Customer Reviews

Das Spiel der Götter, No. 3: Im Bann der Wüste

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The third book of Steve Erikson's Malazan series picks up where the first book left off. The Empress Laseen has outlawed Whiskyjack, the Bridgeburners, and Dujek Onearm after their failure to capture the jeweled city of Darujistan. The seasoned soldiers are not long out of work. On the continent of Genabackis there is word of a terrifying new threat. A deranged prophet known as the Pannion Seer is on the march with a massive army of powerful mages, undead lethal warriors and thousands of cannibalistic zealots. He has set his sights on the city of Capustan to conquer the city and for its citizens to serve as food for his ravening hordes.
Realizing that the city's lone defenders, The Grey Swords, are woefully outmatched, Whiskeyjack and Dujek offer assistance. Because there are other more powerful forces propelling the Pannion, former enemies of the Malazans also offer alliance. The Warlord Caladan Brood and the mysterious Tiste Andii Anomander Rake march with WhiskeyJack and Dujek to Capustan amidst an uneasy truce.

In the midst of this, the child, Silverfox is aging at a rapid rate as she attempts to fulfill her destiny. Ganoes Paran learns the price of having walked within the sword Dragnipur, a tribe is reunited with their Gods, an ancient wrong is righted, ordinary people become heroic, heroes are shown that they are all too human and a mortal man attempts to save a God.

Right from the start in the first book where we are plopped in the middle of a devastating war and see a young girl possessed with the spirit of a deadly assassin, we are immediately wrapped up in the lives and fortunes of a great many interesting people. There is Whiskeyjack the beloved leader, who is weary of war and politics. There is Tattersail the clever mage whose reincarnation comes at a devastating price. There is Ganoes Paran , once a pawn to be played, becomes a master of the game. There is the fat, affable Kruppe who confounds everyone he meets. There is the mysterious (and wonderfully monikered) Anomander Rake, who has untold powers and hinted at sorrow. There is Empress Laseen, who may not be as evil as we think. And there is Quick Ben, who has many surprises up his sleeve.

Although the subject matter of bloody, horrible war (along with rape, torture, cannibalism and possible world destruction) can be quite heavy, there are still glimpses of humor and wonder in his writing. I like the world he has built. I like the deep history that we learn as the stories progress. I like the idea of the Deck of Dragons where the hierarchy of Gods manifests itself in a deck of cards. And I especially like the fact that while I am pretty sure whom to root for, I am not always sure whom I should root against. Even the seemingly unsympathetic characters seem to have good reasons to do what they do.

While I did read the books in order, I found that I actually had to go back and reread the first book in order to bring myself up to speed for this third one. The second book takes a bit of a detour and, rather than picking up right where the first book left off, it instead follows the story of Ganoes Paran's sister, Felisin and her travels in the deserts of the Seven Cities. While this was a bit of interruption in the action, it does whet the appetite for the eventual reunion of the two siblings both of whom have undergone both physical and metaphysical changes.

I've read fantasy for over 20 years. From Tolkien to Brooks...from Moorcock to Guy Gavriel Kay...from Jordan to Keyes. This series, which does owe a bit to Glen Cook's series (but not a ripoff at all like Goodkind to Jordan's series)...this book starts where Gardens of the Moon (book 1) leaves off. Paran, the Bridgeburners, Quick Ben, Kruppe, Anomander Rake, Whiskeyjack...they all play big parts as they begin to set off to the new threat of the Pannion Seer. New allies come onboard...the Grey Swords...the Barghast White Faces....but with much cost and their own issues. This is not your grandfather's fairy tale...these are adults with issues and flaws which affect others. This is not a happy tale. This is a tale of war, battles, victories, defeats, mayhem, and honor. This is Platoon meeting Fantasy. Told from the warriors. Gods are humanlike and falliable...playing their games, but also very flawed and power-hungry, themselves. In a time where we are in a place of uncertainity with terrorism and a world at large that is out of control, this series carries great power, insight and a realism that most fantasy books lack, or can't even touch. These are complex characters, with complex thoughts, and not always laid out for you like a connect-the-dots. And BOOK 3 is a fantastic over 1000 pg. tome that simply redefines the genre itself.


