House of Chains - Steven Erikson

   2002; 1,015 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book #4 (out of 10) in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series.  Genres : Epic Fantasy; Sword & Sorcery; Military Fantasy.  Overall Rating: 8*/10.

 

    A convergence is coming.  A gathering of forces building into an epic conflict.  A select few can feel it, and even  sense its location: it will take place in the barren wastes of the Raraku Desert.

 

    At the earthly level, it will pit two massive armies against each other.  On one side, the army of the Malazan Empire, commanded by the Adjunct Tavore, the Empress’s Chosen One.  Facing them, the Army of the Apocalypse, commanded by Sha’ik, the Whirlwind Goddess’s Chosen One.  A number of fringe characters will also be drawn into the fray, few in number but great in impact.

 

    But some of the mages can sense a higher level of convergence as well, involving the “Houses” of various gods and goddesses.  A new House trying to establish itself, which complicates things.  No one, not even the resident gods, is quite sure what new deity is behind this.

 

    But stirring beneath all of this is an even deeper level of convergence, one that has an “elemental” feel, one that could easily sway the battles between both the puny mortals and the petty deities.  Its source is the Raraku Desert itself.

 

What’s To Like...

    House of Chains, Book 4 in Steven Erikson’s epic fantasy series, is the sequel to Book 2, Deadhouse Gates, which I read three years ago and is reviewed here.  Books 1 and 3 are thus far a separate storyline, and I’m getting the feeling that this “alternating settings” technique is going to continue through most of this series.

 

    Here we follow the trials and travails of a number of characters, often traveling in pairs or small groups (a necessity if you want to inject dialogue into the text), as they are drawn slowly and inexorably toward the impending mega-battle. The opening portion of the book  introduces a new character, Karsa Orlong, who cuts a path of blood and destruction through various tribes that have the misfortune of being neighbors to his own clan.  In effect this amounts to a giant prologue, spanning about a quarter of the book, before we get to the main “convergence” storyline.

 

    The book is written in English, not American, with the usual weird-looking (to us Yanks) spellings like ageing, behaviour, offence, armour, no-one, and abraiding.  Yet oddly enough, the “ize-words”, such as realized, apologize, and recognize are spelled the American way.  This puzzled me until I discovered that Steven Erikson is Canadian.

 

    As always, the world-building, character-development and wittily thought-provoking dialogue are all superbly done.  That’s not an easy undertaking when you have a gazillion beings wandering all over the place on their way to Raraku, but Steven Erikson is up to the task, and I deeply appreciate the inclusion of a Dramatis Personae in the front and a Glossary in the back. 

    The ending is a mixed bag.  After more than 800 pages of herding the combatants to a meeting point, the final battle turns out to be somewhat less than epic.  But it does take around a hundred pages to cover it, and it kept me turning the pages the whole way.  It says something about Steven Erikson’s writing skills that he can pull this off, again and again, in this every-other-book storyline.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.7*/5, based on 1,415 ratings and 381 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.34*/5, based on 41,219 ratings and 1,393 reviews

 

Kewlest New Word…

    Knout (n.) : a whip used to inflict punishment, usually causing death.

 

Excerpts...

    Karsa spoke in a low voice, “Torvald Nom, listen well.  A warrior who followed me, Delum Thord, was struck on the head.  His skull cracked and leaked thought-blood.  His mind could not walk back up the path.  He was left helpless, harmless.  I, too, have been struck on the head.  My skull is cracked and I have leaked thought-blood—”

    “Actually, it was drool—”

    “Be quiet. Listen.”  (pg. 171)

 

    “And that crossbow can lob cussers far enough?  Hard to believe.”

    “Well, the idea is to aim and shoot, then bite a mouthful of dirt.”

    “I can see the wisdom in that, Fid.  Now, you let us all know when you’re firing, right?”

    “Nice and loud, aye.”

    “And what word should we listen for?”

    Fiddler noticed that the rest of his squad had ceased their preparations and were now waiting for his answer.  He shrugged.  “Duck.  Or sometimes what Hedge used to use.”

    “Which was?”

    “A scream of terror.”  (pg. 753)

 

“It’s all a waste of breath, soldiers.  Sooner or later, we’re all marching in wide-eyed stupid.”  (pg. 850)

    The quibbles in House of Chains are minor and for the most part are the same ones I had with Deadhouse Gates.

