Nemesis Games by James S A Corey

There was a lot to like about the fifth book in The Expanse, but ultimately it repeated the structural flaws of the previous book pretty much exactly. It is saved by strong characterisation and a breezy writing style, as many of these later books in the series have been. As I have felt previously with this series, I liked it enough to keep going but not enough that I’m massively enthused about it.

Nemesis Games picks up not long after the Ilus incident, with Holden and the crew of the Rocinante unwinding on Tycho Station. Personal issues pull the crew of the Rocinante apart, with this book rather excitingly following all four crew members of the Rocinante, allowing us to get in their minds (apart from James Holden), for the first time. Alex Kamal returns to Mars to try to patch things up with his ex-wife, but finds himself dragged into a conspiracy involving missing Martian warships. Amos Burton heads back down to Earth following the death of a woman close to him in his previous life as a Baltimore gangster (see short story The Churn for details) to either pay his respects or set out a bloody swath of revenge if her death is unnatural. Naomi Nagata is summoned by an old OPA connection back to Ceres Station, pulled by a deeply personal connection as her mysterious past is finally unveiled. Finally, a bored and lonely Holden on Tycho is asked to investigate colony ships which appear to be vanishing at the gates to the other worlds.

It is a proper treat to finally follow these core figures of Alex, Amos and Naomi as full point of view characters, which means that this book is not too worried about throwing lots of new characters our way; we already know them pretty well from the previous four books. Digging inside their heads is interesting, particularly in the case of Naomi who has held the most back so far. Cibola Burn has a major issue where the first half was very slow but the book was saved by a major event at the half way point; unfortunately, Nemesis Games has pretty much the exact same problem. There are pages upon pages in the first half which are almost immediately rendered pointless by a game changing moment in the second half. I don’t mind slow build characterisation stuff, but we don’t really gain anything from these scenes. For example, Amos’ storyline in the first half is essentially a mini-sequel to The Churn with very little to do with the rest of the book, which feels a little self-indulgent. When things get going they really get going and there are lots of moments towards the end which are breathlessly exciting.

The book suffers slightly for the lack of development of the protomolecule/ancient alien civilisation storyline, focusing almost entirely in the politics of the Sol system and the delicate power balance between Earth, Mars and the OPA. It’s not that this stuff is bad necessarily, but the balance between the two seems to be fairly key to this series. The first two books, Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War struck this balance best and they are the two strongest books in the series. There are some hugely exciting action scenes and some which are a bit incoherent as has long been both the boon and curse of this series.

Naomi probably had the strongest storyline as we see a very different side to the Rocinante’s XO than anything we’ve seen before. Bobbie Draper and Chrisjen Avasarala play slightly bigger roles in this book, which is nice as they really were two of the best protagonists that this series has had. With the exception of Holden, we’ve yet to have a single repeat PoV between books, but I can’t help but hope that these two come back in a big way. Holden is a bit static in this book, largely reacting to everything else going on, which is a bit of a change of pace from his usually position at the centre of every major event in the system.

Nemesis Games is definitely enjoyable, Abraham and Franck are too talented as writers for it to be anything but, however it has not quite succeeded in pulling this series out of the slight rut it has found itself in. The next book, Babylon’s Ashes, is actually coming out pretty soon. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it and I hope I love it.

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

This is a book I wanted to like a lot more than I actually did. I heard loads of good things and I’ve always really liked Anders’ writing on i09, but ultimately this was a book I found more irritating than anything else.

Patricia is a strange young woman with a sadistic older sister and workaholic parents who stumbles across a strange destiny as a witch, able to talk to animals and commune with ancient spirits. Meanwhile, Laurence is a technological genius who is ruthlessly bullied at school, desperate to escape the humdrum world within which he is trapped. Although both in very different ways, Patricia and Laurence are outsiders and find themselves drawn to each other. This story jumps from childhood to adulthood as the two explore through their relationship the contradictions, and perhaps symbiosis, of science and magic.

