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CORN NOG posted:There are certain words that he just seems to be weirdly fixated by, and tries to work in as many times as possible. Turgid, ochre, potsherds, pate, lassitude, provenance, probably a few more I'm forgetting. Every once in awhile he'll use one that the Kindle's dictionary can't handle and it drives me nuts. dwarf74 posted:You know, that's one thing I've learned from listening to audiobooks - authors' overuse of certain words gets really, really annoying. Chitinous.
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Nov 9, 2012 04:09
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Loving Life Partner posted:I think TtH was a bit of an experiment for Erikson, trying to relay Rake's tale like an epic mythological story from a larger than life storyteller. The last two don't really have that style. TtH has the biggest oh poo poo is he dead, I thought he was immortal, moment of the series when Rake gets it  Although, are you really dead when you end up in Dragnipur considering how many escapes from there during the 2 last books On a (probably obvious and old news) side note, Anomander Rake is a straight rip-off of Elric, although in a better way since Rake is not such a whiny bastard as Elric.
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Nov 9, 2012 09:46
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Cardiac posted:On a (probably obvious and old news) side note, Anomander Rake is a straight rip-off of Elric, although in a better way since Rake is not such a whiny bastard as Elric.
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Nov 9, 2012 20:38
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I really wish that they would do more with the malazan conquests and things- It gives you tastes of how awesome it was, but never enough 
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Nov 10, 2012 00:05
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I'm reading Orb, Sceptre, Crown now and wishing I'd read Toll the Hounds more recently... I hadn't realized it's like a direct sequel to TtH with basically the same cast of characters.
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Nov 10, 2012 02:12
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Base Emitter posted:It's no problem, Kallor spends those points somewhere besides the Ascendant advantage, and gets a Cursed By Elder Gods disadvantage on top of it, which is probably worth a fair number of points. GURPS is pretty neat actually. Edit: You really could read Rake as another incarnation of the Champion if you felt so inclined. User fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Nov 10, 2012 |
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Nov 10, 2012 05:55
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Kinetica posted:I really wish that they would do more with the malazan conquests and things- It gives you tastes of how awesome it was, but never enough Haha, yeah, imperialism rules.
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Nov 10, 2012 10:37
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Too bad the many horrible things that appear in books cannot be enjoyed for their visceral entertainment value despite recognising that they are in fact bad in real life.
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Nov 10, 2012 13:07
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Yep, that's what I meant also.
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Nov 10, 2012 16:16
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How many First Empires are there? There have to be at least two human ones, right? Kallor's was destroyed by the calling down of the Crippled God and Dessimbelackis's was destroyed by the soletaken and d'ivers ritual. I don't recall whether there is enough information to figure out chronological order either.
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Nov 10, 2012 22:40
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Fleve posted:I just finished Toll the Hounds. All the previous books gripped me to no end and all of them have been the source of some sleepless nights where I stay up far too long to finish those last few pages, TtH included. However, I'm wondering, do the last two books return to the style of the earlier books? Because, although I like Kruppe, a Kruppian narrator went a bit too far for my tastes. And while I don't mind my authors waxing eloquent and verbose at times, I found TtH to be a bit too far off the deep end. Like TtH, Dust of Dreams had some annoying meandering chapters with characters that you don't really know and aren't explained sufficiently for you to care. It wraps up well in the end as usual though. The Crippled God is back to the original style for the most part. TtH is a bit of an outlier in the series, its the only book I didn't really care for at all and the big finale didn't make up for the chapters I felt like I had to skim through.
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Nov 11, 2012 02:55
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Really? I thought Hood's arrival in the city and the little vignettes that followed were fantastic. I thought Rake's confrontation with Hood was such delicious anti-climax and funny/shocking. And then Rake v Dassem, come on. Everyone standing around the square at Darujhistan in rapt attention, barely able to even see what is going on, Kallor's battle outside the gates. Hot drat. I really love this series. Need to do a re-read. Sigh.
