The Lees of Laughter's End: A Tale of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

The latest yarn in Erickson's sprawling Malazan Book of the Fallen fantasy series is filled with striking characters and ambience, but light on action and plot. Aboard a stolen sailing ship called the Suncurl are the quiet eunuch Korbal Broach, a stocky necromancer, and the eloquent sorcerer Bauchelain, a silver-tongued master of demons. As mystical iron nails in the hull merge belowdecks to form an unsavory, undead consciousness starved for flesh and blood, the beautiful Captain Slater reveals a dark secret that may doom them all. Given barely enough narrative for a short story spread over a novella's page count, only die-hard completists will choose this pricy stand-alone over Erikson's forthcoming trade paperback collection of this and two other Bauchelain & Korbal Broach tales. (Sept.)