I’m a huge huge fan of stories which merge science fiction and magic but despite that it is very rarely done well. China Miéville’s Bas-Lag books would be an example of this done right. All the Birds in the Sky ends up making many of the same mistakes as other authors and in the end winds up mostly being an inferior take on Neil Gaiman. The premise is good, but the whole thing can just get insufferably twee. I know Anders used to run a leading science fiction and pop culture website, but some of the references are so annoying. There’s a Doctor Who ‘timey-wimey’ joke that made me want to tear out my own eyes with rage. I don’t mind pop culture references, but we end up with the classic problem of characters who are constantly busy and talented and always working but are somehow also pop culture literate enough to drop Firefly references at the drop of a hat.

By far the best chapters of the book are the earlier ones, where we first meet Patricia and Laurence as kids. There’s something hugely sweet and endearing about a future witch and future mad scientist awkwardly building a friendship, but the switch to an adult perspective shatters this. I wonder if keeping the protagonists as children would have made a better story because adult Patricia and Laurence are never anywhere near as engaging as angry teenager Patricia and Laurence. The pacing veers widely off track towards the end; the early chapters are a bit slower but give us time to appreciate the characters and little, charming moments which allow us to form a connection to the characters. Events move so ridiculously quickly in the final quarter of the book that it’s difficult to form a real connection to any of it. People complain, myself included, about bloated genre fiction, but there’s a reason that genre fiction tends to be longer than other novels and that is the time needed to give to good worldbuilding. All the Birds in the Sky essentially abandons world building in the pursuit of character and theme; that’s fine, lots of great genre writing does that, think of David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks, but the characters are not particularly interesting and the themes muddled.

The frustrating thing is that there are moments of greatness. Theodolphus Rose, a precognitive assassin sent to kill Patricia and Laurence as children, is incredibly funny and interesting too, but this promising storyline just sort of fizzles out as the novel progresses. There’s something almost Roald Dahl-esque about the awful childhoods of Patricia and Laurence, with a balance between genuine horror at what they’re going through and a dark comedy at just how nasty it gets.

All the Birds in the Sky is an ambitious novel with lots of great ideas which simply fails to coalesce into anything particularly special. As I said at the top I really wanted to like it, but I couldn’t force myself to. I’m still going to keep an eye on Anders though, there’s clearly potential here.

The Spider’s War by Daniel Abraham

The Spider’s War is a very interesting end to a strong series which plays out its final conflicts in a manner I think little could expect. Not every character apotheosis is successful, but enough are to make this a satisfying conclusion.

The resistance against the Antean Empire and the cult of the spider priests is growing on multiple fronts as the forces of Geder Palliako begin to fold in upon themselves. The Antean forces are badly overstretched and an army is marching on Camnipol to take revenge. Meanwhile, pamphlets spread by Cithrin bel Sarcour are revealing the truth of the priests’ power and the people of the world are beginning to wake from the slumber of the spider goddess. Marcus, Cithrin and Clara turn their aims towards obliterating every spider priest from the face of the earth and maybe put an end to war itself, whilst Geder grows more and more unstable.

For those hoping for a big military clash between an army led by Marcus Wester (perhaps with the dragon Inys at his back) and Geder’s Antean forces, you’ll be disappointed. This novel contains a dearth of big battle scenes, with the most spectacular in the series remaining the Antean attack on Porte Olivia and the takedown of Inys from The Widow’s House. The Spider’s War is oddly pacifist, with characters avoiding fighting and conflict as much as possible, with a notable exception which slightly undermines the novel’s message. The themes of the series are finally tied together; this is a series about the movement from the violence of the dagger towards the violence of the coin. There are rumblings of a sequel series and I’m wondering that where this one is a critique of war the next will be a critique of capitalism. It would certainly be interesting to see a world move on from hurting each other with weapons to hurting each other with money and greed. This series has overall been extremely thematically successful in a way few sprawling fantasy epics can achieve.

Most characters continue in their interesting directions, particularly Cithrin who has changed utterly from the frightened little girl fleeing Vanai all the way back in The Dragon’s Path. Clara also has a very satisfying story; I’ve never been much of a fan of the gossiping court noblewoman intrigue plot which is so bizarrely prevalent in fantasy, but Abraham has done a good job of making it interesting through the wonderful character of Clara. Not every character is handled so well, with some moments and final twists which feel a bit unearned. There were some moments where it felt like Abraham was pulling back from pulling the trigger. I don’t think a finale should just be a series of cheap shocks, but I think Abraham could perhaps have thrown at least one mindbender our way. Once the path towards the end in clear, everything happens pretty much as you would expect.

