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The Empire of Letheras has been expanding for centuries. A combination of rampant capitalism, merciless greed and military might has lead numerous peoples to complete cultural annihilation. Now, the empire has turned it gaze towards the lands of six tribes of the Tiste Edur for new resources. After decades of civil war the Tiste Edur tribes have united under a Warlock King and are at peace. What most of the Edur don't know is that peace was bought at a high price - a secret alliance with a maimed and twisted god - and that the Warlock King's ambitions go far beyond just uniting his tribes. The two nations are on a collision course, one that will pit not only armies against each other but also dreadful magic and powerful ideologies. It is a clash that cannot fail to attract the notice of the gods.

Midnight Tides is the fifth book in Steven Erikson's epic Malazan Book of the Fallen series. This book is different from the others in that we're a half a world away to the Tiste Edur lands and surrounding areas, a place we have not seen thus far. There is only one character from previous books, Trull Sengar, and we get to learn his back story as well as history of the Edur race.

Again we are introduced to a huge cast of characters. The character development in this book is amazing. Powerful, emotional, brilliant, funny, weird and quite believable. The banter between some of the characters is lough out loud funny at time, similar to that found in Memories of Ice. I hope this is a trend that continues with future books. I was also surprised at the amount of compassion that some characters had for others that could easily have gone more to resentment given the circumstances.

Timeline wise I'm not entirely sure where we are in relation to the previous books. The use of holds for magic instead of warrens suggests we may be a few decades in the past. However some character conversations also lead me to believe that maybe we are in the same time as Gardens of the Moon, just that with this continent being so far away it is stuck in its own bubble, the people never modernizing, choosing instead to stick with traditions of the past.

I noticed a couple minor things that tied in with scenes of previous books, which was a lot of fun to read. I look forward to how more of the set ups in Midnight Tides will relate to future books.

The ending to this book completely blew me away. The last 150 pages really should be read uninterrupted if at all possible. For anyone that enjoys epic, complex fantasy, I cannot recommend this book high enough.