Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson

[Lord Baelish]

I've changed my name to reflect my new favourite MBotF character, and one of my favourite characters in all of fantasy. Kallor kicks some serious arse in this book.

[poeticfantasy]

I've changed my name to reflect my new favourite MBotF character, and one of my favourite characters in all of fantasy. Kallor kicks some serious arse in this book.

I second this, he is my favorite character. My fav quote of the books might be: "But then, as Kallor would point out, someone was always saying something. Until he got fed up and had them executed."

[burnt hound]

Great novel. Loved it . The ending is awesome. Mmmm, wish that more novels could end in such a kickass way. Nice that SE included so much of what has happened before, like the history of Mother Dark/Anomander Raake and other things.

Nice about the misdirection about the Tyrant too.

SPOILER: Tyrant

Read the whole thing thinking "he's the Tyrant" about Kallor, since he was going to the city for a throne. he's not is he. But I thought soo for a long time.

Well, when is the next novel coming out then???

[Werthead]

Well, when is the next novel coming out then???

I believe it's pencilled in for July 2009. Erikson said he's between a quarter and a third done with it, and thinks he'll finish it in the autumn.

The interesting thing is that there will be no time or location shift between Books 9 and 10, and in fact both are one huge novel that he split for size purposes, and interestingly did this when he broke down the original outline for the series which was nearly a decade ago now. That's impressive pre-planning.

[Anomandaris Dragnipurake]

It's here! I just love Amazon now despite their high delivery fees. Now I have to refrain myself from reading TtH and start Night of Knives first.

[Rhaco]

Mine came this weekend. Liked what I read early... but, well, I have a nasty habit of sometimes flipping to the back of a book and reading a few pages. I did that here, and I was not pleased by what I read there. Not pleased at all. It'd be like Jon dying in ADWD. I've lost a lot of interest as a result. I might get around to finishing the book sometime, but it's going to the bottom of the pile for now.

[Ran]

So, I know almost nothing of what happened in the last two books, not having read them. But since this largely revisits characters from before... who dies, and what are the biggest revelations (if any)? Remember to spoiler protect.

[Gormenghast]

Well, I haven't read spoilers nor anything past book 2, but after these comments I'm pretty sure of who's the famous death.

My hope is that it's worthwhile. Knowing who dies isn't all that important, it's how and why.

[Relic]

i paid the price of the book in shipping but im gettin it tomorrow and am excited.

[Lord Baelish]

Ran: (And these are MAJOR spoilers, so read at your peril)

SPOILER: TtH

Major deaths:

Hood

Anomander Rake

Those are the real biggies. Though there is a good chance that Hood hasn't actually died (and this isn't one of Erikson's copouts, either ). There are other deaths, but those two really overshadow the rest.

Hood has stepped down from being King of High House Death, so now either someone else will have to step up to the place or, as Hood suggested, each god will have to look after his own followers. He has closed the gate to his realm, too, so the souls have nowhere to go. He used the souls he had already collected (including Whiskeyjack, Toc, Brukhalian and Bult!) to battle the chaos inside Dragnipur.

Rake got killed by Dassem Ultor so he could get into Dragnipur. There, he sort of combined himself with the gate to Kurald Galain, making Mother Dark come back to look after her Andii in Black Coral.

We meet Gothos again and also the Builder of the Azath, which is a rather major revelation. It looks like Gothos had the Builder building them to order, until Nimander set him free.

Dragnipur got destroyed by Brood and his Hammer.

There are Hounds of Light and quite possibly Hounds for all the other houses in the deck too (I want to see Hounds of Death!).

Draconus and the others in Dragnipur (including Hood presumably) have been set free. An undead Edur Soletaken dragon that created the Hounds of Shadow is now free and allied with the CG. Itkovian is now a god, the Redeemer.

Whew. That should do for now.

[Ran]

SPOILER: Toll the Hounds

Oh. People never die for good. I don't imagine Rake will stay inside that gate forever, eh? And Itkovian ... meh. Sort of cheapens the catharsis of his end in MoI, for me, but I suppose I should have known.

What I want to know is, has Rallick Nom showed up since ... let me see, was it in Deadhouse Gates that Kallam glimpsed him and Vorcan passed out in an Azath or something? He was always the most infuriating loose end for me, because it was a rather minor detail but I was fixated on it when I was reading the series.

[DemiNymph]

The spoilers are so tempting. But I shall resist!

Does anyone know why it is so goddam hard for them to distribute SE's books to Singapore? Borders only had the last one in after 8 months it was out. I would hate to wait so long.

[Lord Baelish]

SPOILER: Toll the Hounds

Oh. People never die for good. I don't imagine Rake will stay inside that gate forever, eh? And Itkovian ... meh. Sort of cheapens the catharsis of his end in MoI, for me, but I suppose I should have known.

What I want to know is, has Rallick Nom showed up since ... let me see, was it in Deadhouse Gates that Kallam glimpsed him and Vorcan passed out in an Azath or something? He was always the most infuriating loose end for me, because it was a rather minor detail but I was fixated on it when I was reading the series.

Ran:

SPOILER: TtH

Itkovian's return doesn't really cheapen it, but it's something you would have to read to really get it. I'm no good at explaining things.

Rallick Nom went into the Azath in GotM and Paran saw them in MoI. He and Vorcan both get out early on in TtH. It was one of the more disappointing things for me, though. There was no big event that woke them up. Raest just kicked Rallick in the head. And when they did get out, they didn't really do a lot.

[kcf]

Hey, how about people start a spoiler thread?

[Jerol]

Must...resist....reading...spoilers I have to wait until September...

[Slick Mongoose]

I finished it last night, and it's the worst malazan book i've read yet. I enjoyed all of the previous 7 a lot, but this book is a turgid mess. Don't get me wrong, there's a good 400-page book in there somewhere, fighting to come out from a mass of tedious pointless drivel. His penchant for trying to provide profound truths in every single bloody paragraph drove me up the wall. Either Erikson needs a better editor, or he needs to start listening to his editor.

The ending is great, and there's a lot of good action in there, not just at the end. Just skim-read the internal monologues and the scene-setting (as written by Kruppe.... I like him in small doses of dialogue, not writing the book), and you'll probably enjoy it.

[kcf]

finished it. It has some issues, but I have to say that this is a vast improvement over tBH and RG - in fact right now I'd rank it up very close to MT as my favorite of the series. I need to sleep on it and write out a review. For all the mess that this series is, Erikson is writing the most powerful fantasy series I've ever read.

[Gormenghast]

Qualify "mess"?

[kcf]

Qualify "mess"?

that would take way more words than I have in me at the moment.

[Mexal]

I just received my copy today but I can't start it yet because I'm a bit more than halfway through River of Gods and really enjoying it. I will be tempted to drop it though...