I am utterly amazed at how awful Erikson writes. He has no focus making it hard for any reader to follow. I've an idea...GET A PLOT! GET A CLUE! No wonder no one knows who you are or buy's this rubbish. The multiple senseless plot lines, a vast cast of meaningless characters whit no cohesive rhyme or reason... Despite his lame attempts Erikson pulls off another book of mindless go no where drivel. What is truly amazing is that someone actually prints this stuff. He was UNable to keep the story flowing, UNable to have a plot, UNable to pull any kind of meaning out of this entire book.
His world is so completely unbelievable, he seems to have fallen into Jordan's trap of forgetting to get to an ending or why. You will most certainly be disappointed with this book, and you will probably find that this book is the worst kind of fantasy ever found in print. Worth only as lining for the cat's litter box.
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