The First Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: Three Short Novels of the Malazan Empire (Malazan Book of the Fallen Series)

The First Collected Tales of Bauchelain & Korbal Broach (2007) is the first Fantasy collection in the Bauchelain & Korbal Broach subseries of the Malazan milieu. It contains  Blood Follows , The Lees of Laughter's End , The Healthy Dead  and three introductions to these novellas.Blood Follows (2002) is the first novella in this series. The bells of Lamentable Moll are pealing to signal the death of a very important person. The killings have happened for the past several nights. The victims are eviscerated and organs are missing.Mancy returns home to tell his wife that he is now unemployed. His master is the latest victim. The same thing happened several days before.Subly asks why he has not yet found anther job. Mancy goes to a tavern to drink with a couple of crabbers. They tell him of a job offer posted in the fishermen's round.The notice mentions travel. That means he may be leaving Theft Island and his family. He is interested in travel right now.Mancy is very drunk at the interview with Bauchelain. Despite the drunkenness, Mancy is hired. He returns to his home to inform Subly. She likes the escrow account paying a steady wage directly to her.Guld learns of the two foreigners and goes to talk to them. Mancy refuses to let him into the room. Guld calls up his corporal and manages to enter the room. He wonders about the whereabouts of Korbal.Tulgord Vise rides through the City Watch line to view one of the deaths. Guld warns him never to try that again. Tulgord is very determined to track down the killer.Princess Sharn is a witness to one of the murders. Guld starts to interrogate her, but a court mage sends her back to the palace. Seljure orders him not to bother the princess.The Lees of Laughter's End (2007) is the third novella in this series. The Suncurl has sailed from Lamentable Moll and is now a week west of Theft in the Tithe Strait. Bena the Younger is looking for the blood trail of Laughter's End. Her mother encourages her.No other ships are in sight. Bena the Younger strokes her mother's hair. Then she sees the vein of blood and looses a piercing cry.As the cry dies down, Druther climbs up beside his captain. He asks if she thinks that someone is still following then. She tells him to shut up. When he continue to talk, she warns him that his tongue will be cut out if he isn't quiet.Mottle says that the cook is a poet. Urse agrees with her. Mancy thinks that he isn't much of a cook. He is smoking Durhang to get an appetite.Hubb comes rushing into the mess room yelling that someone has cut off his ear. His mates check and find one ear completely missing, but the hole is bleeding profusely. Back at the stern, Korbal is baiting a hook with an ear.The crusty nails in the timbers have come from the sarcophagi in Moll. Now the souls in these nails are creaking. As they sail into the blood, they are singing songs of freedom.A lich abides within the hold of the Suncurl. It starts eating the souls in the nails. It grows stronger.Korbal has constructed his progeny from parts of his victims in Moll. Now he adds the eyes, mouths and legs of the rats on the Suncurl. Then he sends it out to hunt the lich.Bauchelain has Mancy oil and repair his armor and sharpen his sword. Something is coming after the ship. Bauchelain prepares for a god.The Healthy Dead (2004) is the second novella in this series. Factallo is struck by a collapsing wagon and loses consciousness. When he awakes, his crew is amazed. Loath pronounces him a Saint. Imid wishes that the wagon has killed him.Bauchelain and Broach are approaching the last city on the peninsula. Mancer says a trader has stated that it is named Quaint. Bauchelain does not think it is quaint. They decide to bypass the city.The road is empty most of the way toward the city. Then two people approach them carrying a heavy chest of gold and silver coins. Imid states that they are Saints of Glorious Labor.Bauchelain observes that the title seems worthy. Imid disagrees, stating that he is now out of work. The other Saint -- Elas Sil -- concurs in that statement.The Saints explain the death of the previous king and his replacement by Macrotus. The new King had elevated the worship of the Lady of Benefience to the city's official and only legal religion. Now all forms of harmful substances and activities are prohibited.Korbal in crow form visits the body of the former king and enlivens it. Necrotus sees again, despite loss of his eyes. Korbal raises the body off the hook and frees Necrotus.Bauchelain sends Mancy into the city to run some errands. Mancy strolls through the gates and wanders by the Temple. Purge accused him of loitering and demands his name. Mancy feigns amnesia and a crowd proclaims him the First Saint.The next collection in this sequence has not yet been released on Amazon. However, the novel  Crack'd Pot Trail  continues the story and  The Wurms of Blearmouth  is another novella in this sequence.Highly recommended for Erikson fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of necromantic magic, political intrigue, and morbid humor. Read and enjoy!-Arthur W. Jordin