 

    There’s a lot of intrigue in the story, but until we reach the final showdown, not a lot of action.  So if you’re looking for a hack-&-slash adventure, you’ll probably be disappointed, at least for the first 90% of the book.

 

    There are (fictional) pithy quotes at the start of each chapter, but this time around they didn’t do much for me.  There’s only a smattering of cussing (8 instances in the first 20%), and once again it’s mitigated by a number of colorful expressions invoking the locale deities, such as: “Beru fend!”, “Hood’s dripping tongue!”, “Fener’s tusks!”, and “Hood’s balls!”  In addition, there is a rape or two, and a molester of little girls who eventually gets his comeuppance.

 

    Lastly, my favorite group, the Bridgeburners, get very little ink here.  To be fair, most of them are dead, and those few who still live have been outlawed by the Malazan Empire.  A couple of the surviving members – including Quick Ben and Hedge – make cameo appearances, while others – such as Fiddler, Kalam, and Cuttle - are either using aliases or hiding out.  Late in the story, we do get one revelation about the Bridgeburners that gives me hope that some of the dead ones, Whiskeyjack and Dujek Onearm in particular, may resurface somewhere down the line.

 

    8 Stars.  ANAICT, “Malazan Book of the Fallen” is a completed series, which means I’m 40% of the way through it.  Book 7, Reaper’s Gate, is on my TBR shelf, but I don’t have Books 5 and 6, Midnight Tides and The Bonehunters. I may have to venture out into the Covid-infested world to find these.

Memories Of Ice - Steven Erikson

   2001; 913 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book 3 (out of 10) in the “Malazan Book of the Fallen” series.  Genre : Epic Fantasy; Sword & Sorcery.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

    A new scourge, incredibly large, has appeared out of the south, threatening the Malazan-controlled city-states in northern Genabackis.  It calls itself the Pannion Domin and the citizens of all cities in its path will be subjected to unimaginable horror.

    The choice is conversion or death.  To convert means to never eat food again.  Your only source of sustenance is cannibalism.  You feast on those who decline to convert.  The conversion rate is impressive, but you soon run out of victims to devour.  Then there's only one thing to do.  Go north and conquer another city.  And tell those hapless citizens to convert or die.

    The Pannion Domin seems unstoppable, but if there is any hope at all, the northern powers will need to unite and conduct a coordinated attack.  Sadly, none of them trust each other, and everyone seems to have hidden agendas.

    That includes the small but famed fighting force known as “Onearm’s Host”, which unfortunately is currently considered to be a renegade Malazan army.  They’re a veteran bunch, and their motto is “First in, last out.”  They’d be a logical choice to spearhead to counterattack on the Pannion Domin.

    Unfortunately, whoever leads the charge will most likely suffer grievous casualties.  The odds are rather slim of anyone in the “first in” group being alive to be the “last out”.

What’s To Like...

    Memories of Ice is Book 3 in this series and is the follow-up to the storyline started in the initial book, Gardens of the Moon, which is reviewed here.  My favorite set of characters in this sword-&-sorcery world, Whiskeyjack and his Bridgeburners, are once again in the spotlight.  But as usual, Steven Erikson weaves a bunch of seemingly disparate plot threads into a gritty and fascinating tale.  To wit:

1.) The Bridgeburners and others try to stop bickering, and unite to oppose the Pannion Domin.

2.) Gruntle and others guard and guide a caravan through dangerous territory.

3.) Lady Envy, Tool, and Toc the Younger form a small but deadly fighting force.

4.) The T’lan Imass respond en masse to a summoning.

5.) Quick Ben seeks to save the Sleeping Goddess.

6.) Ganoes Paran is about to be promoted, whether he wants it or not.

7.) Anomander Rake goes MIA.

    The threads all start quite far apart from one another, their individual intents are “fluid”, and it’s fun to read/watch as they gradually converge.  In lesser hands, the story would get annoyingly confusing, but the author handles it all deftly.  It helped to have a handy Dramatis Personae at the start of the book, and an equally useful Glossary in the back.

    The character development is phenomenal.  Sixty or more beings – whether living, dead, undead, magical, or ascendant – are each given unique and memorable personalities.  The world-building is equally impressive.  There are two maps at the start of the book, but frankly, I found Erikson’s descriptions to be sufficient to “feel my way” across the various lands.

