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Haha I had almost forgotten about Shurq Elalle and then I found this:
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# ? Jul 11, 2014 08:46 |
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# ? May 30, 2024 10:06 |
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Habibi posted:It's not just you, but the actual inspiration for Lether was Rome. Any similarities we see to our own situation are results of similarities between the US and the Roman Empire (and other empires). Which is kinda interesting, since the Malazan empire is also inspired by Rome. Especially as seen with the Legions, which value competence over nobility and which win battles through superior organisation.
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# ? Jul 11, 2014 08:49 |
Cardiac posted:Which is kinda interesting, since the Malazan empire is also inspired by Rome.
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# ? Jul 11, 2014 09:11 |
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anilEhilated posted:And Lether's rather incompetent military. Really, it's hard to pinpoint a clear source of inspiration for any given thing in a book. The kind of alchemy that translates old ideas into new ones pretty much only goes on in the author's head and they're sometimes not even aware of it. Yeah, it is pretty uninteresting where the actual inspiration comes from, everyone is influenced by everyone anyways. The story behind Lether's cavalry that came from Bluerose/Tiste Andii still cracks me up.
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# ? Jul 11, 2014 10:06 |
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Cardiac posted:Which is kinda interesting, since the Malazan empire is also inspired by Rome. Eh. The only thing about the Malazans that was based on Rome was the military. Lether as an empire was a commentary on Rome, per Erikson. anilEhilated posted:And Lether's rather incompetent military. Really, it's hard to pinpoint a clear source of inspiration for any given thing in a book. The kind of alchemy that translates old ideas into new ones pretty much only goes on in the author's head and they're sometimes not even aware of it. He's specifically said this was the case with Lether. Cardiac posted:The story behind Lether's cavalry that came from Bluerose/Tiste Andii still cracks me up.
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# ? Jul 11, 2014 16:39 |
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I think the fact that Letherii focusing on holds could have brought up an interesting plot point if they had otataral and the Malazan army had to fight them without magic.
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# ? Jul 11, 2014 16:54 |
amuayse posted:I think the fact that Letherii focusing on holds could have brought up an interesting plot point if they had otataral and the Malazan army had to fight them without magic. Isn't that what they did, pretty much? In RG, Malazans have exactly one usable mage and they blew him on defense. Although this does raise an interesting point - considering what we know about the origins of otataral and the power of Letherii magic, how come they don't have it?
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# ? Jul 11, 2014 17:04 |
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They might have it but, since it doesn't hinder their magic, they never noticed it.
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# ? Jul 11, 2014 17:07 |
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amuayse posted:I think the fact that Letherii focusing on holds could have brought up an interesting plot point if they had otataral and the Malazan army had to fight them without magic. But how would they have used it to neutralize Malazan mages? Logistically speaking. rejutka posted:They might have it but, since it doesn't hinder their magic, they never noticed it. Or maybe it did and they just didn't realize what they had. Eg: You have that valley or whatever in which the fake Redmask made his last stand that was so drained of magic that even the Letherii elder magic wouldn't work. What are the chances that buried under the dirt is a shitload of leftover otataral from whatever magical conflagration killed that land in the first place, and they just never looked? After all, the otataral being mined by the Malazans has been there for eons, but the mines were iirc started within Kellanved's rule, so it doesn't seem to be particularly common, general knowledge. Habibi fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Jul 11, 2014 |
# ? Jul 11, 2014 18:26 |
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Just finished Wurms of Blearmouth. Makes you wonder if there are elder gods and high mages hiding in every remote village. Also cookies and icing
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# ? Jul 13, 2014 13:58 |
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# ? Jul 15, 2014 03:05 |
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I thought the Letherii were more British colonialism nee East Indie Company but I probably read more Clavell growing up. Also the British in that era were not known for excellent military as much as diplomacy and trade based imperialism.. Also that novel was the first time I grokked what "tiste" were, forget the rest about Warrens, Gemmell was doing similar stuff with pocket dimension power pools long before I bumped into Erickson. Also I was mistaken (again) the new Bungie IP is Destiny, not Defiance. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 06:22 on Jul 15, 2014 |
# ? Jul 15, 2014 06:18 |
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Oh cool! Really interested to hear what people think about this. I've been on a bit of a sci-fi kick recently, and Erikson is one of my favorite authors. Surely his sci-fi will be good!
