Solid. Very solid.
Holy ****, the Barghast turned out to be ****ing savage, and I'm not saying this as a compliment. Can't help but feel bad for poor Strahl - he did the right thing, but that didn't save him from Onoss T'oolan's vengeance.
The ****ing snake, man. Jeeeeeeesus Christ, or should I be invoking D'rek? And I thought the Feather Witch storyline was ****ed up.
Of course the Forkrul Assail had to show up in apparent force. I'm not sure why I'm even surprised. The Jaghut were supposed to be mostly gone, the Che'Malle were supposed to be gone, the ****ing Nah'Ruk were supposed to be gone, and the Assail were like the Jaghut. And since
everyone else is alive and kicking, of course the ****ing Assail would become the main antagonist for book #10 (if I've understood correctly).
Despite all the high-stakes battles and ****, the moment that stood out to me as the most stunning one was when "the ghost" was revealed to be Icarium, in Kalse Rooted. I'd been wondering what the **** is going on, and why are all these people there, and why are their surroundings changing all the time ("Suddenly there was a shovel. Had there been a shovel? There'd always been a shovel"), and what the **** is Taralack Veed doing there, but the big reveal simply smashed me right in the face, as if it were Caladan Brood with his hammer. Powerful stuff.
So it was all Icarium's imagination, slowly rebuilding itself after the "new warrens" machine went off, whatever the **** that entails. How/why did he have access to Feather Witch (and Errastas's eye), I have no idea.
I guess that also means that Taxillian is indeed dead, which is a pity, because I really liked him.
Yeah, the big battles and stuff are exciting, but I honestly seem to have stopped caring much about them. I'm guessing that too many OP and too many unexplained things are happening for me to project expectations. OMG, the yet-unseen* Nah'Ruk show up with absolutely bonkers-OP weapons and magic?! OMG, this yet-unseen Ruthan Gudd is actually some weird demigod wielding a magic sword?! OMG, Quick Ben just blew himself and half a legion ("fury") up?! Sinn and Grub are at the other battle and are using OP OP magic too?! Endless amounts of sky fortresses?! WAAH!
Nah, everything else is way more interesting than that. Now the Bonehunters are presumed dead, but I'm ready to put money that this won't be the case. In fact, I'm pretty sure most of the named characters will be there. Someone will possibly be very worried that the army has been really thinned out, but I don't see any other major impacts on anything.** In fact, if Quick Ben is actually dead, I'll go out, buy a hat, and eat it.
I used to like Lieutenant Pores when he played tricks on Kindly, but now he's become a **** to everyone else instead, I'm starting to dislike him.
Atri-ceda Aranict and her swooning whenever Brys is around is ****ing hilarious, as was Brys's attempt to set up Lostara with that buff Bluerose dude who didn't exist before this book. Brys is just being pretty awesome all-around.
GALL NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Tanakalian is bad news bears, mark my words. Not that I don't know what he'll do, but still.
I'm really hoping for a Paran family reunion in the last book. Maybe that'll dislodge the massive wooden beam that's been stuck up Tavore's ass the entirety of this book.
Something different: when Felash was attempting to contact her mother, Abrastal, it was mentioned that "Jhistal priests" are actually a part of the cult to Mael. This means that that scumbag Mallick Rel is actually a priest of Bugg?! *one side-tracked Wiki lookup later* Wait, wait, so if they kill the Empress and Rel becomes the new Emperor, does this mean that
Mael has influence over the Malazan Empire?!
Ooooh, and one last thing. Kalse/Ampelas Rooted were described as "dragon-like". Despite knowing how the Moonshard (moon's spawn, pardon) looks, I spent 90% of this book thinking that these fortresses literally looked like statues of dragons (since Taxillian and the crew found a door "by the leg", that didn't help). That was mildly confusing.
* Karsa Orlong killing "a thing" in some dilapidated fort on another continent doesn't count. How the **** would I know that's a Nah'Ruk?!***
** Except Ibron and Keneb dying, I guess.
*** Unless Samar Dev told us so, in which case I don't remember that.