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Nov 11, 2012 03:03
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TtH spoilers I really didn't care for Rake's sendoff at all but I understand why Erikson had to do it. The whole Dragnipur/Chaos setup always felt strange to me (a GotM-ism I suspect) so the stakes didn't seem real and the impact wasn't there, it all felt kind of pointless. I enjoyed the stuff with Kallor a lot more, you gained a lot of insight into his character and there was more nuance to him than I realized. But again TtH pretty much put me to sleep so many times that by the time the climax rolled around I just wanted it to be over. That was the only book in the series I didn't like though and 9/10 ain't bad 
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Nov 11, 2012 08:29
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User posted:How many First Empires are there? There have to be at least two human ones, right? Kallor's was destroyed by the calling down of the Crippled God and Dessimbelackis's was destroyed by the soletaken and d'ivers ritual. I don't recall whether there is enough information to figure out chronological order either. The MOI prologue states that Kallor's empire came second by something like a few decades and lasted about sixty to seventy years before being destroyed in the Fall of the Crippled God. The First human Empire lasted from then, 120,000ish years before the present day, to certainly 90,000 years in the past and probably 70,000 years in the past, based on (DG) Icarium's city destruction and and his visiting it ninety thousand years ago and (MT) the Ceda's suggestion to Brys that the offshoot of the First Empire that became Lether first established itself seventy thousand years ago, the more zeroes line. So at least 30,000 and probably 50,000 years of the First Empire.
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Nov 11, 2012 20:40
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What book should I read Orb, Sceptre, Throne after? The OP doesn't include it in the second recommended reading order.
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Nov 12, 2012 07:10
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apophenium posted:What book should I read Orb, Sceptre, Throne after? The OP doesn't include it in the second recommended reading order. Plot-wise, it continues the Genebackis and Darujistan-centered story from Toll the Hounds, so any time after that should be good. I'm not sure where it falls exactly, though, in the timeline.
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Nov 12, 2012 07:17
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It probably takes place during the events in Dust of Dreams and Crippled God. There's nothing in OST that would spoil the plots of either of those books.
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Nov 12, 2012 07:31
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I am about half way through this series. I got stuck on Midnight Tides earlier this summer but I'm getting back into it now and finding it much less alienating than I did the first time. Now, I am reading on my Kindle, and would love to have the whole set in hardcover. I am confused as to the different editions. GotM has a new 10th anniversary edition in print, but as far as I know there are no clues as to whether the whole series will be released this way. Going further into Amazon/eBay, most editions seem to be the USA and not UK/CA ones, and are mostly "book club editions" which is a term I've never run into before. Are they really that inferior in quality? I live in Canada so shipping from the USA is not always the easiest thing depending on the seller. Is it basically hopeless? Will I never be able to get a consistent set of hardcovers? I don't want to pay 100-200+ for each book on eBay.  Edit: Amazon (canada) has the hardcovers available from "other sellers" but I can't seem to find what version of the book I would be ordering. Pegnose Pete fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Nov 14, 2012 |
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Nov 14, 2012 02:44
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Yeah they've rereleased them a few times. The book club ones are fine quality, they're just a different physical size so if you end up with one without realizing it they will look bad on a shelf next to the rest of your full size ones. Aside from that the question is if you want to stick to the old-school covers. They're pretty bad but have their charm. The UK editions went off them faster and the last few TOR ones picked up the new style by the end. The new GoTM for examples follows the new style pretty well. There's a pretty good post your collection thread on the malazanempire.com forums. Collecting Erikson Titles is my private sperg. Let me know if you want to to go in to all the UK stuff as well.
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Nov 14, 2012 07:10
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Started reading Dust of Dreams a few days ago and I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'm especially glad that the story moved back to the Bonehunters and isn't milling about too much with minor characters. When I got to TtH it took me a few months rather than the usual weeks to get through it, and now that the story has moved back to Lether I'm a bit confused by one thing. I kinda forgot why the Khundryl Burned Tears don't currently seem to be with the Bonehunters. The last I remember of them was that they joined the Bonehunters back in Aren, shipped to Lether, then probably helped them take down the Edur overlords in Lether, and then...what exactly? Now they seem to have split off from the Bonehunters for already quite a while and appear to not be doing too well in Bolkando lands, but I really can't conjure into mind when or by who the decision was made to just go off on their own rather than to serve as auxiliaries with the Bonehunters.
