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I like how Erikson doesn't sanitize battles very much. There is piss, blood, shit, entrails, and vomit everywhere. It isn't a glorious endeavor but a messy inhuman activity where even the survivors come through with scars.

Kenyan Proverb: When elephants fight it is the grass that suffers.

Steven Erickson: Yeah, humans in the this world are basically grass that moves around. Enjoy the all the selfish, all powerful Elephants* I have populated my world with!

*Sadly not actually elephants but powerful ascended beings.

As expected the pace has picked up now that the some POV characters have met up.

Interestingly this book has only three characters that were in the first book of the series, really stretching out the world Erikson is building. I will be interested to see how he deals with narrative drag has all these characters are pursuing their own goals.

It could easily go wrong but from what reviews I have seen, did not.

now that some of the POV characters have met up I think this plot should pick up a bit.

Also, I'm not sure this book actually needs chapters. It could easily just be one body of text with different POVs separated by a few lines. The chapters do not appear to have any sort of theme so I guess it is just because of convention this book has them.

Lots of new characters, locations, and conspiracies. Erikson is certainly taking this whole "epic fantasy" thing seriously.

Just scratching the surface now but this promises to be just as good, just as complex, and just as deep as the first book.