Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #8)

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Toll the Hounds (The Malazan Book of the Fallen #8)

4.29 of 5 stars 4.29 · rating details · 5,058 ratings · 177 reviews

In Darujhistan, the saying goes that Love and Death shall arrive together, dancing...

It is summer and the heat is oppressive, yet the discomfiture of the small rotund man in the faded red waistcoat is not entirely due to the sun. Dire portents plague his nights and haunt the city's streets like fiends of shadow. Assassins skulk in alleyways but it seems the hunters have...more

Paperback, 944 pages

Published June 30th 2008 by Bantam Press

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Nov 01, 2009 Terence rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Malazan Empire fans

Shelves: sf-fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Addendum (upon second read): After near 800 pages of unrelenting despair and gloom, bombarded by a litany from any number of characters about the uselessness of life, Toll the Hounds ends on a decidedly hopeful note - yes, Anomander Rake is dead but the Tiste Andii have their god back; yes, Darujhistan has been devestated once again and many lie dead. But (if on a less cosmic but no less important note) Harllo is back with his mother, Barathol has Scillara, Picker has Blend, Chaur is safe in the...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Evgeny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Back in Darujhistan things are back to normal with a lot of parties competing for power, money, influence, or just trying to stay alive. The rules of the game are simple: all means of achieving a goal are fine. A number of people came back to the city and they have no idea what to do in there, which leaves a lot of time for them to ponder on philosophical questions. Meanwhile, in Coral (Black Coral now) Anomander Rake does ... well... something - I still have no clue what he did there.

2.5 stars...more Back in Darujhistan things are back to normal with a lot of parties competing for power, money, influence, or just trying to stay alive. The rules of the game are simple: all means of achieving a goal are fine. A number of people came back to the city and they have no idea what to do in there, which leaves a lot of time for them to ponder on philosophical questions. Meanwhile, in Coral (Black Coral now) Anomander Rake does ... well... something - I still have no clue what he did there.

2.5 stars rounding up to 3. The next book in the series with the same writing quality gets 2 stars. This was really painful to read. First and foremost, there were a lot of POVs in the book. The author keeps switching between POVs literally on each page which affected my reading pattern the following way: go to the next page, scan it quickly to figure out which POV I read at the moment - it was NOT obvious - go back to the beginning of page and read it carefully to the end. Repeat until finished. Everybody is a philosopher in Malazan universe, which means for every POV switch we have almost full page of deep (or not so deep) thoughts and a couple of lines of action by the end of the page.

I finished the book, and still the motivation of the majority of characters is still a mystery to me. I mean, a lot of inner thoughts, some action - and not a word about what motivated this particular character to act the way he acted. I had to read three fourths of the book to finally get some vague ideas of what was about to happen, which by that time begin to bother me. This is 'Show, do not tell' idea taken the the extreme.

By the time I finished the book I realized the people in the whole series have no clue what preventive measures are. They all know beforehand that the bad things are coming to them, and nobody lifts his finger to do anything in advance, no kind of preparations until shit really hits the fan. As soon as it happens, people finally start acting - in the very last moment, doing great sacrifices; most of these sacrifices could be easily prevented if somebody bothered to do something (fairly obvious and logical things, too) before the crisis started.

Other nitpick: the whole book is a tale of Kruppe (who, by the way is really boring in this book except for exactly one scene). In each chapter the beginning and the end is told in typical Kruppe manner of speech, but the middle is told in normal way as if the author keeps forgetting is was supposed to be Kruppe who tells the tale.

All in all, one of the weakest book in the series. The only emotion I had after I finished it was relief like one after a great physical effort (which it was - sort of). (less)

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Dec 19, 2011 Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: epic-fantasy

Story: 5/5

1: Being Vague, rambling plot with no little believable storyline
5: Ripping yarn, clever, thought provoking

Toll the hounds is the eight book in the Malazan series. I haven’t read many series this long before, those that I have, had felt like pulp fiction by this stage, where we are just going through the motions of a story with lots of little side plots to keep the author in business. NOT Malazan; Book of the Fallen, this still feels like I am reading the original story and it has tak...more

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Apr 03, 2009 Gordon rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Malazan trilogy addicts who just need to read the next one.

