You are here: Home / Author / Steven Erikson / Midnight Tides

Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson

10-stars

Rate and review Midnight Tides! | What does everyone else think?

Summary Never have I been left in such awe by an author's imagination.

FantasyBookReview.co.uk advises printing and using the following pages for reference when reading Midnight Tides. The dramatis personae and glossary are featured at the beginning and end of the book respectively and are very helpful.

Midnight Tides - DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Midnight Tides - GLOSSARY

After decades of internecine warfare, the tribes of the Tiste Edur have at last united under the Warlock King. There is peace – but it has been exacted at a terrible price: a pact made with a hidden power whose motives are at best suspect, at worst deadly.

To the south, the rapacious kingdom of Lether, eager to fulfil its long-prophesied role as an empire reborn, has enslaved its less-civilised neighbours. All, that is, save the Tiste Edur. Destiny has decreed that they too must fall. And yet the impending struggle between these two peoples is but a pale reflection of a more primal conflict. Ancient forces are gathering, and with them rides the still-raw wound of an old betrayal and a craving for revenge…

The main threads that sustains a link throughout almost a thousand pages is the lives of the three brothers Beddict and the lives of the three brothers Sengar, siblings from different races whose destinies will be unearthed in the war that awaits them all. Midnight Tides tells us the history of these two races, the Tiste Edur and the Letherii. The Tiste Edur has made appearances in the earlier books but the Letherii are new to the story. The story itself covers the months leading to Edur/Letherii war and Erikson seems to be getting more linear as the series goes along – Midnight Tides switching between only two, sometimes three, storylines. The narrative is still intricate and often complicated but, once again, Erikson weaves an epic tale of gods, mortals, swords and sorcery in his own unique style. At heart Erikson’s book’s are founded on solid fantasy structure; a multitude of characters, many divergent races, magical artefacts, quests for magical artefacts… but he has taken the genre to a another level with his rich and multifarious narrative and an imagination that reaches farther and encompasses more intricate concepts than any other living fantasy writer.

The Drownings were more than public spectacle; they were the primary event amongst a host of activities upon which fortunes were gambled every day in Letheras. Since few criminals ever managed to make it across the canal with their burden, distance and number of strokes provided the measure for wagering bets. As did Risings, Flailings, Flounderings and Vanishings.

From: Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson

The characters and the races are superlative, one of the main reasons that Erikson’s work reads so fresh is that he hasn’t taken humans, orcs, dwarves and elves and simply re-written Tolkien as many have, he has created his own world with races that are completely original. The Tiste Andii are my personal favourite race, noble and haunted. Tehol and Bugg are magnificent characters, they breathe a massive amount of humour into the book and are loveable at the same time. The quality of the cast of characters is uniformly excellent as they all described in minute and vibrant detail.

Once again written in the third person, Erikson uses this narrative to allow the reader to experience his epic tale from multiple perspectives. The steaming metropolis that is Lether and the isolated villages of the Edur are still fresh in my memory and this is where Erikson’s main strength shows forth - detail, and attention to it – not since Stephen Donaldson gave us the Land has a setting been described with so much care and love.

The wave struck. First the killing field, and the ground seemed to explode, churning, as if a multitude of miner’s picks had struck the earth, deep, tearing loose huge chunks that were flung high into the air. Dust and flames, the clash of split bones ripping the flat expanse, a sound like hail on sheets of iron. Onward, onto the slopes of the ramparts.

From: Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson

Midnight Tides has been the most enjoyable read for me so far in the series. This is probably not due to it being better written or more exciting but because I am now firmly under the Erikson spell, I have the history laid down in the first four books still fresh in my mind and have become accustomed to the Erikson style of narrative. Midnight Tides is a wonderful book, they all are, never have I been left in such awe by an author's imagination.

Midnight Tides (Book 5 of The Malazan Book of the Fallen) (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Steven Erikson
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 960
Publication date: 2005-03-01
Publisher: Bantam Books

RRP: ~~£8.99~~
Lowest new price: £3.52
Lowest used price: £2.08

Midnight Tides is the fifth book in Steven Erikson's immense fantasy sequence The Malazan Book of the Fallen, which began in 1999 with the much-praised Gardens of the Moon. In successive volumes the action moves around the world of the Malazan Empire, linked by a back-story as ancient and complex as Tolkien's. Here a prologue in "The Time of the Elder Gods" shows clashes and betrayals of gods, dragon shape shifters, demons, ice mages and more. In modern times, some very old characters survive under other names, and history has been seriously misremembered...

