The violence in this series is brutal and visceral, but never gratuitous. These are stories of true friendships and enduring love stories of the best of humanity in its darkest, and most dire, hours delivered in a prose that is elegant and profound. So much grief, pain, sorrow and regret emanate from within its pages, beautifully tempered with empathy, compassion, kindness, loyalty and honour. He is a master at strumming powerful chords of emotion. Believe me, Erikson will make you care – even for that minor side character that appeared for mere pages. A stellar cast of characters for that matter, for whom any attempt to assuage emotional investment is futile. The narrative is crazily dense, filled with deep melancholic introspection and philosophical discourse, a mind-boggling number of intertwining storylines and a massive cast of characters. Malazan Book of the Fallen is exquisitely soul-crushing and yet it can also make your heart soar – even when you’re crying your eyes out. But, in spite of the work and commitment involved in finishing these ten books, it was also one of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences I’ve ever had.

Erikson has skilfully crafted a story with such breadth and depth of worldbuilding and characterisation, and plot complexity, that it seriously challenges the readers. The word epic does not even seem to do any justice to this expansive tale and the world in which it takes place. The very end of this book was of the most sublime symmetry to the beginning in Gardens of the Moon. All the major open threads and even some smaller ones came together most compellingly. I will also not spend much time relating about this final instalment, save that it was brilliantly handled with an emotionally exhausting, and wholly satisfying denouement. The Crippled God didn’t leave much room for breathers and I am sure this is the least amount of time I’ve spent finishing a novel in this series – the exception being Gardens of the Moon, which is the shortest book by far. The Crippled God is a breathtaking conclusion to an outstanding series Malazan Book of the Fallen is a masterpiece of its genre and has affirmed its place as my favourite epic grimdark fantasy series.

Genre: Epic fantasy, grimdark fantasy, fantasyįirst published: March 2011 by Bantam (UK) and Tor (US) Series: Malazan Book of the Fallen (Book 10 of 10)

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