Other good books:
Tigana: Guy Gavriel Kay
The Barbed Coil: J.V. Jones

In Gardens of the Moon, the world of the Malazans was unfurled and the daunting potential of Steven Erikson became evident.

In Deadhouse Gates, book two of the series, the inimitable Chain of Dogs with Coltaine wrought and forged the universe into the fantasy series history books.

With Memories of Ice, amazingly, dazzingly, wondefully, Steven Erikson has bested the first two books in the series. Perhaps, as a whole, better than the first two combined (but (admittedly) with singular event better than the closure of Coltaine's march).

Back are Ganoes Paran (my favorite), Whiskeyjack and Korlat and Anomanader Rake, Dujek and Quick Ben and Mallet and Troc. Introduced are Itkovian and Gruntle and Stonny and Anaster and the Pannion Seer. Additionally greater (much Greater) depth is given to the conflict between the Jaghut and T'lan Imass and the Tiste Andii (with a little mentioned of the the Tiste Edur).

The book, as is Erikson's hallmark, has a bitter end with several not-insignificant characters dying. However, the tale holds together well. Very well.

The bottom line: A classic series is expanded. The whole of literature is the better for it.

[note: approximately 150 words cut from review due to Amazon length requirements.]

Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice (Bantam, 2001)

That a book makes me cry is something of a rarity, despite the fact that movies make me cry at roughly the drop of a hat (one of the reasons I usually avoid chick flicks). That a book makes me cry for fifty solid pages? Unheard of.

Memories of Ice is the third novel in Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, which is already a major player in the current field of high-fantasy epic series. That's saying something, because that field is probably more crowded than it has ever been, and with that much more being published, an author has to do a whole lot more to write something truly exceptional. In Steven Erikson's case, he's focused on two aspects of Tolkein that have been sadly neglected in most fantasy writing since-- martial writing and the gritty detail of worldbuilding. Post-Tolkein martial writing in fantasy languished for a number of years before finding a worthy outlet in Elizabeth Moon. I'd hoped that we'd get some really good stuff after that, but Moon started writing more science fiction, where there's always been more good stuff on troop movements, and it disappeared for a while. Erikson has revived it, and on a far wider scale than either Moon or, indeed, Tolkein ever imagined it. Sure, anyone who writes sword-and-sorcery stuff that involves fighting has to do some martial writing, but comparing most authors' battle writing (including such greats as George R. R. Martin) to Erikson's is like comparing a level 1 wizard with a dagger fighting a kobold in Dungeons and Dragons to an all-out epic-level "we need eighty more boxes of miniatures for this..." battle in Chainmail. They both have their place, but for grandeur, there's no comparison.

As for the world-building, again, everyone does it. You have to. And most people will throw in an odd detail or three to make you sure that this isn't, in fact, an alternate Earth (unless you are the aforementioned Martin, whose epic does, in fact, take place on an alternate Earth). What Erikson has done with this series is impressive; about the only things his world has in common with Earth is that they both have ground, water, and air, and you may question even those assumptions a time or two. This is a world that is, for all intents and purposes, utterly alien, and with overwhelming amounts of complex detail, and yet Erikson has written it all in such a way that the reader will be able to get it all figured out in his head for too long.

Here I'm going on about the brilliance of the whole series, rather than this book. Deadhouse Gates, the second book in the series, was a brief diversion from the continent of Genabackis and the exploits of the Bridgeburners. Memories of Ice picks up where the first book, Gardens of the Moon, left off, and the timelines of the two books run concurrently. This time, the Bridgeburners are fighting the Pannion Domin, a tyrannical empire looming up from the south who seem unstoppable. In order to do so, they have to ally with their enemies from Gardens of the Moon, Anomander Rake and his pal Caladan Brood, as well as gathering as many allies from the surrounding areas as possible. Needless to say, though, there are machinations within machinations, and both allies and enemies are cropping up where the Bridgeburners never expected to find them.

Unlike the first two books in the series, Memories of Ice gets a faster start, and is more readable from the get-go, but it's still a pretty slow starter. Erikson is obviously happiest when he's writing big battles, and fully the latter half of this nine-hundred-page doorstop is taken up with descriptions of two battles and their surrounding events. Despite us having a number of old friends to look forward to seeing again, there are a number of new characters we need introduced to, and we get them in the first hundred fifty pages or so, along with some reacquainting of ourselves with the Bridgeburners still on Genabackis, Anomander Rake, Kruppe, and the rest of the bunch. Everyone eventually sets off for Capustan to stop the Pannion Domin in its tracks, and once again, as with the first two books, when the swords start swinging and the cussers start blasting, you will forego food and sleep to find out what happens next.

