The God is Not Willing
The First Tale of Witness
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4.7 • 43 Ratings
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
'Awe-inspiring. Prepare to fall in love with epic fantasy all over again.' ANNA SMITH SPARK, author of The Court of Broken Knives
The thrilling opening chapter in an epic new fantasy from the author of The Malazan Book of the Fallen...
Many years have passed since three Teblor warriors brought carnage and chaos to Silver Lake.
Now the tribes of the north no longer venture into the southlands. The town has recovered and yet the legacy remains. Indeed, one of the three, Karsa Orlong, is now revered as a god, albeit an indifferent one. In truth, many new religions have emerged and been embraced across the Malazan world. There are those who worship Coltaine, the Black-Winged Lord, and the cult of Iskar Jarak, Guardian of the Dead, is popular among the Empire's soldiery.
Responding to reports of a growing unease among the tribes beyond the border, a legion of Malazan marines marches towards Silver Lake. They aren't quite sure what they're going to be facing, but, while the Malazan military has evolved and these are not the marines of old, one thing hasn't changed: they'll handle whatever comes at them. Or die trying.
And in those high mountains, a new warleader has risen amongst the Teblor. Scarred by the deeds of Karsa Orlong, he intends to confront his god even if he has to cut a bloody swathe through the Malazan Empire to do so.
But further north, a new threat has emerged and now it seems it is the Teblor who are running out of time. Another long-feared migration is about to begin and this time it won't just be three warriors. No, this time tens of thousands are poised to pour into the lands to the south. And in their way, a single company of Malazan marines . . .
It seems the past is about to revisit Silver Lake, and that is never a good thing . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Erikson burnishes his reputation as a superior epic fantasy world-builder in this trilogy debut, a spin-off of his Malazan Book of the Fallen series, that makes it easy for newcomers to invest, despite the large cast of characters and weighty backstory. Catastrophic climate change that means the end of winter for the Malazan world threatens to flood the lands of the south. That region's peoples also face a military threat in the form of an army of raiders led by Elade Tharos, who commands a force of clans united by his promise of revenge upon the southerners who took their members as slaves and seized their lands. Myriad subplots wend throughout, notably including a character's struggles with addiction, something rarely explored in this genre. Erikson's outstanding descriptive skills (a graveyard is depicted as "a strange mixture of beehive tombs and mounded urn-pits along with mostly sunken, tilted platforms, hinting at more than one ancient, long-forgotten practice by equally forgotten peoples") enhance a complicated narrative that sweats the details. This is a treat both for Erikson's returning readers and lovers of George R.R. Martin–style epic fantasy who have yet to discover his work.
Customer Reviews
Breathe taking
I started this book apprehensively. Book after a few pages was hooked. Just now I’m sad there’s no more book to read.