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rejutka posted:Nope. There was a throne in search of an arse to sit on it. Granted I am only half way through the second book, but the way I read it: The Shadow Warren is only been known for 10 years, which makes all the master mages who use this warren weird too. Before the rise of Shadow and Katilian (spelling might be off because audio books) the warren belonged to the Telen Edur, which don't seem to fit with whole assassin/murder/shaddow mythology of Shadow Throne. Plus only a few very educated people even know anything about the Telen Edur Also, it's been bothering me that the Malazan armed forces consists only of marines. ZombieLenin fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Jul 3, 2014 |
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Jul 3, 2014 00:03
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Later on a number of characters muse on the worship of empty thrones. The empty throne becomes a recurring image, both explicit and at times implicit.
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Jul 3, 2014 00:08
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ZombieLenin posted:Granted I am only half way through the second book, but the way I read it: As to the first part, keep reading. Most of your puzzlement will find an answer. Also, Cotillion. As to the second bit, Erikson just features heavily the marines. There are regulars but he just doesn't write about them all that much.
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Jul 3, 2014 00:13
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There's also a navy that shows up occasionally. The admiral in charge of it shows up at least in Deadhouse Gates.
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Jul 3, 2014 00:59
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The Malazan Empire was founded on the fairly small Malaz Island; it seemed logical to me that their elite troops would be marines.
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Jul 3, 2014 01:03
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ZombieLenin posted:Also, it's been bothering me that the Malazan armed forces consists only of marines. What every one else said about the force loadout already. Later books explain that the Malazan regular troops are mostly conscripts, and Malazan marines are the people who volunteered(and are actually competent).
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Jul 3, 2014 02:18
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ZombieLenin posted:Okay, does anyone find it odd that Shadow Throne has only been around 10 years, and consists of two gods that are merely ascendant companions of the emperor, yet in that 10 years there is already a massive and elaborate mythology? You're thinking of two different things. Quick Ben was a High Priest of Rashan which is Darkness, not Shadow. And Shadow itself isn't new, it's been around for thousands of years. Shadowthrone and Cotillion are just the most recent rulers. As for the Marine stuff, they're the elite troops of the empire so they get to be front and center.
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Jul 3, 2014 05:01
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RE: the fat fetish, I did notice Tattersail but not Felisin Younger, though I might have just missed it? If anything I thought she would've been physically similar to Felisin, albeit of a different ethnicity. Having just finished House of Chains I thought it was more noticeable that he took the time to describe how Tavore was thin but with huge breasts. Between that and her hot lesbian lover with the fantasy equivalent of a stripper name I was rolling my eyes a little bit. Anyway, I've definitely hit a bit of a wall with Midnight Tides and it's similar to the same one I hit with the first book; I can see glimmers of interesting things afoot with the Letherii society and Tehol's scheming, but the Tiste Edur and everything related to them is just so dry and lifeless. Which is odd, because Trull Sengar was great in the last book and the whole situation with the Edur was compelling as gently caress. I've learned to trust Erikson and stick it out because I know just seeing the fall and how it ties back into everything will pay off, but it is such a slog, especially when it's coming right after Karsa's loving amazing personal journey. And because people were talking about how we see this poo poo in our head; the Tiste Edur are basically ashy-skinned Morrowind-style dark elves, the Tiste Andii are black-skinned white-hair D&D-style dark elves, and the Letherii (and the random slave race serving under them) are all pretty much just humans, right?
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Jul 3, 2014 05:36
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Having finished Memories of Ice, and unwisely skipping Deadhouse Gates for the time being, I have questions. What happened to that Buke guy? Did those two necromancers have any real impact on the main storyline? Was the Crippled God on any character's minds before now? Because he seemed to come out of nowhere and nearly everyone was aware of his presence.
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Jul 3, 2014 11:45
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There was a cult of Shadow (Rashan) before the Malazan takeover; in HoC, Bidithal who used to be a high priest refers to the Ammanas/Cotilion duo as "usurpers". We also know that Quick Ben used to be a part of that cult and played a part in its downfall from Lostara's flashbacks.Inspector Gesicht posted:Having finished Memories of Ice, and unwisely skipping Deadhouse Gates for the time being, I have questions. What happened to that Buke guy? Did those two necromancers have any real impact on the main storyline? Was the Crippled God on any character's minds before now? Because he seemed to come out of nowhere and nearly everyone was aware of his presence. Buke I think either dies in Capustan or gets off the radar. Necromancers have their own series of short novels. Anything on Crippled God - read and find out, he's kind of a big deal. As for him having come out of nowhere, there's a reference to his Chaining(s) in the very first book, it's just pretty well hidden in plain sight. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 14:23 on Jul 3, 2014 |
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Jul 3, 2014 14:20
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Inspector Gesicht posted:Having finished Memories of Ice, and unwisely skipping Deadhouse Gates for the time being, I have questions. What happened to that Buke guy? Did those two necromancers have any real impact on the main storyline? Was the Crippled God on any character's minds before now? Because he seemed to come out of nowhere and nearly everyone was aware of his presence. The necromancers Bauchelain/Korbal Broach are present in 2 of the books if I am not mistaken, and should basically be seen as sort of a comic relief. They have no major role in the series, but Erikson have written 4 short stories featuring them, which are pretty great, mostly due to Emancipor Reese.
