Toll the Hounds
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…
Steven Erikson
Steven Erikson is a pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin. He was born in Canada and recently returned there to live after spending several years in the UK. He is a qualified archaeologist and anthropologist and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
The Malazan Book of the Fallen
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen is a ten books epic fantasy series written by author Steven Erikson. The scope and breadth of this series is so truly vast as to be unrivaled in the fantasy field today, mostly thanks to Erikson's finely crafted storytelling and his twenty years of experience in anthropology and archaeology.
Using mythology incarnate, vast legions of gods, mages, creatures, dragons, and humans play out the fate of the Malazan Empire, with action and battle scenes among the most brutal and exciting in fantasy, and the landscapes and cities among the most morose.
The Malazan Book of the Fallen consists of ten primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Main series Malazan World
Book Reviews
This one's a slow burner. Erikson is collecting all his threads, shuffling his players around on the board - keeping some, removing some, preparing for a grand finale. A slow, deliberate, torturing build-up and then everything EXPLODES!! Probably my favourite out of all the Malazan books.