Why, oh why? The British cover is amazing! So why is there a man with a mullet on horseback wearing plate armor for us in America?

I picked up this book on the recommendation of Flog commenter Paul. I liked it. I’m not raving about it, but I definitely liked it and will buy the rest of the series. The author, Steven Erikson, is planning on this being a 10 book series, but each will be stand alone, which is quite interesting. I just ordered #2-5.

This book is DENSE. There is no skimming. No sir. Every page is chock-full of world building and myth creating. Almost to the point of losing the characters for me, but when I sat down and REALLY FOCUSED, it started to weave a hugely complex world in my head and I couldn’t put it down. I admit, I love fantasy fluff, and this took concentration like on a Dickens novel, which, in the end, I think I will appreciate more in the long-term. I definitely was flipping to the glossary and the “cast of characters” a lot.

There are no good guys here. You root for a character and suddenly they die. Oops. There are fascinating interactions between the Gods and mortals that I loved, and the intrigue was very suspenseful. I can’t really summarize PLOT because there is way too much going on to even begin to one-line. Brutal fights, ruthless characters, all yummy. Wars, strange magics, immortals, maniacal puppets, need more?
The one thing that annoyed me was there was a lot of FORETELLING going on in the first half. A lot of alluding to what was coming, what was foretold, what was fated. I wanted it to just happen. Also, his dialogue between characters is very oblique, like a David Mamet play. Sometimes I just wanted characters to say what was in front of them. Obscurity for obscurity sake can get tiring, but then I was hooked back in again and stayed up until 2am reading.

I will definitely stick this out for the rest of the series. It won’t be my light reading, but I will enjoy the challenge. Hopefully, since this was the establishing book, deciphering will be easier in subsequent novels, because he established SO MUCH already. Well, it better be 🙂