Customer Reviews

The Lees of Laughter's End

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

 

 

"The Lees of Laughter's End" is a novella by Malazan Series author Steven Erikson. The book is 120 pages in length.

The story...*SPOILER*

The seaworthy vessel, 'Suncurl' has left the seedy coastal town of Lamentable Moll (gotta love the name) on a run to through the treacherous waters known as the Lees of Laughter's End. This is a trip fraught with dangers at the best of time but one in which the well seasoned captain and skanky crew would normally prevail. However this time, not only are they being pursued, but they've taken on some mysterious cargo and three suspicious travelers; those being the necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach and their manservant Emancipor Reese...the result might be best described by a line from a Gordon Lightfoot song 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald'..."does anyone know where the love of God goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours".

*END SPOILER*

This is the third short volume involving the dynamic duo of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach and once again Steven Erikson has produced a minor masterpiece. Anyone familiar with Erikson's nine (soon to be ten) books of "The Malazan Book of the Fallen" series, will be somewhat accustomed to the strange names and place.

I've almost begun to believe that Erikson's true strength in writing is in these short stories that simply rivet the reader from beginning to end. The action is non-stop and unpredictable; at one moment horrific...the next slapstick funny. The characters are reprobates of the worst sort who'd sell their own mother (or your mother for that matter) without batting an eye. Where backstabbing and clandestine plotting are not only a way of life but almost an art form. Only this time they find themselves just a tad over-matched.

Conclusion:
Erikson is at his best. I suspect there will be those who will bristle at the price of this small hardcover book, but I won't be one of them...it's worth every penny. 5 Stars.

Ray Nicholson

You must be a fan of the Malazan tales to have any appreciation for this little story. It's a quick read and is the sequal to BLOOD FOLLOWS. I'm not really sure if anyone survives this odd adventure so there will probably be a third volume forthcoming to let us know just what the hell happened. The two stories are no where near as entertaining as any single volume in The Malazan Books Of The Fallen and not meant to be. Bauchlain & Korbal Broach are not on my list of interesting characters from those volumes so it's a mystery to me why Mr. Erikson chose them for our entertainment. I guess their gruesome ways must somehow be interesting to some of us. So I'd say give them a try when you run out of the other Malazan tales. They will maybe ease the wait for the next volume? roee

Great short stories are hard to pull together in the strictest confines of the discipline. One must juggle different elements than a pure novelist does: read it in an hour, get full plot development, flesh out characters, deliver a nice little zinger at the end. The field of authors who can actually do this (and that I have read) is very short: EA Poe, HP Lovecraft, RE Howard, CA Smith, PK Dick, Cordwainer Smith. The common thread being that great short story writers typically only write short stories. The twist here being, you have to have read several thousand pages of the Malazan Empire Books to even run into these guys: Bauchelain & Korbal Broach. Strictly speaking, these little treats are awesome for the lucky folks who have read Steven Erikson's books. For the uninitiated, you will miss out on some of the deeper threads being expanded on in the story.

I don't know how any writer can string words together the way Erikson does. These stories are campy, gorey horror mixed with Abbot and Costello Who's on First. Look for Bauchelain and Korbal Broach , Three short Novels of the Malazan Empire, Volume One. Fun reading in between the Malazan Empire big novels.Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: Three Short Novels of the Malazan Empire, Volume One (Malazan Empire Novels)

"The Lees of Laughter's End" was a gift that was requested and and received with pleasure and anticipation of reading.