Short version: It's great, buy it, even if you're not that much of a fan of the Malazan books of the Fallen, the books work great as standalones.
BLOOD FOLLOWS:
Possibly then strongest of the three, it introduces the luckless Emancipor Reese, a gritty watch sergeant shamelessly based of Sam Vimes and Dirty Harry, the necromancers whose names are the title of the book, and an assorted cast of godlings, first swords, ratcatchers, sailors, shapeshifting white rats, and everything else needed for a good nasty and unconventional dark fantasy story.
THE LEES OF LAUGHTER'S END:
The weakest of the three, it has some profoundly disturbing mental images (the Liche, Korbal Broache's homonculi made out of...organs, foot biting and corpse witch mothers), and works rather well as a "Something horrible at sea!" story.
The prose is jumpy, with perspective shifts every other page aroundthe midpoint, and while self contained, it just isn't as good, polished or intruiging as most of Erikson's work. (Without spoiling too much, There's a boat, something horrible, more horrible things, they get killed, others leave, then on to the next book).
The book's name is awesome though
.THE HEALTHY DEAD:
Last of the three, it probably occurs after "Memories of Ice" (though doesn't mention it much), it's the most humorous of the books, and considerably less dark than the gory "Lee's of laughter's end".
The idea of a healthy good king forcing vegetarianism, good behavior and puritanical paladins upon the land works well, and one can feel Erikosn having fun with the idea (The exercise machine, and death by Grassy constipation in particular), and it feels like a return to form style wise after the previous novella. The plot resolved itself rather quickly, but the series of short snippets works well and the narrative is very coherent and easy to follow (compared to usual complexity of Erikson's stuff).
Overall: Buy it. It's really good, and won't spoil any of the Malazan books if you haven't read any of them already. (Nor is prior knowledge required, the learning curve is minor).
