The Wurms of Blearmouth
A novella.
Tyranny comes in many guises, and tyrants will thrive in palaces and one room hovels, in back alleys and playgrounds. Tyrants abound on the
verges of civilization, where disorder frays the rule of civil conduct,
and all propriety surrenders to brutal imposition. Millions are made to
kneel and yet more millions die horrible deaths in a welter of suffering and misery.
But we'll leave all that behind as we plunge into escapist fantasy of
the most irrelevant kind, and in the ragged wake of the tale told in Lees of Laughter's End, our most civil adventurers, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, along with
their suitably phlegmatic manservant, Emancipor Reese, make gentle
landing upon a peaceful beach, beneath a quaint village above the strand and lying at the foot of a majestic castle, and therein make
acquaintance with the soft-hearted and generous folk of Spendrugle,
which lies at the mouth of the Blear River and falls under the benign
rule of the Lord of Wurms in his lovely keep.
Make welcome, then, to Spendrugle's memorable residents, including the
man who should have stayed dead, the woman whose prayers should never
have been answered, the tax collector everyone ignores, the ex-husband
town militiaman who never married, the beachcomber who lives in his own
beard, and the now singular lizard cat who used to be plural, and the
girl who likes to pee in your lap. And of course, hovering over all, the denizen of the castle keep, Lord –
Ah, but there lies this tale, and so endeth this blurb, with one last observation: when tyrants collide, they have dinner.
And a good time is had by all.
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.
Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach
Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach consists of 9 total books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Main series Malazan World