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# ? Jul 15, 2014 07:20 |
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Hella jealous
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# ? Jul 15, 2014 07:35 |
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If you are in contact with the high spheres, tell them that having an old parody excerpt on Tor.com isn't helping making this look like a "serious" book. If it's a serious book. Erikson recently said he believed quite a bit on this, and that it wasn't parody at all, yet that original Willful Child was JUST very silly parody all around.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 03:53 |
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Whoa, weird, I know Ardi and I work for Erikson's old editor at Bungie. Publishing is a small world. Curious how this will turn out.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 05:03 |
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Abalieno posted:If you are in contact with the high spheres, tell them that having an old parody excerpt on Tor.com isn't helping making this look like a "serious" book. It is most assuredly not serious. I'm about half way through and it's actually quite absurdist. References to AHL era Winnipeg Jets players, waterboarding, aliens wielding clubs that are just other club shaped aliens, you name it. He said in a recent interview he wrote it in 3 weeks also.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 20:29 |
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Fuzzy Mammal posted:He said in a recent interview he wrote it in 3 weeks also. I love Erikson for his "gently caress you all" pace of writing, he really should teach GRRM some techniques
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 20:41 |
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Imagine if Erikson and Sanderson were on a 10 hour flight together
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 23:39 |
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We'd get an entirely new series with a scientific, mechanical and completely ambiguous magic system.
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# ? Jul 17, 2014 00:35 |
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pakman posted:We'd get an entirely new series with a scientific, mechanical and completely ambiguous magic system. And my wallet would suffer for it.
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# ? Jul 17, 2014 03:02 |
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Dalmuti posted:Imagine if Erikson and Sanderson were on a 10 hour flight together It would be like Bugg and Tehol and Erikson would be Tehol and Sanderson would be, uh, Ublala.
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# ? Jul 17, 2014 03:19 |
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man I don't know how I missed that quote!=edit sorry y'all
Habibi fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Jul 17, 2014 |
# ? Jul 17, 2014 03:19 |
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Fuzzy Mammal posted:It is most assuredly not serious. I'm about half way through and it's actually quite absurdist. References to AHL era Winnipeg Jets players, waterboarding, aliens wielding clubs that are just other club shaped aliens, you name it. Link to that interview? Well, maybe he was joking then: quote:For all you Fantasy purists, sorry, but ‘Willful Child’ is SF. ‘The Devil Delivered’ was my first foray into SF and that was a novella besides. This new book’s the real deal. Deadly serious, tackling heavy themes, plunging to the very nadir of Future Speculation, with two more to follow in the series already in the works (well, I have titles).
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# ? Jul 17, 2014 07:29 |
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TryAgainBragg posted:I love Erikson for his "gently caress you all" pace of writing, he really should teach GRRM some techniques quote:1: Finish what you start.
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# ? Jul 17, 2014 07:33 |
On a slight aside, I just finished Crack'd Pot Trail for the first time and it's my favorite necromancer story so far, you can tell how much the author enjoyed openly writing about writing. It's probably the funniest of them too. Now for Wurms of Blearmouth.
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# ? Jul 17, 2014 08:27 |
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welp that's my enthusiasm for the SF novel gone.
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# ? Jul 17, 2014 09:02 |
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Abalieno posted:Well, maybe he was joking then: quote:The Wrath of Betty and The Search for Spark Nothing? Really? quote:As the titles suggest, this is serious stuff we’re dealing with here.
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# ? Jul 17, 2014 09:03 |
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I would drop some serious dosh to own a hardcover copy of "The Wrath of Betty."
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# ? Jul 17, 2014 18:55 |
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Abalieno posted:quote: Sadly the only thing I see GRRM actually taking from those 3* bits of advice is that repetition is good. I'd never seen that quote before though and appreciate that its one of his main guidelines. TryAgainBragg fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Jul 17, 2014 |
# ? Jul 17, 2014 20:29 |
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Erikson is actually slowing down:se posted:Sorry for the delay. I am just back from MisCon (Missoula, Montana), and am about to take a genuine vacation for the first time in over a decade (to Italy) for the month of June. Yes, I know, what’s with a vacation in the middle of writing a novel (Fall of Light)? Well, the original plan was to finish that novel before taking a full year off, but life got in the way of that. Upon returning in July, I will be bearing down and finishing Fall of Light for a November delivery date. The simple truth is, I need this break. It’s been nonstop for quite a while now and the battery’s run low. Granted, I took three weeks off to write ‘Willful Child,’ which comes out in November and may have a US tour attached to it, but that novel had been gnawing my ankles for almost ten years, and I just needed to get it done. By way of teaser, I am fairly sure that ‘Willful Child’ will offend almost everybody. But in a good way. I hope. Also the back cover says he's in the prairies again but I thought he lives in Victoria now?
