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Crack'd Pot Trail

Crack'd Pot Trail

a tale of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach
Dark FantasyFantasy
Pages
181
Published
2009
Language
English

Synopsis

A troupe of pilgrims walking a dangerous trail includes Bauchelain, Korbal Broach, and Emancipor Reese — and several famous artists and their admirers. When rations run out and the travelers face starvation, the group decides to eat the least artistically valuable among them. The surviving artists must tell increasingly impressive stories to avoid being next on the menu. Crack'd Pot Trail is Erikson's most formally experimental work: a metafictional comedy that parodies genre fantasy, the cult of the creative genius, and literary criticism simultaneously. It is also a sustained argument about who gets to define artistic value — and who pays the price of that definition.

Prose complexity
4/10

Vibe

DarkSatiricalFunnyThought-Provoking
Morally GreySurvivalAnti-HeroVillain Protagonist

Genres

Dark Fantasy Fantasy

About the author

S
Steven Erikson

Steven Erikson was born Steve Rune Lundin in Toronto in 1959 and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He trained as an archaeologist and anthropologist — completing fieldwork on Indigenous sites in the Canadian Shield — before earning a graduate degree through the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He writes under a pen name adopted to avoid confusion with the American novelist Steve Erickson. The world of the Malazan Book of the Fallen has its origins not in a manuscript but in a tabletop roleplaying campaign....

Characters

BauchelainSupporting

Observing the unfolding horror with his usual intellectual curiosity.

Korbal BroachSupporting

Whose perspective on the situation is entirely practical.

Emancipor ReeseSupporting

Suffering, as always, though this time the menu is the greater concern.

All characters in Crack'd Pot Trail

Frequently asked questions

  • Is Crack'd Pot Trail like the other B&KB novellas?

    No — it is much more formally experimental, functioning as a literary satire and metafiction. Bauchelain and Korbal Broach are secondary characters. Some fans consider it the weakest; others consider it the cleverest.

  • What is it satirizing?

    The cult of the artist, the economics of creative value, and fantasy fiction conventions — particularly the idea that some voices are worth more than others.