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Jul 3, 2014 14:36
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Wolfsheim posted:RE: the fat fetish, I did notice Tattersail but not Felisin Younger, though I might have just missed it? FY only gets fat when she goes off to head that Poliel/TCG religion out in a city in the desert. It's part of her transformation into a loathsome creature of hedonism and not exactly something I would have thought anyone would use to support they idea of a fetish.
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Jul 3, 2014 14:47
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ICE's Assail got pushed back till August 5th, but they have posted the prologue here. It features everyone's favourite, Kyle. He even gets a proper malazan name! I counted four copyediting mistakes so hopefully there'll be a spell of that before it's actually published. Other than that p good!
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Jul 3, 2014 21:49
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Fuzzy Mammal posted:ICE's Assail got pushed back till August 5th, but they have posted the prologue here. It features everyone's favourite, Kyle. He even gets a proper malazan name! Yeah, some interesting stuff there and I'm probably going to have to reread the other ICE books at some point buuuuuuuut quote:the entrance to the inland Dread Sea—which some also called the Sea of Dread.
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Jul 3, 2014 22:14
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I am reading for the first time and am up to the end of Reapers Gale. Really great books, and I am not normally a fan of high fantasy, but the work put into this is clearly evident and so earns my love. I have a question: Is it possible for someone to be a soletaken or d'ivers malazan sapper/company of sappers and if so would that person be the most powerful being in the malazan universe? I'm assuming yes, since even 1 ghost of a sapper seems really loving strong. The thing i really like about this series is that there are so many characters its hard to even have a favorite, ok maybe Fiddler, but I love to switch to most anyone in the narrative. Jerkface fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Jul 3, 2014 |
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Jul 3, 2014 23:13
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Jerkface posted:The thing i really like about this series is that there are so many characters its hard to even have a favorite Kallor Eidermann Tes'thesula
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Jul 3, 2014 23:53
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Best thing about ICE books is in Stonewielder when Iron Bars leaps off a cliff or something yelling SKIIINNNNEEEERRR! because now I just picture Superintendent Chalmers.
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Jul 4, 2014 01:07
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Khizan posted:Kallor Eidermann Tes'thesula It was ever thus.
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Jul 4, 2014 04:55
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What I found bizarre is that the Moranth never gave the Malazans formal training with their munitions. Also, how the heck did the Tiste Edur forget how to make munitions considering the fact they're equivalent to high scale sorceries that can be used by anyone?
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Jul 4, 2014 06:03
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Don't the Moranth just throw them off of their giant flying birds or whatnot? Not like they can really train them in that.
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Jul 4, 2014 06:32
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Khizan posted:Don't the Moranth just throw them off of their giant flying birds or whatnot? Not like they can really train them in that. Yeah, the Moranth probably threw the things into some sort of treaty as a bargaining chip thinking the Malazans can't possibly use it on account of not having quorls. Besides, as TCG and TtH reveals, they keep the best munitions to themselves. Of course, they couldn't predict the creative insanity of Hedge and Fiddler.
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Jul 4, 2014 10:52
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amuayse posted:What I found bizarre is that the Moranth never gave the Malazans formal training with their munitions. Define formal training? And the Edur have forgotten a LOT, which, given the hundreds of thousands of years time scale, is not very surprising. Also, iirc the munitions were derived from Edur alchemies, so it's possible weaponizing those alchemies as the Moranth did simply didn't occur to the Edur - perhaps because they had magic with which to blow poo poo up.
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Jul 5, 2014 03:51
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Habibi posted:Define formal training? And the Edur have forgotten a LOT, which, given the hundreds of thousands of years time scale, is not very surprising. Also, iirc the munitions were derived from Edur alchemies, so it's possible weaponizing those alchemies as the Moranth did simply didn't occur to the Edur - perhaps because they had magic with which to blow poo poo up. Yup. One of the themes of the series is that magic tends to be a crutch, and groups that are magically powerful don't tend to have much technological progress.
