Spoiler clearance: Toll the Hounds

   Yesterday I was having a conversation about Erikson, and how each of his books is both part of a separate arc and a stand-alone story. One girl asked: “If someone was to read only one of these, which one should it be? First one?”

   And I immediately said: “Fifth book. Midnight Tides.”

   I’m still dazzled at how instantaneously that answer came out of me. Without the slightest fucking tiniest shadow of a doubt, Midnight Tides.