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Dust of Dreams

Dust of Dreams

Malazan Book of the Fallen 9
Epic FantasyFantasy
Pages
890
Published
2009
Language
English

Synopsis

The Bonehunters march again — this time toward the Wastelands, a continent-spanning scar from an ancient war that is not as dead as history believed. Dust of Dreams is the first half of a two-part conclusion to the Malazan Book of the Fallen, written concurrently with The Crippled God and not designed to be read in isolation. What it provides: the gathering of threads, the last moments of peace, the introduction of the K'Chain Nah'ruk, and a battle that ends on a cliffhanger of extraordinary violence. It is also the novel where the series fully reveals what the Bonehunters are fighting for — not the Empress, not empire, but something older and more fundamental about the worth of compassion.

Prose complexity
6/10

Vibe

DarkGrittyComplexAtmosphericEmotional
Morally GreyAnti-HeroMultiple POVsSurvivalSacrificeFound FamilyQuest

Genres

Epic Fantasy Fantasy High Fantasy Military

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

Adjunct Tavore ParanProtagonist

The Bonehunters' inscrutable commander, whose purpose is finally beginning to be understood by those she leads.

FiddlerProtagonist

The veteran sapper who carries the weight of the Bridgeburners' legacy into the Wastelands.

The ErrantAntagonist

An Elder God of the Letherii continent whose interference in mortal affairs drives part of the novel's divine subplot.

Lostara YilSupporting

Tavore's most loyal aide, whose own grief and devotion parallel the Adjunct's in ways neither woman names.

GeslerSupporting

Veteran soldier whose extraordinary history marks him as something more than mortal without his ever having asked to be.

All characters in Dust of Dreams

Frequently asked questions

  • Does Dust of Dreams have an ending?

    No — it ends mid-campaign in a devastating cliffhanger. It was written as the first half of a single novel split for publication. The Crippled God must be read immediately after.

  • Can I read Dust of Dreams without having read the full series?

    No. It is the penultimate book and assumes comprehensive knowledge of all eight previous novels.

  • Who are the K'Chain Nah'ruk?

    An offshoot of the K'Chain Che'Malle, the reptilian elder race, whose reappearance in the Wastelands is one of the novel's central threats.

  • What is the Adjunct's plan?
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