Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen - Page 2

The first three books (Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice are the second and third) deal primarily with the Empire's internal strife, as it expands and consolidates its position through conquest and the suppression of rebellion. Enemies become allies, the dead are reborn as children, men become Gods, and the Gods walk among men as we travel across two continents through desserts, plains and across seas. Through it all march the men and women who are soldiers in the armies. People who cry and swear, kill their officers if they get out of line and battle with weapons (swords, lances, and shields) of hand-to-hand combat. There is no way to shirk the responsibility for your actions. You look into the eyes of the person you kill.

Then there's the magic that wafts through the weave of all their lives. Deadly and unpredictable, as capricious as the gods whose power it reflects. The magic is sourced from the warrens of the Gods. Pathways through worlds and times, they have the potential to carry a person further than their wildest dreams or nightmares. Each mage's power rests on the ability to access a warren, and channel its force through themselves and transmit it into action. One warren may create illusions, another give the wielder the power of fire, or the power of the earth to harness. They are as unique as the Gods who created them.

The fourth and fifth books (House of Chains and Midnight Tides) bring more forces into play. A powerful people have reappeared on the scene looking to regain a lost empire. They have entered into a deadly bargain with an angry god, who is seeking to destroy those who chained him and wreak vengeance on a world that has crippled his body. All along he has been lurking in the background, assembling his acolytes and slowly poisoning the earth goddess. Now he has enthralled a people with the promise of a return to past glory. But since they have no memories or records of their past, how can they be sure it was glorious?

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the recently published What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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