It's about as good as Deadhouse Gates, and I had intended to give it the same rating until I got to the last chapter. The last battle has been fought, and all the loose ends are being tied up, but it's the way in which Erikson ties them up that's so stunning. He'd already given new meaning to the phrase "kill your darlings," laid the groundwork for the next two books (House of Chains and Midnight Tides are both presaged here) at least, destroyed a couple of major cities, etc. What more can the man do? In short, wraps things up, and in Memories of Ice, he does so with the same spirit and depth that infuses his martial writing. These are characters with whom we've spent, in some cases, upwards of sixteen hundred pages, though the most poignant passages in the wrap-up here occur with characters we've met just in this novel. It is testament to Erikson's ability to characterize that a reader can empathize so deeply with Erikson's characters, despite so much of the book taking place on so massive a scale.

This is an amazing novel in an amazing series. If you're a fan of fantasy-- and even if you're not-- and you haven't given Steven Erikson's Malazan books a try yet, you're doing yourself a disservice. This one will easily be on my ten-best list this year. *****

After 2 reads and a good number of quick skims through this book I still find it hard to explain exactly why it is one of the best I've ever read. As a great fantasy series this book has it all: It has an amazing cast of characters all in shades of grey, there is a great web of plots and sub plots intertwined and tangled from over three hundred thousand years of wars, dictatorships, genocide and alliances. And for such a hard, gritty and - some may say - dark world, humour regularly and unexpectedly shines through. The Malazan world has so many different races, species and cultures with each having a unique history of losses, great triumphs, kindness and unspeakable acts of cruelty. But every act carried out by a civilisation or person has a good chance of being remembered and there will always be those who seek atonement, revenge or simply comfort. Welcome back to the Malazan world, but there is so much more.

Memories of Ice continues with the stories of most of the characters from Gardens of the moon. Welcome back Kuppe, Paran, Rake, Quick Ben, Tool and others, there are also a number of new faces such as caravan guards Gruntle and Stonny, Lady Envy and the mercenary company called the Grey swords. The main story is centred on the expansion of the Pannion Domain, a newly formed empire which has devoured its neighbours and poses a great threat to the continent of Genabakis. But the horror is that citizens of defeated cities are actually eaten by the armies of the Pannion seer as human flesh is the reward for conquest. In light of this threat Dudek Onearm's host has formed a fragile alliance with Anomander Rake and Caladan Brood to snuff out the Seer before it all gets out of control. The Pannion's starving armies are marching upon Capustan and everyone knows that defending Grey Swords are far too few to hold the city.

Once again Erikson's writing is of the highest calibre, his descriptions are vivid and the action is well paced. There are no info dumps and the revelations are spread thought the book, so don't think that mysteries, dreams or even the chapter prologues are just filler as their importance will probably be revealed in later books (I found out). Even with all the super-beings running amok wielding enough power to flatten cities, Erikson tends to focus on the more human desires and fears of each character making them unique and easy to understand. While all aspects of Erikson's writing are top notch, it is the grand plot unfolding that really sets him above the rest. And finally after 2 books with only hints, we get a glimpse of the great plots, the undercurrents that push the story along. So for those who have followed the complex subplots, this book will be nothing short of astounding.

Deadhouse Gate has a similar subplot but it is not as pronounced as in Memories of Ice. While every character in this book has a good reason or motive to join in the fray, the origin is much deeper and darker than an ordinary war would warrant. Started long before humans, crimes of the highest degree and painful mistakes have caused much suffering and even though the world has moved on, those memories remain. The rich history of the Malazan world rages to the surface and we find that this is not simply the story of an expanding empire. The ancient yearning for redemption and revenge draws old powers and creates new ones, and the inevitable convergence will shatter any illusions of triumph as each party counts its losses.

The term `Epic Fantasy' has been ridiculed of late by the sheer number of appalling offerings that have flooded the market. So it is great to see new standards being set and also a good reminder of what to expect from a true master of epic fantasy.