Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen Series #8) » (First Edition)

Steven Erikson is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His first fantasy novel, the critically acclaimed bestseller, Gardens of the Moon, marked the opening chapter in the epic sequence The Malazan Book of the Fallen.

There is a saying in Darujhistan, the city of blue fire, that love and death shall arrive together, dancing . . .

It is summer and the heat is oppressive. However the discomfiture of the small round man in the faded red waistcoat is not entirely due to the sun. Dire portents plague his nights and haunt the city’s streets like fiends of shadow. Assassins still skulk in alleyways, but the hunters have become the hunted. Hidden hands pluck the strings of tyranny like a fell chorus, and strangers have arrived. While the bards sing their tragic tales, somewhere in the distance can be heard the baying of hounds. All is palpably not well. And in Black Coral, where Anomander Rake, Son of Darkness rules, memories of ancient crimes are stirring, intent on revenge. Could it be that Love and Death are about to arrive . . . hand in hand, and dancing?

This new chapter in Erikson’s monumental series is epic fantasy at its most imaginative, and storytelling at its most exciting.

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.)

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Maps 10

Dramatis Personae 13

Prologue 17

Bk. 1 Vow to the Sun 25

Bk. 2 Cold-Eyed Virtues 193

Bk. 3 To Die in the Now 411

Bk. 4 Toll The Hounds 625

Epilogue 825