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A review by bent
Crack'd Pot Trail: A Malazan Tale of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach by Steven Erikson
2.0
Terribly disappointing. Although fitfully amusing, most of this book was a bore. Bauchelain, Korbal and Emancipor Reese aren't really in it except for a couple of pages at the end. Instead, we have the story of a journey undertaken by a group of characters who are pursuing the three. This story is related by Avas Didion Flicker, a poet, who revels in purple prose which is close to unreadable.
I knew I was in trouble when the book opened with several pages of italicized print. That's usually a sign for me with Erikson that what is written is going to be extremely boring. I wasn't disappointed. Erikson describes the characters in flowery, overblown language which crushes the intended humour under the sheer weight of his verbosity. Much of the book suffers from the same affliction.
Erikson seems to be commenting on the nature of art, its creators, its fans, and its critics. Unfortunately, his narrative style makes much of the book unreadable, and the characters and the stories they tell are fairly uninteresting. I did like Brash's first song.
A disappointing entry to a series that I have been enjoying. If it weren't so short, I would have abandoned it early on, but I stuck with it because I hoped it would improve, then finished it because there wasn't much left. I was hoping for a twist at the end, but the one provided wasn't worth the effort put in to maintaining interest int the book. I considered giving it one star, but didn't think it was quite that bad. The worst Malazan book that I've read by far.
I knew I was in trouble when the book opened with several pages of italicized print. That's usually a sign for me with Erikson that what is written is going to be extremely boring. I wasn't disappointed. Erikson describes the characters in flowery, overblown language which crushes the intended humour under the sheer weight of his verbosity. Much of the book suffers from the same affliction.
Erikson seems to be commenting on the nature of art, its creators, its fans, and its critics. Unfortunately, his narrative style makes much of the book unreadable, and the characters and the stories they tell are fairly uninteresting. I did like Brash's first song.
A disappointing entry to a series that I have been enjoying. If it weren't so short, I would have abandoned it early on, but I stuck with it because I hoped it would improve, then finished it because there wasn't much left. I was hoping for a twist at the end, but the one provided wasn't worth the effort put in to maintaining interest int the book. I considered giving it one star, but didn't think it was quite that bad. The worst Malazan book that I've read by far.