‘Bauchelain and Korbal Broach (Three Short Novels of the Malazan Empire)’ – Steven Erikson (Tor)

There are times when I have to ask myself why I can’t just wait for a bit instead of having to have something straight away... Don’t get me wrong; I love my PS Publishing editions of the three ‘Bauchelain and Korbal Broach’ novellas which look absolutely gorgeous on the bookshelf. They didn’t come cheap though and if I’d known that Tor would be releasing all three books in one collection... well... maybe my bookshelf would look a little different. Oh well... :o)

It was around halfway through my re-read of ‘Memories of Ice’ (the first read didn’t work out, ‘Memories of Ice’ is not a book to tackle a couple of hours after waking up from an operation!) that I came across these nefarious necromancers for the first time. Bauchelain and Korbal Broach saw the monstrous Siege of Capustan as nothing more than an obstacle to get past in order to get to wherever it was that they were going. We never found out; they came and went in a flurry of sardonic humour and a hint of the grotesque (with their terrified manservant Emancipor Reese in tow)... Even in the midst of everything else that was going on (and there’s a lot of stuff going on!) I still found myself wanting to know more about these two mysterious characters. Where were they going? Where had they been? What had they done to make Reese lose his temper when Quick Ben chose not to kill them? The three novellas go some way towards filling in the gaps...

‘Blood Follows’, ‘The Lees of Laughter’s End’ and ‘The Healthy Dead’ tell of Emancipor Reese’s early ‘adventures’ with Bauchelain and Broach; from their first meeting in the city of Lamentable Moll to the work they must do in the gratingly good city of Quaint. In between these two cities is a short trip on the good ship ‘Suncurl’ but I’ve already covered that in an earlier review so won’t go into it again. If you’re after my thoughts on ‘The Lees of Laughter’s End’ then you’ll probably want to click right Here...

I’ve always seen the ‘Bauchelain and Korbal Broach’ novellas as Erikson stealing the chance to get away from the larger, more serious, events of the Malazan world and have himself a little fun. While the outcome is never anything less than a matter of life and death, the tone of each tale is more of a jaunt than the slog through blood and guts that you would have expected if you’ve read the other books. This is evident in the way that Erikson concentrates more on wordplay than swordplay and also in that he is able to spend more time wandering through cityscapes (always dark and murky, whatever lies on the surface...) that would normally be more of a backdrop to the story itself. If I feel like the author is having fun then I’m more likely to have fun myself and I felt like Erikson was having a lot of fun here!

Have a look at Bauchelain talking to Reese about how the desire for goodness can lead to the end of civilisation...

‘In any case, the result is smugness, and from that an overwhelming desire to deliver conformity among those perceived as less pure, less fortunate – the unenlightened, if you will. But conformity leads to ennui, and then indifference. From indifference, Mister Reese, dissolution follows as a natural course, and with it, once again, the end of civilisation.’

If you liked that little piece I’ve just given you then the odds are that you will like the rest of the book as it’s full of little gems like these!

You’ve probably guessed, by now, that I’m a fan but this collection is still well worth a look (it won’t actually be released until September but seeing as the individual books have been out for a while I figured it was ok to talk about it now) despite my fannish gushing about how great it is. However, I’m not sure that it’s the best place to start for readers who are new to the Malazan world. While the novellas are a good read they give the reader a more narrow view of the world itself (understandable really, they are novellas after all!), in my opinion this series is best read by throwing yourself off the deep end and getting a feel for as much of it as possible all at once! (Says the guy who still hasn’t read ‘Toll the Hounds’, one day...)

The bottom line is that the three novellas in this collected edition (‘volume One’, now that bodes well for those of us who want more ‘Bauchelain and Korbal Broach’ tales’!) are well worth your time if you’re a Malazan fan who has yet to read them. They stand up remarkably well to re-reads as well. Guess what I’ll be doing tonight...