Dust of Dreams follows in the tradition of Reaper's Gale in finally pulling more of the Malazan plotlines together. Although this book is the first half of the finale, and you definitely want to have The Crippled God on hand, it also stands alone very well, and answers a lot of the age old Malazan questions.
As always, characters come into the picture, oldfriends return, some characters die, others surprise you, and the Holy Crap moments keep coming.