Malazan: The Bonehunters by: Steven Erikson

 

As Malazan: Book of the Fallen enters its second half, Steven Erikson finally begins to pull some threads together in the sixth installment to give readers some of the trajectory that the series is heading for.  This also means that the books from this point onwards are at their longest, with The Bonehunters clocking in at 1,200 pages.  As such, this means that this is a book where a lot happens to a lot of characters, as is known to happen with a lot of epic fantasy, so this review is not one which can adequately discuss even a majority of the aspects of this novel, as with every book in this series, there is a lot.  So this review is one looking at the aspects of The Bonehunters which stand out to me.  This is a book which actually brings the threads from Gardens of the Moon/Memories of Ice and Deadhouse Gates/House of Chains together as things finally begin to cross.  There is also an obvious justification for Midnight Tides and the mythology explored in that novel, meaning that the fifth book was obviously not meant to be a throwaway diversion and necessary to actually continue the story from this point forward.  There is this feeling that the stakes are getting higher, that the Crippled God’s plans that seems to be a major part of the backbone of Malazan as a world along with the expansion by the Mazalan Empire under Laseen and Adjunct Tavore.

 

While Laseen is a character here, I think it’s Tavore who is a more interesting character as you get some interesting contrast between Tavore and Ganeos Paran.  Tavore is a woman blinded by ambition and expansion which makes the points in the book where we actually see her grabbing for more power and moving pieces across the board.  It makes her interesting as I suppose an antagonist, though there is something in her philosophy and mindset that just connects with me.  She’s clearly not meant to be a positive figure, but there is something there that screams humanity at its most human.  Meanwhile, Ganeos Paran has the incredibly interesting arc where he doesn’t really meet his sister (I think she thinks he’s actually dead, which yeah he kind of should be), but there is something morose about the character.  He’s undergone great hardship and has assumed the role of the master of the Deck of Dragons, and as a character I am reminded of a quote by the late great Douglas Adams: “Anyone who is capable  of getting themselves made President should be on no account be allowed to do the job”.  Paran is a character who didn’t want to have any power, at least any power of this kind.  He is a man being forced among the gods in a way that he clearly never wished to be.  There is this dread whenever you get to Paran’s segments of the book where he is clearly trying his best, but needs to find something different.  It kind of helps that he was one of the characters I grasped onto in Gardens of the Moon who actually survived that book.  There is also this power play between him and the absent Anomander Rake which is hinted at here that I desperately hope gets picked up on in later books.

 

The Bridgeburners also have a reunion here which makes for some really interesting interactions early on in the novel.  Having Fiddler/Strings seeing just where his crew has scattered to is interesting and introspective as everyone’s goals has seemingly changed greatly.  Strings is also almost the perfect character for a book like this as he’s slimy enough to survive, but his actions never come across as a slimy character trying to survive a heartless world.  There’s also this hinted at cleverness there.  Cutter’s continuing story with new character Scillara also does not bode well after the end of House of Chains saw him essentially falling down into general darkness away from Apsalar.  Apsalar also it is noted has matured and changed into a genuinely terrifying assassin here and this is where I think The Bonehunters shines.  Apsalar actually reunites with Cotillion in this novel and their interactions makes for an interesting commentary on abuse and how victims become survivors.  Apsalar is most definitely a survivor by this point, not falling into trappings of abuse and holding her own against a god who still has some sort of a grip against the woman.  She has grown and she is the one who can hold her own.

 

Cotillion and Shadowthrone, however, may have the best interactions in this book.  This is a book where the gods seem to be scared of something coming and that added threat just builds the tension through the rest of the book.   There’s a point where Shadowtrone goes missing and Cotillion is the forefront of the domain of Shadow which for the first time really separates the characters from each other.  Erikson of course is brilliant in creating double acts, but splitting up those double acts allows an exploration of what makes the double act work.  It’s also just a sequence of events filled with tension and dread.  The actual thrust of the formation of the Bonehunters can be directly traced to every plot thread thus far, as Erikson excels at making things in this book feel like something really is coming together.  There is still the standard for Malazan in not quite understanding everything intentionally, and ambiguity but this book feels for the first time like a slow boil and build in tension to something absolutely brilliant.  The Bonehunters perhaps might be my favorite installment thus far, as it takes what really worked in Memories of Ice and House of Chains while still bringing things together into a different ideas for what Erikson really is working with.  It’s a thrilling lead whose last 400 pages especially building to a brilliant climax which shakes every character we know, like, and dislike thus far into different scenarios and the next book feels like it’s going to integrate lines further for a conclusion.  10/10.