Welcome to the Malazan Reread of the Fallen! Every post will start off with a summary of events, followed by reaction and commentary by your hosts Bill and Amanda (with Amanda, new to the series, going first), and finally comments from Tor.com readers. In this article, we’ll cover the first part of chapter twenty of The Crippled God.
A fair warning before we get started: We’ll be discussing both novel and whole-series themes, narrative arcs that run across the entire series, and foreshadowing.
Note: The summary of events will be free of major spoilers and we’re going to try 
keeping the reader comments the same. A spoiler thread has been set up for outright Malazan spoiler discussion.
Bill will be adding comments later. Sorry for brevity of the post today—we didn’t want to let another day slip, but both of us have things going on right now that are taking attention away.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
SCENE ONE
The boy—presumably Rutt—totters into the Khundryl camp, drawn by the cries of a woman and watching the Khundryl gather.
SCENE TWO
Warleader Gall hears his wife’s labour pain and tries to hide from it. Jastara wields a knife against him to convince him that he needs to go to her, to be the Warleader one last time on the night that is the end of the Khundryl. As he leaves, he tells her that his son did well by her.
SCENE THREE
The children of the Snake gather in response to a mother’s cries. Badalle wonders at the strength of these warriors who have found the will to get up for one more day. She sees the way they look at her and the other children and doesn’t understand it, because she feels not as though the children have blessed them, but that the soldiers have blessed the Snake. Badalle gives words to the warriors, words that Saddic records. She knows that Saddic won’t die here, but doesn’t know how she knows. Gall strides into the tent and they hear the sound of a baby crying. The Adjunct stands near and Badalle takes her hand. Tavore flinches and Badalle asks when she will let herself feel.
SCENE FOUR
Koryk thinks about the ways in which women are stronger than men. He thinks about whores and the fact that they understand every bad thing that human beings are prepared to do to each other. He dwells on the Bonehunter that he killed last night—someone trying to steal an empty cask. Finally, he thinks about the speech that Ruthan Gudd gave about the children who no longer knew what toys or playing is. Koryk rails against the Crippled God for taking away everything from the whores, and then stands up to walk for one more night because of the children and their innocence.
SCENE FIVE
Bottle considers the fact that a story really shouldn’t be enough to keep somebody alive, and yet he remembers back to his grandmother and the charms that she wove into toys to keep children safe, and he uses that to inspire him to one more step.
SCENE SIX
Smiles thinks about a future time when she is a mother and has twin girls and then is told she must choose between those children—one to be blessed, one to be cursed. And then the reader finds out she was the sister blessed.
SCENE SEVEN
Cuttle remembers his brothers and thinks that he is the last brother who is going to die for a cause, in a last stand worth remembering.
SCENE EIGHT
Corabb reflects on his past and remembers Leoman of the Flails, and the burning of Y’Ghatan. He remembers the moment that he made his mother cry.
SCENE NINE
Tarr knows that he will never fail while he has Fiddler up ahead somewhere and Cuttle right behind him. His loyalty to the Adjunct is what will keep him and his squad moving.
Amanda’s Reaction
I love that, after all the nasty words thrown at her, and the way that the rest of the Khundryl have viewed her, it is Jastara who pricks Gall into doing the right thing and shouldering his burden for one last time. This degree of duty to her people shows a very different impression of Jastara than we have seen through the eyes of others.
Knowing that the Snake feel blessed by the Malazans, and the Malazans feel blessed by the Snake—that is a beautiful moment. Neither understands why the other feels that way, but both are now drawing more strength from the fact that they won’t die alone and have purpose again.
You wonder that, if Tavore opened herself to all her feelings, how would she possibly cope with all that she felt, everything that she has gone through?
Wow, Koryk’s section is powerful, especially the fact that he hates the Crippled God and everything he stands for, so he should not be willing to take one more step in the service of this creature and yet, for the children and their innocence, he manages to take another step.
I love the technique employed by Erikson for Smiles’ section, where we see this dream she has about being a mother with twin girls, and then we gradually realise that she was the twin girl not given to the Elders, that Smiles committed vengeance and retribution against people who would ask a mother to make such a choice.
Cuttle’s idea of being remembered in a monumental and epic last stand doesn’t exactly gel with the whole unwitnessed part of Tavore’s plan.
Erikson has employed this technique many times, of flitting from person to person among the Bonehunters and hearing their thoughts. It really helps to consolidate our feelings about them, and the tiny snippets of history here, especially, make us realise what motivates each of the soldiers we touch upon.
Amanda Rutter is the editor of Strange Chemistry books, sister imprint to Angry Robot.