    There’s a nice blend of recurring characters and new ones.  Paran now assumes a more significant role, and Kruppe continues to be an enigmatic figure.  I think Gruntle, the Mhybe, Norul, Anaster, and Ormulogun are all new characters, they were all fun to meet, and I suspect they’ll all have a significant impact on the saga.  Ditto for the weird-and-fascinating fighting group called the “Motts Irregulars”, whom I can only describe as “hillbilly fantasy”.

    The fighting scenes are limited to the battles over two cities – Capustan and Coral.  Both are protracted struggles, and you won’t feel cheated when it comes to epic thrills-&-spills.  Some good guys die, some bad guys survive, and everyone that’s mortal begins to get the creepy feeling that they’re just puppets being manipulated by gods who have their own agendas.  I liked that concept.

    The book closes nicely, with 200 pages or so about the fighting in Coral.  The main issue – the threat posed by the Pannion Domin – is resolved, albeit at a terrible cost in lives.  Steven Erikson catches the reader up on where all the main (surviving) characters intend to go from here, and lays down some teasers for events that I assume will take place in Book 5.  Book 4, House of Chains, will follow up on events in the completely separate storyline in Book 2, Deadhouse Gates (reviewed here, and resides on my TBR bookcase, awaiting my attention..

Kewlest New Word ...

Geas (n.) : an obligation or prohibition magically imposed upon a person.  (Irish).

Excerpts...

    “Hey, you could break my nose again – then we could straighten it and I’d be good as new.  What say you, Stonny?  Would the iron petals of your heart unfold for me?”

    She sneered.  “Everyone knows that two-handed sword of yours is nothing but a pathetic attempt at compensation, Harllo.”

    “He’s a nice turn at the poetic, though,” Gruntle pointed out.  “Iron petals – you couldn’t get more precise than that.”

    “There’s no such thing as iron petals,” Stonny snorted.  “You don’t get iron flowers.  And hearts aren’t flowers, they’re big red, messy things in your chest.  What’s poetic about not making sense?  You’re as big an idiot as Buke and Harllo, Gruntle.  I’m surrounded by thick-skulled witless fools.”

    “It’s your lot in life, alas,” Gruntle said.  “Here, have some tea – you could do with … the warmth.”  (pg. 98)

    “I intend to retire, to disappear if need be.  I’m done.  With all of this.  Some log cabin in some frontier kingdom, a long way from the Empire.”

    “And a wife swinging a pot at your head.  Marital, domestic bliss – you think Korlat will settle for that?”

    Whiskeyjack smiled at the High Fist’s gentle mockery.  “It’s her idea – not the pot-swinging – that’s your particular nightmare, Dujek.  But all the rest … all right, not a log cabin.  More like a remote, wind-battered keep in some mountain fastness.  A place with a forbidding view.”

    “Well,” Dujek drawled, “you can still plant a small vegetable garden in the courtyard.  Wage war against weeds.”  (pg. 738)

“Beru fend me.  I underestimate even the true idiots in this company.”  (pg. 345)

     The quibbles are few.  There’s some cussing, but not a lot, using both our own standard expressions and some more imaginative Malazan-world ones (such as “Togg’s balls!”), and I thought it fit in nicely with the gritty “War is Hell” tone of the story.  There is also one instance of sexual assault, but it is handled as discreetly as possible.

    There are two maps – one of the city of Capustan, the other of the continent of Genabackis – at the start of the book, but I’d still like to see one showing the whole world.  Also, Steven Erikson seems to have a couple of choice words that he uses whenever he can – efficacy, susurration, surcease, acuity, dissembling, coruscating – but IMO, they’re all way-kewl words.

    Finally, the book is written in English, not American, so “none the less” is three words, “no-one” has a hyphen, and your scepticism might be wilful, loth, labouring, or smouldering.  Reading a story in a "foreign" language might not be to everyone’s taste, but I’ve always enjoyed tales by British authors.

    8½ Stars.  ANAICT, the Malazan Book of the Fallen is a completed 10-volume series, disregarding prequels and novellas.  I’m still thoroughly enjoying the stories, but I note that, as is true for more writers of epic fantasy, the books get longer as the series progresses.  The last 5 books seem to all be in the 1200-1300 pages length.  One should choose sagely before entering into any epic fantasy series.

