Midnight Tides

Fans of Steven Erikson's Malazan fantasy series probably won't be surprised to learn that Erikson once worked as an anthropologist and archaeologist. His background shows in the complex, detailed societies he creates, from the level of mythology right down to daily customs. Midnight Tides , the fifth book in the series, is even a sort of archaeologist's nightmare, in which a forgotten artifact from the past is rediscovered and unleashes chaos and destruction upon the world. The novel follows the war between the Tiste Edur, an ancient race, and the Letherii, who have conquered all their other neighbours. The conflict is a continuation of an older battle between ancient beings, but its terms evoke our own world. The Letherii society follows the dictates of the free market, and most of the citizens live in various degrees of indebtedness. The Tiste Edur live according to traditional concepts of honour and community, but their society can no longer survive in the face of the rapacious Letherii commerce machine, which always demands new resources and subjects to exploit. In his earlier novels Erikson made a name for himself with his realistic, unsentimental depictions of combat, and Midnight Tides is perhaps his most modern rendering of warfare. Magic is his equivalent for contemporary military technology, with summoned demons dominating the battlefield like tanks, and sorcerous firestorms standing in for carpet bombing. Cities are laid to waste in seconds, and soldiers go mad from the magnitude of destruction. Erikson also subverts many of the typical genre expectations of a fantasy novel. Sure, there's the usual cast of colourful characters--warrior brothers who quest for a magic weapon, an undead emperor, a bloodthirsty god, a shrewd slave, and many more--but there's no simple conflict between good and evil here, just shades of grey. Midnight Tides plays out like real history does, with no real beginning or completion, just an unending chain of events, each leading to a future that promises only more chaos and madness. --Peter Darbyshire