Source: http://aidanmoher.com/blog/?m=200710
Toll the Hounds Tidbits
Well, I once again had the chance to sit down with Steven Erikson for a little while (at a signing and then at a pub) and this time I have a bit of actual news for all of you Malazan fans out there!
Steve held a reading/signing at a local bookstore at which he read from not Reaper’s Gale (his latest release), but instead from his work in progress, Toll the Hounds. I’ll save the really juicy stuff for after the jump (stuff that some people might consider spoilers) but right now I can tell you that Toll the Hounds is almost finished, the ending is still supposed to knock your socks off, and that the final two novels in the series, Dust of Dreams and The Crippled God, will essentially read as one gigantic novel, as opposed to being stand-aloneish like his other books.
He also mentioned that he’s already rolling around ideas of where he might go once he’s done the current cycle of books and that one of the ideas he’s throwing around is to explore the pasts of some of the Ascendents (such as Anomander Rake) before they became the powerful figures we see them as in The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Pretty cool stuff, if you ask me!
Cam’s novel, The Return of the Crimson Guard is finished and in the hands of his publisher. Steven said it clocks in at around 280k words, so expect a much heftier novel than Night of Knives.
Also, don’t forget that I’m accepting questions for my interview with not only Steven Erikson, but also with Ian Cameron Esselmont! You can send questions to questions(no-spam)@aidanmoher.com Just remember to remove the (no-spam) tag!. And I also have a giveaway for signed copies of The Bonehunters!
Now for the Toll the Hounds spoilers!
Steve read thread separate excerpt from the novel:
* Kallor - Kallor was wandering, as grumpy as always, through a wasteland. Not much action, but a whole lot of internal dialogue and gritty imagery.
* Kruppe - A funny little scene with Kruppe, Baruk, a demon and some fried eel. As with all of Kruppe’s scenes, this was another entertainingly aggravating excerpt! Got some good chuckles out of the crowd.
* Iskaral Pust - A hilarious excerpt, taking place at a temple in Darujhistan. Everyone’s favourite High Priest of Shadow is salivating at an exceptionally attractive priestess there and his wife, as excepted, ruins all his fun in all sorts of, erm… hairy ways. The crowd loved this excerpt and it was a great way to end off the reading.
Steve also fielded quite a number of questions from fans, many of which I can’t remember. The most interesting tidbit I learned, tough, was that he basically included Crokus in Gardens of the Moon to give readers a familiar archetype to cling on to and that he wasn’t too fond of Crokus back then. It wasn’t until quite a bit later in the series that he was finally able to bring Crokus to a place where he was finally able to enjoying writing about him. I found this particularly interesting because Crokus (and his friends) were a big help for me while I was reading Gardens of the Moon, like a familiar life preserver in a raging sea of confusion otherwise!
Also, he said to expect a bit of a showdown between Iskaral Pust and Kruppe sometime in Toll the Hounds!
Well, everyone, I hope this helped to sate your appetite just a little bit for Toll the Hounds! Feel free to comment if you have any further questions!
P.S. Sorry I look a little possessed/drunk the photo, I promise I wasn’t!
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