Recommended to Gordon by: No one really, it's a compulsion

Blech. I think that's a word, at least it's onomatopeiac. Anyway, that's how I feel about Toll the Hounds.

I waited a couple of days to write this review, just so I wouldn't be too negative, but I think it's only reduced my invective.

Anyway, after slogging through the 600 or so contract-filling pages I made a concerted effort in the last week to polish this guy off. And succeeded. But it's the weakest Erikson yet. It has hundreds of pages of filler and attempts to add colour (the humour of Kruppe...more

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Nov 28, 2008 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A recent column by Orson Scott Card enumerated four qualities that he felt defined true greatness in novels. Briefly, they are 1) clear writing 2) memorable, powerful characters 3) "pivotal moral and philosophical issues of universal concern," and 4) "such a thorough experience of the culture in which it is set that readers experience and comprehend it as reality, regardless of how far removed from it in space and time they might be." I bring this up because I think that Steven Erikson, in his...more A recent column by Orson Scott Card enumerated four qualities that he felt defined true greatness in novels. Briefly, they are 1) clear writing 2) memorable, powerful characters 3) "pivotal moral and philosophical issues of universal concern," and 4) "such a thorough experience of the culture in which it is set that readers experience and comprehend it as reality, regardless of how far removed from it in space and time they might be." I bring this up because I think that Steven Erikson, in his Malazan Book of the Fallen series, is working toward the kind of greatness to which Card's criteria point. Whether or not he's always successful is another matter, but he has it in his sights.

Toll the Hounds is volume eight in what is projected to be a 10-volume work of epic fantasy. Each novel is, itself, epic in scope: this volume, in a quality paperback edition, clocks in at 829 pages, and though not all entries in the series are quite this long, several are and one or two are longer. That cast here is, as usual, huge. Some of the characters and locales from previous books return here, others do not. At times, the cast seems too big. Some readers will complain about the rapidity with which Erikson shifts point-of-view, but I don't have a problem with that per se. Certainly, I haven't felt it as much of a problem before now. If there's a subtle commentary implicit in the works of writers like Erikson and George R. R. Martin with their large casts, it's that stories on an epic scale that have only one main character are unrealistic. For anything as big as the world-shaking events that high fantasy shoots for, the decisions and motivations of one character just aren't sufficient. One person may be crucial to success or failure, but chances are that another and another (and another and another) also were. As much as we like to tell history as the shaping of great individuals, it's simply not true. The history of World War II is not simply Churchill, Roosevelt, Hitler, and Stalin, much less any one of them. They're necessary but not sufficient. This kind of fantasy acknowledges this complexity.

Toll the Hounds, for instance, culminates in essentially two places with convergences of a large cast of characters in one and a smaller cast in the other. The pages leading up to that point are essentially the stories of how each of those characters arrived at the decisive moments (as well as some side-tracks along the way). In order to get all of these characters' stories in, such shifting of p.o.v. is necessary. At times in this volume, though, I felt like it got to be too much only because it often felt like we weren't getting to know all the characters well enough to care about them as much as the story seemed to indicate we should. I felt the same problem in some earlier volumes, and it's perhaps unavoidable to a certain extent when following armies around--it's hard to keep all the characters straight, much less to care about them. In Toll the Hounds, however, we aren't following armies, and so it seems like Erikson should be able to invest more in these characters, but we flit around so much that it's hard to do. Another author might have made 4 or 5 novels out of the various storylines here, and taken the time to show us these characters more deeply. On the other hand, Erikson might have cut some of the storylines to offer a sharper focus on the ones that remain.