Deadhouse Gates - Steven Erikson

   2000; 836 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book 2 (out of 10) in the “Malazan Book of the Fallen” series.  Genre : Epic Fantasy (Wikipedia calls it ‘High Fantasy’; same thing); Sword & Sorcery.  Laurels : Top Ten Best Fantasy Novel of 2000 (SF Site).  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

    The campaign was a success; the Malazan Empire has won.  The alliance called "The Seven Cities" is now entirely in Malazan hands, their leaders deposed or worse, and all who live in those cities are now subject to the will of the Empress Laseen.  Her armies have fanned out throughout the surrounding countryside, the vast deserts of Raraku, and woe to anyone with whom they cross paths.  The price of even the slightest sign of resistance is death.

    At least for the time being.

    Because the reality is, the Malazan forces are few in number compared to the masses in the Seven Cities area, and their links to the Empress and the capital city are stretched to the point of being non-existent.  There are large masses of peasants in Raraku who seethe with subdued anger and chafe at the newly-imposed Malazan yoke.

    In the swirling deserts, shadowy warlords still lead wandering tribes that bow to no one.  And of course, there are always the fickle and squabbling gods to contend with.  It would only take a single spark to set the while region in flames, when the Hunters and the Hunted may well find their roles reversed.

    There is such a Spark and it goes by many names.  The Whirlwind.  The Uprising.  The Dryjhna.  The Rebellion.  The Spark has a face: Sha’ik, a woman, the leader of the rebellion, who is protected by her zealot bodyguards, who call themselves "the Raraku Apocalypse".  It is in the Malazan Empire’s best interest to eliminate her at all costs.

    But if they kill her, will she stay dead?

What’s To Like...

    Deadhouse Gates expands the world  introduced in Steven Erikson’s first book, Gardens of the Moon, which I read last July and is reviewed here.  The action now takes further south, as the Malazan Empire tries to cope with a huge grassroots uprising against its recent conquests.

    There are a slew of plotlines.  The main ones are: A.) Kalam and companions set out to kill the Empress Laseen. B.) Felisin (who?) sets out to kill her sister.  C.) The imperial historian Duiker and his companions seek safety by joining up with the remnants of the main Malazan army in the Seven Cities area.  D.) Kalam sets out to deliver a book to Sha’ik.  E.) Mappo and Icarium (who?) seek answers, although no one is ever quite sure what the questions are.  F.) Coltaine, the Fist of the 7^th Army, sets out on an impossible task: to relocate and safely deliver an insane number of refugees still loyal to the Empress, nicknamed the “Chain of Dogs”.  Almost all of the aims of these plotlines change as the story transpires.

    There are also a poopload of characters and Steven Erikson treats the reader like an adult.  He supplies three maps (which once again adon't show all the lands in the story) for reference sake, a four-page Cast of Characters at the front of the book, and various other peoples, places, ascendants, and assorted things in the back.  Beyond that, the reader is expected to keep things straight as he reads.  I kept extensive notes.

    The tone of the book is dark and gritty.  War is hell on everyone it touches.  Good guys can lose and die, bad guys can win and live, and noble aspirations do not increase your likelihood of surviving.  Executions are bloody and graphic; civilians are raped, children are slaughtered, and showing mercy to the enemy or civilians is unheard of.  In short, this is not a book for sensitive juvenile readers.  Yet hope persists even in the darkest of times.

    There is an abundance of wit, which helps to balance out the gore.  The characters are all various shades of gray, and I always like that.  Even the gods are complex, gray, and oftentimes vulnerable.  And although lots of characters die, that doesn't mean they won't pop up again somewhere.

    I chuckled at the cussing set-up: select a local god and add a body part.  Some examples: Fener’s Hoof!, Togg’s feet!, and Hood’s Breath!  Other, more private body parts are also frequently used to form cuss phrases.  I also liked the Tarot-esque Deck of Dragons.  In a world of gods and magic, it was droll to see some of the characters viewing fortune-telling as a con game.  There are quotes and/or prose to start each chapter, but those are one of the few things that didn’t wow me.

     The ending is okay, but not spectacular.  Things end at a logical point in the saga, but it's little more than a lull in the greater storyline, and many threads remain unresolved.  This is not a standalone novel; Steven Erikson assumes you have read Book One, or at the very least, will diligently look up new characters in the front of the book.  There are 26 chapters covering 836 pages of text, but there are lots of scene-shifts in the chapters, so there's always a convenient place to stop for the night.

