Crippled God [Mass Market Paperback]

I really enjoyed this series, some books more than others. While this was a decent conclussion I just felt that there was too much left unfinished. The series took on so many story lines and I didn't feel like this book adequately wrapped them all up. Still a good book and a good series.

"The Crippled God" is the final book in the epic "The Malazan Book of the Fallen" series by Steven Erikson. The hard cover book is 928 pages long while the Kindle e-edition is a 1748 Kb download.

I review this book with some ambivalence...on one hand I loved the entire series but yet had some difficulty with Erikson's continual and frequent digressions to confusing side stories (confusing at least to me) and the seemingly unending stream of internal musings by and between many of his characters.

While the tale of Adjunct Tavore and her 'Bonehunters' seemed 'relatively' easy to follow, as did actions of her main opponent, the Forkrul Assail, there were other areas of the book that I had little insight as to what was going on. The entire book seemed to jump around from one story to another; tales that you knew must be related to the main story, but the connection was not easily obvious. And to confuse things further, these side tales where often laced with seemingly private thoughts and often feature protracted discussion about topics I knew nothing about and between characters who seemed to be on the periphery.

As a result, I almost had to study some sections of what might be called a complicated novel. After a while I just started to get weary of continually trying to discern what people were 'really' saying or thinking. While there were thrilling accounts of battles and tactics there were other prolonged (emphasis on prolonged) sections that reminded me of difficulty I had interpreting large sections of the 8th book, "Toll the Hounds"...a book that was probably my least favorite in the entire series.

One of my concerns for this particular novel focused on the fact that there seemed to be no real closure to this tale...no definitive ending where the overall objective of this massive tale was finally met. This tale seemed to finish more as just another rest-stop in the Malazan tales, then the real finale.

In addition there were many loose ends, two examples of many...
1.) Fist Blistig; I believe he survived the final encounter but there was no mention of what Tavore had planned for him because of his suspect behavior. I find it difficult to understand why Fist Blistig was a continual part of Adjunct Tavore's military hierarchy, given his betrayals and questionable intentions. To me an interesting omission that resulted in a frustrating lack of closure on this most interesting Malazan misfit.

2.) Icarium; virtually ignored for the entire novel, yet strangely enough, the last paragraph in the book belonged to him. Why? What did I miss that would provide some sense to this ending?

MAPS:
There was one good map. It focused on Tavore's arduous trek to free the crippled God in the coastal city of Kolanse. A map providing greater detail of the city itself would have helped enormously in following the battle for this important site.

However no map was displayed for the other area of major conflict that occurred in the city of Kharkansis...so the reader had nothing to refer to in the detailed accounts of the battles there. The absence of a second map prevented the reader from telling how close (or far apart) these two major areas were.

Conclusion:
I truly enjoyed this wonderful series. I don't think I've ever seen a writer who developed his characters like Erikson. Giving the reader real insights into their most private thoughts.

I just wish he could have been a little more succinct in some areas and in others, a little easier to read. To me, something is lost in fantasy when a reader must 'study' a work to try to glean its meaning. When you must read and reread a section to try to interpret a passage, only to find out that this particularly difficult passage, that you just spent a lot of energy on, really wasn't so important after all.

I've often wondered during my reading of the last few Malazan novels if Erikson hadn't lost touch with his readers...it just seems to me that he understood what he was telling us...I'm just not sure the majority of his readers were able to grasp what he was trying to say.

If an eleventh book was suddenly announced, would I read it...I'm not sure...probably. In looking back I realize that I did not enjoyed the last few books as much as the earlier ones, and only read the latter ones because I'd invested so much time and energy into the first two-thirds of this series. As a result, I could not, not read the final couple of books.

Rating for this book: The main tale...5 Stars. Clarity and ease of reading (not all areas, but many)...2 to 2 1/2 Stars. Overall 3 Stars

Ray Nicholson

Well, after wrapping up this last tale of the Fallen, I must say that I have mixed feelings.

For the most part, R. Nicholson (previous reviewer) took the words right out of my mouth.

I have yet to discover another fantasy author who quite captured me so thoroughly and kept me so enthralled for so many years. Such a beautifully powerful tale, inspiring so many moments of deep thought and reflection... I'm grateful to have happened upon the Gardens of the Moon by random chance.

However, I must say that the series - especially this last book - had its flaws.

I am certainly, by no means, a novice with difficult reads. I've thoroughly consumed Neal Stephenson, and countless other great writers. Nonetheless, There were many moments that I simply felt lost in the countless spaghetti stranded plot strings, desperately trying to recall what had happened to lead to this, or that. I'd often find myself struggling to pull the meaning of a characters brief interior dialogue, or trying to discern the end result of it. There were many moments of frustration that I simply plowed along through, driven by my history with and overall love for the series.

I was rather disappointed to find that, unlike any previous edition of the series, there were far too many moments within that I simply found myself unable to empathize with the sentiments of the characters. I felt that there was an overabundance of "breaking into a sob" or "lines of tears running down bleak faces" which simply felt hollow. I simply couldn't feel the moments of near weeping that the characters experienced when dealing with the Adjunct. This, and primarily this, was a major anchor to the tale for me. While in other books of the series, there was ample bleakness and a sense of despair, it never felt forced upon the reader, or contrived. In this book, I felt like Erikson was trying too hard to evoke a sense of bleary hopelessness, and the end result was the "law of diminishing returns" rearing its ugly head.

Alas, I digress.

I wish that Erikson could have woven the narrative in a slightly more coherent manner, one that at times did not feel like intruding on a personal stirring of memories that I couldn't hope to fully grasp. However, all things considered, the majority of the series was simply blissful to take in, and for that I am grateful.

This was certainly not my favorite book of the series. It is against the series that I apply my rating of 3 stars. Overall, I was glad to see the series to an end... but looking forward, in earnest, to future works by this brilliant writer.