However, as these characters converge by the end, it's easy to see why Erikson included so many--and how could he have added more characterization to an already-long novel without overburdening it?

Nonetheless, I think Erikson is aiming at greatness and coming relatively close. Certainly, his work engages with philosophical issues: at times it seems to do so a bit heavy-handedly, until you step back and realize the depth and variety of the exploration that occurring. Certainly, the cultures here are rendered with a depth that makes them feel more real than reality: at times alien and strange, at times eerily similar to what we see or have seen in our own world, they're always deeply thought-out and rendered accordingly. Certainly, there are characters who command places in our memories, even if some we feel we should like to have known better.

Of course, as the eighth book in the series, I can't really recommend this novel to readers who haven't read the first seven in the series: even having read them, I felt that I suffered for not having read them more recently than I have, but they're so long that I'm holding off on a complete re-read of the series until the whole is finished. (less)

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Feb 16, 2013 Eyjólfur Örn Jónsson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It took me a while longer to get through this installment than the previous ones. Erikson rambles on a bit more than usual here which makes for a somewhat less enjoyable read. However he still manages to deliver some great action and furthers the storyline nicely with some daring moves that I didn´t foresee.
Definitely less enjoyable than the other 7 but seeing as it´s an overall amazing series it still gets my highest recommendation.
Can´t wait to get back to the series after a little detour.

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Nov 19, 2012 Onefinemess rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There may be more spoilers here than in my other Malazan review/rambles because there’s a lot to talk about and some of it would just look silly were I to dance around things.

Well.

This was a strange one, for a number of reasons.

First: The weird Kruppe narrations that open most chapters. WTF? They seem really, really out of place with the rest of the books. I mean, they work as a narrative device and aren’t terribly written, but they are kind of jarring when compared to the 7 or 8 thousand words...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Kiel Van Horn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This may have been my least favorite in the series thus far. If I had to guess, I would say he's a little burnt out when he started writing this one.

Unlike the others in the series, this book didn't have the double climax we've come to know and love. There were some mini-climaxes, mini arcs of intense action, but not on the level of the others that we'd come to expect from Erikson.

He's really unhinged his narrator in this one, also, slipping in and out of viewpoints midcharacter, jumping into...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Zane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Review of the series rather than individual works. Check my star ratings to gauge how the books themselves stack-up. No spoilers. Summary: difficult to get into, post-modern style, well worth the effort, jam-packed with action and complexity and one of my all-time favourite authors.

Erikson writes in a post-modern style. You are catapulted right into the action and exposed to character names, lore references, magical concepts and even fantastical races with no descriptions or explanation provided...more Review of the series rather than individual works. Check my star ratings to gauge how the books themselves stack-up. No spoilers. Summary: difficult to get into, post-modern style, well worth the effort, jam-packed with action and complexity and one of my all-time favourite authors.

Erikson writes in a post-modern style. You are catapulted right into the action and exposed to character names, lore references, magical concepts and even fantastical races with no descriptions or explanation provided. This makes his work very inaccessible to new readers, who may not be as captivated by his world or characters and therefore not see the merit in finishing the books.

This also means that the books are not necessarily in chronological order. Books 2 and 3 take place simultaneously, the first part of book 4 occurs at the same time as events in book 1, book 5 occurs before book 1 etc. While this may seem confusing, and nothing described above is encouraging for someone wanting to start this series, this is actually one of the joys of Erikson's writing.

Fantasy, unlike any other genre, encourages epic plots of unparalleled complexity and intrigue with multiple point-of-view characters engaged in complementary quests. Erikson's style, though not accessible, complements the genre's central themes. Each novel increases your understanding of the world, the magic and races. Rather than bog you down with back-story and exposition, your eyes are opened as the story unfolds without any delays to the narrative.

The jumping around chronologically also allows for increased complexity in the plot, with so many subtle links that you miss. What Erikson has wrought is admirable in scope, as well as how internally consistent it is. Try write a ten book epic that isn't in chronological order, keeping each book as engaging as its predecessors while never once accidentally contradicting yourself - I dare you.

