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Toll the Hounds: Book Eight of The Malazan Book of the Fallen |
Author: Steven Erikson
Published: 2008-09-16 |
List price: $27.95
Our price: $18.45
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As of: January 07th, 2009 06:28:30 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Huge fan of the series. This installment-- not so much.
Here's what I love about Steven Erickson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series:
It's huge and hugely complicated. Tons of characters, a plot that is a 100 miles thick, a story line that spans hundreds of thousands of years, characters operating on several planes of existence and in several realms that somehow all affect one another. Mind boggling.
It's gut-wrenching and extremely emotional. Erickson is merciless in his manipulation of the reader's emotional journey. He writes about friendship, loyalty and love in ways no other author manages, and yet also tortures the reader with his tales of despair, heartbreak and betrayal.
Lastly, until this installment, one could safely say that despite the size of each volume, in a Malazan book, *something* was always happening on any given page. Not so in Toll the Hounds.
This book goes on for hundreds and hundreds of pages with absolutely NOTHING happening. There's a TON of navel-gazing in Toll the Hounds. And it's clumsily executed too, where, at its most absurd, what feels like dozens of pages are dedicated to the empty reflections of an Ox. An Ox? Seriously?
If you hated the Mhybe character in Memories of Ice, because all she was in the book was an endless stream of internal dialogue that did nothing to advance or clarify the plot, then you will need to brace yourself for this book. Pretty much every character in it spends pages and pages and pages in Greek Opera-style mournful introspection. I suppose some might call this character building, but the appeal, at leas to me, of Erickson's books has thus far been that the stories are primarily plot-driven.
That said, in the last third of the book, Erickson does deliver on some pretty major plot developments, and there are several "moments" the likes of which keep us fans coming back for more. One event in particular will have you bawling like a baby in the middle of the night.
Get the book. You will need to have read it before you can continue with the series. But get set for the slowest-paced volume yet. (In fairness, Erickson did warn us that this would be the case with this one.)
 Changed writing style leaves 8th book something of a let-down...
The author has notably changed his style for this book (This was conscious at least in part, as he has apparently said just this in public forums, book signings, etc). Unfortunately, changing a successful style 75% of the way into a series may not be the best strategy. Note that a 2-star stand-alone book is a book I won't be finishing, but a 2-star addition to a series i have greatly enjoyed will get finished, once...
To repeat - 2 stars means if this was a new series or author, I would have given up less than halfway through.
I have avoided spoilers in this review. A couple of very non-revelatory items are mentioned below. Spoilers for any and all previous stories in this series are present.
This novel takes place mostly in Darujhistan and nearby. A number of major plot threads are resolved, many surprises can be expected, some greater background on the conflict in the series is given, and nonetheless I remained somewhat confused by all the new information. This is not a complaint.
By page 60, I wondered why the author was changing setting/location every 2-3 pages, between far too many subjects/locations. By page 120, it was very annoying. A major fight scene in a bar mid-way through the book was the longest connected scene so far, and it was only 8 pages long. This seems to me to prevent the reader from every getting into any particular set of characters, and prevents the author from doing anything that takes more than a few pages to explain. I understand that in some cases he is describing events occurring in Darujhistan at almost the same time that will impact each other, but often this is not the case.
By the last third of the book, the author has taken to introducing some setting changes (not chapters, which have their own long prose commentaries) with a page or two of monologue, often metaphysical or philosophical. I skipped more pages of this (skipping ahead until an actual character appeared or someone said or did something) in the last third of the story than I have ever skipped in one of his books. He begins editorializing, in one case after the death of someone, suggesting the reader not despair yet, more things were going to happen "Do not grieve... ...Rest easy for the next few moments, for there is more to tell." I do not see the necessity of this line (there were many pages left in the book, obviously there is more to tell), and it begins to remind me of Stephen King's direct comments to readers in his later Dark Tower stories.
Minor Spoilers - consider whether you want to read these. These are complaints.
