“Allow me to continue with a description of what follows a period of peace. Old warriors sit in taverns, telling tales of vigorous youth, their pasts when all things were simpler, clearer cut. They are not blind to all the decay all around them, are not immune to the loss of respect for themselves, for all that they gave for their king, their land, their fellow citizens. The young must not be abandoned to forgetfulness. There are always enemies beyond the borders, and if none exist in truth, then one must be fashioned. Old crimes dug out of the indifferent earth. Slights and open insults, or the rumours thereof. The reasons matter not – what matters is that war is fashioned from peace, and once the journey begins, an irresistible momentum is born.”
Oh, the raspy, seductive, convincing words of the Crippled God, who delivers my favourite speech so far of the astounding Malazan Book of the Fallen series, in stupendous installment #5, entitled ‘Midnight Tides’.
This book is once more, yet another (as is typical for every successive book in the series, from my experience to-date) departure from the majority of the characters and settings in the previous book, ‘House of Chains’.
But keep your eyes on Trull Sengar, whose tragic story was alluded to in that fourth book because, in many aspects, ‘Midnight Tides’ is HIS book. Trull is one of the principal – if not THE principal player and point-of-view character.
In ‘House of Chains’, Trull agrees to recount his origin story, how he became who and what he is, to his comrade Onrack. That origin story is essentially told in ‘Midnight Tides.’
“The world has drawn breath.. and now breathes once more. As steady as ever, as unbroken in rhythm as the tides. For such is the rhythm of these particular tides. Now, with the coming of night, when the shadows drew long, and what remained of the world turned away. Until midnight, all is turned away, silent and motionless. Awaiting the last tide.”
Similar to the intense focus on Karsa Orlong in ‘House of Chains’, Trull’s part in ‘Midnight Tides’ is most perhaps relevant to the story in how his actions – some controversial and divisive – impacts others around him.
Overall however, with the backdrop of High Houses of Ascendants and sundry other gods and demi-gods (whose machinations and conflicts frequently reduce mortals to playthings or collateral damage), primarily this is a story about two opposing nations and ways of life, and two opposing sets of brothers.
In ‘Midnight Tides’, Erikson whisks the reader back in time, and away from both Genabackis, the Seven Cities, and the wars of the Malazan empire who controls or aspires to control much of those regions, where we spent the bulk of our journey in the previous four books.
Instead, welcome to Lether!
Lether, an empire seemingly as intimidating as Malazan, is located distantly south of Genabackis. The Letherii believe they have destiny to rule it all. So, rule they shall. Lether’s colonial foundations, after vanquishing competing realms and peoples, is built squarely upon the backs of indenture.
And like all such superpowers whose success is founded on subjugation, all that glitters is definitely not gold. The dominant Letherii adhere to the typical colonial playbook and ethos: everyone else other than the Letherii are ‘barbarians’, while of course the Letherii consider themselves ‘civilized’. Buoyed by their impressive military and potent mages, they ravage the environment, supress indigenous culture, succumb to unremitting greed, all the while trumpeting their urbane superiority.
With the realm married to notions of opulence, and rampant capitalism, we also see the expected results of moral decay in Lether’s capital. For all its wealth, it teems with refuse and vermin, substance abuse issues, and is highly unsafe, with pervasive violence, characterized by outrageously high murder and robbery rates among its citizens.
Key figures in Lether are the three brothers of the Beddict Family. The youngest Beddict brother is the formidable and dutiful Brys, the King of Lether’s Champion, finest warrior in the land. The scheming, furtive, odd, and delightfully funny businessman Tehol (for Kruppe fans, Tehol may be the closest we get to that combination of wit and whimsy since fan favourite Kruppe first appeared in ‘Gardens of the Moon’), who sleeps on a rooftop, and is served by an equally quirky, humorous, and mysterious manservant called Bugg, is the middle brother. The eldest brother, the brooding and complicated Hull, once favoured by Lether’s royal house as a trusted ambassador, has fallen into disrepute among his own people.
“The history of this decade, for our dear Letheras, can be most succinctly understood by a faithful recounting of the three Beddict brothers. And, as is clear, the tale’s not done yet.”
Meanwhile, on Lether’s northern frontier, one indomitable race remains unconquered – much to the chagrin of the Letherii. This conventional, warlike, tribal, non-human race is the Tiste Edur, the ‘Children of Shadow’. They are an irrepressible group, blessed with long life stretching over centuries, unless they meet with premature death by circumstances such as battle.
Now bound under the rule of a solitary overlord – the Warlock King, a powerful sorcerer – the Tiste Edur also believe they have been prophesized to be conquerors, and they have zero compunction whatsoever themselves with engaging in slavery, slaughter, and dark magic. But the Tiste Edur legacy is also tainted by betraying their Tiste Andii kin. Now, many murdered Tiste Andii have become ghostly servants to the Tiste Edur as shadow wraiths.
