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Title: Stonewielder
Title: Stonewielder
Series:
Malazan Empire #3
Author:
Ian Esslemont
Rating:
3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Fantasy
Pages:
638
Format:
Digital Edition
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Synopsis: |
Emperor Mallick sends another army and navy to take over Korel, where all previous attempts have failed. Not only that, but the one time a Malazan army DID make it through, they cut off ties and setup their own little kingdom. Time for the Emperor to remind them that they're still his subjects. Almost all green troops bolstered by a navy of Blue Moranth. Facing them are veterans and turncoats and a whole contingent of Black Moranth.
Kyle and Greymane, trying to live life
as teachers at a dueling school, aren't doing quite so well. Greymane
gets drafted by the Emperor to lead the invasion. I'm still not sure
how the Emperor convinced a former Crimson Guardsman to do that!
Kyle's along for the ride as an Adjunct.
Lord Hiam is protecting the Wall that
borders the sea and Korel. He and his special guards fight year after
year for The Lady, throwing back the annual attacks by the
Stormriders, magical sea people. For years they have used unwilling
prisoners as well. This year, unbeknownst to them, they have some
captive Crimson Guard. Understaffed, the Wall in desperate need of
repair and the Lady's Favor apparently turning against her own
Chosen, Hiam has only his faith to sustain him and with the
revelations about the Lady at the end, even that will shatter.
The Cult of the Lady is trying to wipe
out all other religions in Korel. The Lady thrives on blood sacrifice
and it is by that power that she can hold back the power of the
Stormriders. She also negates all magic associated with the Warrens,
so Malazan magicians are almost useless. In response, all the poor
people of the land unite under a mystical prophet who quickly dies
and passes on his legacy to some Arena Champion who has vowed to
never kill again.
Politics and religion each using the
other to further their own agenda.
And some little side thing with Kiska,
from Night of Knives, looking
for Tayschrenn, who has been sucked into some sort of vortex'y
thing'y.
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My Thoughts: |
I had waited to
read the Malazan Empire novels until after I'd finished the
Malazan Book of the Fallen. So when I was reading these and
their lack of pages of banal philosophizing, which I got in spades in
the last 3 Books of the Fallen, I was overjoyed. So much action, so
much story actually moving forward.
This time around, I
wasn't quite as enthused. My main complaint is that there are just
too many story lines going on. Not storylines that all come together
in the end, but that are multibook. My other complaint was HOW the
stories were broken up. Sometimes you'd get pages and pages and
pages. Then would come a 2 paragraph insert. Then on over to a 3rd
storyline, etc, etc. And as far as I could tell, there was no
repetitive order to them to help you remember. It felt like a jumble
all thrown together.
The action was
pretty good. I liked that.
With all of that,
I'm definitely going to be reading Esslemon't latest, Dancer's
Lament, before I read anymore of the Malazan Empire novels. If I
don't like it, then I won't feel guilty about stopping these as well.
★★★☆ ½
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