Stonewielder: Novels of the Malazan Empire, Book 3

Stonewielder (2010) is the third Fantasy novel in the Malazan Empire series, following  Return of the Crimson Guard . The initial volume in this series is  Night of Knives .In the previous volume, Kyle stared up at the Spur. His company had a contract to take the towering formation, but there was not any way up the sides. Yet Stalker remembered a bit of information about the Spur.Stoop set a group of sappers digging up the basement floor. They found stairs leading down, across and then up again. The stairway climbed up through a hollow shaft. Kyle was at the back of the troops as they climbed up the endless stairway.Close to the top, the troops were attacked by a revenant. Then a warlock appeared in mid air and attacked the soldiers. Greymane stabbed the warlock and he flew up the shaft.At the top, they were confronted by another man. The magus or Ascendant brought down lightening from the clouds. Kyle believed that the magus was a Spirit of the Wind and ran to defend him.Cowl appeared to stab the magus and white light blinded everyone in the vicinity. When they recovered their sight, the magus was gone. It seemed that Kyle's sword took most of the blast.In this novel, Hiam is the Lord Protector of the Stormwall, commander of all the Korelri.Shool is a Staff Marshal and aide to Hiam.Tirak Synubs is Naster Engineer of the Stormwall.Orjin Samart is Greymane, a former Fist in the Malazan army and a lieutenant in the Crimson Guard. He carries the sword Stonewielder and is also called by that name.Kyle was a recent recruits of the Third Induction of the Crimson Guard. He served in the First Company and carries a sword blessed by the Spirit of the Wind.Mallick Rel is the Emperor of the Malazan Empire. He succeeded Laseen on the throne after her death.Rillish was a Lieutenant in the Malazan Fourth Army. Now he is retired in Quon with the honorary rank of Fist.Ipshank is a former priest of Fener. When Fener passed from this existence, he found another god.Bakune is the newly installed Assessor of Banith. He is a magistrate of the state and the highest secular authority in the city, but likes to see crime scenes with his own eyes.Karien'ed is a Lieutenant in the Banith City Watch.Gheven is a tribesman of the Drenn living in Banith.Ivant of Antr is a Toblakai. He had been a Grand Champion who defied the call to the Stormwall. He vowed to never kill again and is now a farmer.Best is the ganglord of Danss. He has many employees, including Tar Karjin and Kyle.In this story, Hiam discusses shortages in the troop tithes with his aide. Their troop levels have been dropping for years. The Stormwall will be shorthanded this fall.Hiam inspects the Stormwall and sees little damage. Yet Synubs is concerned about some weakening in the foundations. Still, engineers alway worry about things like that.Bakune is down by a wharf investigating the body of a young woman. The body is tangled in seaweed among the rocks of the breakwater. Gheven had found the body and notified the Watch.Bakune questions the Drenn and discovers nothing new. Gheven admits to finding the body, but does not know the woman. He reported it because someone needed to know.Gheven claims that the woman had probably taken a Malazan lover and had been killed by her father to restore the family