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It has been over a week since I finished Toll the Hounds , so I have had plenty of time to think about how I wanted to review this. Personally, I thought this was the weakest book in the series. Now, before you go all berserk on me I have my reasons, and let me emphasis that while I say it is the weakest book in the series it is also a great book by any other standards. But putting it up against all the other Malazan books it just fell a little short for me. Let me explain!

There were a lot of sections in the book were not much happened. With books this size I understand there isn’t going to be action from beginning to end, and I am used to the (non-combatant interludes) in these books, but it just got to me in this one. I actually felt a lack of interest at certain times, and I believe this contributed to me taking so long to finish it. I just had no desire to pick it up as much as I did the other books. Maybe it’s just Malazan overload from the past few months, but I don’t think so.

Also, I had a hard time figuring out exactly what was going on in some areas of the story. Erikson has a way of befuddling the mind sometimes, and I found that happening a lot to me in this book. I think back to some scenes and still have no clue what he was trying to achieve. Now, knowing how Erikson writes, this may all come to pass with the next two books and I will probably be sticking my foot in my mouth by the end of the series, but until then��.

OK! Now that I have gotten my complaints out of the way let us move on to the positive side of the review and other thoughts.

I was so glad to be back in the city of Darujhistan and with characters that got me to fall in love with this series way back in GotM. There is Murillio, Anomander Rake, and of course the linguistic genius who is always a step ahead of everyone else, Kruppe.

‘Whatever happened to common decency? To decent commonry? What’s decent is rarely common �� that is true enough, while the obverse is perverse in all prickly irony, would you not agree? Kruppe would, being such an agreeable sort.��

While there were other characters I would like to mention, I can’t due to spoilers for those of you who haven’t made it this far yet.

Erikson has a way of tying in events or little phrases that relate back to previous books that I really enjoy. A joke between characters, a dark omen that finally came to pass, or some reference back to an event that you just hope to catch. This makes these books enjoyable to read, but can also seem impossible to notice with the amount of information in each book. Here is one I happened to stumble upon. See if you can see the relation back to GotM.

‘Love found and love lost. A certain desperation that still spins like a coin �� which way will it fall? Question as yet unanswered, a future as yet undecided.��

As with all Malazan books you’re going to have your share of heartache, and a great convergence at least once in every book. These two things are sometimes intertwined and other times not. While I enjoyed the convergence in this one it was definitely overshadowed by the heartache I felt. It is not uncommon to have these emotions battle with each other in this series, but in this book it was no contest.

‘The soul knows no great anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief.��

I know I said earlier this is the weakest book in the series, and I will stand by that. There are always going to be weaker books in any series. Having said that, I did enjoy this way more than it frustrated me. I was definitely caught off guard by the problems I had with it, and I think that is why I feel the need to explain my complaints as much as I have. Toll the Hounds is a vital addition to this series, and one I am sure I will look back on as an intricate piece of this vast Malazan puzzle when I am done. Sadly, it did not make my 5 star cut, but of course I encourage all of you to read it and decide for yourselves.

4 stars ****