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The God Is Not Willing

The God Is Not Willing

Epic FantasyFantasy
Pages
688
Published
2021
Language
English

Synopsis

Twelve years after the events of The Crippled God, the world has changed — but violence has not. On the Silver Lake frontier, a Malazan garrison holds a tenuous peace as the Teblor tribes, descendants of Karsa Orlong's people, mobilize under the banner of a new god. A squad of Malazan soldiers — including the disreputable Stillwater, the weary Sergeant Drillbent, and the improbable survivor Benger — must navigate a war that arrives before anyone is ready for it. Simultaneously, a Dal Honese witch, a disgraced Napan captain, and the last survivors of a doomed trading post find themselves caught between the Teblor advance and a Malazan military machine that cannot decide whether it wants to win or simply endure. The first novel in the Tales of Witness series returns to the Malazan world with a new generation of soldiers, a new crisis, and the same unflinching examination of the cost of empire.

Prose complexity
6/10

Vibe

DarkGrittyComplexAtmosphericThought-Provoking
Morally GreyAnti-HeroMultiple POVsSurvivalSacrificeBetrayalFound Family

Genres

Epic Fantasy Fantasy High 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

StillwaterProtagonist

A Malazan soldier of dubious reliability and genuine lethality whose survival instincts border on the supernatural.

Sergeant DrillbentProtagonist

A veteran NCO holding his squad together through a crisis none of them signed up for.

Delas FanaProtagonist

A Dal Honese witch entangled in the frontier war through connections that go deeper than anyone knows.

BalkAntagonist

A Napan mercenary captain whose loyalties are entirely for sale and whose tactical mind is genuinely dangerous.

BengerSupporting

A mage of the Malazan garrison whose gifts are reliable in proportion to how desperate the situation is.

All characters in The God Is Not Willing

Frequently asked questions

  • Do I need to read the original Malazan series first?

    Strongly recommended. The God Is Not Willing is set 12 years after The Crippled God and assumes familiarity with the world, though it follows new characters. Readers who haven't read MBotF will still follow the plot but miss significant resonances.

  • Is this related to Karsa Orlong?

    Yes — the Teblor antagonists are from Karsa's people, and his shadow falls across the novel's conflict. He does not appear directly.

  • How many books will Tales of Witness have?

    Erikson has indicated it will be four books. The God Is Not Willing is the first.

  • Is this as good as the original series?

    Opinions vary. It is more accessible than early MBotF entries, with a tighter scope and a fresh cast. Most fans who loved the main series find it a satisfying return.