honor. Karien'ed denounces that statement as a lie and says that the woman had been killed by the Malazan. Bakune tends to believe the Drenn.Bakune goes to visit the Abbot at the Cloister after finding another woman in a filthy alley. The Abbot is the highest sacred power in the city. He knows that the woman as Sister Prudence of the Order. Bakune is rather suspicious of the explanation give by the Abbot.A priest of Fener ties up at the Banith dock. A excise officer tells him to remove the launch, but the priest says it isn't his. In front of the man, he lends a nearby worker a coin to buy the boat, Then Ipshank walks away.Passing the harbor guardhouse,Ipshank gazes at the Malazan troopers from the Sixth Fist. They have been here for the past three decades since the mutiny against the Empire. The troopers look very out of shape.The priest continues through the port city and notices many mixed breed youths. Apparently the Malazans have been impregnating the local women. One of the mixed breeds demands Ipshank's coins and gets a sermon in return.Ivant is peacefully tending his crops when a priestess of the cult of Dessembrae visits him. She asks him to join her in preaching the doctrine. He refuses her and continues his chores. He refuses her offer and returns to farming.Later, a mounted column of twelve Jourilan troopers comes to arrest him for aiding and abetting the local heretics. He agrees to cooperate after hearing that he will have a trial. The troopers tie his hands and put him on a horse.The officer picks out a nearby tree and announces that it will do for the hanging. Ivant ask what happened to the trial and the officer says that it has already been held. Of course, Ivant has been found guilty.Ivant breaks his bounds and unseats a trooper. After defeating the troopers, he shows the officer how to tie a prisoner. Then he leaves his farm and heads southward and then east.Kyle is working for Best as a swordsman in Delanss. Tar Kargin is Best's chief enforcer. Today Kyle is following Kargin on a collection run. The other thugs break the hand of the shopper owner.Afterward, Kargin mentions that some merchants are foreclosing on Greymane. Kyle tosses his bag of ears to Kargin and goes to see Orjin. He finds him drunk and incoherent. Then four Korelri -- veterans of the Stormwall -- show up to kill Greymane for his heresy. Kyle is left facing the leader, one of the best swordsmen that he had ever fought.Orgin draws Stonewielder and takes down the Korelri. He sends Kyle to get berths on a ship leaving around dawn. Greymane goes to visit Best to retrieve Kyle's sword. When he returns, a flock of armed men are chasing him.This tale brings Greymane and Rellish back into the Malazan Army with a pardon from Mallick Rel. Greymane is reinstated as High Fist of the land forces invading Korel Isle. Rellish is now a division Fist under Greymane.They are escorted by Blue Moranth ships. The Moranth are going to open the way to Korel and the land forces will land on the island. They are opposed by the ships of Mare.Events do not happen as expected during the invasion. The next installment in this sequence is  Orb Sceptre Throne .Highly recommended for Esslemont fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of armed conflict, magical combat, and religious warfare. Read and enjoy!-Arthur W. Jordin

