Letʼs prepare ourselves for the third novel from the famous fantasy masterpiece series Malazan book of the Fallen. Memories of ice will change everything we thought we new and understood and will rob us of some excellent and important characters.
Revealing history, explanations, manipulations, lies and secrets, brutal and disgusting battles with heroic sacrifices will show us, what desperate and hopeless warriors and civilians are able to do to stay alive and fight for their believes and their leaders.
I am starting honest here, I read the second novel Deadhouse Gate a year ago, because of that it was hard for me to get into this book, characters, geography and story. It took me around one hundred from the nearly one thousand pages to finally find my way around the enormous number of characters. The first difference I found here was that in this book we are continuing with the same characters as in the previous books, while the second book was concentrating on the introduction of new characters. That helped, since I am collecting this series in a special edition, where a book is published just once a year. That means I have quite the plan for the following seven years. Another thing I found complicated was and is the pronunciation of basically every name and rase in this series, but that is quite usual for this genre. Everyone of us is creating their own pronunciation in their heads anyway and then is googling the correct one.
I will start with a quote: „Peace is a period waiting for war“. Please be aware, I read this book in Czech language, so the quote does not have to be precisely the same as in the original version. I found it very true, realistic and sad. Now to the Tʼlan Imass. They are becoming my favourites. They have not had that much screen time, but their impact to the story is immense. The KʼChain CheʼMalle as a one of the founding intelligent races are for me bit Sci-Fi, but in my imagination, they look like dinosaurs with swords, which deserves a plus point to the creativity of the author. That they are highly intelligent, dangerous and deadly is another point. Sadly, there are extinct and we meet the undead Kʼell Hunters. In the end of this book, we received a complete explanation of their life and hierarchy, which I was a fond of. Some words to the Barghasts, they will be very important in my opinion, but they show barbaric features, like fighting to death just out of boredom. They could spend those souls better. We even have Necromants brutally killing and stealing human hearts. I suppose we will later on find out for what it was intended. Now, the disgusting people, The Tenescowri with their leader Anaster called First Child of the Dead Seed were something else. We have here some undead, some dinos with swords, but these were another level for me. The way how children of the dead seed are conceived tells us a lot about their mentality and life choices. I asked myself how the author came up with something like this, it is rather interesting. The strong influence of Anasterʼs mother on him was noticeable and most of the time it is showing nothing good. What I have to point out is the desperation and starvation of those people. Their leaders were sick in the head, and were cannibals for their good feeling, but the people were brought to their limits and beyond. What they did to Capustan and those inhabitants. Well, that was the hardest part to read.
The great city of Capustan and it’s fall. In my reading history, I haven’t read anything like this. That was pure carnage that I can compare to a zombie apocalypse. This whole part was for crying. It was sad, almost everyone died in the fight, the city has fallen, Tenescowri are eating the fallen in the streets. The city guardians are becoming monsters out of necessity. Example for that, was Gruntle reinforcing the building with dead bodies to keep the remaining people alive, was like the movie „The 300”. It was really hard to read and the author didn’t write anything with a sentimental touch. The scene in the palace where Anaster skinned the prince before he cooked and eat him was unhuman. Here I asked myself what is wrong with the author to write or even come up with something like this. And then I asked myself what is wrong with me to continue to read this until the end. The first book was a masterpiece, the second was complicated, but from the plot side it was splendid. Here I really started to pray for a change in the plot. It came… To change the subject from cannibalism to rape, because of course wars and battles are not merciful to anyone. In the beginning of the fall of the city, I found the scene with Gruntle and Stonny leaving the gates, because she was raped bit odd. Not the heroic part, where he helped her, but they just left to be save in a flat somewhere in the city, which was under a heavy attack. No place in that radius was save. Bit of political manipulation. The example of the Tenescowri villagers was too real. Before and during the attack they were important and useful. They were manipulated, influenced, abused and brought into the corner. When they were not needed anymore, they were thrown away left to die, slaughter by the rival army. It shows to what can be people pushed in difficult times.
Let’s focus on the characters. Some of them really grown close to my heart, but I would not be a great fond of Gruntle and his company. It is hard to describe what triggered me that much about him, but something is in the bushes with him, which I can not identify right now. On the other hand, Anomander Rake, Quick Ben, Whiskeyjack, Dujek Onearm and Paran with the members of the Bridgeburners are excellent characters in creation. The whole company of Dujek Onearm, specifically the Bridgeburners are for me a chaotic, funny group with sarcasm and insulting jokes always prepared, but without batting an eye would give up their lives to save each other. Quick Ben was for me the right hand of the leader always in background doing some secret moves to save the day, or at least some souls. The character with the biggest development was for me Paran, who changed to a powerful and respected captain of the Bridgeburners. To that he was chosen as a Master of the Deck. His relationship to Silver Fox was complicated and for me without any hope for future happiness. What really intrigued me was his visit to Dragnipur, the sword wielded by Anomander Rake capturing all soul of people killed by it. The description of the wagon drawn by the soul was a small show leading to a great catastrophe. I don’t know if a sword can come up to a favourite list of characters, but it has some soul to it. If you understand the joke…
We are also able to read about some romantic relationships, mainly between Whiskeyjack and Korlat. They had potential, but the author had other plans for them. When we are already mentioning Whiskeyjack, as the second hand and commander to Dujek Onearm, he was a calm, realistic, rational and tactical man. Sad to see his end in this novel.
Anomander Rake, come on, an unimaginable powerful, few millennials old Lord of the Tiste Andii with an immense residence on a crock floating in the air. That he changes into a dragon are infinite plus points from me. That is a character I can call cool and impressive. All of the characters and their relationships are extremely complicated and so interconnected, one may get lost in them. It is so rich, that I can not contain all of them in this review without having ten pages.
The Battle of Black Coral was an indescribable creation of the author. The length of the battle was accurate; in Czech language it took around two hundred pages, so it wasn’t too long or too short. The reader was still hipped, because so many things were happening, it was thrilling until the end. It was battle, not a monstrosity as in the Siege of Capustan. Not saying any battle is good or bad, but what happened in Capustan was a slaughterhouse. It was described from multiple points of view, it was unmerciful, bloody and thrilling. The prior secret attack of the Bridgeburnes shows the incredible power of true soldiers of a special force. I really hoped more of them would survive, to see them in following books. The betrayal from Kallor was feasible and awaited, mainly since the smirk on his face after the departure from Caladan Brood masked as reinforcement for Whiskeyjack. Whiskeyjack deserved a more courageous death, that was a great loss. But in this series is possible anything, so hopefully we will meet his character again.
„Where history means nothing, and every lesson is forgotten, memories of humanity, all of that is human, are lost“. Nothing describes this book or wars better than this quote. People donʼt learn from the past, they tend to repeat the same mistakes all over again. The first half of the book was slower evolving, we got bit drama when Lady Envy with Garath and Baaljagg destroyed the temple, which was an example of power, not just from her side, but also from her companions. Then, the Siege of Capustan has thrown us right into the bloody battle, after that we had the big final fight. I got the feeling from this book, that itʼs purpose is mainly to be a bridge of understanding of the characters, powers, races and political manipulation for the following ones. Still, it was missing the final touch to achieve the greatness of the first book. Nevertheless, I can not wait to read the fourth book.