Toll the Hounds: Book Eight of The Malazan Book of the Fallen

The eighth book of this ten book series was a catastrophe! A horrendous mess and challenging to read, agonizing. The book launches with new characters, surprise, surprise! This book begins in the town of Darujhistan. The city has defied the Malazans. The Reaper’s Gale started in a non-descript place, but this book started in a familiar place, much better. There is a certain festival going on. We see Vidikas and her husband celebrating the festival in the royal palace. Antsy and Bluepearl are at the festival as well. In another part of town, a man named Dester has a clan, follows a cult group.I feel that the amazing storyline of The Reaper’s Gale should have continued in this book, but it did not. I enjoyed reading Reaper’s Gale, especially about the tension between the Lethari who have been subjected by the Tiste Edur, and the Malazans who were arriving to invade Letharas, the capital, I was hoping the story would continue, but evidently, it did not.This book starts very sluggishly. The Guild storyline was murky, and appalling, I must say. It didn’t have anywhere the amount of drama that I read in Reaper’s Gale, nowhere near, it is devoid of drama for so long! But I recall that The Reaper’s Gale also started slowly. This book’s plot is not clear, I did not understand what was going on.The character conundrum continues to rankle on. The author has an insatiable inclination for creating new characters. With every new book I have read out, it seems there is no slowing down on the introduction of new characters, not at all, it is very baffling. The author gives all characters equal time--the supporting characters almost outshine the central characters, I really don’t know who the central characters are evidently. Once again, we see characters names that are everyday words, very frustrating. Here they are: Antsy, Bluepearl, Giddyun the Quick (cousin of Quick Ben? joking), Cutter, Tarp, Younger, Throw, Blend, Picker, Spite, Bluepearl, Antsy, Fisher, Challice, Faint, Door, Madrun, Scorch, Skintick, Clip, Blind, Edgewalker, Gear, Worrier, Gruntle, Gulls, etc.House of Chains (Book 4) was a disaster in my book, it was terrible, I almost contemplated ending reading the entire series, but I decided to give Midnight Tides a chance, and it payed off! It was a magnificent book, it was great, in spite of the character proplems, it was far better than its predecessor. Then came what most people consider to be the best book in the series, Bonehunters, it was easier to follow, marvelous indeed, then came Reaper’s Gale, which I consider to be the best book in the series thus far, with an epic convergence of characters and conflict of the Tiste Endi vs Lethari vs Malazans vs others! Then comes this Toll the Hounds (more like toll the boredom) that didn’t continue the fabulous story of Reaper’s Gale. I wish he had continued the captivating storyline; it would have been much better.This book killed all the momentum that originated from Midnight Tides! It was excruciating, but I was determined to read on to finish all books in the series. Bluntly, this book wasn’t going to prevent me from finishing it. Just like I did not permit House of Chains to cause me to abandon the series. I sense like déjà vu! I couldn’t figure out what the purpose of this book is, it was going in a very dreary, boring, and unclear tangent, on the other hand, with Reaper’s Gale, it was a very riveting and engaging and entertaining and amazing storyline, you had a good hint, there was this intriguing crescendo and momentum towards epic battles and confrontations, the title Reaper’s Gale is so suitable, but with Toll the Hounds I just sensed nothing! There were so many bar visits in the city of Darujhistan, that was mind-bogglingly too many. Hounds….terribly boring storyline! The Hounds come across as an afterthought. If I was given a quiz on this book, I would fail it.I went from what I deem to be the most excellent book in the series, that is, Reaper’s Gale to one of the worst namely this book. There was truly little mention of what happened in Reaper’s Gale in this book. Very scant reference, I wish he had continued that narrative in this book. The Guild storyline was the weakest and horrid point of the book! It was dreadful!The book does end dramatically, however, most of the book was disappointing! It wasn’t enough to make this a successful book. I rate this book as the worst book in the series. Despite a dramatic ending, I give this book a rating of 1.

