Spoiler clearance: Reaper’s Gale

   Finished Reaper’s Gale – and even though the conclusion was good, it wasn’t as crazy as the previous one, with The Bonehunters. Chaos and political intrigue in Malaz City trumps any chaos and political intrigue in Letheras. Why is that? Not sure yet… Maybe because Malaz City has (and always will have) a mystique of its own, due to Kellanved & Co.

   Three separate climaxes in this book, to be precise.

   The ‘Awl’dan arc’ closes in one giant deus ex machina: after a thousand pages, of plotting, and maneuvering, and after many battles, surprise surprise – everyone dies at the hands of an insanely large number of White Face Barghast. Uh, Hood’s garlic breath!

   The ‘Refugium arc’ ends in a strange sort of coitus interruptus: after a thousand pages also, Clip kills Fear, and Silchas Ruin sacrifices Kettle, stabbing her with the Finnest. That’s it? New Azath. So, huge build-up for (almost) nothing…

   The ‘Letheras arc’ wraps up very nicely, mainly because of many utterly likeable characters: Tehol, Fiddler, Quick Ben, Trull…

   There are four major threats, in and around Letheras – Icarium, Rhulad, Silchas Ruin, and that demon-god trapped in Settle Lake. Icarium basically takes care of himself. Karsa kills Rhulad. The demon-god, never actually awakens. And Silchas Ruin – holy crap! We now understand how fucking nasty these old Bridgeburners really are. Quick, Fiddler, and Hedge do kick some SERIOUS dragon / Tiste Andii butt, and Rake’s little bro doesn’t even have the time to deliver one single blow! And why did he zero in on those three guys exactly?

   Well, that’s it for Lether, land of the passive-aggressive douches.

   As for the Crippled God, I’m beginning to genuinely feel for the dude. If stupid mages from another world brought you to a distant foreign planet, against your will, I bet you’d be pissed, too. And the only visitors he ever gets, on his tiny isle, come to bully him! Remember Quick Ben sticking two fingers in the Chained One’s eyes? And Withal, who vigorously destroyed his hut? And Mael, at the very end of Midnight Tides? And, now, the best bully of all, ladies and gentlemen, I give you mister Karsa Orlong! (applaud).

   But Karsa also proved he is way more intelligent than anyone would ever have expected. He kills Rhulad on the Crippled God’s island. I must confess, I haven’t thought of that. So Karsa has a bigger I.Q. than me, at the very least…

   Is the Errant dead? Probably not. Still, after that ‘discussion’ with Bugg –, who knows? It was quite an evil backstab, what the Errant did with the altar, after all.

   Is Icarium dead? Probably. Killed by his own machine! So, to all of you guys out there who are building something in your garages…