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wouterk's review
4.0
A very enjoyable short story from Erikson. It is a fascinating experience to have a lighter, more humorous experience, but maintain Erikson's tendency to continuously describe a story from a multitude of perspectives. This makes for great scenes and, to me, is reminiscent of Pratchett's Discworld books.
Our trio is on a boat and some stuff is about to happen as they come into a straight with blood red sea near Laughter's End. A good story with horror elements.
What I love, besides the humor, is how Erikson somehow describes anything in a way that it seems logical and natural to exist in this world. Even the human-centipede-like creatures here (at least that's how I imagined them) seem to fit into the world.
All in all a fun read. Definitely recommend!
Our trio is on a boat and some stuff is about to happen as they come into a straight with blood red sea near Laughter's End. A good story with horror elements.
What I love, besides the humor, is how Erikson somehow describes anything in a way that it seems logical and natural to exist in this world. Even the human-centipede-like creatures here (at least that's how I imagined them) seem to fit into the world.
All in all a fun read. Definitely recommend!
christiano's review
dark
4.0
This novella starts right where Blood Follows end. Bauchelain and Korbal Broach - and of course their manservant Emancipor - are travelling on a ship. And things get wild and dark and gruesome. Sometimes weirdly funny, sometimes horrifying and any combination of the two.
lakserk's review
2.0
This is the lesser of the three first B&K.B. stories. Taking place entirely on a travelling ship, what let me down was the overwhelming (for such a short narrative) number of minor characters (and their inner voices). Nothing spectacular, can be easily skipped.
mwplante's review
3.0
"It was, in truth, the stupidest monster she had ever seen."
This was my favorite of the bunch on my first go-around with Bauchelain and Korbal Broach Vol. 1, and it is easy to recall why. The new characters are engaging and easy to empathize with despite the horrific and absurd scenario they find themselves in. The story overall does comedic horror in the squishy, slapstick vein of a Sam Raimi film. Beyond these simple pleasures, stacked revelations about the nature of the various featured-creatures rattling about the hold of the ship augment the story and draw the reader deeper and deeper into Erikson's thrall. The passage beginning "Wizards delegate" was a particularly lovely little interlude. I'm tempted to snip it an share it with anyone I'm trying to entice to the Malazan fold.
Bauchelain and Korbal Broach as a duo offer up more of themselves in this story than the last, and I found myself wondering during this second read of the second chronological story if we will ever be treated to a Bauchelain and Korbal Broach prequel, showing the meet-cute of this macabre duo. I can only hope.
This was my favorite of the bunch on my first go-around with Bauchelain and Korbal Broach Vol. 1, and it is easy to recall why. The new characters are engaging and easy to empathize with despite the horrific and absurd scenario they find themselves in. The story overall does comedic horror in the squishy, slapstick vein of a Sam Raimi film. Beyond these simple pleasures, stacked revelations about the nature of the various featured-creatures rattling about the hold of the ship augment the story and draw the reader deeper and deeper into Erikson's thrall. The passage beginning "Wizards delegate" was a particularly lovely little interlude. I'm tempted to snip it an share it with anyone I'm trying to entice to the Malazan fold.
Bauchelain and Korbal Broach as a duo offer up more of themselves in this story than the last, and I found myself wondering during this second read of the second chronological story if we will ever be treated to a Bauchelain and Korbal Broach prequel, showing the meet-cute of this macabre duo. I can only hope.
josiah216's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
ejmorris1's review
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
clarks_dad's review
5.0
Is it me or is Erikson channeling a bit of Terry Pratchett in this one?
Mancy the Luckless finds himself trapped aboard the sailing vessel Suncurl with his new masters, necromancers extraordinaire Bauchelain and Korbal Broach. Having booked passage out of Lamentable Moll with all due haste, the trio find that their new crew is being pursued themselves for mysterious reasons. There's also something not quite right about the ship itself. It's the nails. The nails are all wrong.