The Spider’s War is a worthy finale to a really enjoyable series. There are massive threads left dangling for a follow up which I certainly hope happens. I may never have taken to the world building of this series, but I most certainly took to the characters and I’d love to see them again and any new ones Abraham creates for us.

Cibola Burn by James S A Corey

I described the previous book in The Expanse series, Abaddon’s Gate, as a pivot point in the series and book number 4, Cibola Burn, does seem like it’s moving the series in a new direction, taking place for the first time almost entirely outside our own Solar System. Unfortunately, the pivot in setting doesn’t necessarily equate a pivot in plotting, which is beginning to feel a little formulaic.

Not long after the opening of the gate to a host of other star systems, a group of refugees from Ganymede slipped through without official permission and settled on a new planet in a new system. Called New Terra by the officials and Ilus by the locals, the new planet is a seemingly ideal place to build a new human civilisation, although the group contains no scientists who can truly understand the risk. The planet is rich in natural resources and so the UN send a ship to claim the planet, much to the chagrin of the locals who launch a terrorist attack as it lands. Basia Merton, last seen in Caliban’s War, is one of these terrorists but immediately regrets his actions and seeks to make amends. Elvi Okoye is a highly talented biologists sent by the UN to study the planet who survives the attack but finds herself caught up in the escalating conflict between the Ilus locals and the UN sanctioned forces stationed there. Dmitri Havelock, Miller’s partner on Ceres from all the way back in Leviathan Wakes, is in charge of security on the UN ship hanging in orbit, with the conflict not simply being confined to the atmosphere. Finally, once again James Holden joins the fray, sent as a negotiator by Avasarala and try to stop the conflict from boiling over, all while the threat of the alien planet and the remains of those who once lived there looms in the background.

The core conflict between the security forces and the locals on Ilus isn’t particularly interesting; we already had the authority figure going mad with power storyline in the last book. The core characters are decent, but this element of the story is dragged out for far too long. Things pick up considerably when the grander elements involving the dead protomolecule-creating civilisation show up and Cibola Burn begins to achieve a grandeur the series hasn’t really seen as much as it should. Cibola Burn is simply too long, dragging out a relatively simple premise for far longer than it really needs. The second half is a major improvement, with a sudden massive event shifting focus entirely into something far more interesting; it just takes too long to get to this point.

The characterisation is good in places; Holden and his team are as lovable as ever and I liked the character of Elvi Okoye, the naive young scientist with a massive crush on Holden. Havelock, a character I rather liked in Leviathan Wakes, settles into familiar ground as a security officer forced into an impossible position, something the series has done before. Merton never really comes into his own as a man driven by grief to make a terrible mistake. I liked all of these characters, but there’s none who can rival being anywhere near as interesting as characters like Bobbie and Avasarala from Caliban’s War.

This is a very negative reading review, but I did actually enjoy Cibola Burn quite a lot. Abraham and Franck are good enough writers that they can carry even a lacklustre story into something entertaining, but this was not the return to form for the series that I had hoped it would be. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it enough to keep going, but I’d be lying if I said that my enthusiasm for The Expanse is as great as it was.

The Long Cosmos by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

The Long Earth has been a strange little series. In some ways the scale is grander than anything else imaginable, but the events that take place are often smaller and gentle. Moments of extreme peril are rare and when they do take place the horrors are rarely dwelt upon. This has made the series frustrating at times, but the raw imagination and genuine optimism about the human spirit makes this a series hard not to like. The Long Cosmos does not offer a massive blowout conclusion, but that’s never been what this series is about.