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Nov 14, 2012 09:57
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I just finished the first book. Does Kruppe stick around forever? Because I sure hope so.
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Nov 14, 2012 12:47
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You'll get your fill of him, trust me.
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Nov 14, 2012 15:22
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He isn't always around, but I think that there's always at least one character like him.
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Nov 14, 2012 22:34
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About 2/3 of the way through the Forge of Darkness audiobook. I just got through the part with Draconus's daughters. I spent about an hour in the car with  on my face. Goddrat that got dark quick.The audiobook is quite good. The narrator does a pretty great job of giving everyone distinctive voices, though some of the accents are sort of grating. All the Azathi are, for some reason, very Scottish. He's good at keeping his inflection in tune with the contents of the text, which gives some real flavor to the pontification. The only real problems I have with the audio are more about hearing the book -- it can be easy to get lost, especially with scene transitions. While reading Erikson, I have a tendency to flip back every now and again to remind myself where we last left a character (or to remind myself who the hell someone is.) Much harder to do with audio. Also, some of the graphic detail is even more unsettling when it's read to you. This book feels more visceral in a lot of places than the rest of Malazan, which is saying something.
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Nov 15, 2012 07:46
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Man, I really look forward to the day when I can read this thread and hover over all the spoiler text. It's really frustrating at time where you want to know what is being said, but if you do know, you'll most likely ruin it for yourself.
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Nov 16, 2012 07:17
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pakman posted:Man, I really look forward to the day when I can read this thread and hover over all the spoiler text. It's really frustrating at time where you want to know what is being said, but if you do know, you'll most likely ruin it for yourself. Yeah, same boat. Just finished Toll the Hounds and can really feel the series coming to an end; it's taking all my willpower to not highlight the spoilers. Hope Dust and TCG don't disappoint. One question about Toll the Hounds, and I really feel like it's a stupid one but still, why does Traveller/ Dassem Ultor want to kill Hood? Have I missed something in a previous book?
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Nov 18, 2012 01:43
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zzttaozia posted:Yeah, same boat. Just finished Toll the Hounds and can really feel the series coming to an end; it's taking all my willpower to not highlight the spoilers. Hope Dust and TCG don't disappoint. Dassem was Hood's Knight at one point. So a pretty big player in his house. Then (I believe at the recentest chaining of the crippled god?) Hood pretty much betrayed Dassem (although I'm sure there were good reasons) by somehow using his daughter. The details are very sketchy, but basically we have a chaining, Hood taking Dassem's daughter, and Dassem taking her dead body into an Azath House. That was pretty much when he stopped being Knight of Death and became Lord of Tragedy, a god in his own right.
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Nov 18, 2012 02:24
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Masonity posted:Dassem was Hood's Knight at one point. So a pretty big player in his house. Then (I believe at the recentest chaining of the crippled god?) Hood pretty much betrayed Dassem (although I'm sure there were good reasons) by somehow using his daughter. The details are very sketchy, but basically we have a chaining, Hood taking Dassem's daughter, and Dassem taking her dead body into an Azath House. That was pretty much when he stopped being Knight of Death and became Lord of Tragedy, a god in his own right. I forget which book this information is from, so this might be DoD or TCG spoilers: More than that, the T'lan Imass made him into the Lord of Tragedy through some ritual, iirc. I don't have my books on me atm so I can't go look up exactly what they did.
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Nov 18, 2012 04:30
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Oh look new posts in the thread, oh they are all spoilers Really looking forward to finishing this series so I can start it again from scratch. I feel like it's going to be even better the second read through. I'm in the process of ordering the whole collection in BCE hardcovers. I don't mind the smaller dimensions of the BCEs, it will be extremely nice to have a matching set no matter what publisher/size they are, imo.
