Product Description

In Darujhistan, the saying goes that Love and Death shall arrive together, dancing...It is summer and the heat is oppressive, yet the discomfiture of the small rotund man in the faded red waistcoat is not entirely due to the sun. Dire portents plague his nights and haunt the city's streets like fiends of shadow. Assassins skulk in alleyways but it seems the hunters have become the hunted. Hidden hands pluck the strings of tyranny like a fell chorus. Strangers have arrived, and while the bards sing their tragic tales, somewhere in the distance can be heard the baying of hounds. All is palpably not well. And in Black Coral too, ruled over by Anomander Rake Son of Darkness, something is afoot - memories of ancient crimes surface, clamouring for revenge, so it would seem that Love and Death are indeed about to make their entrance...This is epic fantasy at its most imaginative, storytelling at its most exciting.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1941 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 896 pages

Synopsis
In Darujhistan, the saying goes that Love and Death shall arrive together, dancing...It is summer and the heat is oppressive, yet the discomfiture of the small rotund man in the faded red waistcoat is not entirely due to the sun. Dire portents plague his nights and haunt the city's streets like fiends of shadow. Assassins skulk in alleyways but it seems the hunters have become the hunted. Hidden hands pluck the strings of tyranny like a fell chorus. Strangers have arrived, and while the bards sing their tragic tales, somewhere in the distance can be heard the baying of hounds. All is palpably not well. And in Black Coral too, ruled over by Anomander Rake Son of Darkness, something is afoot - memories of ancient crimes surface, clamouring for revenge, so it would seem that Love and Death are indeed about to make their entrance...This is epic fantasy at its most imaginative, storytelling at its most exciting.

From the Inside Flap
It is said that Hood, Lord of Death, gathered unto himself a host of gods, in a place beyond the reach of mortals. It is said that Hood waits at the end of every plot, every scheme, each grandiose ambition. But this time it is different. This time he’s there at the beginning…

Darujhistan swelters in the summer heat and seethes with dire portents, unsettling rumours and insidious whispers. Strangers have arrived, a murderer is at work, and past tyrannies might be reawakening. The retired Bridgeburners of K’rul’s Bar have been singled out by the city's assassins with deadly consequences, and a small, rotund, red-waistcoat-clad man, while dismayed by his expanding girth, knows that this is the very least of his worries. For somewhere in the distance can be heard the baying of hounds.

And far away in Black Coral, the Tiste Andii rule with seeming indifference. At a massive barrow outside the city, thousands gather – adherents to the cult of the Redeemer, a once-mortal man whose virtue and honour seem defenceless against the twisted ambitions of his followers.
So, as Hood stands at the beginning of a conspiracy that will shake the cosmos, at its end, there waits another. For Anomander Rake, Son of Darkness, the time has come to right an ancient and terrible wrong …

With this epic new chapter, Steven Erikson’s awesome fantasy adventure enters its final, climactic stages.

About the Author
Archaeologist and anthropologist Steven Erikson's first fantasy novel, Gardens of the Moon, marked the opening chapter in his epic 'Malazan Book of the Fallen' sequence and was shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award. Seven equally acclaimed bestselling volumes have followed. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Customer Reviews

The bell tolls for Erikson
I'm an enormous Erikson fan, and read all seven of his previous novels with relish. I was eagerly awaiting the release of 'Toll the Hounds.'
Sadly, this novel is a significant fall for Erikson from the ranks of the fantasy mighty.

The novel is largely set in Dariujistan, where the entire cast of characters ultimately converge, including Cutter, Iskaral Pust and the beligerant Karsa Orlong. The city is also the setting for such notables as Anomander Rake and the broken remnants of the Bridgeburners.

Darujistan itself is cloaked in a darkness, and Anomander Rake broods within; in short, his usual enigmatic self.

Effectively, the plot builds upon the basis that a Tyrant is prophesised to conquer Darujistan. As the characters and plot slowly converge upon this single thread, Erikson uses the opportunity to explore the characters motivations and personalities in depth. This is where the novel fundamentally differs from those previous, in that this is what dominates the novel - motivations and character development and frankly random dialogue and theorisation on the part of the characters, that ultimately leads nowhere. Unusually for Erikson novels, there is very little that actually happens in this book in terms of plot. The characters thoughts and even dialogue therefore seem like so much padding.

