As with the first two books in the series, I'm utterly amazed at how entertaining this is to read. There are a lot of laughs in this book - more so than in the previous two. Maybe this is meant to lighten things up, considering the terrifying madness of the Pannions. Whatever the reason, I like it. A lot. The roleplaying connection of course is more obvious in these situations - when gods or demigods react like humans; lose their temper, forgetting the powers they possess with dramatic and often also hilarious results.

It's unfortunately too over-the-top for me to be able to give a perfect rating of 5. It seems even the most unlikely character becomes the vessel of a long forgotten god or accidentally befriends some 300 000 year old undead warrior (who, by the way, cannot avoid dueling with some other mighty warrior in the midst of a battle - even though they're both fighting on the same side). The thing that saves the day in these cases are that everyone acts like they're being played as characters in an RPG somewhere.

As an old RPG'er, that brings forth a lot of fond memories.

So thus ends the third book in the tale of the Malazan book of the fallen. And I'm off to the library to get my hands on the next one!