Episode Description
In this episode of Page Burners, we continue our journey through The Bonehunters with a full-spoiler discussion of Chapters 13–16, where gods fall, old conflicts return in new forms, and Steven Erikson keeps pushing the series deeper into questions of power, suffering, and whether humanity ever truly learns from its mistakes.
We spend a lot of time with Paran as he steps further into his role as Master of the Deck, and the increasingly complicated war among the gods. We also unpack what these chapters reveal, while debating whether such a major threat was resolved too quickly.
Elsewhere, Felisin Younger emerges at the center of a new incarnation of the Apocalypse, leading us into a discussion about Erikson's recurring use of the same ideas in changing forms and why the Apocalypse in Seven Cities never seems to truly disappear.
We also dig into Spite's bleak view of humanity, the cost of war, the idea that people continually fight one another instead of confronting the problems that actually threaten them, and how those themes connect back to philosophy.
Along the way, we talk Karsa, Mappo, Quick Ben, Shadowthrone, the increasingly tangled games being played by gods and mortals, and some surprisingly quiet, human moments buried beneath all the chaos.
As always, this is a full-spoiler discussion for everything we've covered so far in Malazan Book of the Fallen and the connected novels by Ian C. Esslemont.
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