“It is not enough to wish for a better world for the children. It is not enough to shield them with ease and comfort. Lostara Yil, if we do not sacrifice our own ease, our own comfort, to make the future’s world a better one, then we curse our own children. We leave them a misery they do not deserve; we leave them a host of lessons unearned.”
What makes a fantasy series great?
Well for many of us, the thing remembered most is how it ends.
If I am to judge ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’ by the aggregate of the work, including with a focus on the final book, ‘The Crippled God’, I would definitely say, this is one of the greatest epic fantasy series of all time.
In a plaintive, hypnotic, highly satisfying, and nostalgic ending, ‘The Crippled God’ neatly ties together the seemingly boundless plot threads and character arcs that demanded resolution by the end of the series.
That said, ‘The Crippled God’ is probably NOT going to rank in the top echelon of my favourite ‘Malazan’ books!
That doesn’t mean it’s not one of the best fantasy finales ever written, or that ‘The Crippled God’ is not a great book.
It is more a matter of personal taste. Moreover, how well I liked any book in this series is by infinitesimal degrees – they are all phenomenal, and the margin between liking one over another is minuscule.
This opinion also does not detract from how fabulous and fitting a capstone that ‘The Crippled God’ was on the entire series. It’s just that, for me, as an individual novel, it does not supersede other installments in ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’, such as ‘Memories of Ice’, ‘Toll the Hounds’, or ‘Deadhouse Gates’.
I will be somewhat brief here, in terms of the review in its entirety, with the last book in Erikson’s magnum opus.
In terms of the story itself, of course, because this is the final book, I can only speak so much of the plot without major spoilers.
“The gods have been kicking us around for a long time. When do we say enough?’
‘And in their absence, High Fist, will we manage things any better?’
‘No,’ Paran said, walking past him ‘but at least then we won’t have the option of blaming someone else.”
Suffice to say, ‘The Crippled God’ focusses on the ultimate reckoning that awaits the Bonehunters and their allies, led by the unyielding Adjunct Tavore, as they continue their relentless march to Kolanse. Will Tavore’s iron will be able to hold her shattered army together, to face a foe they have no chance of defeating?
And will Tavore’s sibling, High Fist Ganoes, now Master of the Deck, be able to join up with his sister, and combine their forces, to face the wrath of the gods?
“We marched across half a world. We chased a Whirlwind. We walked out of a burning city…All that history, vanishing, soaking red into the earth. Back home – in the Empire – we’re already lost. Just one more army struck off the ledgers. And this is how things pass, how things simply go away. We’ve gone and marched ourselves off the edge of the world. I don’t want to say goodbye.”
Meanwhile, on the First Shore, in Kurald Galain, at the once-abandoned city of Kharkanas, Yan Tovis, Queen of the Shake, must face her own hopeless battle against her ancient Tiste Liosan enemies.
The First Shore will run red with blood, but the Shake will not be exterminated without Yan Tovis spending her forces – and herself – down to the last warrior.
Odds are, that last warrior standing will be ‘The Watch’, the indomitable Prince Yedan Derryg, Yan Tovis’ brother, whose prowess in battle would make the greatest fighters in ‘Malazan’ pause, before they thought to engage him.
Finally, will the dread Forkrul Assail succeed in their mission of wiping out humanity?
Will the tenuous alliance of Elder Gods Errastus, Kilmandaros, and her son Sechul Lath hold, as they aspire to free the Otataral Dragon, and loose her on the world, to devastate humankind?
What role will the Cripple God play? And can other deities such as the Rope, Shadowthrone, and Hood, do anything to avert the ending of the world?
Dragons will soar, armies will be vanquished, and we will truly come to understand why this is the tale of the fallen.
“In that Malazan Book of the Fallen, the historians will write of our suffering, and they will speak of it as the suffering of those who served the Crippled God. As something … fitting. And for our seeming fanaticism they will dismiss all that we were, and think only of what we achieved. Or failed to achieve. And in so doing, they will miss the whole fucking point.”
I would like to quickly devote a small section of this review to speak to the elder race of the eerie Forkrul Assail, set up as the big baddies of this final book. I found them to be one of the most intriguing aspects of the whole series.
Towering above humans, immortal, they are able to exist for centuries without sustenance, are possessed of two beating hearts, alabaster-skin, and multiple-jointed in terms of their limbs, allowing them to walk on two legs or stand on four. These terrifying creatures also have abnormal quickness and strength, and are able to fight bare handed, and bore through plate armour with just their fists. The Forkrul Assail are freaking scary, from a physical standpoint.