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Nov 18, 2012 06:11
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pakman posted:Man, I really look forward to the day when I can read this thread and hover over all the spoiler text. It's really frustrating at time where you want to know what is being said, but if you do know, you'll most likely ruin it for yourself. Haha, that was my favourite part of the finishing the series. Going back to the start of the last thread was like getting to read another book.
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Nov 18, 2012 13:26
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TimNeilson posted:I forget which book this information is from, so this might be DoD or TCG spoilers:
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Nov 18, 2012 21:24
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I've nearly finished Forge of Darkness and this thread's title has never seemed more appropriate. Erikson seems to have made it his mission to crush his plots under a mountain of tormented inner monologues.
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Nov 19, 2012 06:57
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Juaguocio posted:I've nearly finished Forge of Darkness and this thread's title has never seemed more appropriate. Erikson seems to have made it his mission to crush his plots under a mountain of tormented inner monologues. FoD is about Tiste Andii, so it's entirely appropriate. Hell, I'd be disappointed if it wasn't wall-to-wall torment. When he gets to the Karsa trilogy--the character who coined "Too many words"--I expect we'll see a major style shift. I'm rereading House of Chains right now, and I absolutely love the foreshadowing in Karsa's story, especially how Torvald Nom invites Karsa to look him up in Darujhistan--I don't remember if they encounter each other in TtH, but Karsa does make it to the city, rather memorably. Also, there's a scene where he comes across a shrine to Fener and crushes the statue, which had me giggling.
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Nov 19, 2012 10:57
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Take US trade paperback, add cover, charge $1000  http://www.ebay.com/itm/1st-Leather...S:B:SHOP:US:101
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Nov 19, 2012 20:26
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Leospeare posted:FoD is about Tiste Andii, so it's entirely appropriate. Hell, I'd be disappointed if it wasn't wall-to-wall torment. When he gets to the Karsa trilogy--the character who coined "Too many words"--I expect we'll see a major style shift. It does make sense, especially since Fisher is ostensibly writing down Gallan's narration. Forge Of Darkness is still pretty cool, exorbitant pathos aside. I think I enjoyed every scene involving characters from the Book Of The Fallen, and it was only with the bit players that things fell down a notch. Scenes like Anomander's farewell to Hish and Gripp are why I keep reading this series, despite its flaws.
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Nov 20, 2012 11:18
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Back to the repeated phrases/words topic again, just finished FoD and I'd be interested in getting a count of how many times a character says "Just so" FoD really felt more like a traditional fantasy novel to me than any of the BotF books. very enjoyable though especially all the small background details that flesh out other small background details from the malazan series. the first one that really got me was the characters complaining that Gallen had learned to read Azathenai script and thus the secret words of each Tiste household, which i can only assume lead to him becoming the Blind Gallen we see mentioned in the BotF series edit: although after wikiing that it seems that hetore out his own eyes because he'd seen too much, much the same as kadaspala echomadman fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Nov 23, 2012 |
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Nov 23, 2012 16:45
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Blood and Bone, Esslemont's new Malazan novel, is out in the UK. I think I'm gonna have to try finding it on Book Depository.
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Nov 23, 2012 18:53
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savinhill posted:Blood and Bone, Esslemont's new Malazan novel, is out in the UK. I think I'm gonna have to try finding it on Book Depository. Isn't there supposed to be a ridiculous delay between the British release and the US one for that book?
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Nov 24, 2012 02:40
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No idea, I'm about twenty pages into it and already we have: (relatively minor, skim the start of the book spoilers) K'azz, Skinner, Ardata and muthafuckin' Kallor all being on the same continent and the Dramatis Personae has Osserc, L'oric, Gothos and (probable Forge spoiler) Old Man Moon, an elder listed too. Now I'm just hoping those who were in Return get written a lot better in this book.
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Nov 24, 2012 05:33
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Just finished Orb, Sceptre, Throne in one sitting . Definitely Esslemonts best book so far,still much more 'standard' fantasy than erickson though; more action, less tracts of dense maudlin philosophising. Must track down his new one during the week.
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Nov 25, 2012 07:42
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