Amanda, I too love Erikson’s flitting from scene to scene technique. I think it was THH where he opened many chapters this way in a sweep over the city of Darujhistan? We get so much insight to the various characters pasts and emotions in a few short paragraphs. Great stuff
I agree, the vignettes of personal history from various characters are an outstanding aspect of the Books of the Fallen. In fact, they are some of the high points of each book for me.
Any relation between Bottle’s grandmother’s toys and the toys in the snake?
@Tabbyfl55 The only relation between the two sets of toys is that the toys in the snake spark Bottles’ memory of his grandmother.
This is such a memorable chapter. Actually, as far as I am concerned, it all gets pretty indelible from last chapter’s Spinnock shield-bashing scene on through to the end of the book. I completely understand, Amanda & Bill, that you both have a lot going on right now. As a re-reader with probably too much time on my hands, I just keep soaking-in these last few chapters & find it nearly impossible to stop.
It’s all happening.
Can’t wait (though I will) for Bill’s comments and the next entry. Thanks everyone, as always, for making this such a special experience.
Amidst all this death and waiting for death and Walking Dead and barren desert, this scene with Gall has a bit of hope to it even with the idea of bringing a child into this mess or the way it’s referred to as the “Last Khundryl child.” There’s the obvious, of course—the birth itself. But there’s also the rebirth perhaps of Gall, taking his place again as husband, as leader. And the rebirth perhaps of Jastara—taking her active role in the clan.
Like Amanda, I love that two-way blessing of the Snake and the Bonehunters. And the way it is done without any sentimentality—Badalle does not think, “Ah, now we’re rescued.” Instead it’s, “We can die in the arms of men and women . . . who become our fathers, our mothers.”
And there’s some serious meta-ing going on in this scene, with Badalle’s vision of the Saddic’s future: “And when he is a man, he will write this down, all of this, and one night a stranger will find him, a poet, a singer of tales and a whisperer of songs. He will come in search of the fallen. Like a newborn child, he will come in search of the fallen.” I’d also say we’ve got two poets that keep getting mentioned as potential candidates.
When will Tavore let herself feel indeed? Before the big finish? During? Or after, if feeling is possible at that point.
I’ve always been a fan of this mode of narrative, with the reader flitting from one character’s interior monologue (or occasionally dialogue) to anothers for just a brief period of time. The writing is so economical that a brief period is all that’s needed to give a sense of another part of this life we’re learning of, and to often move the reader.
Beginning with Koryk, whose memories of the whorehouse, and whose insights are deeper than one probably expects, and of a compassion (there’s that word again) in that whorehouse and a sense of the sacred that again, one probably does not expect. And if, as we’ve heard prior, soldiers need “a cause,” then there are probably worse ones than “innocence.”
I like too how this scene with Koryk does not simply move the reader, or characterize Koryk, or continue the theme of compassion. But it also serves plot, because if, as we’ve heard, one of the plans is to help the Crippled God, then one has to wonder if Koryk might try and do something about that, based on his “If I could kill you with my bare hands, I would.”
And that theme of innocence and children and protection continues via Bottle’s memories of his grandmother. With the addition of a sense of justice: “They will pay for what they did.” Note too that the “evil” here is not some dark lord, or some evil horde of misshapen creatures, or those weird Forkrul Assail and strange gods—it’s “the father that lashed out with his fists. The uncle who slipped under the blankets in the dead of the night.” This is epic fantasy, yes, but grounded in the harsh realities of our world (which is also different from the “gritty” fantasy which in my mind is way more fantastical).
And we follow the bouncing ball of justice/vengeance to Smile’s scene. And I’m with Amanda, I love the way this is revealed to us as Smiles’ history
And then another smooth move, from siblings to siblings, as we head to Cuttle (And I know I’ve pointed this out before, but new authors—and even some established ones—could do a hell of a lot worse than study how Erikson moves the reader from segment to segment fluidly, via unifying treads of imagery or theme or character, etc.)
We see it again as we move from Cuttle’s epic stories, die for a reason, and “last stand,” to Corabb’s memories of Leoman, who left one hell of a last stand and whose “lies” are the flip side (or the same side depending on one’s views) of those epic tales.
And then, from a commander who lied, who killed his own and fled, to Tarr, who also brings us to Fiddler, Gesler, Stormy, and Tavore.
Yeah, after the last chapter, this one slows things down, a bit, gives us some more to think about, and a little bit of a breather after the intense action we just had. The way we move around and get all this backstory, and inner thoughts, is great, extremely well done.
I mean, there is always Fisher, and then Gothos…
And we totally understand Real Life, Bill and Amanda, and hope things are well with you. We all appreciate the re-read.
I’d say the poet that will find Saddic, who is looking for the fallen, is Steven Erikson. Baddalle is where SE gets very explicitly meta-fictional, or ‘postmodern’.