Jump to content

Erikson's Reaper's Gale book review


pat5150

Recommended Posts

Hi guys!

First of all, let me begin by offering many thanks to both Simon and Sam at Transworld for allowing me to get an early read of Reaper's Gale. I'm really grateful for this opportunity! :D

As I said before, for my money this book is one of the best in the series, second only to Memories of Ice and Deadhouse Gates. At times it feels as though it contains more surprises than the rest of the volumes combined. Heed my advice: Expect the unexpected! ;)

The book review is rather long, especially since I included a plot summary, something I seldom do. All spoiler-free, of course! So if you want to get an idea of the various arcs that comprise Reaper's Gale, check it out.

Definitely one of the best fantasy books of 2007, if not the very best! Check out the book review on the blog.

Cheers,

Patrick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, that's spoiler-free? Considering the summaries of all of those plot threads, it seems pretty, uh...spoilery. But maybe all of that is cleared up in the first 50 pages or so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Erikson usually within the first 50-100 pages of his novels introduces the major plotlines of the book. Then they progress through the story. So not really a huge spoiler to me. In fact most of those are just continuations of things that started in books 5 and 6.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, that's spoiler-free? Considering the summaries of all of those plot threads, it seems pretty, uh...spoilery. But maybe all of that is cleared up in the first 50 pages or so.

Kalbear,

Those are just the main plotlines, many of which we've known or inferred for a while now.

The plot summary was just meant to whet fans' appetites, and I daresay it worked! :smoking:

Patrick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pat, very interesting review, I feel that the plot indications that you gave really added to the review and gave a good sense of what one will actually be seeing in general terms. From the sounds of it I'm thinking this may well be better than DHG or MoI though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great review, and I agree that it wasn't spoilery at all. I hope it proves one of the better book of the series (though for me no book with Karsa Orlong will ever fully match the books he's not in).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, pat,

SPOILER: speculation on the review
you seem to say in your review that Icarium dies. I hope he at least goes down in a blaze of glory, if I'm right.

Good thing if Erikson starts tying the loose ends together and structuring the plot a bit more, I'm curious about the direction the story will take.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SPOILER: spoilery
Hey, pat, you seem to say in your review that Icarium dies. I hope he at least goes down in a blaze of glory, if I'm right.

Good thing if Erikson starts tying the loose ends together and structuring the plot a bit more, I'm curious about the direction the story will take.


If you mean this quote

I'll tell you that one death in particular is as important -- at least to me -- as the one that shocked readers in Memories of Ice.


then I disagree. There are plenty of characters whose death would be as shocking as Whiskeyjack's was. Icarium, yes, but also Quick Ben, Paran, Rake, etc. Even Karsa, if only because of his ridiculous uber-ness.


Edit: spoilered
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
So who else is reading the book now? Maltaran? KCF? Jay Tomio? What are yout thoughts?

I started it, but for some reason decided to reread House of Chains real quick (as I had Night of Knives and Bonehunters last week) as part of a pet project on a rough outline involving the Malazan setting (as I feel that most I have seen seem to have started with great enthusiasm but ended abruptly). I'm about halfway through House of Chains - then I'm doing the Lynch review than will get back to Reapers Gale. David Anthony Durham interview should see the light of day later today or tomorrow - dude really comes off well.

Not on topic but House of Chains really starts a bit more ponderous than I previously remembered .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This book is due in the shops any day now, so I'm hoping to be able to pick it up (budget permitting) ASAP.

Gollancz allowed you to save enough dough these last few weeks to be able to afford this one, methinks! :P

Patrick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So who else is reading the book now? Maltaran? KCF? Jay Tomio? What are yout thoughts?

My main thought is rather spoilerish, so I'm going to put it in spoiler text.

SPOILER: Reaper's Gale
What the hell happened to Icarium?

I'm no good at doing reviews, so I won't try writing one. I'll just say that this is, in terms of ranking within the series, not as good as MOI or DHG, but better than BH or HOC. Probably similar to MT, which is unsurprising, given that the first half of the book consists almost entirely of characters from MT (the Malazans don't turn up till halfway through). In summary, a solid book, but not the best of the bunch.

Oh, and Tehol has a quote regarding evil chickens, which I've posted in the Goodkind thread where such things belong. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...