It is said that Hood waits at the end of every plot, every scheme, each grandiose ambition. But this time it is different: this time the Lord of Death is there at the beginning. Darujhistan swelters in the summer heat and seethes with portents, rumours and whispers.

The tumultuous eighth chapter in Steven Erikson’s epic The Malazan Book of the Fallen - and the story enters its final, climactic stages.

It is said that Hood waits at the end of every plot, every scheme, each grandiose ambition . . .

But this time it is different: this time the Lord of Death is there at the beginning.

Darujhistan swelters and seethes with portents, rumours and whispers. Strangers have arrived, a murderer is abroad, and assassins are targeting the owners of K'rul's Bar. But such events will be dwarfed by what is about to happen – for in the distance can be heard the baying of hounds.

And in far-away Black Coral, the ruling Tiste Andii appear oblivious to the threat posed by the cult of the Redeemer – an honourable, once-mortal man who now seems powerless against the twisted vision of his followers.

So Hood stands at the beginning of a conspiracy that will shake the cosmos, but at its end there waits another: Anomander Rake, Son of Darkness, who has vowed to right an ancient and terrible wrong . . .

‘Beautifully melancholic and exhilaratingly epic . . . one of the finest fantasy novels ever written’
GRIMDARK

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