The Long Cosmos takes place decades after Step Day; a mysterious message from the stars has arrived and been decoded as ‘Join Us.’ Now known as the Invitation, this message was not only received by humans, but by the trolls through their long call as well as the super intelligent Next. Groups from across the Long Earth gather to work out how to respond, or even if they should. A range of familiar characters play a role, from Joshua Valiente, now in his 60s, setting forth on another adventure to Nelson Azinkiwe, who discovers that he fathered a son during the events of The Long War and sets out to find him on the Traverser known as Second Person Singular.

The Long Cosmos is just as gentle and oddly relaxing as the previous books. This series is at its best when it’s a travelogue, pure worldbuilding as the authors take us through their strange and wonderful new worlds. Things begin to fall apart when actual plot is involved, with a story which never quite feels like a finale. It could be argued that the authors are simply being consistent with the rest of the series, but I think something more of a climax than this would have benefitted the book. The worldbuilding is damn good in this book too, with some of the weirdest and most magical stuff in the Long Earth held back for this book.

I never really grew to love any characters in this series, although I was rather fond of Lobsang, the Tibetan motorcycle repair man turned AI demi-god. He’s on good form here, as is Nelson Azikiwe, the intriguing priest and friend of Lobsang. Still, I can’t say I’m hugely going to miss many of these characters. The thing I will miss is never seeing any more weird and wonderful planets of the Long Earth.

The Long Cosmos is, in some ways, the perfect end to the series, summing up as it does both the strengths and the flaws of this odd little series. I never waited on bated breath for the next book, but always enjoyed them when I did read them. My pool of books to read with Terry Pratchett on the front is diminishing and that is utterly tragic.

 

 

The Widow’s House by Daniel Abraham

It’s getting harder and harder to review this series as they’ll all so slickly competent and just plain good it’s difficult to find much to say about them. The Widow’s House is the fourth and penultimate book in The Dagger and the Coin series and sets things up nicely for the final blow out.

The Widow’s House begins with the awakening of Inys, the dragon discovered by Marcus Wester and Master Kit at the end of The Tyrant’s Law. The supposed war of Antean aggression is simply a proxy for a much older conflict and Marcus Wester sets out to support the efforts against the expansion of Geder Palliako. Geder himself has been crushed by Cithrin’s rejection and turns the full force of Antean might to capturing her, convincing himself that she must be part of the fictional Timzinae conspiracy against him. Cithrin herself is hiding out in her old home of Porte Olivia, using her wiles and limited resources to prepare the city for the inevitable Antean siege. Finally, Clara Kalliam has left Camnipol to shadow the Antean army, led by her son Jorey, to continue as a ‘loyal traitor’, sending insider Antean information to Cithrin and the Medean Bank. The spider priests continue to spread and war looks set to enflame the world.

I’ve mentioned before about how well Abraham has avoided the middle of a series slump and The Widow’s House does not simply feel like table setting for the finale, although it does do that as well. The pace is as snappy as ever, with no time wasted on journeys when the destination is the interesting part. As I said above, with a book as well put together as this there just isn’t much to say. Abraham knows what he is doing and is an incredibly safe pair of hands.

The introduction of Inys is my favourite element of The Widow’s House. He’s a somewhat tragic and unsettling figure, but also at times very funny and oddly human. Abraham undercuts what we expect about the appearance of an ancient powerful dragon in interesting ways, without losing the mystique and epic feeling which a dragon provides. The core cast all carry on fine, with the most interesting development going to Cithrin. She is known as the cause of Geder Palliako’s rage, making her a hated figure to many. She’s come a long way from the scared child fleeing Vanai with the wealth of the Medean Bank. The Dagger and the Coin is boosted along by a good cast of PoV characters, none of which feel like a slog to get through.

The Widow’s House brings us almost to the end of a really good series of books. I’m looking forward to reading the final book and then looking into Abraham’s other works, although I am also reading his Expanse books in collaboration with Ty Franck.

Abaddon’s Gate by James S A Corey

Abaddon’s Gate is the third book in The Expanse and clearly represents a pivot in what the series is all about, shifting in an interesting new direction. Abaddon’s Gate is concerned with the pivot itself and in some ways feels awkwardly caught between what the series was and what it is going to become. That said, the quality of writing is strong enough that the flaws never stop this book being good fun.

