Midnight Tides (Book 5 of The Malazan Book of the Fallen)

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Midnight Tides is the fifth book in Steven Erikson's immense fantasy sequence The Malazan Book of the Fallen, which began in 1999 with the much-praised Gardens of the Moon. In successive volumes the action moves around the world of the Malazan Empire, linked by a back-story as ancient and complex as Tolkien's. Here a prologue in "The Time of the Elder Gods" shows clashes and betrayals of gods, dragon shape shifters, demons, ice mages and more. In modern times, some very old characters survive under other names, and history has been seriously misremembered...

Now there's an impending clash between the recently-united barbaric tribes of the Tiste Edur and the adjoining Kingdom of Lether, whose capitalistic decadence would make it quite sympathetic if not for policies of ruthless expansionism and slavery.

We come to know people on both sides: the Tiste Edur are driven by fierce honour and have strange, fascinating customs (Erikson is an anthropologist). But their Warlock King has, so to speak, switched gods in midstream and allied with a distinctly dark power while seeking a potent "gift" from another unreliable deity. Ironically, despite the provocation of Letheran seal-poachers on his coast, the Warlock King wants a safe, unassailable peace. His supernatural allies have other plans, and the tribes find themselves following a fearsome but also pitiable new Emperor into war.

Oddly enough, an old, ambiguous Letheran prophecy about an emperor is about to fall due. Meanwhile this kingdom has internal enemies, including a master financier plotting ruin while living in abject poverty with his resourceful manservant: this double act provides a vein of Jeeves-and-Wooster comic relief. There are complex manoeuvres in court circles. The undead walk--but that's normal in Lether. Restless stirring is felt in the ancient Hold where dark magic has long been confined. Then comes the clash with the Tiste Edur, and sorcerers' weapons of mass destruction are unleashed on both sides.

It's a big, complex, satisfying blockbuster, crammed with horrors, humour, spectacular effects and devious twists. Loose ends will presumably be picked up in later volumes. --David Langford

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Customer Reviews

One of the best in the series

Review Date: May 7, 2009

Reviewer: Ibraar Hussain, London, England

Excellent story, with brilliant characters - refreshing old school intrigue, comedy, action, blood letting and sorcery - fantastic - refreshingly, the Malazans are blessedly absent from this.

Can my memory cope? Yes it can, thankfully!!

Review Date: February 14, 2009

Reviewer: D. J. A. Stevenson, home at my desk

I was introduced to this series by a colleague at work, and I'm very grateful for it. Don't read these books if you like simple, single person narrative with only a few storylines and less than dozen characters! You really need your wits about you for this series, there are so many characters, storylines and settings that it's difficult to keep track at times, good for the brain though!
This book is a great continuation of the series, with a whole new set of participants, separate from almost all that has gone before. This in a way made it easier, no need to remember who all of the old names were until the next book. Two of the best characters of the whole series are introduced in this book, Tehol and Bugg. With a series including so many main strands and groups, you always have some you'd like to know more about, and for me, that is now Tehol and Bugg, even above Fiddler and Toc my previous favourites. Their dialogue is sparse and illustrative while being always witty and frequently hilarious. The book does set the scene for subsequent books but is also a fine episode in its own right, well worth reading again.

Has it all

Review Date: January 26, 2009

Reviewer: Keith Markillie, Milton Keynes, Bucks United Kingdom

The Midnight Tides being in the 5 in a long line of the 10 books for this series was one of the best so far. I found that the book had it all love, horror, fantasy, and humour brought by two main characters Tehol and Bugg. The ending was fast and furious and unexpected to say the least. I'd highly recommend this book to continue the series.

Another great thread to the story

Review Date: July 7, 2008

Reviewer: W. G. Hardy,

I'm getting older and my memory is not as crisp and fresh as it once was, and for that reason i've been trying to ration the Malazan Books of the Fallen. The problem is that if I read all those currently in print, by the time the remaining parts are released I'll be struggling to remember what happened in the previous installments. As a result of all this, I've just completed Midnight Tides.
This novel takes you away from the previous events and characters of the previous four books and introduces another story thread to the whole saga. Initially I was a little disappointed by this, but that feeling soon evaporated once I'd read the first chapter or so.
The thing I enjoy most about Steven Erikson's writing/storytelling is the complexity of the plot involving a huge number of characters. The endings never feel rushed and neither do they drag or meander aimlessly, which is something that other multi-volumed fantasy sagas have been guilty of.
This particular part of the story maintained the complexity and it's possible to see where this will weave into the other story threads in one of the future parts. I read this in under a week, which is pretty good for me these days and it says a lot as to how much it gripped me to finish it in this time. It's not the best of the series so far (that was Memories of Ice for me) but still hugely enjoyable.
If you haven't read any of this series, and you enjoy a well rounded fantasy story, then you really don't need to look any further than this - go and order Gardens of the Moon and get started.

Not the best in a great series

Review Date: March 3, 2006

Reviewer: G. Mayers, Pontypool, Torfaen United Kingdom

Like all of Erikson's Malazan series this book took me a good while to get into. I'd rank it alongside the Deadhouse Gates (number 2) in that its good, interesting and keeps you reading. Compared to the others though it is weaker.
It certainly builds to an exciting crescendo of a finale and I was hooked by the time I finished it. So much so I went back and read it a second time.