The Bonehunters (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 6) (Hardcover)

by Steven Erikson (Author)
Key Phrases: high mage, red blades, crippled god, Samar Dev, Seven Cities, Karsa Orlong (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The weighty and grim sixth installment of Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen (chronologically following 2006's House of Chains, with references to 2007 tie-in Midnight Tides) is named for a newly minted company in the Malazan 14th Army, forged in a daring and nearly fatal effort to escape a city destroyed by fire by burrowing through its skeletal underbelly. The Bonehunters' return from the dead is a theme that appears throughout this volume, as the prophetess Sha'ik dies and is reborn as a plague maiden, warriors recover from hideous wounds, and seer Ganoes Paran strikes a bargain with the dread god Hood that just might end up saving the world. Erikson brings the bulk of his enormous cast together in one volume for the first time, an effort designed to keep fans engaged as myriad plot lines tangle and sprawl over an increasingly bleak and war-ravaged landscape. (Sept.)
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From Booklist
The fourth Malazan Book of the Fallen is aptly titled. The Malazan 14th Army warily combs the ruins of the Seven Cities Rebellion for what may be left of its dead, meanwhile straining what's left of its morale. The Crippled God has joined the pantheon, and at least half his numerous fellow deities are trying to expel him. A war of the gods impends, and while it will cost the usual high price in collateral damage among humans, Erikson will handle it with originality and strong impact, given that even the sympathetic characters are becoming people you wouldn't want holding your IOUs. Green, Roland

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 800 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (September 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765310066
• ISBN-13: 978-0765310064
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.7 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #318,230 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 6 in The Malazan Book of the Fallen Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 Stars, actually. Great but flawed., March 21, 2007

By	Brian D. Gallof "B. D. Gallof" (New York City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 6) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book was actually delayed for over 6 months when it was to come out in the UK and Canada..."to make maps" it was said. More like it needed some re-edits to be more coherent...and that struggle still shows. Erikson, at times, seems to shovel with glee great heaps of info while losing the gist and flow of his novel. He twists and turns the plot and adds characters, sometimes at the great loss of other stories....notions, which his series brim with, get lost between startling developments, plot points, and abrupt dialogue. Perhaps he reading to much his own Malazan forums, and losing plot and going for the "Erikson effect". Or he's just struggling on the immense scale and proportions that his books reach.

All this said, one only has to read the drivel that Jordan and Goodkind pound out to appreciate Erikson, despite those aforementioned flaws. In one chapter of Bonehunters, the plot moves faster than the last 4 books of Jordan. In one scene between Kalam and Quick Ben, more savage wit and interest is generated than the entire David Eddings library. You will be hard-pressed to find more interesting characters, diabolical plans, blood flow, glory and guts in anything in the fantasy section. Erikson's Malazan series goes to places that J. K. Rowling can only allude to...the heart of darkness. And there is stays and finds new areas and ideas.

Bonehunters is a great book, though at times, hard to follow. If Erikson had a better Editor, he would be better served. Erikson needs to clean up his style just a tad...but there is no doubt that his characters and plot still brim with the greatness that makes this series lightyears ahead of anything else out there.

Bonehunters does one great service, however, and that is to remind everyone that Ganoes Paran is still the very center of this book series, and the Master of the Deck of Dragons could be the very fulcrum of the pitched fall of the Malazan Empire. His return to the main plot, as well as Fiddler, Quick Ben and Kalam, help return the reader to the best Erikson does...dialogue, wit, irony and mischief.

Bonehunters is the return to the Fantasy war that made Gardens of the Moon, Memories of Ice, and House of Chains great tomes to this series. It is slightly below their level b/c of it's flaws, but the end chapters really reclaim a lot that was lost earlier in the novel. And, the characters still crackle off the pages. Memorable characters are always a constant to great fantasy...yet Erikson has a calvacade, each one grand, tragic, hilarious, and brutal.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not quite as good as Midnight Tides, but still excellent., December 20, 2007

By	Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Steven Erikson, The Bonehunters (Tor, 2007)

Erikson weighs in with the sixth full-length novel (of a projected ten) in the huge Malazan Book of the Fallen series. We're now over halfway into the story, and as is to be expected, the ends of all these many threads start getting tied up. As much as I adore these books, I have to admit that Erikson's switching back and forth between storylines for a thousand pages at a time did get on my nerves a bit (and this is probably why my favorite books in the series have been the odd-numbered volumes), and seeing these plot threads getting woven together in one book is very welcome. That said, Erikson's social consciousness has never been closer to the surface than it is here; while he's successful in keeping everything within the bounds of the story here (unlike, say, Goodkind's Sword of Truth series from book eight onwards), one wonders if he'll be able to keep up the pace.

