The Healthy Dead

Fad vigilance can be killer.

It seems that some time has passed since the last novellas featuring these characters, and they have left some more unhappy cities in their wake.

This misadventure is what might happen if you took a Terry Pratchett novel and twisted it one hundred and eight degrees to the postive end of the grotesque axis.

A city with an obsessive and enforced observance of health feds is not too healthy at all in reality, and easy prey for demonic deadly sins.

Enter the necromancers and hireling, who, funnily enough, might actually improve the situation in this town.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/02... ( )

The society was well-developed and intriguing without containing pages and pages of backstory and history. Many fantasy authors have written about the all-powerful corrupt ruler, and reading about the problems caused by a ruler who took goodness to a tyrannical extreme was an interesting change of pace. King Macrotus may have had good intentions, but restricting his people for their own good did not endear him to anyone.

Full review:
http://fantasycafe.blogspot.com/2009/01/review-of-healthy-dead.html ( )

Fad vigilance can be killer.

It seems that some time has passed since the last novellas featuring these characters, and they have left some more unhappy cities in their wake.

This misadventure is what might happen if you took a Terry Pratchett novel and twisted it one hundred and eight degrees to the postive end of the grotesque axis.

A city with an obsessive and enforced observance of health feds is not too healthy at all in reality, and easy prey for demonic deadly sins.

Enter the necromancers and hireling, who, funnily enough, might actually improve the situation in this town.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/02/healthy-dead-steven-erikson.html ( )

...One of the things I like most about these novellas is that it forces Erikson to be more concise. The restrictions in length force him to focus and in this novella it works very well. Where Blood Follows feels a bit rushed at the end, this novella feels exactly long enough. Quite an achievement for a man who also produces sprawling 300,000 words novels almost like clockwork. The Healthy Dead just ticks all the boxes for me, I think it is a little gem. And the best thing is that you can read these novellas without having the read the ten huge volumes of the main series. It is a great way to sample Erikson's writing. I can't wait to see where Erikson is taking the story of the two necromancers and their unfortunate manservant.

Full Random Comments review ( )