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HeroOfTheRevolution posted:Read Mistborn and Way of Kings. They won't offend your sensibilities judging by the Abercrombie thread, either. Having already read those works, I'm not certain if this is supposed to be an insult or not Sanderson is a fun pulpy read but he's never really tugged on my heartstrings in the least. And eh, I've said it before, but Erikson got me to tear up at some point in every book from Deadhouse Gates onward. But Malazan is weird in that it managed to press pretty much all of my buttons when it comes to what the things I love to see in stories in general and the genre itself. savinhill posted:Guy Gavriel Kay. coyo7e posted:David Gemmell Thanks for these. I'm probably going to start off with Kay, since I've been meaning to look into his works for a while.
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# ? May 16, 2013 20:54 |
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# ? May 31, 2024 01:05 |
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Oh Snapple! posted:Thanks for these. I'm probably going to start off with Kay, since I've been meaning to look into his works for a while. FWIW, a LOT of Gemmell's novels end up with nearly MoI-level siege battles. Not all, not even most, but a lot of them.
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# ? May 16, 2013 23:39 |
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coyo7e posted:I've been meaning to start in on Kay as well but always forget to pick one up when I've got cash, or I forget which one to begin with. Most of Kay's stuff is standalone, so you can pick up whatever. Except Sailing to Sarantuim and Lord of Emperors, which go together. Or the Fionavar trilogy, which I don't actually recommend unless you actually want a rewritten lord of the rings (apparently he wrote it to get the lotr stuff out of his system after having edited and compiled the Silmarillion). Anyway, Kay's awesome. Everyone read Kay.
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# ? May 16, 2013 23:51 |
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I want to reread Tigana but as far as I can tell there's no ebook version. I haven't run in to that since like 2011...
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# ? May 17, 2013 01:18 |
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I have gotten up to Reaper's Gale in my re-read: Beak just lit all the candles again and some unknown malice simultaneously blasted my eyes with grit, lemon juice and particulate
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# ? May 17, 2013 02:11 |
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Fuzzy Mammal posted:I want to reread Tigana but as far as I can tell there's no ebook version. I haven't run in to that since like 2011... The audiobook version is pretty good if you like audiobooks. coyo7e posted:I've been meaning to start in on Kay as well but always forget to pick one up when I've got cash, or I forget which one to begin with. Since most his novels are historical fiction/fantasy hybrids maybe go with whatever historical period or culture interests you the most from what he covers. There's Moorish Spain in Lions of Al Rassan; Vikings, Wales and Saxons in Last Light of the Sun; Byzantine Empire in the two Sarantium books; Tang Dynasty China in Under Heaven; Song Dynasty China and Mongols in River of Stars; and medieval Italy in Tigana. As vmdvr said, they're stand alone except the two Sarantium novels, and there's some loose connections between Under Heaven and River of Stars.
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# ? May 17, 2013 03:10 |
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I'm partway through Blood and Bone and I'm actually way loving impressed! It's a bit uncanny in fact how much Esslemont's writing appears to have improved since I last read it (Night of Knives / Stonewielder). My question: is Orb, Sceptre, Throne up to the same standards as Blood and Bone or is it more similar to Stonewielder?
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# ? May 17, 2013 04:45 |
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Oh Snapple! posted:And eh, I've said it before, but Erikson got me to tear up at some point in every book from Deadhouse Gates onward. But Malazan is weird in that it managed to press pretty much all of my buttons when it comes to what the things I love to see in stories in general and the genre itself. You can try Erikson's own "This River Awakens". It's quite emotional and absolutely great book.
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# ? May 18, 2013 23:57 |
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Can somebody clear something up for me in Toll of the Hounds? It's been a while since I've read the other books and the whole Dying God part tripped me up a little. So The Dying God was Bullurdan trying to find a new body after meeting Heirlock in the warrens of chaos? And he still had Nightchill's corpse? That entire sequence confused me because I really couldn't remember what happened in Gardens on the Moon.
