This and the preceding book Gardens of the Moon have reinvigorated my love of fantasy literature. I have my issues with the way Erikson writes these books, but I'll come to them in a bit. What I love is the way that he introduces these incredibly rich and realistic characters into the story and it all threads together in the end. Erikson is balancing at least a half dozen different points of view throughout this novel, from characters in very different locations, and yet in their own way it always ends up having a purpose. The conclusions to these various threats of plot are almost always satisfying, even if they can be surprising and heartbreaking as well.

But I had to knock one star off. Erikson consistently leaves important and fundamental concepts unexplained, and no, I shouldn't have to read almost 1,500 pages to understand basic things like what the bloody hell Soletaken, D'ivers, the 'Path of Hands', or House of Azath are. Even fundamental things - like what Jhag, Trell, Tlan'Imass even are are left almost completely explained except for a very brief glossary at the back of the book. It also doesn't help that key areas in the plot don't feature at all on the map at the front of the book, so the sense of geography throughout this novel is continually confusing.

So I love the characters, I love the way they grew over this novel, and I loved the overall arc that I can see starting to be constructed here. I like how he isn't afraid to kill characters that readers become attached to, and yet it never feels particularly gratuitous or done for shock value. The world he's built is incredible, and the characters are so rich and vibrant it's hard to imagine this is merely fiction, and the scope of the narrative being spun is stunning. I just hope in future books Erikson does a better job of actually explaining the world he has created to the reader and letting us in to understand it.