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Jul 5, 2014 05:01
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Habibi posted:Define formal training? And the Edur have forgotten a LOT, which, given the hundreds of thousands of years time scale, is not very surprising. Also, iirc the munitions were derived from Edur alchemies, so it's possible weaponizing those alchemies as the Moranth did simply didn't occur to the Edur - perhaps because they had magic with which to blow poo poo up.
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Jul 5, 2014 05:01
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amuayse posted:From how Fiddler described it, the Moranth simply gave a giant box of explosives with some basic instructions to the Malazan army. And then they learned how to play The Drum 
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Jul 5, 2014 05:48
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pakman posted:And then they learned how to play The Drum The Drum is probably my favourite scene in the whole series. Its not so much the Drum, which is awesome in itself, but more the reaction of the other character. He shows us this awesome thing and through excellent characterisation shows us that this is a special kind of awesome in a series made of awesome. Basically, lovely bit of writing.
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Jul 5, 2014 12:41
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The Wurms of Blearmouth is available on amazon today. I'm about 73% through it at this moment. Definitely worth getting. The three-handed sword reference from "The Lees of Laughters End" came back. And I'm looking forward to seeing how 90% of the cast dies. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Jul 8, 2014 |
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Jul 8, 2014 20:17
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It's been out for awhile in the UK in an expensive hardcover edition. I managed to hold out for this cheaper US release. If there are subtle nods to the previous books looks like I'll give them a reread first. It's been too long since I read Crack'd Pot Trail anyway.
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Jul 9, 2014 02:06
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I could never get into the necromancers. I own and read the trilogy thing. I didn't read the last one which according to this thread was a meta-joke or some bullshit about breaking the fourth wall... but all that aside: they are just kind of boring.. I don't know what it is, but Mancy is just a kind of dull character to me. If he really wanted to die, stepping next to Gruntle would have been easy enough. On a completely different note; I think this series broke me for fantasy. I can't seem to get into anything and am currently reading Druss The Legend because I finished the Waylander books again. I just don't want to think for a while when I read.
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Jul 9, 2014 03:07
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dishwasherlove posted:It's been out for awhile in the UK in an expensive hardcover edition. I managed to hold out for this cheaper US release. If there are subtle nods to the previous books looks like I'll give them a reread first. It's been too long since I read Crack'd Pot Trail anyway. lots of nods to the first 3 B&KB short stories, since it picks up a few days after laughters end. Ending of this story setups their appearance in their 4th short story & Memories of Ice. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Jul 9, 2014 |
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Jul 9, 2014 05:48
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Loving Life Partner posted:Fiddler is just this mundane human grunt with an idiot savant ability with the deck. As far as we can tell, the most talented at foretelling that we ever see. He divines so much information from the future and the near-present that it's dangerous as gently caress. The deck is dangerous even in small amounts, based on Malazan's respect for the unveiling of power, I imagine that a deck reading is like a mushroom cloud going off, especially when it's done by someone like Fiddler, attracting the attentive eye of all sorts of nasty powerful things. I think it's mostly unconscious however I always had the feeling that a bunch of drunken soldiers playing with a tarot deck was causing poo poo to happen, rather than scrying what would come to pass. ed balls balls man posted:So in some very unexpected news, in an interview with Steven Erikson it states he was lined up to write a tie-in novel for Bungie's (the Halo series dudes) new game Destiny at the time the interview was conducted in 2012, despite it only being published now. Since then the agreement with Bungie was cancelled but wrote a sci-fi novel instead. All it says is: 
Am I the only one who was struck by how literally copy-pasted four of those soldiers look? They're absolutely identical in stance and weapons except wearing slightly different cloaks. 
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Jul 9, 2014 21:42
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An accurate representation of the average Esslemont character.
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Jul 9, 2014 22:00
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coyo7e posted:
Looks like the cloaks are the same too, they just pasted some fur poo poo on it and blurred the edges.
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Jul 10, 2014 00:23
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coyo7e posted:I thought that the deck wasn't predicting as much as controlling events. It pretty much is a predictor/scryer. The only time it exerts control is in the hands of the master.
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Jul 10, 2014 01:48
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Just finished Midnight Tides and...drat. drat guys. What the hell. What the hell, Trull Sengar. I was pretty much reading the last hundred pages in wide-eyed shock of everything incredible happening at once. I still contest that the Tiste Edur bits were dry as gently caress, even after Rhulad becomes a GOLDEN GOD and all, but drat if that last scene of the three Sengar brothers sharing the wine and having one last genuinely good time together before you knew it would all turn to poo poo wasn't completely heartbreaking. The ending is frustrating, but I guess in a good way, because it left so many questions unanswered, and I really want to know what happened to every significant character and whether or not they'll be returning in future books, considering the time period in which this one takes place. Also found it funny that it took five books before he bothered laying out a clear definition of what the hell a warren is.