Kewlest New Word ...

Refulgent (adj.) : shining brightly.

Others:  Percipience (n.).

Excerpts...

    Crokus dragged a chair to the table, dropped into it and reached for the wine.  “We’re tired of waiting,” he pronounced.  “If we have to cross this damned land, then let’s do it.  There’s a steaming pile of rubbish behind the garden wall, clogging up the sewage gutter.  Crawling with rats.  The air’s hot and so thick with flies you can barely breathe.  We’ll catch a plague if we stay here much longer.”

    “Let’s hope it’s the bluetongue, then,” Kalam said.

    “What’s that?”

    “Your tongue swells up and turns blue.”

    “What’s so good about that?”

    “You can’t talk.”  (pg. 69)

    “We’re being hunted,” Kulp snapped, wrapping his arms around himself.

    From where he sat against a wall, Heboric laughed.  He raised his invisible hands.  “Show me a mortal who is not pursued, and I’ll show you a corpse.  Every hunter is hunted, every mind that knows itself has stalkers.  We drive and are driven.  The unknown pursues the ignorant, the truth assails every scholar wise enough to know his own ignorance, for that is the meaning of unknowable truths.”

    Kulp looked up from where he sat on the low wall encircling the fountain, the lids of his eyes heavy as he studied the ex-priest.  “I was speaking literally,” he said.  “There are living shapeshifters in this city.”  (pg. 512)

“Quick Ben’s our shaved knuckle in the hole.”  “Your what in the where?”  (pg. 39)

     I was expecting Deadhouse Gates to be a sequel to Gardens of the Moon, but that isn’t the case.  A few of the characters from Book One are here – Crokus, Apsalar, Kaslam, and even Moby – but my favorites are MIA – Whiskeyjack, Quick Ben, Dujek Onearm, etc.  This book starts a tangential storyline, and I gather from the Wikipedia article that Book 3, Memories of Ice, is a continuation of the first book's tale.

    At 836 pages, this is one of the shorter books in the series.  Steven Erikson joins Brandon Sanderson and the late Robert Jordan in adopting the habit of making each volume a bit longer than the previous one.  Of the remaining eight books in this series, only one of them is less than 1,000 pages in length

    I have some serious reading yet to do in this series.

    8½ Stars.  The ending isn’t quite as climactic as in Gardens of the Moon, but Deadhouse Gates was still an entertaining read.  Like Jordan and Sanderson, Steven Erikson can spin a lengthy, complex, hard-to-follow story, eschew a wowee-zowee ending, and still leave the reader thoroughly happy he read the book.  It is a joy reading the work of a skilled writer.

Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erikson

   1999; 666 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Book 1 (out of 10, not counting the prequels) in the “Malazan Book of the Fallen” series.  Genre : Epic Fantasy; Sword & Sorcery.  Overall Rating : 9½*/10.

    Someone has it in for the Bridgeburners.

    Well, that’s not surprising since they’re an elite fighting squad in the Malazan Imperial Armies, and commanded by the legendary Sergeant Whiskeyjack, he who was once the commander of the whole Second Army.

    But he’s been demoted, probably at the behest of the Empress Laseen, who came to the throne under somewhat suspicious circumstances, who no doubt questions whether his loyalty is first and foremost to the Empire itself, or to the previous Emperor.  Popular military heroes can be a threat. And so can the soldiers they command.

    So if the war calls for a suicide mission, guess which squad always gets picked?  During the recently completed siege of the city Pale, they were given the task of tunneling underneath the defensive walls and laying explosives.  But tunnels tend to collapse unexpectedly, and the majority of Whiskeyjack’s men were lost.  Now there’s only half a dozen or so left alive.

    And guess what?  Their next assignment has just been issued.  They’re to infiltrate Darujhistan, the next city in the path of the Imperial invasion and lay more explosives underground.  Duty calls, the Empress commands, but after this mission, there may be no more Bridgeburners left alive.

What’s To Like...

    Gardens of the Moon is the first story in a completed 10-book series in one of my favorite genres, Epic Fantasy, and it truly lives up to its billing.  Both the world-building and the character development are incredible, there’s lots of both action and intrigue, and buckles are swashed.  There are heroes and villains, and sometimes it’s hard to tell them apart, as they are all my favorite color, “gray”.

