A review by zeph1337
Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I struggled somewhat in the beginning of my reading journey of this epic series but the last few books put pretty much all my issues behind and I truly started getting on the Malazan hype train. To me this book was a slight step backwards.

Don’t get me wrong, I think this was overall still another truly great book and I loved most about it but one storyline in particular I just couldn’t find a way to connect with and my excitement for the book as a whole got dampened each time we returned to it. I am talking about the Tiste Andii / Black Coral plotline. This one just brought me back to feelings I had while reading Memories of Ice. It just gave me those impressions of yeah there are cool things happening but I’m just not really invested in any of it and also just a sense of being lost and thinking what’s the point of all this? 

I also felt the very slow pacing of the book the most during these parts and it just left me bored sometimes. It definitely got rectified by another awesome convergence at the end that brought all the plotlines together and has huge implications for the rest of the series but the journey there was just not an easy one.

That's my complaint and reason why I am not giving this book the full 5 stars out of the way, let’s get to the things I loved.

First of all: Darujhistan! Returning to this awesome city from Gardens of the moon was just so cool. We actually got storylines from that book being picked up again (It’s kind of crazy that there were 6 other books inbetween) and just a lot of great characters we met along the way coming together and/or returning home in the centerpiece place of this book that is “the city of blue fire” and I loved everything about that. 

The omniscient story telling by one of Darujhistan’s most philosophical citizens felt really atmospheric and just gave this book a very unique flair and I always really enjoyed those passages. 

I also love that Karsa Orlong seems to appear in every book now and I loved him meeting up with another barbarian type character (that also got a great introduction here). He is definitely a very crucial part of the series as a whole and there just can’t be a convergence without that guy being around!

We also got our first closer look at the Trygalle Trade Guild and man they are certainly doing some crazy shit. Not sure what they are really up to and some parts of it just left me befuddled and confused while others just felt very slow but you can say one thing for sure being in one of their carriages certainly feels like one hell of a ride! 

I felt like the true star of the book was probably the one that matters the least in the grand scope of things and it’s the story of the young and shy boy Harrlo who is suffering from intense amounts of violent bullying. This story was just so emotionally captivating to me and I was truly empathizing with him. 

In the grand scheme of rating things I think this book takes the top stop of all the Malazan books I have not rated 5 stars. Let’s see if I still get to finish the series this year.