I’m a huge fan of the Malazan Book of the Fallenseries. Steven Erikson has created the most compelling story arc I have ever seen in it’s breadth and scope. His perspective as an archaeologist and anthropologist is very evident when you consider that his storyline spans not centuries or even thousands of years, but millenia. His characters are full of depth and display the entire range of emotions possible. There’s also a very fatalistic sense pervading the series. Hardly anyone can escape their nature and only a precious few are able to carve out a unique path for themselves without being prodded into it. One such person is Anomander Rake.
The Kharkanas trilogy deals with events that are only hinted at in the first ten books and we soon find that myth has warped many of the events we thought we knew. We understand the meaning of Rake’s title as the “Son of Darkness”. This first book – the “Forge of Darkness” sets in motion what will presumably be the story of how sorcery fully came into this world, the role of the dragons, the forging of Dragnipur, the exile of the Tiste Andi and the turning away of Mother dark.
Scattered throughout the book are names that should be familiar to all of us who’ve read the Malazan series. Sechul Lath, Sukhul Ankhadu, Orfantal, Endest Silann, Olar Ethil, Draconus and many more. Foremost in my mind though were the three brothers – Anomander Rake, Andarist and Silchas Ruin.
Being such a big fan of the series, I could hardly stay away from the prequels. Anomander Rake is probably my most favorite character in all of fantasy and the lure of knowing his history and the story of Dragnipur was easily enough to make me read this book eagerly. Unfortunately, there are a few issues in the storytelling that make it problematic for me.
First, there is entirely too much brooding for each character. Too much of their internal monologue is revealed often dealing with abstract philosophical speculation rather than speculation tailored to them. It’s obvious that Erikson has a lot to tell us and uses internal dialogue as a tool to do so. But there’s too much of it. And it comes at the cost of action as the pace is painfully slow. Large sections of each chapter are filled with zero plot development and this quickly becomes extremely tiresome. “Show, don’t tell” is excellent advice that Erikson would do well to heed for his later novels.
The second problem is more personal for me. Not enough of Rake. I’m aware of the difficulty here. Anomander is such a towering character, and so impressive in his personality, that depicting too much of him risks ruining that image. Even in the main Malazan tale, he wasn’t in the forefront at all except for the one book. Nonetheless, given that this story has to do with the fate of the Andii in the first place, I would have liked to see more of him. The ample depiction of Draconus leads me to believe that lots of exposure is possible without ruining the image.
Ultimately, it was only because I have Erikson’s previous works in mind that I was able to plow through this book. Without the backdrop and existing interest, it would quickly become boring. Erikson’s earlier books had the perfect mix of action and reflection. The Forge of Darkness is saturated with the latter.
Let’s hope the remaining two books of the trilogy have far more punch them.
Alas, I don’t think we’re ever going to get a proper Anomander POV in this trilogy. To me it sounds very much like Draconus’ tale (to the extent that SE has ‘central’ characters).
I didn’t find the book slow at all, strangely. In fact when it ended, I thought it was too short and that it sort of… petered out. This is the first book of SEs since Dust of Dreams that is very explicitly not a standalone one.
I completely agree that this is not an ‘entrypoint’ to new readers of the series either.
In reply to Hrishi
Yeah, this clearly doesn’t have a proper ending. I was surprised when there were so few pages left and so much was unresolved.