Yet what is scarier is their mandate. They fashion themselves above all other beings, seeing themselves as the definitive judge, jury, and executioner of all, with the duty and authority to pass judgement on other races. This typically involves passing a death sentence. They purport that peace is an absolutely necessity, and that the only way to achieve balance in the world is through peace. Furthermore, the only resolution to achieve peace is to annihilate anyone who isn’t them.
It’s fitting Erikson chose the Forkrul Assail as to be part of the final threat that our heroes must attempt to overcome, to survive, and save the world.
“And now the page before us blurs. An age is done. The book must close. We are abandoned to history. Raise high one more time the tattered standard of the Fallen. See through the drifting smoke
To the dark stains upon the fabric. This is the blood of our lives, this is the payment of our deeds, all soon to be forgotten. We were never what people could be. We were only what we were.
Remember us.”
Forget about saving the world for a moment, however, please.
The big question: does ‘The Crippled God’ ‘save’ the entire series (not that it was in jeopardy) in terms of ‘sticking the landing’? Does it ensure the virtuosity of the previous nine books is preserved in equally incredible fashion? Does it function as the appropriate capstone we need to solidify ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’ as one of the all-time greats?
How do we judge the final book in any epic fantasy series? Much of it, I believe comes down to how many dangling plot threads or unresolved character arcs are dealt with. Are we left with burning questions (unless, in the case of the ‘Malazan’ Universe, with many more books, even by the other author Ian C. Esselmont, where there is potentially the prospect of any lingering questions being answered through those books) that leave us feeling unsatisfied about something that seemed really important, and was perhaps foreshadowed in previous books, which we never seem to get resolution on?
With the ‘Crippled God’, I don’t feel like this is the case.
We learn even more about the world, despite this being the end of the series, as if the worldbuilding could get any more expansive. We find out who was TRULY behind a particular plot or scheme, and most critically, we are provided the fate of all of the important players, although there is a little ambiguity about whether a handful of persons lived or perished.
Erikson gives us LOTS of character deaths, and lots of characters who somehow manage to survive the entire series. Are those the characters we prefer to die or survive? Certainly not in all cases. Yet that’s part of the greatness, of course, the pathos, which makes this series so moving. There is definitely a cathartic feeling with who lives, and who dies, and I will say that the major characters who perished all received fitting send-offs. Are there unexpected conclusions to some character’s journeys? Yes, and that’s a great thing, especially when an author as skilled as Erikson subverts expectations, in all the best ways.
In this final novel, the prose remains poetic, beautiful, definitely still top tier; the themes are consistently engaging, thought-provoking, poignant; the characterization is exceptional; the action scenes are blistering, brutal, and cinematic; the worldbuilding is absolutely epic in scope; and the depth of emotion the author inspires in the reader, the sense of attachment to this world and its characters experienced by the reader, that can move one to tears of joy or despair, is continued in ‘The Crippled God’.
In other words, nothing has changed from prior books, and the high quality of the writing has been consistently maintained throughout the series.
Thus, overall, in my view, this is a great finale. And with me finding it a great finale, it certainly means that on the whole, the series was spectacular. Not just brilliant, but in that rarefied air of potential ‘GOAT’.
So, I don’t require much time to reflect on where I place ‘Malazan’ in my top traditionally-published (and completed) fantasy series of all time. I’m pretty decisive about where to place it.
It is firmly now my current #3, behind ‘Traitor’s Son Cycle’ by Miles Cameron at #2, and Wars of Light and Shadow by Janny Wurts at #1.
It’s displaced ‘Warlord Chronicles’ by Bernard Cornwell at the #3 spot, and that is largely because of the scope and depth of original worldbuilding, so ‘Warlord Chronicles’ falls to #4.
Of course, this is an evergreen list, so we’ll see how long ‘Malazan’ will retain it’s ranking, or if it can ever ascend higher.
Ranks aside, ‘Malazan’ is a work of pure genius, and I will be reading, at some point, the other series in the ‘Malazan’ universe, including Ian C. Esselmont’s books, so that I might return to this epic world of uncompromising brutality, wonder and beauty, powerful gods and heroic mortals.
As, to Erikson’s credit, as amazing and gratifying as the ending book in ‘Malazan’ was, as stupendous as the whole series was, I am left wanting for more. If that’s not the mark of a magnificent author, I don’t know what is.
I could continue with the superlatives for a very long time, so I will end them here with this: Erikson’s writing of ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’ is one of epic fantasy’s greatest literary accomplishments. And while I have not read that many fantasy series of this length, I can comment that Erikson sustaining the level of excellence he did for 10 books is nothing short of miraculous.
Add ‘The Crippled God’ to Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8447255-the-crippled-god
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