Sara's reading log

I am a book hoarder and reader. My main genre is SF, but I also love magic realism, fantasy and general fiction. Favorite authors are Iain M. Banks, Ursula K. LeGuin, Haruki Murakami, José Saramago, Isaac Asimov, Ben Aaronovitch and more. My rating system is based on five stars. I rate books based on my expectations and what a books aims to be. This means that the brilliant 'Fahrenheit 451' gets five stars because I thought it would be good, people said it was good, and it was good, but 'A Closed and Common Orbit' also gets five stars because in its series, in its style, I really enjoyed it and was not disappointed.

The Crippled God by Steven Erikson & Steve Rune Lundin

  • Started on: 2013-10-23
  • Finished on: 2013-10-27
  • Read in: English
  • Rating: *****
  • Genre(s): Fantasy

The Malazan Book of the Fallen is an epic series, both in page count and in story line. I guesstimate it’s about 15.000 pages in my paperback editions, with many story lines, a lot of land covered, many characters, many gods, many people, and in the end it mostly comes down to one war, one battle, one goal. That’s what Steven Erikson and we, his readers, have been working towards. And while I am sure he knew what he was doing when he wrote this book, I am not sure that I know how to write a review for part 10 of this epic series, and for this series as a whole.
In this book most of it all comes together. Adjunct Tavore and her Bonehunters, the K’Chain Che’Malle, the Imass, the Forkrul Assail, the Tiste races, the Eleint. Of course the major focus of just about everybody is The Crippled God. The question is, for both the reader and some of the characters, is he evil and should be destroyed, or good and should be rescued. With Erikson you never know.
There is no way I can make a summary of this book. It would turn out to be a “and then that happened, and then that happened” type story, because just so much happened. I could not put this book down, which for me meant that is was a fitting conclusion to a series I just loved. I can’t say I am quite sure what happened in the end (but luckily reading online about the book shows that many people are left with the same questions as me). But these are good questions. They aren’t open-ended story lines, instead they show that with the world Erikson creates, as within our own world, nothing, no people, no person, no god, is ever truly good or evil. I am so glad this series was recommended to me, and I am glad this was my ‘project’ series for this year (I tried to commit to reading one part every month). Epic, fantastic, just great. Five out of five stars.

  • Started on: 2013-10-23
  • Finished on: 2013-10-27
  • Read in: English
  • Rating: *****
  • Genre(s): Fantasy

The Malazan Book of the Fallen is an epic series, both in page count and in story line. I guesstimate it’s about 15.000 pages in my paperback editions, with many story lines, a lot of land covered, many characters, many gods, many people, and in the end it mostly comes down to one war, one battle, one goal. That’s what Steven Erikson and we, his readers, have been working towards. And while I am sure he knew what he was doing when he wrote this book, I am not sure that I know how to write a review for part 10 of this epic series, and for this series as a whole.
In this book most of it all comes together. Adjunct Tavore and her Bonehunters, the K’Chain Che’Malle, the Imass, the Forkrul Assail, the Tiste races, the Eleint. Of course the major focus of just about everybody is The Crippled God. The question is, for both the reader and some of the characters, is he evil and should be destroyed, or good and should be rescued. With Erikson you never know.
There is no way I can make a summary of this book. It would turn out to be a “and then that happened, and then that happened” type story, because just so much happened. I could not put this book down, which for me meant that is was a fitting conclusion to a series I just loved. I can’t say I am quite sure what happened in the end (but luckily reading online about the book shows that many people are left with the same questions as me). But these are good questions. They aren’t open-ended story lines, instead they show that with the world Erikson creates, as within our own world, nothing, no people, no person, no god, is ever truly good or evil. I am so glad this series was recommended to me, and I am glad this was my ‘project’ series for this year (I tried to commit to reading one part every month). Epic, fantastic, just great. Five out of five stars.