Stonewielder is Ian C. Esslemont's third book in the Malazan series co-created with Steven Erikson and which Erikson has been exploring for years with his own series. If you look over my reviews for the first two books, Night of Knives and Return of the Crimson Guard, you'll see I've given them mixed reviews, though I thought RtoCG was an improvement on NoK and boded well for the next book in the series. That prediction turned out to be mostly accurate, as Stonewielder is, in my mind, clearly the best Esslemont has turned out so far, though it's still not without its flaws.As one might expect for a world/storyline that has so far served over a dozen books as well as a few novellas, the background plot is a bit dense. Stonewielder is set on the island continent of Korel, which the Malazan Empire invaded decades ago under the leadership of Greymane (the eponymous Stonewielder). The Malazans are the third major force on Korel, along with the mysterious Stormriders, creatures who rise out of the sea and who have been attacking the island for generations; and the Blessed Lady, a goddess that has protected the island from both the Stormriders and the Malazans. Disgraced and labeled a traitor after trying to treat with the Stormriders, Greymane is now hiding out with Kyle (from RotCG). Meanwhile, the Stormwall (a bulwark against the Stormriders) has been steadily weakening, as has the force (the Stormguard) that mans it.Now, under Mallick Rell, the Empire is again invading Korel and has called back Greymane to lead the invasion once more. He'll have to deal with the previous army--the 6th--which has set themselves up as an independent entity on Korel, led by the overlord (their highest officer) who is supported by his cadre mage and a contingent of Black Moranth (the Blues are with the Malazans). Parallel to the invasion, Lord Protector Hiam, Stormguard commander, tries to stave off what may be the most dangerous attack ever by the Stormriders (making cruel use of the Crimson Guard's Bars, the newest Stormwall Champion forced into service). Meanwhile, civil/religious war is breaking out on the continent between followers of the Blessed Lady and a ragtag army, which includes a pacifist Toblakai. In two smaller plot lines, in one of Korel's major cities a local assessor tries to solve a series of abductions/murders and a group of Crimson Guard make their way to Korel to rescue their comrades. And finally, way off to the side, Kiska (from NoK) is partnered with Leoman (yes, that one) as she tries to find Tayschrenn, which involves a march through Shadow to the edge of chaos, where they'll meet some strange fellow travelers.That's a lot to handle, but one of the improvements in Stonewielder over the other books is in pacing and structure, and while still not wholly there, for the most part Esslemont smoothly handles the multiple plot strands, moving from one to one relatively smoothly and with good balance. Kiska's story is really the outlier of the novel, sticking out a bit in its lack of connection to the rest of the plot lines, but it's clearly setting us up for other events to come. And while it's a pretty weak storyline at its start, a bit slow to get going, by the end of the book in many ways it's the most interesting and compelling, not least for the introduction of another character they pick up along the way.The plot strand involving Hiam and the Storm Guard goes the other way for me, starting out quite strong as we sense the urgency and the staving off of despair as this man watches his world literally crumble around him. And his earned dignity is made much more complex by the inherent cruelty of the way they press people into service; you're both attracted and repelled by this whole structure. But the storyline felt a bit stretched by the end of the novel. As did the assessor's plot line. As a story line, it's a basic mystery whose solution is really pretty obvious to the reader relatively early and it feels a bit repetitive. It succeeds more as a character study I'd say, as we watch the assessor open his eyes slowly to what's around him, though a bit too slowly. It felt like much more could have been done with this strand. A much smaller plot strand involving a group of mages being killed off also suffers a bit from some head-scratching obviousness of the "wouldn't they just . . . " sort.One's views on the pacing of the religious war and the invasion itself will probably be determined by one's love of battle scenes, of which there are plenty. There's no doubt these scenes are quite well-written, and exciting on their own, especially the naval battle which has a lot of freshness to it as we rarely see those in fantasy, but strong as they are individually (and they are) I'll confess I could have done with a little less of them when taken together. Your mileage on that score will vary.Despite those hedges, and despite the entire book lagging a bit toward the end in some of the strands, and standing to lose 50-80 pages or so, for the most part it was an intriguing and enjoyable read in terms of plot, with some relatively subtle allusions to current events, as when a character muses on the effect of occupation on the occupiers. And the big events at the very end pay off quite nicely. In usual Malazan fashion, we get some questions answered and some new ones born (including a bit of a trite dying moment almost-reveal: "But Batman, you're, you're, choke, die).The characterizations are mostly strong. Some will be familiar--the grunts and sappers who give a real-person feel as well as some humor. Despite their familiarity as character types, they're fully engaging. As mentioned, Hiam is another strong character, one a bit more original than some of the others I'd say. The same is true for Ussu, the 6th's cadre mage, though I thought the potential was there to explore more fully his conflicts. The introduction of Manask throws another person into the mix for funniest- character-in-the-series debates. Warran, met by Kiska and Leoman in the quest for Tayschrenn, is simply a delight as a character, for several reasons. Somewhat surprisingly, the "big name" characters such as Greymane, Kyle, the Crimson Guard folks, or "main" characters such as Bakune, are less fully fleshed out and/or less interesting than many of the side characters or newer characters. But as there are more than enough of those strong characters, that doesn't hurt the book at all.To be honest, were this series the first one out there set in Malaz, I'm not sure I would have stayed with it based on my very mixed experiences with the first two; it was wanting to learn more about Malaz that kept me going past NoK and then again past RotCG. That and the incremental growth from book one to book two. I had some quibbles with Stonewielder, some of the storylines did lag a bit here and there, some parts felt a bit stretched or repetitive, but there's no doubt Stonewielder is not simply an improvement but a big jump up in class and the first one I can fully recommend. If the small improvement from NoK to RotCG boded moderately well for Stonewielder, I have to say I'm quite excited for Esslemont's next work. Well-recommended.

