Fall of Light: Book Two of the Kharkanas Trilogy (The Kharkanas Trilogy, 2)

First of all, let me say that I loved the Malazan Book of the Fallen, which I consider one of the best fantasy series of all time. This book, however, was atrocious. I wasn't a fan of the Forge of Darkness, but, compared to this tome, it was a fast moving fluff piece. This book is dull and plodding. Nothing of merit happens, and what little action there is is disjointed. The climactic event was not even well described as we see it, not as it happens, but through the eyes of people not even involved. More than likely, I will read the third book, but that is not a foregone conclusion.

I'm definitely a fan of the Malazan series because Erikson's world building is unique and interesting, and he's never relied on the typical fantasy tropes to advance his stories. I also really love long involved books, but he (Erikson) has got to get back to being more plot driven, rather than meandering and plodding along, with exhausting internal discourse from characters who cannot all possibly be that smart to be such deep thinking philosophers, who endlessly ponder existence between what seems to be each and every verbal utterance or action they take.

This book and his last one (Forge of Darkness) have both succeeded in one thing, stalling my reading schedule. I can read these bits at a time, but there has simply been little to excite my interests for sustained periods, even though there are some really cool things going on. For the two books in this series (Kharkanas Trilogy), the book summaries are in fact much more interesting than the books themselves. And it is no coincidence that Erikson has now decided to publish his first book in the Karsa Orlong trilogy (an epilogue series to Malazan) before he writes the third book of the Kharkanas Trilogy. The reason is simple. These last books have not been well received because they are too bloated and slow moving.

I'm sure Erikson is a smart guy, a deep thinker himself. He's also a crafty writer and I believe he takes great care in what he puts to the page. What is lost however is the resonating storytelling. His voice has become monotone and disinterested (837 pages of that in this book), and he is shortchanging us on the flavor of his world.

Everything Erickson has written related to the Malazan novels has been great.

For me, Malazan Tales of the Fallen was an incredibly satisfying, epic journey that culminated in a book 10 that was some of the best fantasy reading in the genre. I saw the book sales for this series was lower than expected, so I'm throwing in a 5 star review because I'm excited to read it, but as a rule I don't start reading a series until the whole thing is finished. (I broke that rule once, with GoT, and look where THAT got me!!) Looking forward to the day when I sit down and crack Book 1, Page 1.

A trilogy about my favorite Malazan characters! I couldn't be happier. The story so far is riveting and that last book is taking WAY too long to be published. Don't pass this series up. You will be greatly rewarded! AND PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE RELEASE THE LAST BOOK IN THIS SERIES SOON!!

My hubby loves it-YLeger

I love the story very much. What makes me crazy is a large number of characters which from time to time, I can't be sure who is who. Also, the third book isn't going to be ready for a couple of years, and that is very annoying. I do look forward to the next book and seeing how things turn out in the end. Good story so far, now I want to see the end.

Let me just say that I love the Malazan Book of the Fallen series and read/heard the whole 10 book series twice and loved it. This book though completely missed the mark. For every chapter there is at least a 10-page drag about the philosophical and moral contemplation of the characters that really don't add anything to the story. I can imagine this happening once or twice but by the tenth time I put down the book. Not sure if I will be able to finish it. And the funny thing is I read somewhere that Erikson put the 3rd book on hold because of the "disappointing sales" of the second book!!! I wonder why.

Steven Erikson's Malazan Series is one of my favorite series of all time. There were constant surprises, witty character dialog, and a well thought out conclusion. The first two books of the Kharkanas were not even close to being on that level. The author spends pages upon pages of philisophical rambling with each character to the point where they are not credible as true characters. To have dialogs of characters of low station spouting speculative inquiry to the source of the human condition with terms that would have Socrates running for a thesaurus becomes somewhat absurd. First time I ever had to skip paragraphs in his works. I will finish with the third to discover the origin of the Malazan characters, but these books will not be kept in my library like the other series.

The book was very good.