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Jul 10, 2014 10:03
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Wolfsheim posted:Also found it funny that it took five books before he bothered laying out a clear definition of what the hell a warren is. Correction: He laid out a clear definition of what one character who may or may not be wrong thinks a Warren is! 
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Jul 10, 2014 12:19
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I'm re-reading the series and currently on Midnight Tides. There is a conversation between Dapple, Menedore, and Osserec that is kind of the root of an issue I have with the timeline and bloodlines. When I read Forge of Darkness I had no idea what was happening and loved it, but it was because of this conversation. After re-reading it I'm still confused as hell. Dapple, Menedore, and Osserec are chatting about Spite and Envy and who their dad is. The third sister is mother to Spite and Envy but Osserec states that she had them with Draconus who was from "this world". Draconus and Osserec knew each other in Forge of Darkness. Spite and Envy were around prior to Tiste leaving Kharakas. So was this stuff retconned or is Erikson screwing with me on purpose?
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Jul 10, 2014 19:10
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Shockeh posted:Correction: He laid out a clear definition of what one character who may or may not be wrong thinks a Warren is! It's about as straightforward as I've come to expect. I do have some questions about book five, though, now that I've had some time to absorb it: -It may have been explained early on and I lost it in the sea of 'thirty characters are being introduced at once' but what was Hull's enormous vendetta against the Letherii, and if it was so heinous why did neither of his brothers carry as much spite? Is he just over dramatic? -Also, in the ending, why did the Nerek shank him? I thought that the Nerek were on the Edur's side due to the blessing and wasn't quite sure if I missed something obvious stating their intentions otherwise? -While I appreciate that the Crippled God seemed to devolve into a comedy of errors constantly, what was with the shift between his godlike power (giving Rhulad immortality, resurrecting the Tiste Andii woman, etc) and then his flailing impotence? And if he was able to be so easily usurped, why couldn't Bugg just outright kill him? Or does it not work like that, and/or are we getting into future book territory? -Is it just me, or are the Letherii a scathing condemnation of American imperialism/capitalism, and western civilization in general? Kinda surprising in a series that seemed to focus on general philosophy and not so much politics, though maybe I'm putting more into it than intended. -How much of what is implied to be important (such as Tehol learning the names, Uruth deciding to punish all Letherii for Udinaas unintended betrayal, Udinaas' son, Shurq's pirate crew and Kettle's whole situation) is followed up in any meaningful way, considering the huge time gap between this and every other book thus far? -Why does Bugg rule so hard?
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Jul 10, 2014 19:54
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Tooter posted:I'm re-reading the series and currently on Midnight Tides. There is a conversation between Dapple, Menedore, and Osserec that is kind of the root of an issue I have with the timeline and bloodlines. When I read Forge of Darkness I had no idea what was happening and loved it, but it was because of this conversation. After re-reading it I'm still confused as hell. Dapple, Menedore, and Osserec are chatting about Spite and Envy and who their dad is. The third sister is mother to Spite and Envy but Osserec states that she had them with Draconus who was from "this world". Draconus and Osserec knew each other in Forge of Darkness. Spite and Envy were around prior to Tiste leaving Kharakas. I confess I'm not quite sure what you're referring to, but Draconus was the father of Spite, Envy, and Malice, and was, along with Kharkanas, from this world according to Forge of Darkness. Wolfsheim posted:It's about as straightforward as I've come to expect. I do have some questions about book five, though, now that I've had some time to absorb it: quote:-While I appreciate that the Crippled God seemed to devolve into a comedy of errors constantly, what was with the shift between his godlike power (giving Rhulad immortality, resurrecting the Tiste Andii woman, etc) and then his flailing impotence? And if he was able to be so easily usurped, why couldn't Bugg just outright kill him? Or does it not work like that, and/or are we getting into future book territory? quote:-Is it just me, or are the Letherii a scathing condemnation of American imperialism/capitalism, and western civilization in general? Kinda surprising in a series that seemed to focus on general philosophy and not so much politics, though maybe I'm putting more into it than intended. quote:-How much of what is implied to be important (such as Tehol learning the names, Uruth deciding to punish all Letherii for Udinaas unintended betrayal, Udinaas' son, Shurq's pirate crew and Kettle's whole situation) is followed up in any meaningful way, considering the huge time gap between this and every other book thus far? quote:-Why does Bugg rule so hard?
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Jul 10, 2014 21:42
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The Tiste Edur resemble the Haida heavily, which I thought was neat.
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Jul 11, 2014 03:18
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