BOOK REVIEW!! The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of Fallen #6) – by Stephen Erikson

The Bonehunters, is the 6th installment in the massively underrated Epic Fantasy masterpiece – Malazan books of fallen, by Stephen Erikson .I can already state that every thing that the previous books in the series were good at ( be it the writing , vast world-building , excellent new creatures , tribes , cultures or characters ) are still very good and improved upon in this book , but beyond that each and every book in this series has delivered more in terms of why that book should be read and adored by more fans and possibly even be recognized as better than many other well renowned fantasy

Book Succinct:

The Seven Cities Rebellion has been crushed. Sha’ik is dead. One last rebel force remains, holed up in the city of Y’Ghatan and under the fanatical command of Leoman of the Flails. The prospect of laying siege to this ancient fortress makes the battle-weary Malaz 14th Army uneasy. For it was here that the Empire’s greatest champion Dassem Ultor was slain and a tide of Malazan blood spilled. A place of foreboding, its smell is of death. But elsewhere, agents of a far greater conflict have made their opening moves. The Crippled God has been granted a place in the pantheon, a schism threatens and sides must be chosen. Whatever each god decides, the ground-rules have changed, irrevocably, terrifyingly and the first blood spilled will be in the mortal world. A world in which a host of characters, familiar and new, including Heboric Ghost Hands, the possessed Apsalar, Cutter, once a thief now a killer, the warrior Karsa Orlong and the two ancient wanderers Icarium and Mappo, each searching for such a fate as they might fashion with their own hands, guided by their own will. If only the gods would leave them alone. But now that knives have been unsheathed, the gods are disinclined to be kind. There shall be war, war in the heavens.And the prize? Nothing less than existence itself…

Learn more about the book at – Goodreads

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What I Liked :

The Book at it’s very essence is filled with a lot of questions , questions that it asks the reader after depicting all the sides involved portraying the various aspects of that said question , such as what mortality and morality truly means in the greater schemes of things and does end truly justify the means and while asking such question the narrative is so well written that it manages to keep the readers spell bound.

Among all of this we also had the love story of Cutter & Apsalar and while it’s heartbreaking for the duo, the introduction of Scillara into the mix also made matter muddier . Meanwhile Ganoes Paran’s abilities were finally showcased and dare I say he finally paints a formidable picture for himself. And then there were other notable characters like Bottle , Fiddler , Losatra , Felisin , and most important Quick Ben and Kalam. All in all there’s a lot of character who make their mark and readers of the series can truly appreciate how far each and every character has come from what they were during their introduction.

But in the end , where this book was better than the rest in the series was the fact that we finally start to comprehend the politics at work from both the gods and the emperors / empresses, who make mortals their pawn while testing their mortality , loyalty , friendship and Love .

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What I didn’t Like :

unfortunately this wasn’t a perfect masterpiece. The initial battle at Y’ghatan was very impressive but in the build up to that we were introduced to a lot of characters and the pre-war mindset of them were portrayed in a lengthy detail . And sure I understand the importance of what was tried but what it left me with, were pages of irrelevant monologues and countless characters for whom I really didn’t care one bit and hence their respective departures left me with no impact .

Similarly there were too many moments of plot convenience , in which characters gained abilities out of nowhere or a new character suddenly came upon to help sort the mess out . This is what they call Ex-Machina , and I have stated this before , I absolutely hate it when that happens.

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Verdict:

In the end , this is yet another brilliant adition to the book series but I don’t think it left me as satisfied as some of the previous books, the presence of too many plot conveniences and way too many irrelevant characters to keep tract of left me a little weary but overall it’s still awesome and I am hungry for the next one

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My Review of Previous Books in the series :

• Gardens of Moons Review (The Malazan Book of Fallen #1)
• Deadhouse Gates – Malazan Book of Fallen #2 – Review
• Memories of Ice – Book Review (Malazan Book of Fallen #3)
• House OF Chains (Malazan Book of Fallen #4), by Stephen Erikson
• BOOK REVIEW !! Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of Fallen #5) , by Steven Erikson