Erikson repeats a pattern that worked well in his first novella: Emancipor Reese finds himself in the middle of a confluence of unlikely events that truly seems to justify his lamentable appellation. The dialogue is witty and hilarious while the tale manages to be terrifying because of the confined nature of the setting. A killer is loose on the small ship Suncurl. One that appears to be able to vanish and reappear at will, striking terror into crew and passengers alike. The juxtaposition of humor on grotesquerie works brilliantly and produces a Tarantino-esque feeling. It doesn't get much better than the killer arguing with themselves (I know, don't worry, the grammar makes sense once you learn the truth):
I've also come to really love some of the minor side characters populating these short tales. The Lees of Laughter's End is home to Briv, Briv, and Briv—a cook's assistant, a cross-dressing rope braider, and the carpenter's helper— as well as Birds Mottle, Heck Urse, and the truly unfortunate Gust Hubb (whose slow dismemberment throughout the narrative adds a bit of schadenfreude to the tale) who seem to be ripped straight from the celluloid of a Three Stooges film, and the dynamically batshit crazy mother-daughter duo Bena Elder and Bena Younger.
This is probably my favorite tale set in the Malazan world yet. It's narrative contains all the best elements of world building I expect from Erikson while keeping the tale intimate and focused with a smaller cast of characters and a more claustrophobic setting. The lore aspects of the forgotten god and mysterious idols from collapsed civilizations adds the texture that I love in Erikson's work. A good one-sitting read.
Mancy the Luckless finds himself trapped aboard the sailing vessel Suncurl with his new masters, necromancers extraordinaire Bauchelain and Korbal Broach. Having booked passage out of Lamentable Moll with all due haste, the trio find that their new crew is being pursued themselves for mysterious reasons. There's also something not quite right about the ship itself. It's the nails. The nails are all wrong.
Erikson repeats a pattern that worked well in his first novella: Emancipor Reese finds himself in the middle of a confluence of unlikely events that truly seems to justify his lamentable appellation. The dialogue is witty and hilarious while the tale manages to be terrifying because of the confined nature of the setting. A killer is loose on the small ship Suncurl. One that appears to be able to vanish and reappear at will, striking terror into crew and passengers alike. The juxtaposition of humor on grotesquerie works brilliantly and produces a Tarantino-esque feeling. It doesn't get much better than the killer arguing with themselves (I know, don't worry, the grammar makes sense once you learn the truth):
"Why are we angry? You fool. How dare other people be still alive when we aren't? It's unfair! A grotesque imbalance. We need to kill everyone on board. Everyone. Devour them all!"
I've also come to really love some of the minor side characters populating these short tales. The Lees of Laughter's End is home to Briv, Briv, and Briv—a cook's assistant, a cross-dressing rope braider, and the carpenter's helper— as well as Birds Mottle, Heck Urse, and the truly unfortunate Gust Hubb (whose slow dismemberment throughout the narrative adds a bit of schadenfreude to the tale) who seem to be ripped straight from the celluloid of a Three Stooges film, and the dynamically batshit crazy mother-daughter duo Bena Elder and Bena Younger.
This is probably my favorite tale set in the Malazan world yet. It's narrative contains all the best elements of world building I expect from Erikson while keeping the tale intimate and focused with a smaller cast of characters and a more claustrophobic setting. The lore aspects of the forgotten god and mysterious idols from collapsed civilizations adds the texture that I love in Erikson's work. A good one-sitting read.
novoaust's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Marketed as a dark horror comedy, that is exactly what this provides. A lot of Erikson's strengths are present and I enjoyed the novella as a whole but it failed to grab my like Erikson's other works. I was hoping to get more info about the three main characters these novellas follow and that wasn't the case.
Still, the horror aspects had me interested and the dark humor seemingly gets better and better. Onto the next one!
Still, the horror aspects had me interested and the dark humor seemingly gets better and better. Onto the next one!