After the events of Caliban’s War the protomolecule superstructure around Venus has transported itself to the orbit of Uranus, constructing itself into a vast gate with a mysterious starless void behind it. The arrival of ‘The Ring’ presents a crisis both practical and existential to the governments of Earth and Mars, as well as the OPA. All three major powers in the system send a group of ships to investigate. There are four point of view characters. The OPA have sent the Behemoth, a massive ship built from the salvaged Nauvoo, the Mormon ship which pushed Eros onto Venus in Leviathan Wakes. Bull is the head of security on the Behemoth and must keep the ship together under the leadership of an increasingly unstable captain. Anna Volovodov is a priest who has been chosen to join a delegation of cultural figures who have been sent to examine The Ring and what it might mean for humanity’s place in the universe. Melba Koh is an unstable and violent young woman who has hidden her true identity to get to The Ring and extract a personal vengeance at any cost. Finally, James Holden is back, being haunted by the protomolecule construction of Miller and avoiding The Ring at all costs. Events conspire him to bring the crew of the Rocinante there anyway and all four storylines collide and intertwine at The Ring.

Where Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War encompassed a variety of settings, Abaddon’s Gate is much more focused, taking place almost entirely at The Ring. Where previous books had multiple storylines which gradually converged, here all storylines are in the same rough place very early on. This means that Abaddon’s Gate feels a bit slower paced than the previous books. It hints at being the most epic of the series so far, but in the end it feels a bit smaller. There’s nothing wrong with turning towards being more focused, but considering the scales at play in the previous books Abaddon’s Gate doesn’t get quite as tense. It rattles along fairly well, but a fair bit of this book feels like stalling before we get to the interesting place the next book seems to be headed.

The two authors remain very good at straightforward, compelling and readable prose. The world building is less interesting by the simple fact that it primarily takes place on space ships, without the interesting sojourns onto planets or space stations. The setting doesn’t quite come alive and this make the closing action beats feel a little hollow. The good prose helps carry the, at times, slow pace of the storytelling.

All three of the new characters are interesting and good to follow, but I think it’s fair to say that none of them appealed to me as much as Bobbie and Avasarala from Caliban’s War, two characters who do not appear in this book and that I missed greatly. Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are as charming as ever, although I would have liked to see more of them spending time together. The easy relationship between the crew is a joy. I liked the priest Anna a lot, but Bull is a bit straightforward and I never really bought Melba’s motivation. They’re decent characters, but I can’t say that I’m left clamouring to see more of them.
This review likely reads quite negative, but that’s largely because the positives are simply those elements which build on the strengths of the first two books. There isn’t much to say about them that I haven’t previously. Abaddon’s Gate is a good book and an enjoyable read, but I hope that Abrahams and Franck do justice to the compelling place at which this book is left off. This may not be the strongest book in the series, but it sure as hell isn’t weak enough to make me want to stop.

Gods of Risk by James S A Corey

After taking a break to tackle new Malazan and First Law books, it’s time to head back into The Expanse. As I did for Caliban’s War, I decided to work up to book 3, Abaddon’s Gate, by reading one of the novellas. Gods of Risk is a much more substantial read than The Butcher of Anderson Station: I enjoyed it very much.

Gods of Risk takes place on Mars, a location we haven’t actually been to yet in the main series. David Draper is the cousin of Bobbie Draper, the marine who teamed up with Avasarala in Caliban’s War, who is now living with her family to recuperate from her PTSD. David is a talented scientist with a bright future ahead of him furthering the growth of Mars. He is also synthesising drugs and selling them to a brutal dealer to earn a little extra cash. It isn’t long before his worlds collide and David comes to understand the brutal Martian criminal underworld.

Novellas in an established setting, which tie into a series of novels, can feel a bit unsatisfying; I referred to some of the stories in Abercrombie’s Sharp Ends as ‘deleted scenes’. The Butcher of Anderson Station was a bit like this, but Gods of Risk certainly isn’t. It tells a neat, tidy, self-contained story and just so happens to include a character from another novel in a supporting role. The main two novels of the series so far have both dealt with the highest stakes imaginable; the extinction of humanity. Gods of Risk shows that the authors are just as capable of playing with lower, more personal stakes, with this novella feeling remarkably tense throughout. There are no major surprises or twists, but it all rollicks along at a nice pace whilst not forgetting to develop its characters.

