I’ve decided (uh…) to take it more easy with this book than I have done with some of its prequels. I finished “Bonehunters” in about three days, for example, and while it was quite fun while it lasted, it didn’t last for very long.

Naturally, how much I have to do with this decision is open for discussion, as it might be a bit slower in pace than, say, “Bonehunters”, and as I’m a tad more socially active now than I was last year. But still, I’m gonna try to take my time with this 910 pages long behemoth. However, it remains to be seen how long this attempt will last, if the Redmask arc becomes as awesome as I hope it will, if the Bugg or Undinaas sequences appears as frequently as they have so far, if the cool Edur (Bruthen Trana and Brohl Handar) persist in their coolness, and if the Bonehunters and the Grey Swords actually show up on the Letherii continent, as certain events might indicate.

Also, I’m just beginning to remember why I consider Erikson to be one of the best writers of Epic Fantasy out there: The way he sets up sympathetic characters on all sides, and then sends them on their way to a brutal, bloody confrontation, where they will fight each other and die. He did it splendidly in both GotM and MT — and probably in some of his other books as well — and from the look of it, he’ll do it even better here, perhaps especially — but not exclusively — in the case of the Awl’dan conflict. Brilliant stuff.