Books read in 2011: No. 37 - Toll the Hounds

by Steven Erikson

Started: July 10
Finished: August 23

Notes: Last year I read a lot of this series, including re-reading one book I had read before. But this year I put off the next novel because I wanted a breather from fantasy fiction for a while, and because this book is just so huge at 1,200 words. But I've been missing the Malazan world of late, and I've been trying to read some more fantasy. It's time.

Mini review: No modern author of whom I'm aware can create a climax that's so earth-shattering, so changing that it literally can re-create his worlds after having killed off major, likable characters, but still leave you feeling pretty good in the end. That being said, this is my favorite modern epic fantasy series, but I have had some problems with the last couple of books. They need editing. Badly. No, there are not a ton of mistakes, but a lot of chopping should have been done. Without thinking about it, any editor could have cut 200 pages from this book, and another 200 probably could have been cut with minimal effort. At 1,200 pages, there was just way too much philosophizing and speculation, a trait common to this series but one I did not find annoying until the last couple of books. Still, this was book 8 of 10, and I'll definitely be reading the last two.