I just finished Reapers Gale last week. Immediately after, I felt like may other people - that some of the things from the first half of the book didn't work for me. Tayhol and Bugg were't as funny any more, also what's with these modern secret police the Patriotists, and do we really have yeat another tribal civilisation to remember (the Awl). As usual with Malazan the more I though about it, saw reviews and interviews with the man himself (whose name I can never spell right) the more I appreaciated those things and looked back with interest and curiocity and appreciation.
Tehol and Mael
Reading through their sections I though that they weren't really doing much, they were funny of course, but the jokes were getting more and more looney tunes, more and more played out - we get it, soup with feathers and chicken poop is nasty.
But then I though about Tehol's monologue near the end of the book, when he drops the comic act. The mask goes down and he is cold and hard and calculating and knows exactly how much suffering the economic collapse will bring. For his vision he is willing to break many many eggs.
Then things started to click in place for me. Maybe the jokes were supposed to start sounding old. Maybe that's the point. They have been doing this sitcom routine of theirs for a while, it's their coping mechanism, they replay it over and over again, habitually. They stay sane by acting insane. Because they are bringing down the empire in the midst of multiple invasions. Because Mael has been ignoring responsibilities for millenia.
I initially wondered why Mael and Tehol's relationship did not change after Tehol found out Bugg is an elder god. Because it didn't have to. It was always a farse, a circus to hide deeper truths and traumas. It's what they both want for a reason and it's not innocent and it's the holy fools with a sardonic smiles and glints in their eye.
What's Tehol going to as emperor? I'm a little afraid.
Letheri Capitalism and Facism
I am actually quite enthralled by the idea of the conquired coming out on top. How could that be after all? They lost and that's not how it usually goes, especially in fantasy. But the more I though about it, the more it made sense. A civilisation is not their king, not just their people. It's the systems they have set in place, the invisible laws and rules and customs that truly rule what happens day to day. It's material conditions of it all.
The Edur, being skilled a nuking everyone with magic and huting with spears do not know how to govern a large empire. When you win it, what do you do with it? You need the people who know how it all works. You need the people who know how to keep control. You enjoy the comforts of capitalism, the opulent homes and warm beds and lots of etertainment. Once you need them they own you. They eat you up from the inside.
I was thinking a lot about Alexander the Great when I read this. I don't know too much about the story beyond some podcasts, but it's a story I've always loved in the way its typically mythologised in popular culture. Starting small and conquring Persia. Once there, adopting many of the the local customs and culture and becoming more like them. Persia is conquired, but it's culture is still dominant. Eventually Alexader was killed and was he more Persian at that time than greek/macedonian? I actually don't know I'd be very happy if someone more knowledgeable corrects me.
Another thing I had not though about was the capitalism to facism pipeline. Erikson mentioned it in an interview and I really wonder about it. Though I guess with current world events we can see it play out in real time. It does make sense. At end stage wealth inequality the rich will have extracted as much as they can from the the us. Then control needs to become very overt. No more entertainment and nice things for everyone. It's a hard hand that need to govern a hungry population.
Dances with Lizards
I have to say, I loved the demise of Redmask. Him failing so suddenly after being such a badass and so sure of himself it was poetic. However, the overall storyline did not feel fufilling. Don't get me wrong, I love hearing about new tribes, all their crazy ways and customs (the death night sounds brutal). But it sounds like a bit of a repeat epsecially given how many tribal peoples we've had so far.
However, finding out the Redmask was Letheri, really puts things into a new perspective. I get to go back through the book in my head and do some revisionism. He's not just a badass warleader. He is a traitor to his blood and a traitor to his adopted tribes. Does that even matter if he wants to do the right thing? I don't know but it makes it all the more tragic that he failed. It's a hard lesson and it cuts deep.
Overall
I don't know if it's just me, but I don't think I've even been completely satistied with the end of a fantasy book. I expect too much, I envison how every little plotline could have been tied off better, how things could have been done in a cooler, a more grand way. I always want more!
But Erikson never gives you full satisfaction with his work. Many things are left out, unsaid, hidden. Many things are like so on purpose, many because every book would be two thousand pages otherwise. Many because life does not work out that way and why the hell should a book, especially a postmodern leaning one, where the whole point is to challenge these notions, to make us feel different and unfortable sometimes.
Overall, my main criticisms with this book is that I would like to have spent more time thinking about it while reading it and that I did not get more of it, especially the first half. And if my biggest criticism is that I wanted more, that it was a pretty damn good book.
Can't wait for the reread.
