A Voice & Vibe Book Review
๐บ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐๐. Steven Erikson. 1999.
Canadian literature. Military fantasy. Epic fantasy. High fantasy. Dark fantasy. First book of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series.
When a ruthless Empress targets her own troops for elimination during a brutal war, a demoted sergeant and a young nobleman are forced to navigate deadly internal politics and meddling gods to survive the conquest of a legendary citadel.
This is a polyphonic military fantasy shared by as many as 33 point-of-view characters, depending on how you count them. The narrative distance varies from close to limited and omniscient. And there is quite a bit of genuine head hopping.
All of the world building comes through context clues, beginning in the opening scene when the reader is dumped into the chaos of a battlefield littered with the dead. This method of storytelling creates a dark, disorienting vibe that is akin to waking up in the middle of a nightmare.
The stream of information coming at the readerโnames, ranks, roles, relationships, plans, places, eventsโflows with the ferocity of a firehose. Although I am an experienced reader, I had trouble following the story, even with the help of three different wiki chapter guides published by the seriesโ fandom.
AUTHORS – I write short book reviews that focus on voice and vibe. They are useful to querying authors searching for comp titles. There are more like this on my website.