Toll the Hounds Book Eight of the Malazan Book of the Fallen

In Darujhistan, the city of blue fire, it is said that love and death shall arrive dancing. It is summer and the heat is oppressive, but for the small round man in the faded red waistcoat, discomfiture is not just because of the sun. All is not well. Dire portents plague his nights and haunt the city streets like fiends of shadow. Assassins skulk in alleyways, but the quarry has turned andthe hunters become the hunted. Hidden hands pluck the strings of tyranny like a fell chorus. While the bards sing their tragic tales, somewhere in the distance can be heard the baying of Hounds...And in the distant city of Black Coral, where rules Anomander Rake, Son of Darkness, ancient crimes awaken, intent on revenge. It seems Love and Death are indeed about to arrive...hand in hand, dancing. A thrilling, harrowing novel of war, intrigue and dark, uncontrollable magic, Toll the Hounds is the new chapter in Erikson's monumental series - epic fantasy at its most imaginative and storytelling at its most exciting. From Publishers Weekly Book eight in the intensifying Malazan series (following 2007's Reaper's Gale ) sees the grinding, bloody clash of newly created deities against longstanding, increasingly powerful Gods. The Crippled God, born in the city of Darujhistan, and the Dying God, who bleeds a poison that enthralls and addicts his followers, both vie for a place in the formal pantheon, using humans and the goddess-descended Tiste Andii as pawns in their unholy, greedy game. Warrior-hero Anomander Rake subtly manipulates the factions from the sidelines. Finally, the gods' slaves and representatives and the common people of the Darujhistan meet in one dark, thunderous, transformative night. This is a praiseworthy entry in the massive series encompassing multitudes of characters, complex plot lines and grotesque violence, but it's not lightweight in tone or in heft, and new readers will be entirely at sea. (Sept.) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist The eighth Malazan Book of the Fallen actually brings back some of the earliest volumes' power. As the city of Darujhistan bakes in the summer heat, a mysterious robed man, obviously some sort of mage, wanders its streets. The question of whether he will survive the thieves, assassins, and wizards, local and striking-from-afar, should hold readers despite the extremely high page-count. Erikson may not keep up the pace throughout, but his knack for well-drawn exotic characters, no matter how fleeting, and mastery of world building cannot be denied. Add this one for saga mavens. --Roland Green REAPER'S GALE The Letherii Empire is in turmoil. And the Edur fleet draws ever closer. Warriors, gods and wanderers converge. Soon there will be a reckoning -- and it will be on an unimaginable scale... TOLL THE HOUNDS The Lord of Death stands at the beginning of a conspiracy that will shake the cosmos, but at its end there waits another. For Anomander Rake, Son of Darkness, has come to right an ancient and terrible wrong... 'Homeric in scope and vision...a story that never fails to thrill and entertain...a saga that lives up to its name, both intellectually and in its dramatic, visually rich and lavish storytelling' SFSITE