Stefan's Reviews > Reaper's Gale

"Never mind the truth. The past is what I say it is.
That is the freedom of teaching the ignorant."

You know, we spend our lives in ordinary mundane affairs. We behave in a mundane way, we dress in a mundane way. We walk to the office, we work in the office, we come home on the train, we say hello to our family and then we die.
And then Erikson comes in and reminds us that we have another whole world of passion, of love, of frustration, of sorrow, of tragedy, of desire. You know, the entire range of human emotions available – through a book.

It is a remarkable window, this book. It provides a good time, or an adventure, or an escape.
Or even an excuse for us to be heroes, or a part-time villains (because, let’s be frank, nobody wants to end up a villain forever after).
It provides an access to someone else’s train of thoughts and within it a whole new point of view, of this imaginary world, or perhaps, even the real world that surrounds us.

Reapers Gale is a seventh book in The Malazan Book of the Fallen series and twenty first on my chronological reading order which includes both Steven Erikson’s and Ian C. Esslemont’s work.
The story in it follows one year after the events from previous two books, Midnight Tides and Bonehunters.
We’re back on the continent of Lether where we finally witness convergence of the characters and collision of their respective worlds, philosophies, powers, swords and – cussers.
Oh yes. Malazans are here.

Empire of Lether is conquered by Tiste Edur. On the throne sits Emperor of Thousand Deaths – Rhulad, surrounded by Lether bureaucrats, which successfully isolated him from his fellow tribesmen, leaving him all alone with the whispers of previous betrayals, doubts and regrets.



Two opposing people now found themselves united, exploiting fallacies of each other’s systems of power and hierarchical structures: Edur got the crown – but does the crown wield real power?

“The winners never won, because the losers refused to lose. An insane war.”

Tiste Edur struck, then Kingdom of Lether, pre-emptively, in response to the threat of losing their land and resources. A sort of economic war that, through fighting to avoid cultural assimilation and end of their independence, quite paradoxically grew into conquest of their own.
But, within a year of their occupation of Lether people, they have realized that a far more subtle conquest had taken place – conquest of which they were the losers.

“They are here. On this shore. The Malazans are on our shore. And they burned their ships.”

Finally, on the distant, never before explored continent, Malazan professional soldiers get to do what they were made for. Away with the columns, away with the marches, belay with the orders of the high command and their chess wars. Now it’s the time for Guerilla warfare. And Malazans are bloody and vicious in it.

After seemingly losing their purpose, cursed in endless following bloody footsteps in the shadows of their predecessors, never to fulfill their expectations, Bonehunters are lost.
There are big shoes to fill: Dassem Ultor, first sword of Empire. The legendary Bridbeburners. Worshiped Coltain’s 7th army. Each name heavy with legends of their deeds, justified with their purpose.
Bonehunters were hurt. They are taking everything away from them. First battle. First win. Their own people doubted in legitimacy of their actions, they even tried to take the truth from them.
Well, Adjunct Tavore of the house Paran, will have none of that.

“Compassion is never enough. Nor is the hunger for vengeance.
But, for now, for what awaits us, perhaps they will do.
We are the Bonehunters, and sail to another name. Beyond Aren, beyond Raraku and beyond Y’Ghatan, we now cross the world to find the first name that will be truly our own. Shared by none other.
We sail to give answer.”

While we wait for inevitable clash between the Empires, others are questing.

Tiste Edur Fear Sengar and albino Tiste Andii Silchas Ruin are on a quest of finding the soul of Edur’s deity Scara Bandaris, Scabandari Bloodeye, but each with their own purpose. One to ask his God to help his hostage brother, the other, seemingly on quest for vengeance against that God, because in distant past, he was betrayed and stabbed in back by him.

Other quest involves another Tiste Edur, Trull Sengar, a T’lan Imass Onrack T’emlava and a wizard Ben Adaephon Delat, who are send to find ‘the borders of a dreamworld.’

Of course, as with every other of his books, we are introduced with a complete new cast of characters, tribes and nations.
This time those are united tribes of Awl that rebel against oppressing Letheri Empire, led by Redmask, a mortal sword of K’Chain Che’Malle. Which, of course, means that at his side he has two beautiful beasts, K’El hunters Sag’Churok and Gunth Mach.

And combined, they are as vicious and deadly as they are beautiful.

And, of course, Karsa’s there. Glorious in his character's mediocrity.
I know that there are a lot of fans of this character. To me, however, he brings this sense of boredom and predictability, something that I'm not used reading in these books.
But, I have complained about him and explained my reasons why I feel like that in depth in reviews for previous books, so I'm not going to do that again.

I guess that, after seven books in the series you highly enjoy reading, it's not that strange finding yourself at a loss of superlatives. Mainly because you don't want to sound repetitive. Saying again and again, how this is, in your honest opinion, the best high fantasy series - ever.
So, instead of repeating what's already established and exploring that in depth yet again, I mainly want to focus on problems and acknowledge that they exist in this book.

It takes a while for this book to start, sort to say. Although we begin with known characters, and while we are getting familiar with new setting and the surroundings, first time we actually feel like at home, is when Bonehunters enter the fray.
And the reason behind that, in my opinion, is because of what they bring.
Change of pacing, which until that point felt slow and repetitive, substantially gets better because of the structural narrative of how they were portrayed in this book.

Bonehunters, as a unit, are spread out all around the empire in minor units consisting of 15 soldiers.
Many of which get their own point of view.
And this, besides making pacing better, works on other levels as well, like getting familiar with the soldiers, which means that departure with them will be harder.
And I'll stop there.

Sheltatha Lore, Sukul Ankhadu, Menandore rift.
(Going from three-dimensionality of a character to only one):

This is a problem that partially will have people who've read Kharkanas prequels.
Those of you who have read Kharkanas prequels already met these three sisters/cousins and explored some of those characters in depth, as well as members of their families.
Especially Sukul Ankhadu, who has a prominent role in those books, a character who is highly likable, and also, why not, both understandable and relatable.
So, it's much explored in depth characters that, in this book, you couldn't have possibly feel that.
Actually, if you remember what I have said here about Sukul Ankhadu while reading the book, you would probably think me mad.
That's because, sadly, she and her sisters/cousins are nothing but words on a paper. There's no depth whatsoever about these characters.
(But they veer into dragons and provide great battle sequences, so I guess, some of you are here for that...)

After Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice, this is probably the toughest to get through emotionally.
Those of you who have read these two books I have mentioned, probably know that Deadhouse Gates is tough to go through mostly because of the themes that exploits, while Memories of Ice, on the other hand, is excruciatingly hard because of the characters and your emotional investment in them.
Reapers Gale combines both of that, just in a slightly lesser quantity.

In conclusion: brace yourselves. Each for different reasons.
Not an impeccable book, but highly enjoyable.



3.83/5

Kharkanas Trilogy
Forge of Darkness
Fall of Light

Path to Ascendancy series
Dancer's Lament
Deadhouse Landing

Malazan Empire series
Night Of Knives
Return of the Crimson Guard

Malazan Book of the Fallen series
Gardens of the Moon
Deadhouse Gates
Memories of Ice
Midnight Tides
House of Chains
The Bonehunters

Ultimate Malazan Chronological Reading Order