While there are many, many plot threads wandering through the book, the main thread that haunts most of the characters we meet is one of historical revisionism. (The second main thread has to do with the two unkillable characters we've met-- Icarium and Karsa Orlong-- and what is revealed as their fate. I'm surprised I didn't see this coming about halfway through Midnight Tides.) There are two major pieces of revisionism that happen here. The first concerns the Fourteenth Army, which was banded together after the Chain of Dogs and the massacre at Aren (in Deadhouse Gates, way back in book two) in order to go after the Army of Sha'ik (the confrontation we saw in House of Chains). With Sha'ik's army destroyed, and indeed the desert Raraku turned into a sea, the last vestiges of the rebellion, led by Shaik's right-hand man, Leoman of the Flails, flees the Fourteenth towards Y'Ghatan, a legendary stronghold said to have been the death of Dassem Ultor, the first great hero of the Malazan Empire. Adjunct Tavore is still looked upon with suspicion-- is she as much a leader as was Dassem Ultor? This is only part of the problem, though-- the second piece of history-revising is much larger in scope, and concerns the entire Chain of Dogs. It's possible that this particular plot-thread will be the most important we've come across so far; it certainly seems to be leading to events which could, in Erikson's wonderful writing, take us through four more doorstop-sized novels.

A few characters from earlier novels are conspicuous in their absence (especially Bauchelain and Korbal Broach), but despite the book being eight hundred pages long, there's more than enough for the dedicated Malazan fan to occupy his or her time here. Erikson's writing is as wonderful as always. If you haven't found your way into this series yet, I can't recommend it highly enough. ****

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 Stars, actually. Great but flawed., March 21, 2007

By	Brian D. Gallof "B. D. Gallof" (New York City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was actually delayed for over 6 months when it was to come out in the UK and Canada..."to make maps" it was said. More like it needed some re-edits to be more coherent...and that struggle still shows. Erikson, at times, seems to shovel with glee great heaps of info while losing the gist and flow of his novel. He twists and turns the plot and adds characters, sometimes at the great loss of other stories....notions, which his series brim with, get lost between startling developments, plot points, and abrupt dialogue. Perhaps he reading to much his own Malazan forums, and losing plot and going for the "Erikson effect". Or he's just struggling on the immense scale and proportions that his books reach.

All this said, one only has to read the drivel that Jordan and Goodkind pound out to appreciate Erikson, despite those aforementioned flaws. In one chapter of Bonehunters, the plot moves faster than the last 4 books of Jordan. In one scene between Kalam and Quick Ben, more savage wit and interest is generated than the entire David Eddings library. You will be hard-pressed to find more interesting characters, diabolical plans, blood flow, glory and guts in anything in the fantasy section. Erikson's Malazan series goes to places that J. K. Rowling can only allude to...the heart of darkness. And there is stays and finds new areas and ideas.

Bonehunters is a great book, though at times, hard to follow. If Erikson had a better Editor, he would be better served. Erikson needs to clean up his style just a tad...but there is no doubt that his characters and plot still brim with the greatness that makes this series lightyears ahead of anything else out there.

Bonehunters does one great service, however, and that is to remind everyone that Ganoes Paran is still the very center of this book series, and the Master of the Deck of Dragons could be the very fulcrum of the pitched fall of the Malazan Empire. His return to the main plot, as well as Fiddler, Quick Ben and Kalam, help return the reader to the best Erikson does...dialogue, wit, irony and mischief.

Bonehunters is the return to the Fantasy war that made Gardens of the Moon, Memories of Ice, and House of Chains great tomes to this series. It is slightly below their level b/c of it's flaws, but the end chapters really reclaim a lot that was lost earlier in the novel. And, the characters still crackle off the pages. Memorable characters are always a constant to great fantasy...yet Erikson has a calvacade, each one grand, tragic, hilarious, and brutal.