Itemize Containing Books Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of the Fallen #5)
| Title | : | Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of the Fallen #5) |
| Author | : | Steven Erikson |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 960 pages |
| Published | : | April 4th 2005 by Bantam (first published March 1st 2004) |
| Categories | : | Fantasy. Epic Fantasy. Fiction. High Fantasy |
Steven Erikson
Paperback | Pages: 960 pages Rating: 4.37 | 30741 Users | 1037 Reviews
Narration As Books Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of the Fallen #5)
After the huge disappointment I had with House of Chains, Midnight Tides brought my love for Malazan Book of the Fallen back magnificently.Midnight Tides marks the fifth book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. That’s right, this means that I’m halfway through the series now! Knowing that this is the fifth book in the series, it surprised me at first that instead of continuing the story from everything that has been built in the previous four books, the narrative started its story back to the time before the events in Gardens of the Moon; in a completely new continent with a new conflict and shockingly—with the exception of one character from House of Chains—a completely new set of characters. I mean, this is the fifth book of the series already! Isn’t it crazy that we don’t get to see the majority of the previous four book characters in it? Well, it IS crazy but please don’t be intimidated by this fact.
Picture: Scabandari Reigns by Lauren Saint-Onge
The story in Midnight Tides revolved around the conflict between the Tiste Edur race and the Letherii Empire. The Tiste Edur has appeared several times throughout the series but it has never been explored in depth until now. Let me say that I absolutely loved the themes surrounding this installment. Starting from the masterful prologue, Erikson style, I was pleasantly surprised by how the story developed. It took me a bit of time to get used to the new characters, settings, and story, but once the book hit chapter nine, I was hooked and addicted to reading this book. Never have I read a fantasy book that correlates the problems around the social structure in the work with our modern society and politics as well as Erikson did in this book. This was achievable because of the Letherii culture and lifestyle that put wealth and the lust for gold above every priority. I absolutely love reading the themes and social commentaries in this book. Betrayal, greed, avarice, and how deep the corruption money or power can bring; it felt like looking at a reflection of the dark truth in our modern lifestyle in which our ‘greatness’ as a human being is heavily determined by our money and social status.
“To the Letherii, gold was all that mattered. Gold and its possession defined their entire world. Power, status, self-worth, and respect – all were commodities that could be purchased by coin. Indeed, debt bound the entire kingdom. Defining every relationship, the motivation casting the shadow of every act, every decision.”
Great story and themes aside, Erikson also amazed me with his characterizations in this book. Although the book comprised of mostly new characters for the series, it was filled with some of the most well-written character developments within an installment of the series so far. This was evident for one pivotal character whose name I won’t mention and of course, my new beloved and highly entertaining duo, Tehol and Bugg. I’m not kidding, Tehol and Bugg currently sit at my top-tier level of the favorite duo of all time. Their interaction, their relationship, was utterly hilarious and their dynamic banter combined with Ublala Pung makes for one heck of a hilarious entertainment. There was one chapter surrounding these characters where I practically just laugh for the entirety of the chapter. Trust me that this is something incredibly rare for me in reading epic fantasy; I usually just smirk or smile, not laughing.
“And we’re not talking mild snoring, either. Imagine being chained to the floor of a cave, with the tide crashing in, louder, louder, louder—”
One more thing to note is how stunning Erikson’s prose can be in this book. With commentaries and self-contemplation on social structure, wealth, politics, greed, and betrayals that made almost the entirety of this book quotable, Erikson also accompanied this book with phenomenal action sequences and tactics that made the book totally belong in the military epic fantasy genre. I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of Erikson’s close quarter combat scenes; I’ve read plenty of authors who did a better job at it. However, with blood that rain upon the land, a staggering tower of bodies, and the massively catastrophic result of blind loyalty, poor leadership, and war; it’s his way of depicting the deadly power of the sorcerer’s magic capability within his series that made him really stood out from the majority of fantasy writers.
The only con I had on the book was the abundance of dream sequences in Udinaas’s POV that was fired in rapid succession within the first quarter of the book. However, like I said before, once the book reached chapter nine, the book was an addictively smooth reading experience through and through.
