The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

There are some things that must be shared immediately. Steven Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen series has been among the highlights of the past few months for me, and finally relinquishing Book VI of it, The Bonehunters, made me realise how overdue this is. Since I realise that anything I have to say about it will sound like pure propaganda, the word 'review' is clearly inaccurate. Therefore, I now present to you: The Steven Erikson Manifesto.

The world of The Malazan Book of the Fallen is a bleak and difficult one. It is war-ridden in the most frightening way, so that war is the only way of life. And as we read further, we realise that this has always been so. The word fantasy is clearly a misnomer - this is not the kind of world you want to fantasize about.

In the present, the Malazan Empire — the all-powerful force, against whom so many of our protagonists are pitted — is largely a background force, but one that is repeatedly revealed to be behind some large bit of the action. It controls vast amounts of land and people, yet its existence is as precarious as that of any of the millions of individual soldiers dying in its armies. (Not surprisingly, the army is pivotal – most of the action and the deep thinking happen in the camps.)

Intrigue levels are so high that the first three or four chapters of every book are completely baffling – you read blind, in the expectation of learning to see if you do it long enough. This isn't a bad thing, though – Erikson drops enough hints to keep you fully occupied, so it's like doing a cryptic crossword where if you get enough clues, you can begin to see the letters and fill in the last, tough ones. Only, it turns out, this entire crossword is just one tenth of the big one.

We all know — theoretically — how important backstory is to a fantasy world, for without it there is no motivation, and the characters and plot become irrelevant to themselves. Very much like a detective novel, in fact. History is one of Erikson's strong suits – he uses it to enrich and legitimise his books, just as the books themselves flesh it out. In some ways the Malazan series is like a giant detective story, where each book is one chapter, dropping tantalising clues, and building up to the denouement in the last book.

Article Author: Shalini Srinivasan

Shalini Srinivasan spends most of her time avoiding work in a desperate attempt to not have a life. Sometimes when this backfires, and she does acquire one, she is surprised to find it is very much like the rest of her time.

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