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‘Kept looking at a card, y’see? Kept looking at it. Welcome back Bottle. Gods below welcome home.
The Crippled God
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen 10, Steven Erikson
If you recognise the quote then you already know what an exciting journey this series by Steven Erickson is. If not then the only thing I really need to say is that you must read the series.
The Crippled God,
the tenth and final book in the series.I’m near the end of the series and these books have taken top spot in my favorites list. So much so that not only am I writing this off-topic post, but it’s my second on the same series. My previous post was written after finsihing book 4 or so [Lead us, Warleader].
To work out why the series is so good (and being diligent )I have done my research on the author; at least I checked Wikipedia:
Steven Erikson (born October 7, 1959) is the pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin, a Canadian novelist, who was educated and trained as both an archaeologist and anthropologist.
His background in archaeology and anthropology is clearly evident in the books. Not only that, but I discovered a lot of the story was relevant to my own experiences [which may or may not be perceived as a good thing given what happens in the story]. Reading the story did impacted on my views of our place in the wold and has changed some of my thinking. I think everyone reading the story will find something that in some small (or large) way changes previously held concepts. This is some achievement for a fantasy book.
The story itself is amazing - completely different from so many fantasy books around. Each book astounds and when you think it can’t get more climatic, the next book in the series proves that it can. A cliche - but you can relate to the characters and each one is unique, brings varying perspectives to the story and continually evolves. However, the author has no compulsion against killing main characters when needed, bringing a does of reality to the series.
Now, by this stage you may have noticed I haven't talked about the plot [story] and I don’t intend to. It’s just too vast to summarise and I could never do it justice. The only way you can truly understand and appreciate it is to read the books. Reading the series is a must do activity - immediately add it to your 101 things to do before dying list.
As a final note (having given so much praise), I will mention two things (both of the Author’s own making) which almost stopped me reading the series in the first place - so you don’t fall into this nasty trap. In the introduction to series Gardens of the Moon), the author lets you know the world was originally devised as a setting for a role playing game; ignore this - there is nothing nerdy about the series, not an elf in sight and the world is way more.
Second ,in the same introduction, the author warns about the lack of handholding and guiding you gently into the story; saying people either love or hate the books due to this. Again ignore it. You do sort of ump in at the deep end, but by the time you get to book 3 everything is starting to make sense - of course it all gets thrown upside down in later books, but that's the joy of the series.
So there you are - read the books and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed. If you are, you can always come back here and berate me in the comments section.