After listening to Michael Page narrate for 44 hours (reading 1,280 pages), I have to say that this is my favourite entry in the Malazan Book of the Fallen to date.

The critics decry the slow pace at the beginning of the novel, but for readers (hearers) with the capacity to delay gratification, the climax(es) of book seven are unparalleled. The criticism of this novel reminds me of the same criticism Robert Jordan received at about this place in the Wheel of Time. I noted in listening to rather than reading those middle Wheel of Time books, the pacing felt richer instead of slower. Although I haven’t read Reaper’s Gale, I suspect the same dynamic is at work here.

In the hands of many authors, Reaper’s Gale could have become four separate novels—the Malazan conquest, the saga of Red Mask, the story of the Letheri and the Emperor of a thousand deaths, and the search for Bloodeye’s finnest. Erickson weaves these stories together in such a way that makes the final quarter of the book a non-stop thrill ride.

With three books in the main Malazan series, it’s time for another detour into Esslemont’s contributions before picking up Erikson’s Toll of the Hounds. More delayed gratification.

Erikson, Steven. Reaper’s Gale. Narrated by Michael Page, audiobook ed., unabridged ed., Transworld, 2019. Malazan Book of the Fallen 7.