There is also a truly huge cast of characters covering perhaps eight broad groups of people. Erikson has a frustrating tendancy to write just a couple of pages on each group and then flit to the next group. This technique pevades the whole book and gives the whole plot a sense of randomness and lack of co-ordination that I've not seen in his novels before. Erikson also fails to join up many of the diverse plotlines, and it is unclear, even at the end of the novel what value or contribution they really made.

The novel is truly epic in size (though for Erikson quite normal) at 900+ pages. The real action only begins after some 600 pages though, and only there does it start to make any sense. So, it takes considerable patience to get that far. The final 300 pages, without spoiling it, are not as dramatic or even original as we are used to from Erikson.

In summary, 'Toll the Hounds' falls well short of the standard that we have come to expect from the genius that is Erikson. It's probably a novel for his most devout fans, others can happily (and sadly) pass it by.

Toll the Hounds Rings the Bell
Erikson does a masterful job with this newest installment of the tale of the Fallen. Particularly intriguing is the careful development of characters from past novels, and how they have matured since the first installment. This is good stuff. A number of seemingly invicible characters from earlier novels are now a step slower, fatally in some cases. I rated the last book at 4/5 stars which was probably overly harsh, and was hoping that this one would hit the high standard set by Memories of Ice (my personal favorite). Tolls the Hound is a fantastic read, advancing many of the intricate plots set in motion in Gardens of the Moon. Bravo Steven Erikson, you have done it again!

some good ... some bad
I have nothing but respect and admiration for Steven Erikson and his Malazan series but with this latest offering some flaws are becoming noticeable.

First the positives:

Erikson has ramped up the stylism of his prose for Toll the Hounds and it's very impressive. Although some reviewers have criticised this change I found that it allowed me to read through from first page to last and stay interested all the way through. This is in contrast with some of his earlier novels where I have to admit there were sections where the prose got very heavy/chunky and I tended to skim read a little.

The storytelling is once again on that convoluted and grand/epic scale we've come to expect where, for the most part, the victories and losses of the "dramatis personae" all feel earned rather than expected. Erikson keeps you guessing the various twists and turns until the very end and demonstrates yet again his mastery of ... I don't know how to describe it ... poignancy?

Now the negatives:

The pace of this novel is a little slow - on the very edge of being annoying.

I was disappointed at how diffuse the plot seemed to be. One of the most impressive things so far about the Malazan series is how Erikson has been able to write cohesive, effectively stand-alone epics for each installment whilst incorporating quite a few subplots that have tied together over multiple novels. I didn't think that this novel had the same level of cohesion. Essentially we have the Anomandaris storyline as the major plot (with Erikson's (brilliant) trademark gripping prologue, whose significance doesn't become clear until the very end, and then the bulk of the book is taken up by the convergence of various "major players" to Darujistan for the climax + a few sideplots in the city itself. The problem is that while the main plot and it's resolution is very well done, the plot climaxes for most of the rest of the cast seem .. well, a little anticlimactic, and their incorporation into the main story a little forced. Perhaps this is inevitable for so ambitious a series though. Hopefully Erikson can avoid the quagmires that other 10+ book series like the Wheel of Time and War of Light and Shadow series have fallen into.

The characterisation and dialogue of some of the familiar faces in Toll of Hounds left something to be desired. In particular Gothos, who sounded like a Bridgeburner marine to me; Clip (pre-Bastion), I don't remember him being so one dimensional and unlikeable in the last book; and most of all Lady Envy :( Lady Envy has been a character that I've been waiting, well years, to see again and when she does make an appearance I barely recognise her.

Erikson employs a new storytelling device in this book where Kruppe is introducing or commenting on some of the events, often philosophically. Unfortunately it comes off a little preachy, I hate to say it but sort of Terry Goodkind preachy.

Finally, and this is a criticism of the series as a whole, I think that Erikson might have bitten off more than he can chew by introducing so many Ascendants and Gods and superbeings. I don't know about everyone else but I have trouble putting them all in perspective or comparing them. The convergence of a few of them in the finale of this novel illustrated some of the problems. Having spent so long building the prowess of each one up it it seemed like Erikson ran into problems finding challenges appropriate for each. They were mostly unsatisfying.

All in all though this novel is far from being a deal breaker for the series ... enjoy!