Waking Dead

Another awesome read from Mr. Erikson. After the somewhat-disappointing House Of Chains this felt like a return to the themes of previous novels in the series. If anything, I’d say its his most accomplished work yet – Deadhouse Gates is probably my favourite still – but the massive swings between humour and tragedy were nothing short of spectacular.

Let me just blab on that for a bit; normally I hate having jokes crop up in otherwise-dark storylines (I’m looking at you Betterman…) but here it just works so well. Maybe that’s because the jokes are genuinely funny, but I think its largely because it doesn’t jar. It feels like natural humour, often very black but occasionally quite slapstick. And in no-way does it detract from anything else – in fact, it only serves to add another layer to an already pretty complex brew.

There’s loads I want to talk about, but I’m always loathe to post anything containing spoilers on the front page if I can help it. Anyway, consider this a mild spoiler warning just in case, although I don’t think I’m giving too much away. I thought the ending was knockout – not actually finishing with Trull’s shorning was something of a surprise as, given the opening chapter of House Of Chains, I assumed this was where things were going to end. In actual fact it ends some time before this act, before Trull’s discovering of the “Pure Kin”, and I’m looking forward (albeit with trepidation) for what happens during these events.

Oh, and the flooded Warren from the previous couple of books is explained here, though I think between this and the previous book he changed his mind regarding one aspect of that realm. There’s no mention of the Edur using the Andii as phsyical slaves – what we have instead is a much better set-up – but that does leave some questions regarding the crew of the Edur vessel that Karsa and eventually Gesler et al stumble upon. Hmmm, maybe this will be explained in the events between the end of Midnight Tides and the shorning of Trull Sengar. At the moment though, it feels like an oversight.

The problem I have now is what to read next. I’ve got The Bonehunters sat on my shelf, and Reaper’s Gale is out in a couple of months, so I could continue my Erikson binge. Instead though, I reckon I ought to read a few graphics, maybe even a shorter novel (Altered Carbon looks appealing…) and then do the next to Erikson books together. After that, its another 12-month wait so I’ll have plenty of time to catch up on things, and maybe even start another series…