Midnight Tides by Steven EriksonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A jump back in time takes a break from the dizzying action of the series thus far. (How many times have I used "dizzying" to describe these books?) Erikson dashes two cultures against each other - the warlike, forest-dwelling Tiste Edur, and the materialistic city-dwelling Letherii. And, in a surprising twist, he's cracking jokes all over the place.
Of course, the plot isn't that simple. Both sides have power struggles, intrigues, romances, revolutions, resurrections, not to mention many uses of the word "gelid". (Like, a ton of times.) And for the first time, the books get truly funny.
Erikson has toyed with humour before. Soldiers crack morbid jokes to each other, and sometimes plans go unexpectedly awry, but it's always been a drop in the ocean of the Serious Military Campaign or the Gruelling Epic Journey. The city of Lether, on the other hand, is closer to Terry Pratchett's madcap Ankh-Morpork than anything we've seen to this point. (I can't recommend Pratchett's Guards! Guards! or Men at Arms highly enough as a perfect antidote if Malazan ever gets too depressing - he's the Monty Python of fantasy.)
Over the course of Midnight Tides, the bigger picture of the Malazan story line is woven in, and, knowing some of the future, you can see the ripples spreading out across history. One of my favourites of the series so far.
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