The Crippled God

And now the page before us blurs. An age is done. The book must close.


To cut to the chase, I give this book 5 stars. Not that the entire book is worth 5 stars, but it's mainly appreciation for the ending of the book and for the series as a whole. Undoubtedly, one of the best (fantasy) series I've ever read.

Since “Dust of Dreams” and “The Crippled God” should be seen as one book, the book doesn't start with a prologue. The reader picks up where “Dust of Dreams” left off.

During the first half of the book, you don't feel like you're reading the last few hundred pages of a 10,000-page epic fantasy series. Actually, as a reader, you don't really have a clear idea of where it's heading. The ultimate destination gradually becomes clearer, but the focus doesn't seem to be there yet. There are still seemingly random background stories shared about characters you met six books ago. I couldn't bring myself to care.

With any other writer, I might start to worry a little. Thankfully, Erikson's trust, based on the previous nine books, was not betrayed.

The last few hundred pages of the book are like a rollercoaster. No doubt now that you're in the finale of an epic fantasy series. Not all storylines get a conclusion, and not all the ones that do are concluded satisfactorily. But the main threads are brought to an end in a very sophisticated way. Emotional, brutal, but also with a lot of compassion. The two epilogues are very satisfying.

What Erikson has delivered with this entire series is a true tour de force. Thematically, everything is expertly tied together.