I was very unsure what to expect from this collection of stories. I devoured every Malazan Book of the Fallen and was eager for more of anything set in this world. But the namesake characters were two of my least favorite of the massive cast introduced by Erikson. I am so glad that I took the plunge anyway.As stated by another review, this is a very odd book. And I mean that in the best possible way. This series of stories appears to be where Erikson comes out to play. He teases at a strange sense of humor in his magnum opus, but here he just runs with it. The humor is ever so dark so if you don't enjoy that sort of thing you should probably move along. But if that is your bag then this is your book.The main characters remain thoroughly unlikable, but that is the point. The author gives us Mancy the Luckless to root for in every story. And this poor drug addled sop is absolutely hilarious and very hard not to love. I think I even started to warm up to the resident necromancer by the end. If that isn't talent then I don't know what is anymore!

This was really fun. We get to know Mr Bauchelain and Broach, two most deplorable and despicable human beings. Not only did I enjoy them, I couldn't wait to see what happened next. This was a very interesting and enjoyable short entry into the Malazan world.

I enjoyed the story and it kept me interested throughout, however it was hard to keep all the unusual names straight and sometimes the story straight as it jumped around a lot and I kept trying to remember who was who. Other than that great read!

This is the first book from this author that I have truly disliked. Terrible, disjointed plot presentation and weak character development. This book failed to interest or engage me in any way.

The first I read from Steven Erikson. He portrays a fairly original fantasy world, and its interesting to follow the bad guys for once, though in reality you follow a couple of characters, so the anti-hero effect is greatly muted.I also have a hard time with Eriksons prose. The sentences, while detailed and vivid, are often overly convoluted, often over 30 words long. He also likes to use uncommon words all too frequently. I find it hard to follow his sentences and constantly find myself having to re-read large sections, often several times.Overall, I like the picture he evokes in my brain, but at the same time, it is a painful process.In the end, I dont see myself reading more from this author.

Better than I expected. I am not generally a fan of short stories and novellas; I only ordered this book because I am such a fan of the Malazan series in general. I was pleasantly surprised. It read sort of like all the chapters of a side story from a larger book were pulled out and arranged together. Maybe people who normally like shorter form stories won't like it as much, but it suited me very well.

Though sometimes not for the more squeamish readers, these stories are excellent side jaunts off the popular Malazan novels. This is a collection of the the three short books about Bauchelain, Korbal Broach, and (who can forget!) Emancipor Reese. The three books that this collects each sell for over $10, so as a collection, it's an excellent bargain.It tells the story of how Emancipor is hired by the duo of necromancers (Blood Follows), an adventure during their sea voyage (The Lees of Laughter's End), and an adventure in the city of Quaint (The Healthy Dead). There is so much detail possible from more of the back story, or even the sea voyage, it's easy to see why this collection is called "Volume 1". We should all hope that more works are in progress.

Fantastic read; if you are looking to scratch your Malazan itch waiting for the next book to be released or just want a little more of the Malazan universe this compendium of novellas is great.Side characters from the main series get more depth. The light hearted and jovial nature of this book make it a very fun to read. Lots of satire, dry whit and a dash of absurdity. A fantastic read.

Of all the minor characters in The Malazan Book of the Fallen Bauchelain and Korbal Broach are among the more fascinating. But the best part of this is the back-story of Emancipor "Mancy" Reese, their man-servant. The bathos of his antics provides much humour.And despite the uber-dark nature of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach and their activities this is often funny. Lighter, of necessity, than the main canon of books but no less good for that.

I love the deep intricacy of Eriksen's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, they are epic sweeping and vast in their ambitions and accomplishments.This feels reads lightweight, immaterial and somehow fake with its pseudo integration into "Wu." I can't judge it as someone not already into MbotF, maybe new readers won't have my misgivings, as Eriksen is a terrific writer and world creator.

Great characters from MOI. Steven Erikson obviously has fun writing the pair and their manservant. Reese’s backstory made me laugh.

I enjoyed these tales and found them to be typical Steven Erikson.However I was most disapointed that the chapters were generally only 4 or 5 pages long and in some instance's a page or less. This combined with the 3 appendix by other authors at the back of the book creates a book with 400 pages that could probably have been less than 300 pages.