Blood Follow

Parodic-humorous tales set in the world of the Malazan Empire were written by Steven Erikson starting in 2002. To date (2020), six stories have been published, and the author’s plot has not yet run out. In one interview, the writer called them a tribute to Fritz Leiber’s “Tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser”; however, the subject of the farcical game is more likely the entire volume of today’s modern mass-culture “thrillers” and “horror stories.”

Gullible murder-loving warlocks, necromancers Boshlen and Corbal Brosh, may have reminded readers of “Memories of Ice.” Their huge carriage, driven by the dreary servant Emancipor, rolled across the plains of Genabakis, leaving behind decidedly unkind rumors—and together with the novel’s heroes, it got stuck in besieged Capustan, where the arrogant villains were unwittingly forced to serve a noble cause: defending the city from an horde of cannibals. The novellas offer other adventures for the restless trio.

The little town of Grief Moll is shaken by a string of horrific murders of townspeople. Bodies are found gutted and missing some parts. Emancipor Rize is left without work. And how can he go home to his wife and children—if they may not even be his? How not to respond to an advertisement for a search for a servant, when the pay is so good? …