It may be true that this book is less irritating that its predecessors when it comes to plot, tying up of threads, etc. However, the deterioration of Erikson's treatment of various themes was such a major piss-off for me that I just never noticed.

What angered me the most was the treatment of the Bhargast and their custom of hobbling. Even setting aside the insanely graphic descriptions, this whole aspect of this book was one of the worst I have ever encountered.

To begin with, it doesn't in any way jive with what we've seen of the Bhargast in the past. The way MoI had it, they were something of the "jolly barbarian" type. Their women are shown to be both warriors and unashamed of displaying their sexuality. As in many of Erikson's cultures, any gender bias was difficult to find.

Certainly, no mention was made of any custom of hobbling and gang raping women. I cannot comprehend at all how, if this were true, men like Anomander Rake would have agreed to work with the Bhargast. I doubt if even the Malazans would have kept quite.

Yet, in DoD, we are to believe this was a common custom, and one that Tool had only recently tried to eradicate!

Worse still is the way this is portrayed. The women all seem to glory in Hetan's fall, and this is shown to be normal for Bhargast women. Various characters make comments amounting to "Women are bitches and take pleasure when one of their own is brought down".

In an obviously sexist society where women are mere chattel and have no power or authority, this custom might be believable. But many Bhargast women are warriors. It makes no sense that this kind of custom would exist, and even less that all women would be howling for the blood of those they are jealous of.

It cannot even be argued that Olar Ethil was manipulating the Bhargast to gain control of Tool. Repeatedly we are told this is common among them, and there is no sign of this being the result of social degradation.

There were other issues I had with the book, but this was enough to make me wish I had dropped it. I'll probably read CG to see how much further Erikson can fall, but there were times when I was reading these scenes when I was strongly reminded of Goodkind! From thinking very highly of Erikson, I've come to this. I don't think even Jordan had this kind of a decline in quality. What the hell happened?