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# ? May 19, 2013 00:13 |
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I took a short break from reading Dust of Dreams since I was pretty burnt out after going through the rest of the books so fast. Seems I'd stopped right before the Barghast chapter and what happens to Hetan. Definitely the darkest the books have gone so far I think
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# ? May 20, 2013 09:07 |
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Robot Danger posted:Can somebody clear something up for me in Toll of the Hounds? It's been a while since I've read the other books and the whole Dying God part tripped me up a little. Yes regarding Bellurdan, iirc (though I might be forgetting a detail), no regarding the corpse of Nightchill, which became Silverfox
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# ? May 20, 2013 16:36 |
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I'm really enjoy Dust of Dreams. The stuff with the Snake is really drat drawn out so I hope it has a satisfying conclusion but the old gods deciding to get back into business and not giving a poo poo about the Crippled God is really interesting. Especially since hubris is going to come back to haunt them so. Not even because of the Crippled God since I trust what Kallor said in Toll the Hounds. I can't wait to finish and get onto The Crippled God if only because I see Ammanas and Cotillion coming out on top. I'll probably rush through to the end after that small break.
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# ? May 22, 2013 22:15 |
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Scott Bakula posted:I'm really enjoy Dust of Dreams. The stuff with the Snake is really drat drawn out so I hope it has a satisfying conclusion but the old gods deciding to get back into business and not giving a poo poo about the Crippled God is really interesting. Especially since hubris is going to come back to haunt them so. Not even because of the Crippled God since I trust what Kallor said in Toll the Hounds. I can't wait to finish and get onto The Crippled God if only because I see Ammanas and Cotillion coming out on top. As a head's up, there's no real resolution at the end of Dust of Dreams. It and the Crippled God may as well be one extremely long book. Oh, and get ready to suddenly become interested in reading about the Shake. I don't remember if that storyline picks up in book 9 or 10 though.
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# ? May 22, 2013 22:49 |
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The shake parts are long and boring but at least there's a pretty badass payoff The snake is just kind of dumb. Maybe that will change when my reread gets that far but I doubt it
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# ? May 23, 2013 00:35 |
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The Snake is mostly just to show you what's at stake and do a little world building on the end of the bad guys.
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# ? May 23, 2013 01:16 |
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Both the Shake and the snake have nice payoffs, the Shake in tcg are just so And the snake get even more heartbreaking. Some ones sexual orientation the Watch, Yeddan Derryg, being gay got handled so casually it took me a while to catch
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# ? May 24, 2013 19:42 |
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The Ninth Layer posted:The Snake is mostly just to show you what's at stake and do a little world building on the end of the bad guys. I don't think I'd mind if there wasn't so much of it and it wasn't mostly all the same. I've just reached part 4 of Dust of Dreams and the Snake is really drat dull and very little has changed throughout
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# ? May 24, 2013 20:44 |
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zokie posted:the Watch, Yeddan Derryg, being gay got handled so casually it took me a while to catch Where was that?
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# ? May 24, 2013 20:51 |
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Dalmuti posted:Where was that? Of hand Yeddan talks to someone about how Twilight won't be able to marry, something the witches tried to force her to do earlier, which implies that she will be childless. Then they ask Yeddan if he fancies anyone and he just kinda says: "Nope, I don't like girls". I'll see if I can find it. edit: Found it, I was wrong about the Twilight part, but the gay part sticks p.226 in my book. Yedan's jaws bunched, as if he was still chewing the cheese, and then he said, 'Is that what you wake up to every morning, Withal?' He sighed, squited at Lightfall. 'Never been married, have you? I can tell.' 'Not much interested.' 'In any of that?' 'In women.' 'Ah. Well, among the Meckros, men marry each other all the time...' And then later on p.228 Yedan said, ' We are a contrary lot, us royals. A queen who defies sanctification, a prince who will never produce an heir, and what of Awakeining Dawn?...' zokie fucked around with this message at 21:59 on May 24, 2013 |
# ? May 24, 2013 21:45 |
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zokie posted:Of hand Yeddan talks to someone about how Twilight won't be able to marry, something the witches tried to force her to do earlier, which implies that she will be childless. Then they ask Yeddan if he fancies anyone and he just kinda says: "Nope, I don't like girls". I'll see if I can find it.
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# ? May 24, 2013 23:11 |
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Dalmuti posted:To be fair a lot of shake ladies are pretty icky what with the talons and scales and other keychain shemale accoutrements Just the witches and warlocks, supposedly.
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# ? May 24, 2013 23:16 |
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who wouldn't want to get down with a chick named Skwish?
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# ? May 24, 2013 23:41 |
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Dalmuti posted:who wouldn't want to get down with a chick named Skwish? How do you think she got her name?
