Erikson: The Bonehunters

[Jerol]

I finally got time to finish Bonehunters. It was a helluva ride but really left me wanting more, just like A Feast for Crows. I really want to see what happens in the next convergence.

SPOILER: QB and Kalam

Glad to see those two rascals made it through alive (though barely). I'd hunt down Erikson if either of them die before the last book

Lether is sure a long way for the 14th to go if they're heading east (per Wert's map). Is it safe to say they'll go around Malaz and head west, ending up in Bluerose. Far shorter trip, provided Erikson's world isn't flat.

Now I have to go back and read this thread from the beginning, picking up all the spoilers I've been avoiding. And then on to Malazan Empire to argue with those louts.

[Lord Baelish]

I finished a reread of Memories of Ice a couple of days ago, and something jumped out at me. At the point where Itkovian is taking the memories and pain of the T'lan Imass, one of them says this line:

...in the year of the Boken Antler, we found wolf cubs...

Is this a homage to GRRM or a weird coincidence? I know SE has said he hasn't read ASOIAF, but that is just a little bit weird.

[Ten Minute Timer]

I don't see that this needs to be a reference to anything outside of the Malazan series. One of the most sigificant points of pain for the T'lan Imass was guilt for including the T'lan Ay as part of the ceremony as they did not wish to be parted from them. What scene or image could better express that sorrow than the first meeting with them as innocent cubs ?

[Chaldanya]

Chal, are you reading the first book? As people have said (at length and frequently), things get a lot better in the second. But Quick Ben only has a quick cameo in the second volume.

I'm on bonehunters, but having a job of it. I love the books, but this just ain't grabbing me atm.

Quick Ben is my literature boyfriend.

N

[Werthead]

Bonehunters' quality is a bit like a helter skelter. One second you're up, enjoying the ride, then you're slogging through it, then things are good again, then you're down.

Kalam is pretty awesome at the end of the book. Just shy of being ridiculously OTT. Quick Ben does have a brilliant moment a few chapters before that

SPOILER: TBH

in which he single-handedly causes the entire Edur fleet to shit themselves. Shame it was only due to the Eres helping him out. I was actually hoping to see a full-on Edur/Malazan fleet rumble. That would have been awesome. I guess we'll have to settle for the Edur/Malazan army mash-up in Reaper's Gale instead.

[Lord Baelish]

Wert:

SPOILER: TBH

I was a little disappointed by the Eres's role there too, but I still thought that was a brilliant scene. I could just picture it. The Edur preparing a massive wall of chaos to smash people as they have done countless times before, only for an even bigger one to appear in front of them.

I really hate the Eres.

[Brys]

I've just finished the Bonehunters and posted a review on my blog.

I was disappointed by it - it wasn't up to Erikson's usual standard and reminded me a lot of Gardens of the Moon. A lot of it felt forced rather than natural - and bringing back Hedge (ok, even if he is technically dead) was the worst mistake he's made in the series so far. The major deaths also didn't work very well.

[pat5150]

Brys, I'll have to go read your review ASAP. Funny, but I just posted my own book review of The Bonehunters as well!

Patrick

[Werthead]

Your reviews are rather different to one another. Keep it clean, boys. Absolutely no Mystarisms, please

Pat, does this mean that ASoIaF is finally going to be read? I won't believe it until I see it!

[kcf]

Your reviews are rather different to one another. Keep it clean, boys. Absolutely no Mystarisms, please

Hmm...the review I wrote of it a while ago is a bit closer to Brys than Pat's. I enjoyed BH a lot, but IMO it is one of the weakest in the series, and may be the weakest. I think that for me it was the expectations - after the wonderful quality that was MT, I felt let down by BH.

-Brys, I'm enjoying the blog.

[pat5150]

No worries! I'm no Mystar, and I don't think Brys is either! I believe that we started to read the book with opposite expectations, which explains how our reviews differ.

I think the main difference is that I went in there with the knowledge that many fans had been disappointed by the novel. I mean, I have been staying away from any The Bonehunters thread since the book came out, but I've heard what appeared to be the general concensus.

Which, I believe, explains why I might have enjoyed it a little more. Plus, the fact that the plotlines are definitely moving forward helped me get excited.

The no resolution kind of ending would likely have put me off, had I not known that it was the case from the beginning. But it's a transition book, so it couldn't really be helped, I guess.

Yes, Adam, GRRM's ASOIAF is on my list, probably for early fall. At the moment, I'm doing everything I can to try to get my hands on a galley of REAPER'S GALE!

Cheers,

Patrick

[kcf]

At the moment, I'm doing everything I can to try to get my hands on a galley of REAPER'S GALE!

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[ThRiNiDiR]

The Bonehunters took me almost a month too read. I guess that some of the earlier charm of the series that kept me reading late into the night is now gone; but after the rugged month of reading it paid off. My review.

excerpt from the review:

---“Now, prepare to ride – I shall lead, but I shall not once wait for you should you lose the way.â€

---“I thought you offered to guide me–“

---“Of lesser priority now,†she said, smirking. “Inverted in a most unholy fashion, you might say. No, what I seek now is to witness. Do you understand? To witness!†And with that the girl spun round and sped off.

---Swearing, the cutter drove heels into his mount’s flanks, hard on the girl’s tale.---(pg.541)

The above excerpt seems something to reflect Erikson’s attitude/relationship towards the reader. (I've made an intentional lapsus linguae, which makes for a perfect pun)