The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson

1201 pages Paperback (Fantasy Fiction)

The Bonehunters finally starts to take the stories that have been told in the previous 5 books and starts to weave the stories together. That isn’t to say that there isn’t any new characters or new things, but by the end of this book I started to feel like I had a decent handle on how a large part of the story is connected. That said is still isn’t easy to put it into a concise easy to read summary.

Erickson excels at taking little bits of a story and making that small scene something a joy to read. When one of the main characters meet a random stranger and a small conversation happens it can be as engaging as an enormous army lying siege to a city. In this book we continue with Karsa the Toblakai barbarian as he finds himself vowing to kill the leader of an army. We also see a bit of Icarium and Mappo and follow their journey of memories. Ganoes Paran, now the Master of the Deck of Dragons, is trying to help his army avoid the chaos that has been set upon Seven Cities by a plague that seems to have quickly spread everywhere.

As always Erikson’s writing is superb. I was fortunate enough to read the whole book in two weeks. Being able to immerse myself in the story for long periods of time gave me a chance to really get into it. It was easier to see the connections between the different story lines. This book seems to up the momentum of the series and it feels like the following books will continue to chug right along.

3 Intellectual/Emotional: Since the story does jump around a lot it is hard to “get involved” with any particular character, but during the book a group finds themselves in a very “tight” situation and it was easy to find yourself stuck with them.

4 Style/Readability: With each book Erikson proves that he is a great writer and in this book starts to fulfill promises made in the other books. Erickson asks a lot of his reader, nothing is hand fed to you, and this can be both frustrating and fascinating.

3 Long Term Impact: Erickson is on the fringe of the fantasy scene. Unfortunately, the massiveness of the storyline may keep him from getting mass popularity. Even so, I think anyone with the dedication to read a huge fantasy series like this owes it to themselves to try this series.

10 out of 13: Although not my favorite this book had plenty of interesting scenes and was a great addition to the series. There is no doubt that Erikson is a great writer.

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A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin

978 Pages Paperback (Fantasy Fiction)

This is the fourth installment in the Song of Ice and Fire series. I re-read it because of the 5th book’s release just a couple weeks ago.

**Spoilers of previous books. Just read the series**

The two books are tied together as they happen simultaneously. Feast mainly follows characters such as Brienne, Cersei, Arya, Sansa, Jamie, and Sam, as well as, other minor characters.

Cersei, following the death of her father at Tyrion’s hand, has no taken control of King’s Landing in all but title. She tells her son Tommen what to do and rules in his place. Jamie has been sent out to start to establish control over the war torn landscape in the river lands. Brienne is fulfilling the vow she made to find Sansa and protect her, but has no way to know where she is. Meanwhile, the reader knows that Sansa has changed her looks and “become” the “daughter” of Littlefinger who know rules over the Eyrie. Arya finds herself in a House of Black and White. Here she is encouraged to give up herself and become no one. Sam has been charged with taking a young wildling and an old maester to Oldtown.

At times the book does feel somewhat lopsided since there are all these characters that you care about that “nothing” is happening with, but Martin’s writing is as always enjoyable. Even when you are reading about characters that you don’t like the story and writing still keep it interesting and worthwhile.

3 Intellectual/Emotional: Not quite as exciting as the other books, but feels like story that needs to be told to tell the WHOLE story.

4 Style/Readability: I think Martin one of the best living authors. I enjoy his writing for it’s ability to be complex without losing the reader.

4 Long-term impact: It seems that Martin has moved to the forefront of the fantasy genre and it doesn’t look like this will pass soon, rightfully so.

11 out of 13: I could go on about how much I love Martin. But I think I have already made that clear.

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