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# ? May 24, 2013 23:48 |
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Can someone remind me who Cartheron Crust is? In The Bonehunters I think he was revealed to have been the "Foreigner" in the tavern on Malaz Isle, But I don't really remember him.
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# ? May 25, 2013 04:46 |
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He was one of Kellanved's old crew who "drowned" after Surly took over.
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# ? May 25, 2013 04:59 |
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Well I'm looking forward to starting Reaper's Gale, but I think I'm going to read Return of the Crimson Guard first. I really didn't consider Night of Knives that bad, just a lot more simplistic. And I mean it can only get better from there, right?
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# ? May 25, 2013 05:05 |
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apophenium posted:Can someone remind me who Cartheron Crust is? In The Bonehunters I think he was revealed to have been the "Foreigner" in the tavern on Malaz Isle, But I don't really remember him. Foreigner was really a badass band. Or withal the guy who made rhulad's sword. Cartheron was the captain of the ragstopper who ferried kalam and pearl from seven cities to malaz island in deadhouse gates. I think he also featured in return of the crimson guard. His brother urko was the dude putting together k'chain skeletons and beating the poo poo out of karsa
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# ? May 25, 2013 05:23 |
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Cartheron Crust was one of the Emperor's Old Guard, who along with his brother Urko were both Admirals, and along with most of Kellanved's close associates when Surly became Laseen, they drowned. 'Drowned'.
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# ? May 25, 2013 09:51 |
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I really liked all the Shake parts except for the loving name. It's dumb.
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# ? May 25, 2013 17:47 |
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That's fair.
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# ? May 26, 2013 01:48 |
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apophenium posted:Can someone remind me who Cartheron Crust is? In The Bonehunters I think he was revealed to have been the "Foreigner" in the tavern on Malaz Isle, But I don't really remember him. He appears first in book 2 as captain of the boat that brings Kalam to Malaz City. Mysterious unnamed character, but it's him. Then mentioned by Toc the Younger, in Chapter 9 on MoI, where he says that he was born on a boat because Toc the Elder had an affair with the sister of Cartheron Crust, who had a temper... And then you meet his brother(?) or something like that in House of Chains, at the beginning with Karsa. He's the Keeper of the Tower but he's actually Urko Crust, the old Fist of Aren who robbed the treasury and then faked his own death. What you need to know is that these guys are part of the Old Guard at the time of Kellanved, and when Laseen took the throne the Old Guard was either killed or had to "disappear". And so guys like Cartheron and Urko live in incognito.
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# ? May 26, 2013 08:54 |
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Dalmuti posted:Foreigner was really a badass band. Or withal the guy who made rhulad's sword. Cartheron was the captain of the ragstopper who ferried kalam and pearl from seven cities to malaz island in deadhouse gates. I think he also featured in return of the crimson guard. His brother urko was the dude putting together k'chain skeletons and beating the poo poo out of karsa Was it a K'chain corpse he was rebuilding? Maybe I just misremember but the size of what he was rebuilding seemed too big to be one I thought. I kind of assumed the reason there were different sized creatures and his shock at what it was and where it came from it was just a dinosaur and nobody had discovered fossils that old or something
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# ? May 28, 2013 20:47 |
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Scott Bakula posted:Was it a K'chain corpse he was rebuilding? Maybe I just misremember but the size of what he was rebuilding seemed too big to be one I thought. I kind of assumed the reason there were different sized creatures and his shock at what it was and where it came from it was just a dinosaur and nobody had discovered fossils that old or something It is described as something approaching a T-Rex, but later you meet or are told of K'chain who are/were/get much bigger than the typical warrior breed(s). It's not explicit, but it is suggestive.
