The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #6)
Steven Erikson
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 an epic of the imagination and acknowledged as a fantasy classic in the making.
Publication Year: 2007
I’m currently 63% through The Bonehunters and have found myself making a lot of posts during my recent daily readings, partially due to the sheer amount of brain-breaking information we’re being thrown. But it’s also because I just LOVE this series and I think about it all the time. And I want to gush about it! How does Erikson craft 10 books, over 10,000 pages, 453 POV characters (yes, I checked the fan spreadsheet and yes, it’s a beautiful spreadsheet) into a series that, in the exact middle of, I’m dying to jump back into and am upset that I’m at work and can’t? Multiple massive continents where each continent, region, city has its own cultures, religions and cults, magics. Characters that die brutal deaths and just want to live quiet lives but are thrown into the thick of things and become gods and with the smallest of actions change the course of the world but it isn’t apparent for a thousand pages. Epic scenes with beautiful and gory and life-changing imagery that are seared into the brain for all time. Now, of course, not every single moment is spectacular to read. I certainly have disliked plotlines, POVs, etc. and expect to have dislikes in future books. I made a post at 27% about how I was missing my favorite characters and was hoping we would get back to them soon. But, it’s funny how I make those sorts of posts, when I’m at a slower point in a Malazan book, and then I get hooked during my very next reading session. The exact same thing happened with Midnight Tides, to the point that I even deleted the post I made where I complained because I was so wrong only a short time later. It’s like Erikson knows just when he needs to turn the gas on. Pure genius. Before beginning the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, I read about it online and found people who had done multiple rereads. Like 4+ times. I get it now. There may be nothing else like Malazan. How am I supposed to move on from this series? I’m set to finish the final book on September 30 and I’m dreading it. I think I will enter the largest book slump that has ever existed. I’ll probably have to seek therapy. And then immediately start a reread.
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0 0How do you sum up your feelings on 1,200 pages in the middle of a series? The Bonehunters felt like a return home after Midnight Tides and an underwhelming (to me) House of Chains. The birth of the Bonehunters and their journey to the end of the novel may be my favorite storyline so far in all of the book. Following the fourteenth from an unconfident and tense group of disparate armies through the siege of Y'Ghatan to their stand at the end of the novel was just SO GOOD. The way Tavore is represented through other characters sussing her out made her involvement and motives so compelling, and I love where Erikson took her character and the story overall.
I'm pleasantly surprised in how much of the plot of this book I absorbed and understood (and even guessed one of the reveals??) compared to books 1 - 5. Having more of the storylines intersect as the book progressed helped me keep track of all the moving points of view and better see how they fit together and impact one another. In earlier books, it felt like certain plot points/characters/magic elements that were introduced wouldn't be relevant for another few books, but in the Bonehunters, there were more immediate payoffs that kept the story moving. Maybe because we had 1,200 pages to revisit them lol. Of course, there were aspects that still weren't resolved and characters that come and go out of seemingly nowhere, but that's a given in Malazan at this point.
My only two complaints about The Bonehunters are 1) I didn't care at all about the Cutter/Scillara/Felisin Younger storyline outside of Heboric, and 2) I didn't feel as though the overall theme of this book was as prevalent as others (Memories of Ice focusing on compassion, Midnight Tides dissecting family and greed). I do think, though, as I digest the entry more and think about it in context of the full series, I can see it becoming one of my favorites.
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