Samar Dev appears in this book very far from where she ended Reaper's Gale, with no explanation of how she got to where she is with the animal accompanying her (there is no bus service off the Letherii continent, it was an extremely unusual voyage only done by the Edur fleet (gone/done), the Adjunct's fleet (burnt), the grey swords (exterminated), and the barghast in our previous stories,) or how she knew to go to the particular place she is now. My suspicion is that erikson realized he needed to get karsa his horse (and witch), and just had to fudge it.
Karsa Orlong's destination when he left the crippled god is not given, and he appears somewhere somewhat distant from his goal. Characters related to his thread miraculously appear at a major climax point - not 5 minutes before or after.
My previous reviews on ALL the books of this series speak for themselves as far as how much I have enjoyed this story, but I am really quite disappointed by this book and will hesitate to buy the 9th volume in hardback
Another Robert Jordan?
This guy really has talent and a vision that is mind boggling, but this book has me beginning to wonder if he isn't sure where to go with the story anymore. More than once during this reading I told my wife (yes, I have one) that this guy is starting to remind me of Robert Jordan. A couple of things are really disturbing about this book:
1. I can barley follow him anymore. He has become such a psychiatrist and his analogies about how characters feel and why they do what they do, while interesting at times, will many times make up almost 50% of the paragraph. I find my self in the middle of a page and asking, what the heck did I just read? It becomes an effort to understand and it wears a guy down
2. Does anyone who has followed this from gardens of the moon really know what is going on anymore? What are Cotillion and Shadowthrone up to? Why did they have the hounds follow Traveller to darujhistan? Why did traveller have a problem with hood? Why did Rake have a problem with hood? What's up with spite and envy? What purpose do the hounds of light have? Kharkanas? Where did that come from? We now have hounds of light, Shadow, and Darkness?? Whatever happened to the azath that Nimander built with that giant in gothos' ice warren? So many weird loose ends that frankly, I could not explain if I had too. He may close them, but it will be 3000 pages and 3 years from now and most of us won't remember. The dying god, a key figure on this whole book, is a child of some obscure creation that occurred 7 books ago and has never been mentioned since? Seemed like a huge reach to me. What was the purpose of the Trygalle Trade Guild in this? They carted mappo and gruntle, two of my favorite characters, around for 800+ pages and never did a darn thing except starp some undead guy to the wheel of thier carriage. I just got no feeling that we made any progress towards what I think can be a magnificent series/ending. Reminds me of books 6-10 in the wheel of time series where nothing happened except we all grew older......When stacked up against other books in the series, like House of Chains, Midnite Tides, or Reapers Gale, this pales in comparisons.
Bottom Line: Read it because you have to, and hope he has a plan to wrap this up before I embarrass myself at the old folks home by pulling out book 19 of this series for a fireside reading (have you done that btw? the graphic art on the covers of each book is awesome, but I have drawn more than one strange look from a co-worker or some family at an airport when I pull it out of the laptop bag)
 extraordinary
Unlike some other reviewers I found this to be one of Erikson's best books. Although the "action" for most of the story is slow, I found it a pleasure getting to know certain characters more thoroughly, Karsa anyone?...Rake!!
Steven Erikson seems to have finally placed all the story lines and characters in a more coherent way than in last books. The use of krupe as storyteller was a good companion to the story. Anyways its a great read, and essential for any fantasy lover.
 Above average but reader fatigue an issue
An above average installment. As always, a mixture of good and bad, but plenty of clever characters, plot, and dialogue.
The problem, which you can sense from the other reviews, is reader fatigue. The story-line shifts begin to distract rather than entice. The ambiguous descriptions, dialogue, and proto-philosophy become wearying rather than a welcome space for the imagination to fill in the details. Author fatigue may also be an issue - I do not get the same impression of Erikson growing in power as he did between volumes 1 to 3.
I've got a huge amount of enjoyment out of the series - particularly Memories of Ice which was a sheer joy to read. Maybe it is time for the series to evolue or for a new story to be told?
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