Erikson is also the only writer apart from Robert Jordan who manages to pack action of a cinematic quality into his novels. And unlike Jordan, he maintains the same quality throughout all his novels, never once disappointing.(less)

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May 16, 2011 Lars J. Nilsson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is I'm afraid the low point of the Malazan series. And had this been book 2 or 3 it is possible I wouldn't have continued reading the sequels, and would have been very disapointed. Here's my problems:

1) Occasionally narrated by Kruppe, a character. This is the first time in the series any character gets to narrate, and to introduce it in book 8 feels strange. Also, Kruppe isn't fit to tell a story straight, I found myself so exasperated by the style that I frequently skipped entire section....more

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Mar 31, 2012 Anirudh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

9/10

This is the eighth book in Erikson's Malazan Book Of The Fallen. And it takes the series to new heights. There is a change of writing style in this book as the tale is narrated by Kruppe. As a result, there is commentary at the beginning and the end of each chapter. Also, the tale moves very slowly. Especially, the first 50% of the book contains events whose relevance to the main story line seems questionable. Erikson is very verbose and there are deep philosophical ramblings from almost all...more

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Dec 02, 2010 Tina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It took me awhile to get into this one, mainly because the last one was just so compelling. I don't really care for Darujhistan all that much too, so that was part of it. I sincerely hope this is the last book where this city is the setting. My favorite characters of the series were absent for the most part, disregarding Karsa and Lady Envy, as I adore Apsalar, Cotillion, and the Marine, not Cutter, Kruppe, and the rest of the snobs in the city. I'm not really fond of Nimander either, the snivel...more

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Jun 10, 2012 David Sven rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

I can't say I enjoyed this book as much as the previous book in the series. There seemed to be an excessive amount of introspection and self indulgent musings(yes, more than usual) touching on the usual Steven Erikson favourites ie politics and religion.
Still, when the characters were done playing with themselves (some literally so) we get the customary, second to none, explosive action scenes that keeps me coming back for more.

The story takes us back to Darujhistan, which is a pleasure to revis...more I can't say I enjoyed this book as much as the previous book in the series. There seemed to be an excessive amount of introspection and self indulgent musings(yes, more than usual) touching on the usual Steven Erikson favourites ie politics and religion.
Still, when the characters were done playing with themselves (some literally so) we get the customary, second to none, explosive action scenes that keeps me coming back for more.

The story takes us back to Darujhistan, which is a pleasure to revisit, especially as we get to meet back up with some of our retired veteran Bridgeburners. But even in retirement it appears trouble has a way of finding them out - and look out when it does.

We also get to see a lot of Kruppe who is never short of words and good for a laugh. Iskarel Pust winds up here as well with his worshipping bhokarel in tow - and if those two ever meet up imagine all the words that are going to be spraying then.

Anyway, its festival time in the city of emerald lights and everyone is in party mood. Meanwhile, Death is on the march to our unsuspecting city and Traveller is on his way to have a word or two with Hood, and with him is Karsa Orlong and we know how well Karsa and civilization get along, and former high King Kallor seeing the opportunity presented has no intention of staying away to cash in on the conflagration. And Shadowthrone generously donates The Hounds of Shadow to the party and we all know the Hounds and civilization mix about as good or worse than Karsa.

Will the good (and bad) people of Darujhistan survive this latest convergence? Is anybody looking out for them? Well there's Baruk, and there's Kruppe, a handful of Malazan's.

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on where you are standing there is more at stake than the survival of a city. You see, Chaos is winning the race to catch the Gate of Darkness bound up in Dragnipur - and if that happens then all the universes and warrens turns to crap (apparently), and that is something the Son of Darkness, Anomander Rake, just wont abide.

So its a showdown at the hoe down and there will be lots of blood, brains, guts, severed limbs, slit throats, throw in a few explosive devices and oh . .don't forget to watch out for the undead dragon.