Now there's an impending clash between the recently-united barbaric tribes of the Tiste Edur and the adjoining Kingdom of Lether, whose capitalistic decadence would make it quite sympathetic if not for policies of ruthless expansionism and slavery.

We come to know people on both sides: the Tiste Edur are driven by fierce honour and have strange, fascinating customs (Erikson is an anthropologist). But their Warlock King has, so to speak, switched gods in midstream and allied with a distinctly dark power while seeking a potent "gift" from another unreliable deity. Ironically, despite the provocation of Letheran seal-poachers on his coast, the Warlock King wants a safe, unassailable peace. His supernatural allies have other plans, and the tribes find themselves following a fearsome but also pitiable new Emperor into war.

Oddly enough, an old, ambiguous Letheran prophecy about an emperor is about to fall due. Meanwhile this kingdom has internal enemies, including a master financier plotting ruin while living in abject poverty with his resourceful manservant: this double act provides a vein of Jeeves-and-Wooster comic relief. There are complex manoeuvres in court circles. The undead walk--but that's normal in Lether. Restless stirring is felt in the ancient Hold where dark magic has long been confined. Then comes the clash with the Tiste Edur, and sorcerers' weapons of mass destruction are unleashed on both sides.

It's a big, complex, satisfying blockbuster, crammed with horrors, humour, spectacular effects and devious twists. Loose ends will presumably be picked up in later volumes. --David Langford
Amazon.co.uk Review

Midnight Tides (Amazon.com)

Author: Steven Erikson
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 960
Publication date: 2005-01-01
Publisher: Bantam Books Ltd

RRP:
Lowest new price:
Lowest used price: $3.91

Scott from Utah
"Veering away from the rest of the world of the Malazan Empire for a bit, Midnight Tides is a refreshing break from the mainstream military fantasy of the other books. It tells the story of one of the minor characters from the previous book and is one of the most engaging reads I've had in a long time. Also, this novel features some of my favorite characters yet, especially Tehol and Bugg and their interesting master to servant relationship. Overall, one of the best books I've ever read."

Submit your own mini-review

Let people know what you think about Midnight Tides. You can write your own mini-review and give the book the rating that you think it deserves. Your reviews will go towards giving Midnight Tides its overall rating that will decide where Midnight Tides finishes in the top 100 fantasy books of all time.

Books you may also enjoy...

A Storm of Swords 1: Steel and Snow by George RR Martin

The events in Storm of Swords overlap the ending of the second book, A Clash of Kings. I have to admit to not enjoying Clash of Kings overly, something I discovered placed me in a minority. Looking back I feel that I was a bit lazy when reading it, characters are thrown at you at a not inconsiderable rate of knots and you can either use the handy cast of characters at the beginning of the book to refresh your memory when you get lost or you can do what I did… carry on regardless hoping that everything will become clear in time. ... read the full review

Summary: A Song of Ice and Fire is the history lesson you wished you had in school.

Reader reviews | Write review

The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson

The Bonehunters sees us rejoining the Malazan Fourteenth Army, under the command of Adjunct Tavore Paran. Sha’ik is supposedly dead, the army of the Whirlwind in tatters, and the last survivors making for the refuge fortress city of Y’Ghatan under the leadership of Leoman of the Flails. ... read the full review

Summary: Brilliant, captivating, astounding and mind blowing.

Reader reviews | Write review

Reaper’s Gale by Steven Erikson

Rating a book is inherently dangerous. Well beyond the normal trials of dealing with authors who believe they’re the next Tolkien but are lucky to know how to spell Tolkien, it’s the really good authors that provide the greatest problems. For example, I finished my review for the Bonehunters by Steven Erikson over a week ago. At the time it was a 10 out of 10 book. I still believe it is. However, what happens when the next book is just as good? ... read the full review

Summary: Emotional, gripping, tense and unbelievably well written.

Reader reviews | Write review

Also in this sub-genre...

Book of the Month

Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill
Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.

Previous winners of Book of the Month

Latest interviews

Interviews plus question and answer sessions with authors, narrators and publishers.

Must-reads

The following reviews are of books that begin the very best fantasy series available.

Competition: Win a signed copy of Graham Hancock's Entangled

Graham Hancock is the author of The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis, Heaven's Mirror, Supernatural and other bestselling investigations of historical mysteries. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages and have sold over five million copies worldwide. Written with the same page-turning appeal that has made his non-fiction so popular, Entangled is his first work of fiction. We have five signed copies of Entangled to give away as prizes. Email us the answer to the following question and the lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive a copy of the book, signed by the author.

Enter the competion now!

Special Feature: Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe

Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.

Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe

Special Feature: Understanding the author of Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.

Lewis Carroll on Fantasy Book Review