Published on: Sat Dec 20
Generally, its hard for me to remember characters that don’t directly influence the direction of the plot in a book. I barely remember most of the dwarves in the Hobbit, you could put a gun to my head and I couldn’t name anything about any of them much less their names. But recently, while the names may be a challenge to remember for me still, Steven Erikson in Malazan has had multiple character with barely any lines, that still act as a highlight for me.
Pella is someone who until his death, we knew very little of. He was on Otataral island as a recent Malazan Empire recruit. He was working with Duiker to help Heboric escape the island. And that was that. With the rebellion on the island we could have easily assumed that he died in the chaos, but he eventually finds his way to Aren off screen. We have little instances of him showing up throughout House of Chains and The Bonehunters, all the way until his death. Only near death does the inside of his mind get explored at all. The horror of the scenario, through the eyes of a soldier with no real combat experience. Pella is dead before he knows it, and with his last breaths all he can think of is his childhood. Flashes of life before death are something that gets talked about, but very rarely depicted in a satisfying way. Erikson’s interpretation of connecting death to the past manages to create an emotional connection to the character. Pella wanted to create a better life for his family, but in his last moments a childhood mistake is all he can think about. The two paragraphs we get of Pella imply a depth that could have been explored, could have been given a chance to flourish but was cut short through an arrow to the head. The physical horrors are all there, but the life of a small soldier and the implication of a life lived extends to a lot of our other characters in Y’ghatan without explicitly telling the reader that they had lives. In this burning hell, its hard to remember that these are all fully lived characters, and Pella ensures the reader doesn’t forget how fleeting life can be.
Abasard had even less screentime then Pella, a grand total of three pages. Throughout ‘Reapers Gale’ we follow Red Mask, a Awl preparing to wage war with the Letharii Empire. As someone outside of the capitalist structure of the Letharii, he views what they see as standard as useless, a crime against what he believes to be human. We follow him as he frees Letharii occopuied Awl land and rallies what remains of the Awl to join him in his opposition. Rising up against colonization and a society built on it gets a reader rooting for Red Mask’s cause. Despite some collateral damage, it’s easy to see what he does as just. The Empire treats its people poorly, the Patriotists are maintaining the status quo, and the rich prosper while the poor and Indebted are enslaved. On a raid set by Red Mask to acquire cattle, just as the plan is set to begin on a small Letharii settlment, we are introduced to Abasard. A 16 year old Indebted who for the first time in his life has left the crowded quarters he was enslaved in since birth. Stars and open fields are in his grasps for the first time, freedom around the corner. He feels as if he has something to look forward too. His family can work towards paying off its debt. But it’s all built on the attempted colonization of the Awl. Even in moments of kindness, the empire puts its citizens against others. And seeing the perspective of the wide eyed child in these circumstances gives it an all too real meaning. As the slaughter of the village begins, Abasard is witness to other indebted in similar situations sliced into pieces by the reptiles following the Awl. He sees his family tent destroyed, and his sister running away as the reptilian creatures chases her. And all he can think about is protecting her, and before he even reaches the reptile his limbs are sliced off and he’s left bleeding on the ground face up. His last thoughts only of joy as he witnesses an open sky as his breath fades.
Eriksons has compared his writing to a very long short story before, and it shows more than ever in these moments. ‘The Book of the Fallen’ is the subtitle of the series, and in each book we see more of that. The title does not just refer to the main characters, but as much to the innocents destroyed by war and the systems people live in. Indirectly most deaths are caused by the Empires we encounter. Characters are flung into scenarios as a result of an empires conquests, of the people at the top thriving for power without a care for the citizens they lead. In a story such as Malazan, which constantly challenges readers to look critically at the systems already in play, it is vital to show what these systems do to the common people. How they can give hope and just as easily have that hope torn away by the consequences of the actions played in colonization. Pella was forced into the military as a means to support his family, Abasard’s family naturally wanted to take the opportunity to leave the slums they lived in. In trying to get themselves out of their station in life they are stopped, not by any reason of their own, but because of the powers that led them to this. The two characters have so little screen time, but as they lay dying Erikson gives them room to breathe. He writes a moving image of small things that led characters to the point they are at, and does not treat their lives as insignificant. The collateral damage of Empire had a life, they had reasons for being where they are, and its utterly crushing to see them suffer.
🏶