Gods of Risk is a much more ‘essential’ read than The Butcher of Anderson Station, particularly if you liked Bobbie in Caliban’s War. I read it as a warm up for the next main novel but ended up really enjoying it in its own right. Next up Abaddon’s Gate!

James S. A. Corey – Gods of Risk

Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie

I don’t think Joe Abercrombie really gets enough credit. In a relatively short space of time he’s published 9 novels and all of them have been great, some of them genuinely outstanding. I really liked the Shattered Sea books, but I’ve been looking forward to seeing him get back to the world of the First Law. Sharp Ends, a collection of short stories set in the world of the First Law, doesn’t quite scratch the itch, at times feeling like a collection of deleted scenes, but it sure as hell does whet the appetite for more.

Some of the stories in Sharp Ends follow major and minor characters from the First Law, such as an insight into the pre-torture Sand dan Glokta, or an insight into the earlier lives of Bethod and Logen Ninefingers. The best stories however follow a pair of new characters, Styrian thief Shev and a hulking warrior priestess on the run from her sisters: Javre, the Lioness of Hoskopp. They cross over with other characters from the earlier books, but they stand much better on their own. The stories span a significant range of time, from a decade before The Blade Itself to following the aftermath of Red Country.

Some of the stories which shed a light on the other sides of the novels are interesting, particularly one which follows the collateral damage of Monza Murcatto during her bloody vengeance in Best Served Cold. Some of them feel a bit inessential, being basically little fun slices following familiar characters which don’t exactly stand on their own. That means that the most substantial feeling are those following Shev and Javre. In fact, I would love to read an entire comic fantasy novel following those two. Abercrombie has a greater gift for comedy than many others in modern fantasy and I would love to see him write a full on black comedy, rather than a tragedy with comic elements that has usually been his forte.

Normally I review each story in a collection separately, but I have a job dammit and no time to do so. I can only give a vague big picture overview and that is to say that Sharp Ends is a great collection, one which leaves me hungry to see more of the First Law. Abercrombie is a unique writer in the modern fantasy scene. He’s often classed as cynical, but I think that’s a bit of an oversimplification. Sure, Abercrombie’s characters often revel in their basest impulses and desires, but many are unified by a genuine desire to be better. They don’t always succeed, in fact they usually don’t, but that desire to be better is the interesting part. That doesn’t sound very cynical to me. I’ve read everything Abercrombie’s ever published and don’t plan to stop any time soon.

Fall of Light by Steven Erikson

I decided recently that the Malazan series is the Dark Souls of books. Comparing everything to Dark Souls is popular at the moment so I thought I’d get in on the action. The comparison seems apt to me though; both are challenging and dense with a steep barrier to entry. However, if you persevere there comes a moment that clicks and it becomes the best thing ever. My relationship to the Malazan series borders on the fanatical, so the last four years between Steven Erikson Malazan books has been hard. Fall of Light is a dense, complex sequel to the dense, complex Forge of Darkness. In the earlier chapters it can be a bit of a slog, but as things went on I found myself bowled over all again by the ambition on display here.

Fall of Light follows two storylines. The first is the Tiste civil war; the race is now split into two, the Andii and the Liosan. The army of Vatha Urusander, newly crowned Father Light, is marching on Kharkanas to wed him to Mother Dark. Urusander’s control over his Legion is weak, with the brutal drunk Hunn Raal committing atrocities in his name. Mother Dark is ensconced in a strange realm with the consort Draconus and war seems inevitable. The obvious Andii leader for the resistance to the Liosan, Anomander Rake, the First Son of Darkness, is indisposed journeying Kurald Galain to find his brother Andarist. The third Purake sibling, the brash albino Silchas Ruin is left in charge of mustering the defence of Kharkanas. This storyline flits between three factions; the Andii loyalists, the Liosan rebels and a loose group combined of the Shake and the Deniers, those who worship the ancient spirits of Kurald Galain rather than Mother Dark. The other half of the book follows Hood’s war on death following the murder of his wife at the hands of Errastas and Sechul Lath. Far to the west, a loose army of Jaghut, Thel Akai, Jheleck and many others has gathered to wage the ultimate war. Alongside all this, magic has been loosed unto the world by K’rul, beginning to blur the boundary between mortal and god. Finally, a rent into Starvald Demelain has unleashed the Eleint, dragons, upon the world, bringing on an ancient and terrifying power not seen for an age.

