Midnight Tides: Malazan Book of the Fallen Series, Book 5

At the end of Book Four, Trull Sengar began to tell the story of how he became chained to the wall in the drowned pocket of Kurald Emurlan.As the events of Deadhouse Gates and Memory of Ice was happening (sort of, since the Silanah stuff really throws off the timeline) on the other side of the world, the Tiste Edur tribes have been united by the Warlock King. They are facing annexation by the greedy Lether to the south, a nation merchants who want the natural resources in Edur lands. They have destroyed other tribes through shady treaties and deliberate betrayals.The Warlock King has a new ally. He plans to send the Sengar Brothers (Fear, Trull, Binadas, and young Rulad) on a quest to receive a gift in the arctic wastes north of their lands. Will it prove the salvation of their people or their ruination.Another set of brothers, Beddicts, have their own goals. Tehol Beddict appears impoverished after his financial collapse, but he had actually discovered the secret to destroying his people's economy and flinched. However, when those whose people were destroyed by the Lethers want him to try again, will he accept? In the palace, Brice Beddict is the king's champion. Emroiled in the complex politics of Lether, he vows to protect his king even if the man isn't worthy of his devotion. Last, Hull Beddict plots his people's destruction in another way. He wants to save the Edur from the fate of other tribes, weighed down by guilt.A large cast of characters, both mortal, undead, and immortal, clash and swirl. This is one of Erikson's best books in the series. Tehol and Bug number among my favorite duo and it was great to read them again. Tragedy and misfortune swirl as no one's plans quite work out right. The darkest parts of humanity are exposed once more.This fantasy series continues to be unique and amazing. If you haven't read any of Malazan Book of the Fallen, you need to. It is worth the journey.

MIDNIGHT TIDES centers on a conflict between the Letherii and the Titse Edur. Arrogantly, the Letherii have goaded the Edur into war, assuming that their wealth, magic, and size will spell inevitable victory for the Letherii. Unfortunately for them, the Edur are talented warriors with unexpected ferocity. In addition, this group of Edur has been granted unholy powers by the Crippled God, who has manipulated himself into position to control the Edur through their young emperor, Rhulad.The book is full of excellent characters, and mostly revolves around two sets of three brothers, one Edur and one Letherii. The Beddict brothers (Hull, Brys, and the hilarious Tehol) couldn’t be more different from one another, though they all play important roles in Letherii society. The Sengar brothers come form a powerful family within the Tiste Edur, and include Fear, Trull, and the aforementioned Rhulad. Trull is perhaps my favorite character from the entire series, being a extremely well-done character whom is also featured in House of Chains. He represents the skeptic and the thinker who is able to see beyond common group-think and challenge the assumptions of his people.MIDNIGHT TIDES compares favorably with the other books in the series. It includes all of the same drama, violence, and magnificent imagery that all of the books lean on. Perhaps it is a little more focused and tame than the other books tend to be, helping the reader feel a bit more grounded in this vast world of Steven Erikson. Highly recommended. Looking forward to continuing the series with The Bonehunters

I am currently reading this series of books (in order) and haven't been disapointed yet. Some of the negative reviews of Midnight Tides really don't do it justice. Even as Erikson continues to tell the amazing story of the malazan universe, in Midnight Tides I feel like hes taken some of his biggest risks (so far). The biggest risk of all is creating an almost whole new set of characters half-way through a series. This at first put me back into the mode of confusion, learning whole new sets of characters, beliefs, legends and viewpoints. You are going to be forced to look at the cultures you thought you knew from the previous books in new ways.It starts off alot like I remember feeling when reading the first book - this huge world that I'm going to struggle to keep up with because of its vastness. And because of this, the book starts out slow. That would be the only negative I really felt about this book. It takes until about a quarter of the way through the book in order to get past all of the narrative of the different cultures and into the real meat of the story.But once you get there, it quickly picks up pace. I didn't want to put it down. And the characters... great as always. Following the same trend as his other books, your are going to be hearing this story from at least a few view points. There were two characters in particular that I always loved to hear about because their pieces made me laugh. They were genuinely funny, which is not something that I can really say consistently about any of the other characters in the series thus far and I appreciate the break from the seriousness of the subject matter occasionally. I really hope Erikson continues to tell the story of these characters in future novels.This book takes longer than previous books to draw itself back into the over-arching plot of the malazan universe. In it, you are going to hear even more important events about the past thats shaped this massive series. But once you get towards the end, you'll once again see how this is just another link in the chain thats holding this world together. Do not skip reading this great book.P.S.As far as the kindle edition goes: yes theres mistakes but nothing so huge as to take away from the story. If you've been reading the series on the kindle as I have up to this point, the mistakes are pretty much the same things as in the previous books.

I think im starting to get what this series is about. Better details than previous books. Good story. Good times