REVIEW: The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson

The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson
Publishing Information: 2006 (first publishing) 2008 (current edition)
Publisher: Tor Fantasy, Mass-Market Paperback, 1211 pgs
ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-4883-8
Series: Malazan Book of the Fallen #6 (of 10)
Reviewer: Andy
Copy: Out of Pocket

Synopsis: (from back cover): The Seven Cities Rebellion has been crushed. Sha'ik is dead. One last rebel force remains, holed up in the city of Y'Ghatan under the fanatical common of Leoman of the Flails. The prospect of laying siege to this ancient fortress makes the battle-weary Malazan Fourteenth Army uneasy. For it was here that the Empire's greatest champion, Dassem Ultor, was slain and a tide of Malazan blood spilled. A place of foreboding, its smell is of death.

But elsewhere, agents of a far greater conflict have made their opening moves. The Crippled God has been granted a place in the pantheon; a schism threatens and sides must be chosen. Whatever each god decides, the ground rules have changed irrevocably, terrifyingly, and the first blood spilled will be in the mortal world.

A world in which a host of characters, familiar and new, including Heboric Ghost Hands; the possessed Apsalar; Cutter, once a thief and now a killer; the warrior Karsa Orlong; and the two ancient wanderers Icarium and Mappo, each searching for such a fate as they might fashion with their own hands, guided by their own will. If only the gods would leave them alone, but now that knives have been unsheathed, the gods are disinclined to be kind. There shall be war, war in the heavens. And the prize? Nothing less than existence itself…..

Having completed five of Erikson's colossal Malazan books to this point, I knew what I was getting into: epic battles, a very large dose of magic, and plenty of head-scratching. When Erikson writes, he prefers to be oblique and mysterious. There are many scenes where instead of simply naming which character is part of the action, Erikson prefers to leave that characters name mysterious, in order to make you guess who it is. Other times, characters perform completely unintuitive actions, often in supernatural ways in which the rules haven't been fully explained, while hundreds of characters and plotlines are all becoming blurred in a dull fog in the reader's mind….

Okay - maybe that is simply my experience when reading the series. But what can I say? I masochistically keep reading this series because its epic and enormous in vision - so much that I can't look away. I am simply hypnotized by the detail and enormity of the Malazan world while I'm trying to hush the fear in the back of my mind that Erikson is making it all up as he goes along…..

The Bonehunters, however, is a book that restored some faith in the overall direction of this series. Where many characters have been separated by thousands of miles and oceans, there have been more convergences in this installment. The overall storyline is starting to take shape here - emerging into what looks like a final battle. In this book, characters mention a cataclysmic war among the gods that will take place. We finally begin to understand the motives of some gods as they ally with the Crippled God, while other gods stand in opposition.

But, where other books in the series could stand alone and deliver a conflict, climax and resolution, the structure of the Bonehunters seems a bit scattered. This was probably necessary - Erikson needed to transport many of his characters to get them in the right places while forming alliances and rivalries for what will become a final battle. The book seem transitional in that sense. However, in this this book it is at last becoming more clear which side many of the characters will be on for that battle.

My advice: Don't begin this series unless you like puzzles and you are up for a major project with plenty of time on your hands. There are so many RAFO's (read on and find outs) in this series, Erikson is asking you to have enormous faith in him as an author to resolve all these questions. However, if you are up for that sort of thing you are in for a wild ride. While this particular book doesn't live up to the highlights of the series like Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice or Midnight Tides, it has has indicated that the series is finding some direction. Instead of introducing forty more new characters Erikson has found some paths for the ones he already has, and as a reluctant fan of Malazan, it has me optimistic…..


Plot……….6/10

Characters………8/10

Style………..8/10

Overall……….7.5/10