Obviously, there’s a staggering amount going on in Fall of Light. Forge of Darkness touched on wider elements of the Malazan world, but the focus was very clearly on the Tiste. Fall of Light broadens the scope and in fact covers huge swathes of how the Malazan world came to be, from the introduction of the Warrens, the nature of the Azath to the origins of the Imass and Toblakai races. Fall of Light perhaps covers a little bit too much ground, particularly after the recent release of Ian Cameron Esslemont’s much more focused Dancer’s Lament. Don’t get me wrong, the ambition is what makes this series so special, but at times it feels like pretty much every Tiste in Kurald Galain gets a PoV at some point. Early on, the writing feels bogged down in the lengthy discussions of philosophy. This is a classic Erikson trope, but one he can sometimes do great things with. The problem is that when every character, from the noble highborn poet to the court historian to the hardened guerrilla warrior pontificates at length it can make them feel indistinct and makes some characters blur into one.

Erikson in fact does this much better with the Jaghut, particularly with Gothos, a much heard from but not much seen figure in the main series. We finally get a good indication of what he’s all about and the ramifications for Jaghut civilisation and it’s actually pretty fascinating. In fact, civilisation could easily be named the core theme of this novel, with the question as to whether a society built on the subjugation of the wild and the killing of enemies can ever really call itself civilised. The Tiste and Jaghut are implicitly compared; the Jaghut abandoned civilisation and live in relative isolation, nonetheless often filled with joy and laughter when they do come together. The Tiste hold the pretence of civilisation but are plunging themselves into a pointless and violent civil war.

These ideas are expressed when allowed to come through organically, through action and story and dialogue rather than the didactic approach Erikson favours in the earlier chapters. That said, patience is rewarded and it isn’t long until Fall of Light unfolds into one of Erikson’s most dazzling, ambitious works yet. Not all of his vast numbers of storyline hit, but the majority do. This series has often been labelled ‘Shakespearean’, which I’m not sure if this is a term which means a whole lot. One area where this may apply is in the grand notions of tragedy and melancholy which can suffuse the book as well as moments of supreme joy. The comic moments are generally found away from the Tiste (although possibly the funniest line of the novel takes place in the Liosan camp) and focus on the Jaghut and Thel Akai. A somewhat bizarre storyline is a sexual farce between a group of young Thel Akai, centred around the beautiful polygamous Lasa Rook. I found it hilarious personally and there are plenty of moments like that.

In a way, love is at the core of this novel. The controversial love between Draconus and Mother Dark, the fraternal love between the Jaghut, the twisted and obsessive love of Sandalath Drukorlat for her son Orfantal and, most moving to me, Hood’s love for his murdered wife which is so strong that he declares war on death itself. There’s a grandeur to Fall of Light which is paired with time given to the intimate, to humanising characters who are closer to Gods. In the Malazan world, everyone suffers, everyone hurts and everyone feels. The characters of Fall of Light are driven by emotion and feeling rather than cold reason and that it what makes it so special. Characters which seem stoic, such as Anomander Rake and Caladan Brood are in fact deeply emotional and tormented figures. It is this focus on grand emotion which makes Erikson so special and Fall of Light does this incredibly well.

Fall of Light isn’t a perfect book; it has a slow opening and can be too didactic, but it is a staggeringly ambitious and moving piece of work. It hits all the important prequel beats, with some incredibly fan pleasing references and cameo appearances from fan favourite characters and fascinating insights into the Malazan world. Most importantly though, it is a book of deep feeling and coherent narrative themes. Steven Erikson definitely isn’t the easiest fantasy author to read, but he may be the most rewarding.