Reviews

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The Bonehunters is another terrific addition to the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. I liked this one almost as much as Gardens of the Moon. This book has one of the best and most emotional battle scenes that I have ever read so far. I also adore all the characters and love being able to follow my favorites from previous novels.

The plot of this particular book is immense! There are so many things going on that it can be a bit difficult to keep track of and it only makes it harder when everything seems to be so important. In my opinion, the biggest and most spectacular part of this novel (and the reason why I bumped my rating to 5 stars) was the siege/battle of Y'Ghatan. We follow Tavore and her army as they track down Leoman and find him held up in the city of Y'Ghatan. The battle that follows in an attempt to kill him is one of the most amazing I have ever read. It takes up a good portion of the book, I couldn't stop reading about it, and when the author decided to switch to something else I became so frustrated. I felt like I was there fighting along side them and would become very emotional at times. Anyway, it is epic and I don't think you will be disappointed reading this part. It is also where the Bonehunters are born! After this is over we get to follow them all the way back to Malaz City and I thought their entire journey and the events within the city were were just as spectacular. Also, following Quick Ben and Kalam around is the next best part of the book. I love them!

I also enjoy following Apsalar and in this book she undergoes a mission for Cotillion. I think its her new companions that she finds that makes this part of the story more exciting and enjoyable. Karsa Orlong is also back, but I didn't enjoy his story as much as the others; however, I love the character and how he grows as he learns more about his world. There are also Heboric and Cutter along with some companions and I actually dreaded having to read their story for most of the book. It just wasn't that good. Eventually, it becomes more interesting so do not despair!

Up until the very end of the book I did not like following Icarium. There were just so many other people that I wanted to read about that I didn't pay much attention. Towards the end of the book I started to pay more attention to Icarium and Karsa because their stories start to combine with Trull Sengar's world in the previous novel. I just need to remember to pay careful attention to everything even if I don't find it to be engrossing. It all seems to come together by the end of the book and every body seems to be just as important as another. Finally, after not seeing him for what felt like forever, we get to see Ganoes Paran again! Yay! I love his story, the huge role he plays in this novel, and how he well he is doing in his new role as Master of the Deck.

My favorite characters are back in this novel including Quick Ben, Kalam, Fiddler, Ganoes Paran, and Apsalar. I love how I get to know more about them after each novel. We even get to learn more about Tavore! I have also found a new appreciation for Bottle, a soldier under Fiddler in the 14th army. There is a lot to learn about him and he is slowly becoming one of my favorites. Cotillion is also a very intriguing character. I love how he is becoming more personable instead of "god-like" if you understand what I mean. He is really developing as a character and is one of my new favorites. I also tend to like a lot of the creatures in this novel including the demon Grey Frog, and two new characters, who follow Apsalar, Telorast and Curdle. They are hilarious and I knew they had to be up to something though I can't figure out what their intentions actually are, but when I found out who they really are I was very surprised. Overall, the characters continue to develop and are all incredible.

I really enjoyed this novel and I can't wait to begin the next one. Even when I plan on breaking up the books by reading something else in between I just can't do it. That is how much I love this series. I hope this review helps you out a little; it get more difficult to write reviews the farther I get into a series. I definitely recommend reading this book if you have read all the others and if you haven't, then start at the beginning and know that they are all amazing books.

adamkull's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

ellimtt's review against another edition

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5.0

First read June 2022, 4⭐️
Second read February 2024, 5⭐️

melx91's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

penguin_emperor_of_the_north's review against another edition

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3.0

One of my recurring frustrations with the Malazan books is that a lot of the climaxes are very loud, they're exciting, something huge and dramatic is going on. But then I think about it for a minute and I realize a lot of the people are being dumb.

For example, back in Memories of Ice, the battle of Coral partly went so bad because the Malazans split their forces and Leeroy Jenkins'ed their way in and then the T'Lan Imass were forgiven or whatever. And, at the time, it was dramatic and tragic till you stop and realize everyone was being dumb. Otherwise some random magic crap happens.

And, in here the Battle of Y'Ghatan (roughly middle of the book) was similar. Like it starts out with that one sapper using too many explosives to blow the walls. When other sappers were in the area. And it's implied that he does this regularly. I strongly suspect that in real life a guy who acts like that would either get that behavior beaten out of him or he'd get fragged.

The battle itself was certainly impressive to read.

Spoiler

The city is filled with olive oil and set on fire after the Malazan army is committed to the assault which leads to about a third of the army being killed

. It made me think of stories I've heard of the urban warfare in Iraq with the fighting to clear out buildings, being attacked from all angles and explosions coming from all sides.

But the setup with the sapper and the way the fire started both frustrated me. The first for being just dumb and the latter for sounding like one of those random magic things.

Anyway, that event left a bad taste in my mouth about the book but the ending really redeemed the book to me. The running battle through

Spoiler

Malaz city

and before

Spoiler

the First Throne

were both cool to read. Give me a few days and I might decide something dumb or unsatisfying happened. But for now, it was pretty cool.

General spoilered thoughts about the ends:

Spoiler

I was suspecting that the Icarium storyline and Trull Sengar storylines would converge at the Throne but I wasn't expecting Ben to show up. And seeing how the battle seesawed depending on which way Icarium was facing (because of how much of a living weapon he is) was cool. And dang, I really hope Icarium gets to fight Rhulad in one of the coming books. And Monok Ochem turns into an undead gorilla (or other extinct ape), that was pretty cool.

Spoiler

The running battle through Malaz city was really cool too. Particularly, Kalam, Tavore and T'Amber fighting their way from the keep to the docks. Biggest shock was finding out that T'Amber was possessed (maybe?) by the Eres'al (who sounds like the spirit of a Australopithecus or other human ancestor). There was something weird going on with T'Amber from the get go but it makes you wonder when the last time she had control of her own body. I imagine shrugging off being stabbed multiple times was unpleasant

. But man, that was strange. Will be interested to see how that turns out to be relevant.

Anyway, about Empress Laseen's actions at the end:

Spoiler

I think there was enough misinformation spread about the Chain of Dogs that the traitors were able to position themselves as heroes and get the public in Malaz city and Quon Tali to be out for Wickan blood. And with Seven Cities being depopulated, Laseen is onboard with killing off the Wickans so their land can be settled by farmers (the Wickans sound like semi nomadic horsemen). Which I can see a certain psychotic, cynical logic to but if a character has to commit atrocity after atrocity to recover from the last atrocity, maybe you ought to rethink how you run things, huh? And for goodness sake, don't trust the traitors! Arrange an unfortunate accident or something

. That's mostly just me ranting about Laseen (bet money she's going to crash the empire) and making notes so I can remember what happened here when I'm puzzling my way through the next books.

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