Read about 1/3 of the book now. Here is part 1.
The Review
There's a lot more 'Books' in this one compared to the other one. I'm already at the fourth one. This also means that there is a lot more jumping between sub-stories in this book than all the other ones. It's really tangible this time: that there's this huge 'meeting' (ok I forgot the word used by Steven Erikson, it's a big one that starts with co-) of the forces. Some groups are mentioned maybe once per book, some are not mentioned at all but 'between' the lines in some of the other sub-stories' paths. As usual in the beginning of the Malaz books there is a lot of introspection - not so much action - but instead focus is on building the characters.
This is important but it's a slow and steady progress which always gets me a bit bored. But then again, a whole book of just action takes the fun out of it, especially with so many characters that it's hard to keep them separated. I need to have some kind of connection with a character before the action gets interesting. I mean in the end it boils down to some sword/magic fights right? And in earnest just a lot of that sword-hacking is just not for me.
Another thing I enjoy is that it's not about the same guys in each book! OK, there are some guys that keep on coming back and take quite a central role in the story line(s) - but the actual story is not primarily done through introspection/thoughts by the same characters. This gives the reader the opportunity to get to know some of the other people, surrounding the Bridgeburners & Bonehunters.. they've been in basically all books so really - you don't want another 1000 pages about the same Bridgeburner - it's just fine with a chapter or snippet here and there - to keep the intrigue up. Also I think there's a plausible maximum amount of thinking a character can do - or maybe there are these kind of people out there but I guess you never know - this is what's good with books I guess :)
There's an abundance of 'good' guys in this book. I mean the only really bad folks aren't really bad (if you discount gods then), they just have a not-so-nice plan to scour the planet of humans. There are evidence/happenings earlier in the series where humans have caught gods unawares (Feather Witch's stealing of the eye for example) and had them suffering.
The Kindle
As how's it going with the Kindle I must say I really enjoy it, except when doing a review like this. It's just not even close to as handy to jump back a random amount of pages to see what went on there - as it is in a book. But the Kindle wins when it comes to reading while you're doing other stuff - like at lunch - then it's very handy to just put it on the table and keep on eating and reading at the same time. Just a brief pause every now and then to click to the next page.