And when everything's turning to custard don't forget to smile as you load your crossbow and sing "Who let the dogs out woof woof woof woof woof."(less)

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Jan 20, 2010 Dhuaine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dark-fantasy, fantasy

I had 2 years break in reading the series. When I finally picked up the 8th volume, I spent first 200 pages wondering who are these people and why should I care. With such a massive scope, the author could have thrown in a couple of sentences reminding the readers what the characters did in the past, especially since they all come from the entire series. Characters from all the volumes spend first 1000 pages of the book (out of 1200) traveling in order to meet in one place (or not; there's at le...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Viridian5 rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

I've enjoyed Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen novels prior to this but couldn't even finish Toll the Hounds. Complaining that a Malazan Book of the Fallen novel has hundreds of characters is like complaining that water is wet: It's self-evident and futile because that's the nature of the beast. The difference is that Erikson doesn't usually flit from one person/group of people to another so quickly that you can't really get into the story or get a kind of reading groove on. I'd get in...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Jakub Reginia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ósmy tom Malazjańskiej wraca tam, gdzie akcja była najciekawsza czyli do Darujhistanu. Nareszcie rozwiązał się wątek Eriksonowskiej Mary Sue, czyli Anomandera - już myślałem, że się nie doczekam.
Tom zdecydowanie na plus, ze względu na rozwiązania wątków kilku postaci. Problem jest tylko jeden. Czemu musiałem czekać na to 8 tomów? Dałoby się to spokojnie zmieścić w 1-2, więc po co się tak rozmieniać na drobne? Poza aspektami prozaicznymy (wydawca płaci, wydawca wymaga), Erikson po prostu uwielbi...more

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Sep 07, 2010 Susanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sff

This one dragged in places, but I love Kruppe, and I was glad to be back in Darujhistan for a while. As always with Erikson, the scope is VAST and there are slightly too many characters, but I like most of them so I don't mind. If I ever meet the author, the one question I'd like to ask him is, 'MUST you always kill everybody?' There better be a good reason for you-know-who to die. Broke my heart.

Also, if Karsa and Samar Dev don't get it on pretty damn soon I shall explode. ;)

I've loved this se...more

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Nov 29, 2008 Muaddib rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think this book embodies so much of what you love and hate about Erikson's writing. There's not another active fantasy writer out there with the epic scope Erikson covers. The down side of that lies in trying to keep track of so many disjoint characters and plotlines. The last 200 pages make it completely worth the read, but it definitely takes some willpower to keep reading all the way through. I didn't initially believe this would be a successful 10 book series, having suffered through Jorda...more

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May 02, 2013 Bill rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Maybe my least favorite book so far in this series? The writing seemed atrocious, either I was just not in the mood for a trashy novel like this or this book was the first to have lots of narrator sections that were also second person narration. Long pages introducing sections that were like, "now see the ox plod down the street. The Ox does not care about men and their things, and observe it deal with flies since it cannot do anything about it." Just bad writing that didn't help the story.

I sta...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thought this book was kind of a mess. First off, Erikson really needs a good editor. Probably four hundred or so unnecessary pages could have been cut out of the book. This book and "Reaper's Gale" contained a lot of subplots that had nothing to do with the main storyline. The parts of the book that had to do with the "Dying God" were a real snoozer.

Furthermore, I'm getting tired of Erikson introducing more and more characters to the series. He should focus on writing about the characters ever...more

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Jul 03, 2009 Lori (Hellian) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The fact that I've read this series back to back with only a few breaks, and only for other books that were group reads, pretty much says it all. This is a series not to be missed.

Other reviews have stated this is too slow-moving, at least until the last 1/3, but I disagree. Sure, there's not as much action and there's more social and political musings, but that only adds to it for me. And there's also complaints that Erikson spends a bit too much time on more minor characters that seem extraneo...more

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Mar 19, 2013 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-sci-fi

Finally.