I really didnt like this book much. I thought NoK and RotCG were much better efforts, and the Erikson malazan books in another league.The only thing going for this book is its setup - find out what the Greymane and the Koreli Stormguard are all about, and in theory what happened after RotCG. The first 2 get wrapped up, but not in an especially satisfying way, and the rest is mentioned (a lot) but doesnt amount to much.The rest is too dull, with the usual mix of battles and pondering. But the pondering is far too ponderous, and the battles just dont seem to be clear as to what's going on. No real suprises till the end, when there are a couple of interesting ones, and an all to convenient wrapping up of greymane. Most annoying however is the random plot lines which dont seem to serve any purpose, ceretainly not for their length - Ivanar, Kiska, Quint, etc. I also got pretty bored with the 1d minions - Suth, etc.Worth pointing out however Ipshank and Manask - they were good & set up way, way back in Eriksons work, if you look hard enough.Would read it, but only for completeness & backstory, probably before Toll the Hounds, certainly before Dust of Dreams.Bring on The Crippled God is all I say & please try harder next time mr ICE

This is Esslemont's third Malazan novel, and his writing has continue to develop with every book. A host of his previous characters and a whole bunch of new faces clash as we finally deal with the oft mentioned Stormwall.Kyle, the main protagonist from the last novel, continues his journey together with Greymane, as the Malazans mount another invasion of Korel. The latter in particular is developed in much more depth.Naval combat has played a minor role in the Malazan books thus far, but here we finally get an in-depth engagement involving the Moranth Blues and a host of sorcery. The battle is excitingly written and one of the best scenes Ian has written thus far.We also continue the trials of Iron Bars and his comrades as the Guardsmen join the defenders of the Wall; there's a real sense of futile desperation to the neverending combat with the Riders.As if this wasn't enough, we also get the return of Kiska as she travels with a major Erikson character in search of the lost mage Tayschrenn.The strands left dangling at the end of the novel left me wanting more; I'm sure Esslemont will deliver.

After reading all of Eriksons and ICE's malazan novels, I have to rate this bottom of the pile with deadhouse gates as my least favourites. There just were not enough interesting story threads in the book and too much that I didn't really care about either way.The last quarter of the book is good as the action / story threads conclude but most of the rest was pointless plot lines.Character wise Greymane & Kyle are predominant but simply not enough of them, the Crimson guard are also present and they are good points of the book and also the Malazans Rillish, his company & the Koreli storm guard - all make interesting reading. There is also some humour from an excellent character called Manask.There was just to much I didn't care about - the Ivanr & Bakune story threads and what were the Kiska parts about, she didn't achieve anything and was not related to the story in anyway. They all felt like fillers and unless developed in the future they started nowhere and generally went nowhere. Completely pointless. All in all not one of my favourites

This book is another grand entry in the Ian C esslemont franchise, and whilst it takes on the same universe as Steven Erikson, it sets an entirely different tone.From the fleshing out, to the closure, of Greymane's character in depth to the Wall and rounded character development of some of the smaller characters across the board, it adds closure to others.Only greivances I had when reading this was losing track of 2 characters with similar names, so picking the scenario between the 2 made it interesting. The second being a short insert with 2 unnamed characters interacting.

I have just thoroughly enjoyed reading Stonewielder and I think ICE has finally mastered the Erikson style enough for this to feel _right_.To be honest, to me this read like an Erikson book, and a good one, and there is no higher compliment than that, bearing in mind the author (ICE) is writing about Malazans, marines and Moranths. There was humour and pathos and futility and hope with a good mix of cameos from, and references to, familiar and welcome old friends. Happily too there wasn't too much despair and soul-searching that I felt clouded the last 3 or 4 Erikson/MBotF books.In all, a definite step up from the first 2 ICE books, and a welcome addition to the collection of Malazan books. I am really looking forward to the Orb Sceptered Throne now.