Malazan Book of the Fallen II

So back when I first started writing this blog I wrote a very long entry on My appreciation for the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson. At that point I had only read half way through book 3 out of 10 and I am now on book 5 so I thought I would update it a little bit.

*warning possible spoilers* (I will try to be vague in an attempt not to ruin it for people wanting to read it)

But yes! I have just finished the 4th book (House of Chains) and I would mostly like to write about that one. So far in the series you have mostly been following the Malazan Empire or at least the Malazan armies, and a little bit on the enemies, but not much, just enough for you to get an idea of what they are up against. This changes however in House of Chains as you follow a character called Karsa Orlong, a young yet mighty warrior. You journey with Karsa as he grows from an arrogant youth to a wise and scarred man, and I don't know about other readers but I personally became very attached to him. (*spoiler*) It came as shock then to discover that we had already met this character before in Book 2 (Deadhouse Gates) and he is very aggressive towards another character that I am deeply fond of, and he also forms a strong part of the rebellion against the Malazan Empire. Also despite his personal strives against this role he is being formed into one of the (this might sound stupid but eh trying to avoid giving everything away but probably failing miserably) 'big baddy's' main people...

(One person's idea of what Karsa Orlong would look like, drawn by merlkir on Deviant Art )

This came as a shock and I have to say I was distraught that a character I had watched grow and become very fond of was possibly one of the main enemies against the other characters. On the other hand I think it is a very clever tactic of Erikson. Not only is he drawing you into the lives of the people from the Malazan empire, those you would automatically assume were the 'good guys' (as they were the ones you were reading about) but he then throws you a curve ball by showing the other side of the battle. Erikson continues this by showing the two opposing sides of Sha'ik's rebellion and you follow the two armies up until the final conflict. This could be seen as possibly over complicating the story, but the guy has written 10 novels, he is allowed to complicate things because (assumably) he has enough room to explain everything afterwards.

So yes, 5 books in and I am still very much enjoying these books. :)