Review: The Crippled God by Steven Erikson

I’ve made many online friends over the years. It’s one of the perks of running a bestselling author’s official website.

One of those online friends is the most avid Malazan fan I’ve ever encountered. He breathes in Steven Erikson’s work like air. He exhales love for it. He is personally responsible for setting many people on the path of reading one of the largest fantasy epics of all time and most of those people thank him for it.

A few weeks ago, I received an advanced reading copy of the final book in Malazan, The Crippled God. I didn’t have time to read it, mostly because it would require me to read the preceding novels, something I plan on tackling over the summer. I knew Eric would love the chance to read the book, review the book, and share what his thoughts are concerning the epic finale to the series.

Here is his review of The Crippled God by Steven Erikson:

First off Shawn once again I owe you gratitude. I have been waiting this book for over 7 years and over 7,000 hardback pages. I know many people who have tried to get into this series and fail for whatever reason. Most of them blame Gardens of the Moon and how Erikson dumps you into a world without any back drop. To me that is a terrible excuse. Give this series a chance. Read Gardens and even after you finish Gardens you have doubts finish Deadhouse and I promise you won’t. You have to realize that Erikson set this series up to be re-read. I like that. It shows guile and foreshadowing. There is a ton of things that he explains early on that I missed or overlooked and the answer was finally given in the Crippled God.

Onto the Crippled God.

The plot if beyond anything I could have ever imagined. The level of world and character building is once again top notch. What Erikson does with this book is set himself above all others. He brings something so massive and complicated to a close.

The story revolves around the Crippled God; a foreign deity that has been chained to the Malazan world and has been in pain and suffering for eons. A small army will set out to try and give answer to his suffering by finally cutting his chains and setting him free. Against them are all of the elder gods and the strongest and most devastating elder race there is the Forkrul Assail. They find allies along the way that will make you laugh and cry.

His story largely revolves around soldiers and friends. What he builds out of them is awe-inspiring. To me these are truly heroes. They do not want to be. They only want to do what is right. To give answer to what the world has done that is wrong. If you are a fan of these series like me and has grown to love many of these characters (Fiddler, Quick Ben, Gesler, Stormy, Cotillion, Shadowthrone, Mappo, and the list goes on) you will be happy to know that many of their stories come to an end. You will be amazing happy or be extremely crushed as I was. What sets Erikson aside for any other fantasy author to me is his ability to actually make you feel. No one else has made me sob like a little boy before. I find that I have little chance in resisting that emotion in his books. The Crippled God is no different. I promise you that you will love this book Malazan fans. I promise you that a part of you will break in reading it.

You come to realize after reading through the series that Erikson dwells on certain aspects of human feeling. The entire story really revolves around love, friendship, companionship, dignity, respect, and above all COMPASSION. To call it the best book in the series would be wrong. It is really the second half of Dust of Dreams. Together they make the best book I have ever read. I hope that some of you will read this and decide to finally pick up and complete Gardens of the Moon. I ask that you open your mind and willing try and WITNESS the epic greatness that is the Malazan Book of the Fallen. I hope it does to you as it did to me. The story beggars the mind and breaks the heart.

Cheers, Eric M.

The Crippled God by Steven Erikson is in fine bookstores now.