    There are war-weary warriors, mages and mage-killers, and churlish thieves and assassins.  I was impressed by the number and variety of non-human races, wowed by some magical crows, and delighted that several dragons showed up late in the tale.  I have a feeling the latter will have more significant roles in subsequent books.

    I especially liked the god-building.  The ones here are indeed powerful, but they’re neither omnipotent nor omniscient, and they are at times subject to the whims of fate and luck.  The ones that no longer have worshippers are rather sad cases, and, like the humans, they are mostly “gray” in alignment, falling into the “gods behaving badly” category.

    There are two maps plus a Dramatis Personae at the start of the book, and a glossary listing various titles, peoples, gods, critters, and geographic locales in the back.  Bookmark both sections, because you’re going to be referring to them a lot, since you’ll be crossing paths with a slew of people and places.  Steven Erikson treats the reader like an adult; he expects you to look new stuff up in those reference sections, and is thereby able to forego bogging things down with a backstory.

    A fair number of characters die in the book, but if your fave is one of them, keep a stiff upper lip, not all of them stay dead.  Tarot Card enthusiasts will love the potency of the decks that are used here.  And I found soul-shifting to be quite the neat trick.  The book’s title is explained on page 531, and I liked the euphemistic cuss phrases used here, such as “Hood’s Breath” and “Shedunul’s Mercy”.  A pantheon of gods means a mortal has so many more ways to take their names in vain.

    Everything builds to a superbly exciting climax, and without giving away any spoilers, I’ll only say that any author who can create a thrilling ending using a social gathering as the backdrop can certainly be described as “gifted”.  Some of the storylines are resolved; others are left open for the sequels.

Kewlest New Word ...

Woad (n. or adj.) : a yellow-flowered European plant of the cabbage family, or the blue dye obtained therefrom.

Others:  Febrile (adj.); Arbalest (n.).

Excerpts...

    “Tell me, Tool, what dominates your thoughts?”

    The Imass shrugged before replying.  “I think of futility, Adjunct.”

    “Do all Imass think about futility?”

    “No.  Few think at all.”

    “Why is that?”

    The Imass leaned his head to one side and regarded her.  “Because, Adjunct, it is futile.”

    “Let’s get going, Tool.  We’re wasting time.”

    “Yes, Adjunct.”

    She climbed into the saddle, wondering how the Imass had meant that.  (pg. 325)

    “Do you stand alone in this, Anomander Rake?  Do your people approve?”

    “They care not,” Rake said.  “They accept my commands.  They follow me.  They serve Caladan Brood when I ask them to.  And they die in the mud and forests of a land that is not their own, in a war not their own, for a people who are terrified of them.”

    Baruk sat forward.  “Then why?  Why do you do all this?”

    A harsh laugh was Rake’s response.  After a moment, however, his bitter amusement fell away and he said, “Is an honorable cause worth anything these days?  Does it matter that we’ve borrowed it?  We fight as well as any man.  We die alongside them.  Mercenaries of the spirit.  And even that is a coin we scarcely value.  Why?  It doesn’t matter why.  But we never betray our allies.”  (pg. 486)

“It’s a bad smell when sorcerers panic.”  (pg. 5)

     The quibbles are microscopic.  The main map was hard to read and doesn’t cover the full world.  Some cities, countries, and even continents are cited that simply aren’t shown, and I searched for them in vain.  However, it must also be said that all the places that are visited in the story, at least the terrestrial sites, are on the map.

    Also, it took me a while to figure out what the main storyline was.  Was it the siege of Pale?  No.  How about the suicide mission to Darujhistan by Whiskeyjack and his merry band?  Not really.  Perhaps it’s the overthrow of the Empress Laseen.  Uh-uh.  But somewhere around mid-book, things got clarified, so this is a non-issue.

    Last, and least, the bits of prose that start off each chapter, although a nice touch, generally didn’t do much for me.  But I pick at nits.

    9½ Stars.  Highly recommended.  I’ve been meaning to give Steven Erikson a try for quite some time.  My expectations were lofty, and Gardens of the Moon fully met them.  I’m now facing a gazillion pages to read if I want to pursue this series, plus there’s a 3-book prequel that Erikson hasn’t finished yet.  And I still have one more epic fantasy author on my list to try: a fellow named Stephen R. Donaldson.