Reaper's Gale: Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 7

More than any book in the series up to this point, REAPER’S GALE reads like a conclusion to the story. Many plot threads are drawn together and culminate in conclusive finality. There is relatively little left unresolved after this book, and it could have served (and maybe was intended?) as the final entry in The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Fortunately, however, TOLL THE HOUNDS allows us the continued pleasure of experiencing this grand and challenging series.Picking up where THE BONEHUNTERS and MIDNIGHT TIDES left off, REAPER’S GALE follows Adjunt Tavore’s beleaguered army as they set their eyes on the apparently-persecuted Letherii Empire. Expecting to find a repressed and ready-for-rebellion-against-the-Edur populace, the Bonehunters et al. land and begin sowing seeds of confusion and chaos. Meanwhile, Rhulad Sengar has become isolated in bureaucratic morass with smooth-talking aides keeping him paranoid and powerless. He has been distracted by a constant stream of unwilling “challengers” whom no matter how skillful, cannot defeat the seemingly-immortal Emperor of a Thousand Deaths. But enter two new challengers, our old friends Icarium Lifestealer and Karsa Orlong. Much of the story here revolves around the coming, possibly apocalyptic, battle between one of these two and Rhulad. Simultaneously, we follow a band of unlikely companions (Fear Sengar, Udinaas, Seren Pedac, Silchas Ruin, Kettle, and Clip) on their journey to recover the soul of Scabandari Bloodeye, and we keep up with Tehol and Bugg as their plot of destabilize the Letherii economy comes to fruition.Multiple other story arcs fill in the space of this 1000+ page book. One follows another band of travelers (Trull Sengar, Quick Ben, Onrack the Broken, and eventually Hedge) who have been directed by Cotillion towards a not-obvious destination and purpose but end up in a realm of life-restoring magic with still-living Imass. Other story arcs follow the emergence of a new leader for the Shake, the discovery of ancient artifacts with troublesome implications, and the rise of the Errant as a contender for power. One space-consuming arc that didn’t add much to the broader saga surrounded a rebellion of the Awl against the Lether Empire, led by Redmask, a brilliantly done character, but one whose presence and relevance in this book is not clear. His destiny seems of paramount importance during most of the book but then… not much comes of it. This story arc does confirm the reemergence of the K’Chain Che’Malle, who seem to have chosen Redmask as their Mortal Sword, at least temporarily, indicating their intention to once again engage with the world.The first half of REAPER’S GALE is spent introducing and progressing all of these disparate arcs, gradually bringing them into relation to one another. The second half of the book is rip-roaring awesomeness as Erikson achieves the impossible by taking each story on a headlong rush towards dramatic and complete-feeling climaxes. This made the second half of this book some of the best material to be found in the Malazan series (IMO). Many of the plot lines did not end as I expected (or wanted) them to, especially regarding Trull and Seren (truly torturous) and Icarium (which I am sure I do not understand). On the other hand, the confrontation between Rhulad and Karsa and the ensuing interaction between Karsa and the Crippled God was marvelous.REAPER’S GALE features almost all the fan-favorite characters from the series, other notables of whom, beyond those mentioned above, include Fiddler, Hellian, Toc the Younger, Nisall, Featherwitch, Hannan Mosag, and Ublala Pung. There are also a few new characters worth mentioning, especially Karos Invictad and Sirryn Kanar, leaders of the Patriotists, the secret police with stability and order as their façade but power and wealth as their true agenda. Then there is Triban Gnol, whose web of lies and successful isolation of Rhulad sends the emperor ever closer to complete madness. The Patriotists and bureaucrats serve as wonderful antagonists in this story, effectively convey the frustration one feels when interacting with corrupt and pointlessly-difficult bureaucracy. Very well done by Erikson.

Great story as with the other books in the series. Love the characters and the plot. Would recommend for sure