“For from inequity derives the concept of value, whether measured by money or the countless other means of gauging human worth. Simply put, there resides in all of us the unchallenged belief that the poor and the starving are in some way deserving of their fate. In other words, there will always be poor people. A truism to grant structure to the continual task of comparison, the establishment through observation of not our mutual similarities, but our essential differences.”
After the disappointment I had with the previous book, this installment easily reclaimed my love for the series with its continuous maelstrom of emotions. Midnight Tides was another amazing installment for the series that truthfully has become my second favorite book within the series so far, just slightly below Memories of Ice. Only five books left now, The Bonehunters is coming up next and you can bet that I’m very much looking forward to reading it soon.
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Present Books To Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of the Fallen #5)
| Original Title: | Midnight Tides |
| ISBN: | 0553813145 (ISBN13: 9780553813142) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Malazan Book of the Fallen #5, Малазанская «Книга Павших» #5, Malazan #9, La caduta di Malazan #5 , more |
| Literary Awards: | Prix Aurora Award Nominee for Best of the Decade (2017) |
Rating Containing Books Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of the Fallen #5)
Ratings: 4.37 From 30741 Users | 1037 ReviewsWrite-Up Containing Books Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of the Fallen #5)
Death is every mortal's shadow, his true shadow, and time is its servant, spinning that shadow slowly round, until what stretched behind one now stretches before him. To say I was sceptical to read this book is an understatement, I was so scared, I thought I might not like this cause I know that this will be filled with completely new characters, location, world, it was like starting a whole new series. But I was so wrong, I loved it, I must admit it was hard to get into, not as hard as GoTMEpilogue: I was swept by the tide.*Chpater 25: There is only one piece of advice I can give those reading Malazan: "Make no assumptions. About anything. Ever. Stay mindful, my friend, and suspicious. suspicious, but not frightened by complexity." Clever, Mr Erikson, clever. Chpater 24: The brothers unable to save each other. What a mess. Chpater 23: The nudge, the pull, the push... or all of them?Chpater 22: From now on, this is how I am going to be greeting strangers: "The tumult of your
Rating? Of course, 5 stars ^^ This tide is rising, and there are scant few who would stand before it." From the twisting, smoke-filled clouds, blood rained down. The last of the sky keeps, flame-wreathed and pouring black smoke, had surrendered the sky. Their ragged descent had torn furrows through the ground as they struck and broke apart with thunderous reverberations, scattering red-stained rocks among the heaps of corpses that covered the land from horizon to horizon. The great hive cities
He saw the tides in their immutable susurration, the vast swish like blood from the cold heart moon, a beat of time measured and therefore measurable. Tides one could not hope to hold back. In Midnight Tides, Erikson has again introduced us to a new continent and cultures that continue to grow the ever expanding universe of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. There is an entire new dramatis personae save the exception of one character from House of Chains. Also, the setting of this book is before
I thought it was strange that the fifth book in a series should only contain one character that had been in any of the prior four books. Loving so many of the characters prevalent in the previous books I wanted to see what they were up to. However, upon completing Midnight Tides I am still in awe with Erikson, his style, substance and the stories that are being weaved. Every title he has written in this series I struggle to comprehend how they get better than the previous books.The plot is about
Another monster epic of a book in the amazing Malazan Book of the Fallen series.I'm in awe of Steven Erikson's story telling ability. He handles a vast array of characters with a deft touch that blows my mind with how seamless and varied his characterization is.A direct parallel to his characterization skills is his ability to weave multiple narrative threads together into a seamless (there's that word again) whole that is both logically coherent (no plot holes) and arranged for powerful
Beware, lot's of spoilers coming your way :)Well, what else can I say? Another troubled and epic read for me in Malazan. New continent, new characters, new type of magic and new gods. This book really was like a spinoff story for me and so far I had trouble putting it on the same shelf with the four books I read about Malazan, but I am sure that Mr. Erikson will blend this story into other books masterfully. I guess most of the readers enjoyed this book and I can see why, this books has really
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