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# ? May 28, 2013 21:09 |
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Aren't the K'chain birthed at full size though? I can't remember the particulars of it so it might have explained Curdle and Telorast's skeletal forms
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# ? May 28, 2013 21:10 |
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Scott Bakula posted:Aren't the K'chain birthed at full size though? I can't remember the particulars of it so it might have explained Curdle and Telorast's skeletal forms nope. you get a couple hints here and there about k'chain lifecycles. the dead short tail karsa takes out has a bunch of k'chain nanobots or something pour out of it. someone (maybe banaschar) remarks that the shake who first wound up on second maiden fort ended up mixing with some wild k'chain offspring that kinda washed up on shore, hence the talons and general hosed-up-edness of their witches and warlocks. i think the dust of dreams/crippled god sections that take place in the k'chain habitat have more details, but i haven't gotten that far on my reread
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# ? May 28, 2013 21:19 |
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Yeah I guess that covers it. Pity, I quite liked the idea of him digging up some dinosaurs that nobody else had ever seen. I've still got The Crippled God and about a quarter of Dust of Dreams to go on my first read through
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# ? May 28, 2013 21:35 |
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Scott Bakula posted:Aren't the K'chain birthed at full size though? I can't remember the particulars of it so it might have explained Curdle and Telorast's skeletal forms Nope. Specifically, in the first KCCM chapter in DoD (which I happen to have handy as I post this from the bathroom where I've been re-reading it ), the perspective of a Shi'gal assassin lets you know that he's been growing for over six thousand years and is now twice the height of a K'ell hunter, who are programmed to die at one thousand. Moreover, not only are K'chain not born full-sized, it seems they can somehow undergo further mutation (method left to the imagination). Same assassin POV mentions opening wings that were only a month old, and opening a new set of eyes for the first time. And the POV of their human Destriant references areas of the city that were used to house/feed the young, and the sounds coming from it, IIRC. And I thought Curdle and Telorast had just possessed the skeletons of small lizards or something? Dalmuti posted:nope. you get a couple hints here and there about k'chain lifecycles. the dead short tail karsa takes out has a bunch of k'chain nanobots or something pour out of it. someone (maybe banaschar) remarks that the shake who first wound up on second maiden fort ended up mixing with some wild k'chain offspring that kinda washed up on shore, hence the talons and general hosed-up-edness of their witches and warlocks. i think the dust of dreams/crippled god sections that take place in the k'chain habitat have more details, but i haven't gotten that far on my reread Note: I am not sure how much relevance the KCNK lifecycle bears with regard to the CM, given their genius with technology. For all we know, they aren't even born, but are cloned, etc... Correction: I believe that what is suggested in different parts by a few different POVs (and this must all be before DoD, because it's already fresh in my mind but I just got that far on my re-read - I think you get a lot of it from the Malazan marines when they are in control of the prison island and Twilight comes to visit) is that the KCCM breed in the sea, depositing their sperm equivalent in the water (and I guess then the lucky female jumps in and osmosis takes over). So when the young Shake women would go swimming on the beach, sometimes a little while later they would discover that they were pregnant. And then they would have little half human half KCCM babies. The ones that were mostly KC would be thrown back (presumably to wash back on shore there and elsewhere at a later point), and the ones with scaled hands and other minor things were considered to be somehow touched or lucky or something equally superstitious along those lines (they had no idea who the KCCM were or what was really going on) became, as you say, the witches and warlocks.
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# ? May 28, 2013 21:55 |
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Habibi posted:And I thought Curdle and Telorast had just possessed the skeletons of small lizards or something? Urko mentions after seeing them move he had been going about the rebuilding of the skeleton all wrong and would need to knock the wall down and start again from what I remember.
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# ? May 29, 2013 11:04 |
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Well I'm close enough to the end of Dust of Dreams to finally find out what the Malazan's are doing. Although I've still got long to go, freeing the crippled god was not what I expected their plan to be. Between that and the elder god's plans and how they're dismissive of the crippled god I can't wait to finish and get onto The Crippled God. I'm really glad that because I stopped reading I didn't have a break to wait between the 2 books. Something I've wondered about though is, are the elder gods explained in how they came to being? As far as I can tell most of them were just there, unlike the newer gods, and don't require worship to have power as such. Or is it to be assumed based off what Cotillion says in The Bonehunters I think that they're kind of like elemental forces in power? Edit: Most of this has just been answered by the bit I've just read involving Sechul Lath I think Jose fucked around with this message at 20:57 on May 30, 2013 |
# ? May 30, 2013 20:51 |
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# ? May 31, 2024 01:05 |
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Scott Bakula posted:Something I've wondered about though is, are the elder gods explained in how they came to being? As far as I can tell most of them were just there, unlike the newer gods, and don't require worship to have power as such. Or is it to be assumed based off what Cotillion says in The Bonehunters I think that they're kind of like elemental forces in power? I don't believe this is even addressed at all in the mains series, but it looks like it is in the new trilogy starting with Forge of Darkness.
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# ? May 30, 2013 22:47 |