I don't say "finally" because this book was everything I had hoped it would be; it wasn't. I don't say "finally" because Erikson has blossomed, becoming an even better writer than he seemed to be in the beginning of the series; he hasn't. I say "finally" because I have finally finished this damn book.

Reading this book was a chore. It should be called "Toll the Hounds" because you need the stubbornness of a dog to read it, and boy does it take a toll on you.

Okay, the style of the writing...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Marie Wessels rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

**This Review Contains Spoilers**

What a struggle to get through. The rest of this series read very well and easily but this book took me nearly a month to wrestle my way through it.

My primary problem was that the most of the chapters written in Kruppe's voice (for lack of a better term) seemed so gratuitous. I'm happy for the ox & cart that is there in the end to carry Anomander Rake's body, but jeez, did I really need paragraphs and paragraphs worth of introduction to it?

It felt as though...more

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Nov 29, 2010 Chris Hawks rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

If you've read this far in the series, you should have no problems enjoying this book. It does start out rather slow (and continues for a while as such) as events proceed at a slow boil toward the Big Climax, which takes up the last 150 pages or so, and left me cursing left and right in amazement and disbelief.

I wanted to give this book 4.5 stars (with a half knocked off for the slow pace) but really couldn't justify that rating; as awesome as the ending is, looking back, it's hard to say WHY ev...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Drake rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Erikson is still slowing down. I can simply quote my earlier review:

"He is suffering from the ubiquitous problem of modern fantasy authors- swap thrashing on too many threads. Each book is of noticeably poorer quality than the ones that preceded it, leading me to think that he is also suffering from the apathetic (or disregarded) editor issue. I believe that more than a tenth of the material in this book could have been excised with judicious editing, losing nothing of value and substantially im...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Dan Rheingans rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow. Every Malazan book by Erikson just increases my admiration for his vision and scope in writing. The ending of Toll the Hounds was easily in the top 3 of the series and just jaw dropping. Story threads have so many surprises and events that just make you go "That was awesome." Any book where I can laugh til my side hurts at conversation between characters (Pust and Kruppe! lol!) and the next chapter feel sorrow at the death of another gets a huge thumbs up from me. Overall, a fantastic book...more

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Jun 02, 2011 David Kerr-wilson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

OK - Reviewed Books 1,6 & 10 individually with my opinion. This review is for the series. This whole series in the alternate reality created by Erikson is a great long tale. It is enjoyable, but can be frustrating at times. The author introduces a great many characters, races, nationalities. It is truly epic. It is also truly difficult to keep track of who is who. There are a great many sections that could stand alone as short stories. The concepts and action are well delivered, but the digr...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Toll the Hounds is the eighth book in Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. It was a bit of a change of pace from the previous books of the series.

First of all, there is no real focus on any army or large groups of people. This book is more focused on individuals and small group interactions. Along with the limited focus on individuals, the number of locals visited is also truncated compared to most of the previous novels. The book is centered on the locations of Darujhistan and Black Coral. The...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Valery Tzvetanov rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: of-might-and-magic, legend-wait-for-it-dary