The seventh book of this ten book series was epic and powerful. In my opinion, this book is the best in the series so far!! The book starts with new characters, surprise, surprise! The character is named Tanal Yathvanar (a Letheri assistant to Karos) chatting with Karos Invictad (a Lethari, Inviglator of the Patriotists), the place has not even been described or set. Startlingly, we just delve right into their conversation, what in the world is this, where are they? The Tiste Edur representative Bruthen Trana is also present. They are apparently at a prison, but there is no indication where it is located. Not a great start I am afraid.This book comes across as the continuation of Midnight Tides (Book 5). I really enjoyed that book after the very disappointing House of Chains. Midnight Tides reinvigorated my interest in continuing the series even though I had contemplated abandoning the series after I read Book 4. Subsequently, Bonehunters (Book 6) was so wonderful and kept the momentum going from Midnight Tides.The character problem continues to rankle on, it just amazes me how much the author loves adding new characters. The author has an insatiable appetite for creating new characters. We still don’t know much about the existing characters who have been around since the first book. I cannot even pick and choose characters I like because they are mostly confusing, unclear, and difficult to figure out and there is not much data about them. I am perplexed by the fact that the editors did not encourage the author to cut down on the number of characters. The great array of subplots can be very confusing. I know the author will contend that he wanted a sense of mystery, I am okay with mystery, but please do not make it too convoluted. We must keep in mind that a lot of people quit reading the series because of those above-mentioned. Many statements go unresolved, and every one communicates the same way. I don’t think a single person has a favorite word they use a lot. The supporting cast seem to overshadow the central characters. The minor plots detract from the main plots. There were many new characters introduced every chapter. A bunch of new characters were added even near the end of the book, which is highly baffling! I noticed the same pattern in the previous book Bonehunters and the others before it. Those characters that were introduced near the end of the book did not add up anything to the story at all! If they were there to bring about a new and dramatic revelation, I would be okay with that, but that did not transpire.I frequently kept going back to the front of the book to look at the glossary to keep track of who is who. In the Wheel of Time series of books by Robert Jordan (I have read ten of that series)—there are only a few central characters, so it was a lot easier to follow. The David Eddings books also have only a few central characters (shorter books though)--there aren’t inundated with a ton of sub plots, in addition, the minor characters don’t take away from the central characters. Same thing happens with books that were written by Margaret Weis, Brandon Sanderson, Terry Goodkind (read Sword of Truth series, books 1-3), Anne McAffery (Dragonriders of Pern books 1-3), Jim Butcher (Codex of Alera, books 1-3), Glen Cook (Chronicles of the Black Company, books 1-3), Dennis McKiernan (Mithgar series, books 1-3), etc.Another thing about the Tiste Edur and Lethari is that there are no patterns in the character’s names of each group. Let me give a Star Trek example, I can tell the distinction between a Klingon name and Jem’Hadar (Dominion), it is very obvious. Here are Klingon names, Gowron, Martok, Worf, Duras, Kor, Kang, Koloth and then here are Jem’Hadar names: Ixtana’Rax, Ikat’Ikah, Kudak’Itan, Talak’Talan, Lamat’Ukan, Arak’Taral, Toman’Torax, Omet’Iklan, Yak’Talan; you can certainly discern a certain pattern in Jem’Hadar names that you don’t see in Klingon names, but I cannot say the same of the Tiste Edur and Lethari. Nonetheless, skirmishes between the Lethari and the Tiste Edur were intriguing. I also don’t understand the difference between the Tiste Andi and the Tiste Edur.Some of the character names are very familiar words—Torrent, Fear, Touchy, Kettle, Wither, Ruin, Grub, Beak, Sort, Bottle, Smiles, Brevity, Bluerose, Hedge, Lookback, Pithy, Fiddler, Stormy, Sands, Cord, Pond, Maybe, Lobe, Tulip, Shake, and on and on. How can you like characters with names like that?! I think the author did that for the sake of humor, I am not laughing! It is okay to have maybe half a dozen funny names, but no more! Very disappointing.The gods storyline is very confusing and hard to follow and comprehend. The details about historical places is extremely highly detailed, evidently that is because the author is an archaeologist. This story converges a lot of characters and groups together which made it amazing and riveting, but it can bring some confusion with it too. The last third of the book is riveting, and breath-taking, lots of stuff happening. There is a great deal happening, a great deal indeed, frankly, evidently, it is amazing, and makes it a page turner. The story flow is better in this book. Additionally, this is one of the longest books in the series.I give this book a rating of 4.

If you like epic fantasy stories, this is a fantastic continuation of the series.

You never know where this story is going. Love it. Great characters in a massive world. Imaginative storytelling from an excellent author

The world made by Steven Erikson is dark, gripping, believable, but also full of fantasy and imagination. Doesn't feel like epic stories, but war stories. All the confusion of the first books makes sense now, when looking back at how the world and stories have been built.This one is specially entertaining, with several characters fully developing.

20% shorter it would be 40% better. Most of the book the author unfold various threads until the expected grand finale. Unfortunately many of those threads err on the long side, it teases you for the big ending but, twhen it comes the ending feels mild in comparison to the wait. There are few prominent characters compared to the rest of the series. And some threads aren't really engrossing. A tighter book would have been more dynamic. There are a few good moment, but overall, the weakest in the series so far.

Very nice