This was so much better than Reaper's Gale. That particular book seemed to wallow in the meaningless. This one, however, sought meaning in tragedy, and that is one of the things I have enjoyed so much about this series. I may discuss spoilers from previous books. I'm not sure why anyone would be reading reviews of book 8 if you haven't read the previous books, but just in case, that is your warning.You will find, right away upon starting this book, that it is narrated by Kruppe. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, at first. I rather liked him in Gardens of the Moon, but I found him incredibly annoying in Memories of Ice. But I wound up enjoying his narration quite a bit. So, don't be discouraged by him. Remember, though, he is the Eel, and he's not the bumbling idiot he pretends to be. Actually, there was a lot less of that in here, which made him a lot easier to like.I was pleased to see Anomander Rake in this one. And the return of Itkovian, made apparent near the beginning of the book as well. He was my favorite character. I cried over him in book three, and I was almost too happy to keep reading when I read about him in this book. And then, becoming aware of incredible danger to him, I was really stressed about him for most of the book. I won't say how that went.The story mostly travels between Black Coral and Darujhistan. Mostly. The two arcs were not particularly connected, and I often found I was quite attached to what was happening in one, and then I'd get pulled over to the other location. But this is what Erikson does, of course.The journey throughout was compelling, and I enjoyed it. My only complaint was some occasional predictability, and I'm not even sure if it's truly predictable to the average person, or if it's just that I've come to know what to expect from this series. The ending was gorgeous. Amidst tragedy, and some teary-eyed sniffling on my part, it explored themes of selflessness that were incredibly poignant. Endings are absolutely what this author does best. I think I'll need to let this one marinate a bit before I move on to the next one, because it was quite heavy, and one heck of a ride.

Quite possibly the most difficult Malazan novel to review and rate. A three-star book masquerading as a five-star? Or is it the other way around? Back to my favourite location – Darujhistan. I love that crowd, and there’s some retired Bridgeburners too. And a character we’ve noticed frequent mention of, if you’ve been reading everything thoroughly. Can’t say more than that, to avoid spoilers. Another face reveal occurs in this book too, after seven books of speculating on who this character might be. It doesn’t disappoint. The problem with this book was its painstakingly slow pacing. Excessive philosophical commentary, at times, really hurt the narrative. I will make a promise to Steven Erikson though – someday I will go back and reread all that. I tend to love his writing, but post Reaper’s Gale I’ve really been in a reading slump. Instead of the usual 5-6 books I read each month, Toll the Hounds was literally the only book I read in February. So it’s quite possible I didn’t do this book full justice this time around. The Tiste Andii characters weren’t my favourite, but their storyline was engaging, at least for the most part. And given certain remarkable developments, it will be interesting to see what the repercussions are. If you think Reaper’s Gale robbed you of an epic duel, hopefully Toll the Hounds won’t disappoint. If I wasn’t in such a horrible slump right now, I’d be tempted to finish the series immediately. But I need a break from Malazan.

There seemed to me to be much more navel-gazing and moralising going on in this volume than in the previous ones, or maybe that's just my imagination, though it did come across at times as unnecessary padding. The usual amount of teeth-baring, blood & guts, and humour just about saved it for me, though I've docked it one star. Already bought the last two in the series, but I'm taking a break from them for now.

Steven Erikson is the best Fantasy Writer that I have encountered beating games of thrones, Tolkien and all the rest. I have read his books of the Malazan Book of the fallen several times and each time I read them, new plots etc emerge that I didn't see the previous time. Its the type of series of books that once read will never be forgotten and can be read again and again (and no, I am not one of those people who can read books more than once, Mr. Erickson is the exception to the rule.) Its innovative, unexpected, multiple plots within plots within plots, filled with laugh out loud humour, but also terribly poignant and sad in parts and the author is not afraid to kill off much beloved characters (no spoiler alerts here as he kills off plenty of characters). Its an adult only series of books. I cannot say how much I love the story and the Author who is a complete literary genius.

I started rereading this series when I saw the final book was due to be released. Doing so I noticed the author had written a new preface to the first book, essentially saying that if you don’t like his books, you aren’t bright enough to read them.Now, that came across as incredibly arrogant, but fortunately for him, he is an incredibly talented author, and I have enjoyed the previous books hugely.HOWEVER, in this book, the author has finally disappeared up his own a**e, and is so keen to show us how clever he is that it is almost unintelligible. A real struggle to finish this book, I will finish the series as it seems a waste not to this far in, but I hope the next few are a bit more ending!

This is a series that has always confounded traditional expectations, and even at this late stage continues to do so. With the main plot built to a crescendo both in terms of epic action and breathless tension... Erikson chooses to pause and take stock before delivering the conclusion.This is a much more low-key, intimate book than recent installments, with the story more personal and effecting than is usual.We rejoin a few scattered Bridgeburner survivors, as well as Crokus and his disparate group as they come full circle to the city of Darujhistan. Their travails may not be as mammoth as some in the series, but they are perhaps just as important.Erikson continues to juggle dozens of characters with skill, and still manages not to disappoint with a finale that sees many of the most powerful figures in the series come together in a clash that ends in a very important death or two...The writing is as good as ever, and I get the feeling that the small pause provided by this novel will be more than welcome as the grand finale of this already impressive series begins.