The Tiste Edur have enjoyed an uneasy peace with Lether for some time. But portents of change are swirling. The Tiste Edur know the Letherii are poaching their seals, and the Warlock King predicts it’s only a matter of time before both sides escalate must aggressions. And the one who strikes first, has the best chance to win.
This is where the other set of brothers who are key to the narrative, figure. With an impending Letherii trade delegation headed to treat with the Tiste Edur, the four Sengar male siblings, including Trull, are dispatched by the Warlock King on what appears to be potentially a suicide mission, to obtain a magical weapon, at all costs, to aid the Tiste Edur in what they believe will be the inevitable war with Lether.
The pertinacious Fear, eldest brother and Weapons Master, seems like the glue holding the Tiste Edur together. But his implacability, leadership skills and loyalty will be pushed to the limit in the days ahead. Trull, second brother, morally upright, clever, and absolutely lethal with a spear in hand, does not like the direction the Tiste Edur are taking. But speaking up about it may cost him dearly. The wandering third brother Binadas’ sorcery will be needed for the coming brutal fight. Finally, the youngest brother Rhulad, glory-seeking and eager to prove himself, will pay a price for fame that he could never have imagined.
“No one spoke after that, not for some time. They drank their wine, and it seemed to Trull that something was present, some part of his life he’d thought – not long gone, but non-existent in the first place. They sat, the three of them. Brothers, and nothing more.”
All these characters mentioned are incredibly well-drawn, and surrounding the sets of brothers are other fabulous players. Standouts for me included: Shurq Elalle, Kettle, Seren Padac who is a Letherii ‘Acquitor’ (merchant guide who dealt with non-Letherii), Feather Witch (a seeress) and Udinaas the slaves, the First Consort, Iron Bars the Avowed, the wraith Wither, and of course the Crippled God.
And it is the Crippled God’s appearance, as a deformed, raggedy, forlorn old man, in eternal pain and suffering, who sounds asthmatic when he speaks, living in a broken down tent, that is the true heart of the tale. ‘Midnight Tides’ is the book that introduces the character in the flesh (so-to-speak). He was referred to in previous novels, as being brought to earth, crippled, and bound by chains, and noted being behind numerous plots and attacks. He was the ally of the Pannion Seer and Khallor, and the attempted recruiter of Karsa Orlong, etc. However, in this entry, we see the Crippled God’s main schemes for his war against the other deities truly set in motion, setting him up as without question the big baddie of the entire series, thus making ‘Midnight Ties’ a pivotal book in ‘Malazan’.
This book has all the thrilling battles, magic, layered political intrigue, meddling gods, horrific and destructive creatures such as dragons and demons, heroism, and philosophizing over war, life, mortality, loyalty, destiny, conflict, and the vagaries of the human condition, one comes to expect of any ‘Malazan’ book.
I found among the compelling features in this book in particular: how the undead were handled by the author. We have an undead child looking for paternal, sibling, or any kind of affection; an undead woman looking for purpose, and the restoral of her sexual gratification and intimacy; an undead emperor whose reign threatens to terrorize his own people more than even his enemies, who is haunted by who and what he has become. The storylines of the undead characters were truly fascinating, and added some of the creepiest, and sometimes outright funniest moments of the novel, and there were plenty of both types of these moments to be found.
Speaking of humour, ‘Midnight Tides’ is definitely the most amusing ‘Malazan’ book so far, with the banter between especially Tehol and Bugg, causing some outright belly-laughs. There’s plenty of comedy interspersed in what, by definition, is an extremely dark story, though still filled with the underlining of hope, love, camaraderie, and beauty that Erikson consistently brings to this series.
Another deep theme I want to touch upon in this book was depression, one which perhaps was always noted in previous books, but I saw more prevalently here in ‘Midnight Tides’. The title, for me, when I considered it after reading the book, and what it could potentially imply, was the feeling of loss of control, the feeling of loss of free will, loss of interest in life, when one feels one cannot chart one’s own course, and is at the mercy of the tides. Several of the characters experience this feeling in the novel. Be warned in terms of major triggers, suicide is attempted by several characters in the book, as a result of their pain, trauma, feelings of hopelessness, and loss of agency.
The writing in this series continues to be absolutely stellar, with Erikson’s prose reaching some new heights for me in this particular book, such as the Crippled God’s speech, part of which I provided at the onset of this review.
Overall, I am finally getting used to the way the series is structured, starting to cursorily sort out the High Houses within Deck of Dragons, who the associated the Ascendants (and what their positions are) within those Houses are. On the whole, I’m feeling far less confused with the overarching plot of the series, now I’ve finished reading up to this point. My inadequacies as a reader aside, as things become more clear for me, my enjoyment level has increased exponentially, and I can finally being to simply read and enjoy ‘Malazan’ without often feeling discombobulated.
Erikson’s genius continues to become more and more undeniable, and I am unarguably seeing ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’ for the literary tour-de-force that it is, without my confusion getting in the way to the same degree, obstructing the incredible view.
This is a defining epic fantasy series, of the highest order.
Onto ‘The Bonehunters’!
Add ‘Midnight Tides’ to Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/345299.Midnight_Tides
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