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129 reviews for:
The God Is Not Willing: Book One of the Witness Trilogy: A Novel of the Malazan World
Steven Erikson
4.51 AVERAGE
129 reviews for:
The God Is Not Willing: Book One of the Witness Trilogy: A Novel of the Malazan World
Steven Erikson
4.51 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Wow wow wow. I was blown away by the final act of this book, and overall I really liked it, but I'll give it 4.5 stars rounded down due to it taking a long time to get me invested in half of the story.
Freed up from the need to do all the world-building and writing a million characters and plots across a grandly epic 10 book series, Erikson crafted a much much tighter book than what I was used to from him.
Almost every chapter felt like a tour-de-force short story, and with such heavy themes I took this one slow, mostly reading a chapter or two a day until I reached the final book and got swept up in the incredible final act.
For my money this had some of Erikson's richest character work, from Rant to Damisk to the bit players among the Teblor and Jeck, to the marines who steadily got built up over the course of their chapters into very recognizable individuals. However, the marines didn't really start to feel like unique real people I could differentiate until toward the back half, and I think my investment would've been higher if Erikson foregrounded a few of them a bit more and moved some of the less important ones off the page completely.
I had issues over the course of MBotF with the amount of outright telling the reader how compassionate everyone was, and the performative weeping that felt way over the top -- this one I think succeeded much more in showing on the compassion front, and was so much more effective with the theme than he had been before.
I now wait with great anticipation for the continuation of this one, as I have absolutely no clue where Erikson is gonna take it.
Freed up from the need to do all the world-building and writing a million characters and plots across a grandly epic 10 book series, Erikson crafted a much much tighter book than what I was used to from him.
Almost every chapter felt like a tour-de-force short story, and with such heavy themes I took this one slow, mostly reading a chapter or two a day until I reached the final book and got swept up in the incredible final act.
For my money this had some of Erikson's richest character work, from Rant to Damisk to the bit players among the Teblor and Jeck, to the marines who steadily got built up over the course of their chapters into very recognizable individuals. However, the marines didn't really start to feel like unique real people I could differentiate until toward the back half, and I think my investment would've been higher if Erikson foregrounded a few of them a bit more and moved some of the less important ones off the page completely.
I had issues over the course of MBotF with the amount of outright telling the reader how compassionate everyone was, and the performative weeping that felt way over the top -- this one I think succeeded much more in showing on the compassion front, and was so much more effective with the theme than he had been before.
I now wait with great anticipation for the continuation of this one, as I have absolutely no clue where Erikson is gonna take it.
my thoughts on this book are....somewhat complicated.
Some things about it are peak Malazan, some things about it are not my favorite.
Certainly still a book I enjoyed reading
8.4
Some things about it are peak Malazan, some things about it are not my favorite.
Certainly still a book I enjoyed reading
8.4
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Malazan Book of the Fallen is my favorite series and this lives up to expectations as the first entry in a follow-up series.
I especially love how Erikson organizes his novels as a satisfying complete narrative while equally serving as a groundwork for future books.
I do not recommend new readers to the Malazan universe start here; consider Gardens of the Moon or Night of Knives instead.
I especially love how Erikson organizes his novels as a satisfying complete narrative while equally serving as a groundwork for future books.
I do not recommend new readers to the Malazan universe start here; consider Gardens of the Moon or Night of Knives instead.
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A compelling and hilarious book that delivers everything a reader wants from a Malazan novel: a deep mythology, high fantasy action, strong comedy, and occasional philosophical musings on Erikson's favourite themes.
It's much punchier than Erikson's previous work, action happens often and quickly. We're introduced to an almost entirely new cast but they feel very familiar by the end. My only gripe is that it retreads ground from the Book of the Fallen so often that you might worry Erikson has nothing more to say in this setting.
In some cases, it makes sense. Rant's story has echoes of Karsa and in a series about the Toblakai, one can imagine that the author has purposefully set up a son with similar traits. Just like his father, Rant keeps getting into scrapes because he refuses to compromise.
However, the marines are a different story. They're as entertaining as ever and Erikson does his usual magic of making you care about a large number of people with silly names and odd quirks. The problem is, he seems to love them too much. Malazan marines have always been brave, compassionate, funny, and oddly capable but it's taken to such extremes in this book that it occasionally feels like self parody.
All in all, it's an entertaining book. I just hope it finds a way to differentiate itself as the series continues.
It's much punchier than Erikson's previous work, action happens often and quickly. We're introduced to an almost entirely new cast but they feel very familiar by the end. My only gripe is that it retreads ground from the Book of the Fallen so often that you might worry Erikson has nothing more to say in this setting.
In some cases, it makes sense. Rant's story has echoes of Karsa and in a series about the Toblakai, one can imagine that the author has purposefully set up a son with similar traits. Just like his father, Rant keeps getting into scrapes because he refuses to compromise.
However, the marines are a different story. They're as entertaining as ever and Erikson does his usual magic of making you care about a large number of people with silly names and odd quirks. The problem is, he seems to love them too much. Malazan marines have always been brave, compassionate, funny, and oddly capable but it's taken to such extremes in this book that it occasionally feels like self parody.
All in all, it's an entertaining book. I just hope it finds a way to differentiate itself as the series continues.
This book was outstanding. Steven Erikson has long forgotten how to disappoint. I loved the characters, the arcs, the twists, the turns. I teared up, I laughed, I cheered, my mouth fell open in shock. I was heartbroken and elated and awed. The marines got me, as they do.
"Do you give a shit?"
Yeah man, I do, and it brings me some peace and hope and maybe a little bit of clarity about the world to know that I'm not the only one.
"Do you give a shit?"
Yeah man, I do, and it brings me some peace and hope and maybe a little bit of clarity about the world to know that I'm not the only one.