Why are these books so hard to review? I had heard that this one was bleak, dark, depressing and slow. Well, it was certainly slow. At least the first half was, where even the Malazan army was twiddling their thumbs in Letheras (although there were a few great and/or funny scenes). The other threads were actually more interesting during the first half, as I didn’t always know what was going on with the K’Chain Che’Malle, The Shake and Icarium, but it mostly kept my attention. And the ramblings between the Perish, the Bolkando and the Khundryl were fantastic.The second half of the book was faster paced, as all of these different groups began fighting and then the Malazans arrive into this mess at the ¾ mark. And the slower buildup of the first half mostly pays off, although I think some scenes could have been trimmed. But hey, this is Malazan, what did you expect?But was it bleak, dark and depressing? At parts it was, especially with The Snake and the deplorable Barghast scenes, but overall I found it an easier read than Reaper’s Gale, which was pretty dark most of the time and it wasn’t as clear why it was so depressing. By contrast, the Barghast scenes in this book, while some of the most horrific I have ever read, served a purpose.The last two chapters of this book are simply stunning, but it does end with a nasty cliffhanger. I am happy that I don’t have to wait a year and a half for The Crippled God as people who kept up with series had to do. The K’Chain Che’Malle, wow!Overall, this is a grim, slowly-gaining-steam bulldozer of a book that feels similar to Deadhouse Gates (my favorite in the series), but the much slower start and uneven pacing keeps it at a lower echelon. Psyched for The Crippled God.4 stars overall. Ugghhh. This book was a slog for me. The beginning and end were interesting but the middle 70% was very aimless. I felt like the it was a few hundred pages of random character soliloquies. The worst part for me was that at this point in the series there are so many characters that they have become very diluted. The character voices all sounded the same and any small detail that was added to anyone character was just missed by me. If this was the first book in the series I would have abandoned it early in the read but with 9 books under my belt I am going to finish. Hopefully book 10 will redeem the series but right now with so many characters I feel like it will be hard to tie up neatly.
What do You think about Dust Of Dreams (2009)?
Another overwhelmingly awesome book from this truly epic series. That cliffhanger though...
—shadowhaze
