Stonewielder: (Malazan Empire: 3): the renowned fantasy epic expands in this unmissable and captivating instalment

I really didnt like this book much. I thought NoK and RotCG were much better efforts, and the Erikson malazan books in another league.The only thing going for this book is its setup - find out what the Greymane and the Koreli Stormguard are all about, and in theory what happened after RotCG. The first 2 get wrapped up, but not in an especially satisfying way, and the rest is mentioned (a lot) but doesnt amount to much.The rest is too dull, with the usual mix of battles and pondering. But the pondering is far too ponderous, and the battles just dont seem to be clear as to what's going on. No real suprises till the end, when there are a couple of interesting ones, and an all to convenient wrapping up of greymane. Most annoying however is the random plot lines which dont seem to serve any purpose, ceretainly not for their length - Ivanar, Kiska, Quint, etc. I also got pretty bored with the 1d minions - Suth, etc.Worth pointing out however Ipshank and Manask - they were good & set up way, way back in Eriksons work, if you look hard enough.Would read it, but only for completeness & backstory, probably before Toll the Hounds, certainly before Dust of Dreams.Bring on The Crippled God is all I say & please try harder next time mr ICE

After reading all of Eriksons and ICE's malazan novels, I have to rate this bottom of the pile with deadhouse gates as my least favourites. There just were not enough interesting story threads in the book and too much that I didn't really care about either way.The last quarter of the book is good as the action / story threads conclude but most of the rest was pointless plot lines.Character wise Greymane & Kyle are predominant but simply not enough of them, the Crimson guard are also present and they are good points of the book and also the Malazans Rillish, his company & the Koreli storm guard - all make interesting reading. There is also some humour from an excellent character called Manask.There was just to much I didn't care about - the Ivanr & Bakune story threads and what were the Kiska parts about, she didn't achieve anything and was not related to the story in anyway. They all felt like fillers and unless developed in the future they started nowhere and generally went nowhere. Completely pointless. All in all not one of my favourites

I have just thoroughly enjoyed reading Stonewielder and I think ICE has finally mastered the Erikson style enough for this to feel _right_.To be honest, to me this read like an Erikson book, and a good one, and there is no higher compliment than that, bearing in mind the author (ICE) is writing about Malazans, marines and Moranths. There was humour and pathos and futility and hope with a good mix of cameos from, and references to, familiar and welcome old friends. Happily too there wasn't too much despair and soul-searching that I felt clouded the last 3 or 4 Erikson/MBotF books.In all, a definite step up from the first 2 ICE books, and a welcome addition to the collection of Malazan books. I am really looking forward to the Orb Sceptered Throne now.

Ok well, as a huge fan of the Malazan Books of the Fallen, I have found Ian Esslemont's 2 previous offerings a bit hard going, something just didn't seem to gel with them, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it.Knight of Knives was a decent read, but a bit laboured in places, Return of the Crimson Guard plain confused me in parts.Then we have this. Stonewielder is great, it flows nicely and has all the hallmarks of a great addition to a great series. Nice character development and fleshing out of of ideas and events familiar to readers of the main series. I think with this Ian has found his writing rhythm. Sure it is not perfect, and in places leaves more unanswered questions than it answers, but that can only bode well for future tomes.The doubter has been answered, keep up the good work Ian, this one is a winner.

I have really enjoyed this book; and would go as far as saying there were time I forgot this wasn't a mainstream Malazan book.The early pages have a lot of detail about charachters that may or may not be significant in the rest of the book, and therefore it's a bit hard to get into initially. However, that is also true of many of the early Malazan classics.To be honest, i thought this was as well written as Dust Of Dreams ( which i thought was dreary compared to the other brilliant books). Perhaps Esslemont will overtake his mentor in the near future?