Another piece of the epic puzzle of Malazan. Another tremendous book from Erikson. Another heartbreaking death at the end. Who can ask for more? I really love this series and the epicness of his story. This is by far the biggest world building that I ever had met in my life. I really miss the characters when they die (and believe me they do every single book). Fortunately a single death sometimes is not enough to leave someone off the book . There are so many threads in this series that it’s un...more Another piece of the epic puzzle of Malazan. Another tremendous book from Erikson. Another heartbreaking death at the end. Who can ask for more? I really love this series and the epicness of his story. This is by far the biggest world building that I ever had met in my life. I really miss the characters when they die (and believe me they do every single book). Fortunately a single death sometimes is not enough to leave someone off the book . There are so many threads in this series that it’s unbelievable how easily Erikson manages to interweave them, and ultimately to connect them all together in a way that is both satisfying and unpredictable. He is incredibly good also to give us little hints from the big puzzle and to introduce us, meanwhile , to the personal point of view and all the hopes and pains and suffering of big part of his characters. And all this characters die, are redeemed, reborn, destroyed, forsaken, and sometimes, if they are lucky enough, they can find happiness. At least for a while. The world is changed, undeniably and inevitably, by small and simple things. And every single play, every single action, of gods and men can change the story. I really enjoy reading Erikson and living in his world for a couple of weeks (till I’m reading the next book from the series) and I can tell you also that the pleasure of the reading is bigger when you can share it with a friend. The joy of interpreting every vague hint or the creation of new hypothesis is bigger when you can do it with someone else.
Lets’ look inside Toll the Hounds now. The Crippled God seems to finally have all his pieces aligned against the existing pantheon, but now there's a new player on the table and his name is the Dying God. The Dying God bleeds a powerful narcotic called saemankelyk, which is spreading through Genabackis like wildfire, addicting everyone who consumes it and turning them into fanatic devotees. Meanwhile, forces are gathering once again in Darujhistan and we witness the return of Cutter to his hometown (as well as a few others we haven't seen in a while). To the south, Anomander Rake is preparing for something long-awaited by his people. A small group of Tiste Andii, led by Nimander, as they accompanied Clip, are looking forward for a meeting with Rake. Nimander and Clip are going to face the Dying God and their fate will change drastically from the meeting in the small village on the road. One of the saddest story in this novel is the story of Harllo. The tragic end of his friendship with Bainisk is very touching. Also one can never forget the bravery of Murillio. We see finally Rallick Nom and Vorcan and we understand what happen with them after the encounter with the jaghyt tyrant and how they survived in the finnest house. There is another interesting storyline with the Redemeer ( ex - Itkovian) and how he accepts his new purpose as forgiving god. Karsa is here and the only strange thing about him is that he and Torvald Nom are both in Genabackis, but they never met. However, Karsa have an interesting meeting with the Traveler and they even join forces for a while. And we understand what is his part in the plan to be done. He aims to kill a god. Meanwhile, the immensity of Rake's fore planning, and also of his sacrifice, are mind-blowing. If I can pick one memory that I will think about every time when this book comes to my mind, it will be Anomader Rake and Cladan Brood once again together. For the last time . . .
I really love Malazan world. I’m even starting to consider a complete re-read of the series until the whole is finished. It totally deserved it.
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Aug 18, 2012 Max rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

“The more civilized a nation, the more conformed its population, until that civilization's last age arrives, when multiplicity wages war with conformity. The former grows ever wilder, ever more dysfunctional in its extremities; whilst the latter seeks to increase its measure of control, until such efforts acquire diabolical tyranny.'
- Traveller”

Finally. Finally I can allow myself to give five stars to one book of the malazan series. I liked all the previous books a lot, but I never got around to...more

3 likes · like · see review

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About Steven Erikson

Steven Erikson is the pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin, a Canadian novelist, who was educated and trained as both an archaeologist and anthropologist. His best-known work is the on-going series, the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/steven...

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Books by Steven Erikson

Gardens of the Moon (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1)

Deadhouse Gates (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, #2)

Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #3)

House of Chains (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #4)

Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #5)

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Quotes from Toll the Hounds

“Ah, Meese has brought us her finest goblets! A moment, whilst Kruppe sweeps out cobwebs, insect husks and other assorted proofs of said goblets' treasured value.” — 3 people liked it

“Evil is nothing but a word, an objectification where no objectification is necessary. Cast aside this notion of some external agency as the source of inconceivable inhumanity - the sad truth is our possession of an innate proclivity towards indifference, towards deliberate denial of mercy, towards disengaging all that is moral within us.
But if that is too dire , let's call it evil. And paint it with fire and venom.” — 2 people liked it

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Toll the Hounds (The Malazan Book of the Fallen #8)

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