Today’s been an interesting day. I get married tomorrow. And, more interestingly for you, the readers, I just finished Stonewielder, Ian C Esslemont’s awesome new epic fantasy set in the world he and Erikson co-created. Bantam from the UK were kind enough to send me a review copy, and I had to work at it in order to get done before my wedding. Awkwardly, I hadn’t read any of the other Malazan books, but though I’d jump in for some pre-ceremony reading.
Well.
Leaping in turned out to be both more difficult and more rewarding than the first plunge into a chilly beach. I’ve long been a fan of epic fantasy, and Stonewielder is certainly epic. Clearly I’d missed out on a lot of backstory, because Esslemont didn’t spend much time at all setting his scenes. Straight into the action he leads us, grabbing our hands and saying “Come on! There’s more adventure to be had!”. “OK,”, I said, faithfully allowing myself to be led into the book.
For readers familiar with the Malazan books, the first hundred or so pages will probably hold more relevance to them. Presumably familiar characters are pulled out of retirement, come out of hiding, and materialise out of Warrens left, right, and centre. We know we’re in for a quick, tight, furiously paced adventure when we jump a half a dozen viewpoints in as many pages. The heroes and heroines of the story leap out at us, take us by the throat, and drag us down into the messy, dangerous and dirty world of politics and internecine strife that Esslemont and Erikson have created.
So let’s start with the good, and there is so much of it. The world is intense and interesting. It sprawls, luscious, waiting for you to meet it in more detail. Once I’d gotten my head wrapped around the geography and sudden setting changes, I felt like the entire world was blossoming around the characters as they moved through it. The magical systems are well thought out and consistent. Esslemont doesn’t spend much time moving into the minuitae of the systems that exist, but this works on several levels. Presumably the earlier Malazan boos have covered them in some detail, and repeating himself here with laborious infodumps would slow down what is a crackingly paced story. Also, many of the characters are observers, rather than practitioners, of the magics, and having them be left in the dark is quite enjoyable. The sheer power that Esslemont’s magic wielders display is awesome, well described, and left vivid images in my head of wrathful mages in glorious technicolour.
The heart of a good epic fantasy lies with its plots. This is where Esslemont really flexes his muscles. It’s all here. An army headed by a pacifist. Heroes and genii drawn, reluctantly, back to lives they’d abandoned. Gods. Demons (who, predictably enough, are way cooler than the Gods). The looming threat of the end of the world. Religious cults, insidiously worming through the populace. An incorruptable judge, determined to find the truths hidden within his domain, regardless of the cost. The machinations of a half-dozen militaries, with their pettiness, beauracracy, bickering and wastefulness exposed. A dozen battlefields, with their attendant tactics, strategies, upsets, heroism, cowardice, bloodshed, glory and bathos laid out under Esslemont’s expert direction. The scope of Stonewielder is truly epic. Esslemont draws a long bow indeed, and unneringly hits his targets.
There are a few niggling points that detracted from an otherwise excellent book. The story itself started a little bewilderingly for me, with sudden jumps in view and across continent without so much as a by-your-leave. I know that different authors have different ways of signifying changes in viewpoint, but it doesn’t feel like Esslemont’s quite gotten the hang of that yet. Occasionally, a perspective will jump across time and space, but the new narrator won’t become clear for several lines or even longer. It’s a little disorienting.
The dialogue, while mostly excellent, is let down in a couple of places. On the most part, when haracters speak, they each have their own voices, keep their statements realistically short, and engage in some wity back-and-forth that had me chuckling aloud in sections. Esslemont seems to have a curious aversion to swearing, though. After reading and enjoying people like Abercrombie, Lynch and Morgan, it’s a little hard to come back to people saying “Our backsides are exposed!” when there’s a rain of crossbow bolts being fired at them. Maybe this was an editorial decision – the cleaner language certainly makes it more kid-friendly – but every time Esslemont skirts around bad language, it feels ungainly. His replacement of various naughty words with a deific curse, like “Go to Hood!” feels more like awkward Bowdlerism than a genuine expletive.
Esslemont’s dialogue also suffers from very variable pacing. I know that long, uninterrupted speeches and grand declamations are par for the course in this genre. I can see that Esslemont does them very well. There are still too many. It’s a pity, because the rest of his writing is fantastic – clear, concise, well-weighted. Superb. And ninety percent of the dialogue is excellent, as well. The occasional lapses in verisimilitude detract from the believability of the entire book, though, which is a pity. Stonewielder feels like it could have had one more ruthless edit, or possibly an aloud read-through.
These are just minor niggles in an otherwise excellent book, though. It’s inspired me to make a last-minute revision to my wedding gift registry. Who really needs dinner sets, anyway? I wants me the other Malazan books!
As a stand-alone novel, there are some pacing issues with the first hundred or so pages. After the initial hiccups, Stonewielder gets the bit between its teeth and really lets rip. With so much happening, characters at cross-purposes, it’s a thrilling ride. I managed to dismount somewhere near the ending, bruised, battered, breathless, and thoroughly sated. Like his larger-than-life characters, Esslemont’s Stonewielder needs to be read to be believed. It comes roaring onto the battlefield, throttles you to get your attention, stabs you with some plot and action, and blows your mind away with 600 pages of magic and adventure.
As a stand-alone? A great read.
For those already fans of the Malazan books? Unmissable.
I happily give Stonewielder 8.5 of 10 Magical Swords of Destiny.
Here’s the blurb:
Greymane believed he’d outrun his past. He now ran a school for swordsmanship in Falar and was looking forward to becoming fat and lazy. With him was Kyle, though the plains youth was not quite so contented with civilian life outside the mercenary company the Crimson Guard. Yet it is not so easy to disappear when you are an ex-Fist of the Malazan Empire, especially one denounced and under a death-sentence from that very Empire.
For there is a new Emperor on the throne of Malaz, and his thoughts turn to the lingering drain of blood and treasure that is the failed invasion of the Korel subcontinent. In the record vaults beneath Unta, the Imperial capital, lie the answers to that disaster. And out of this buried history surfaces the name Stonewielder.
In Korel, Lord Protector Hiam, commander of the Stormguard, faces the potential annihilation of all that he loves as with the blood of his few remaining men and a crumbling stone wall that has seen better days, he labours to stave off the sea-borne Stormriders who would destroy his lands.
Meanwhile, religious war has broken out all across these lands as the local cult of the Blessed Lady, who has stood firm for millennia against the assaults of the Stormriders, seeks to stamp out all rivals; a champion refuses to stand against the alien ‘Riders’ and takes up arms in rebellion; and a local magistrate innocently pursuing the mystery of a series of murders is brought to the very heart of a far larger and far more terrifying ancient crime that has stained the entire subcontinent.
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