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# ? Jul 17, 2014 20:52 |
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The musing about never getting any award nominations is probably gonna ruffle some feathers, but truth be told I've been wondering for ages why nothing Malazan-related ever gets nominated for anything. If Wheel of Time can get nominated for poo poo, surely something in Erikson's corner can?
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# ? Jul 17, 2014 21:00 |
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Oh Snapple! posted:The musing about never getting any award nominations is probably gonna ruffle some feathers, but truth be told I've been wondering for ages why nothing Malazan-related ever gets nominated for anything. If Wheel of Time can get nominated for poo poo, surely something in Erikson's corner can? joke post: freemason conspiracy is keeping wheel of time nominated, and malazan series ignored. Good friend Kruppe's & Iskaral Pust's monologues frighten & confuse newcomers to the malazan series, i guess. but it's probably really hard for the nominating comittees to define malazan series as strictly fantasy or scifi, especially the way the books bounce around. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Jul 17, 2014 |
# ? Jul 17, 2014 22:41 |
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Yeah I HATED Kruppe for a long time before he endeared himself to me, so I can see a less dedicated reader of fantasy to just give up when he starts talking about pies in the middle of a Tiste Edur invasion or whatever.
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# ? Jul 18, 2014 16:02 |
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The only time Erickson bugs me now is when he starts channeling Tom Clancy and starts gushing over one squad of Malazan Marines' exploits. Granted, the Dujek's Host and the Bonehunters gets better with time when they're viewed as a whole.
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# ? Jul 18, 2014 19:13 |
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the one thing I wanted to happen in erikson's malazan series was ublala punga + good friend kruppe encounter and/or ublala punga + iskaral pust encounter. the only match for wits is rock-solid stupidity.
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# ? Jul 19, 2014 02:09 |
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Oh Snapple! posted:The musing about never getting any award nominations is probably gonna ruffle some feathers, but truth be told I've been wondering for ages why nothing Malazan-related ever gets nominated for anything. If Wheel of Time can get nominated for poo poo, surely something in Erikson's corner can? I actually sent him a mail about that (to which he didn't reply, by the way), but here's my analysis about lack of popularity, FoD specifically: quote:I think I've said this before, but long series end up having a trickle effect on readers by their nature. When a new reader comes to the series he faces a staggering task. He has in front of him 10+1+6(ICE) books veering on the HUGE. In some cases this is already enough to just not care regardless of what's in there, so you already target a kind of hardcore reader within an hardcore genre. It's only a fact that if "x" readers read GotM. then less than "x" will read (and buy) Reaper's Gale. Because you can and have picked up readers along the way, but they still all start from the beginning.
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# ? Jul 19, 2014 05:13 |
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Abalieno posted:malazan award nomination problems Before I started reading the malazan series I was directly comparing it to the wheel of time series, and using all the issues I had with wheel of time series to doubt the taste of people who liked the malazan series & to not read the malazan books. All I knew about the malazan series was that it was written by a unknown author, it was a fantasy series, and there was a unknown amount of books left to complete the series. The series title had a weird aztec/incan empire sounding name, and people who raved about the malazan series also seemed to rave about the Iron Druid series. And the Iron Druid series is horrible/will always be horrible. I figured it was about a aztec empire as it grew from nothing to an continental empire(the coming of age stuff from WoT), with a handful of viewpoint characters that got more powerful & were never wrong/never died as time passed(the rand companions & plot armor stuff from WoT), and probably had glacial plot progress(my biggest WoT problem) from book to book because I figured it was just tracking a handful of viewpoint characters and why else besides a cash grab would it need so many more books. When I actually read the first malazan book it started off with titular empire having conquered 2 continents & working on it's 3rd continent, skipping the whole coming of age storyline I was dreading. People kept got killed off within minutes, nobody was always right, things were complicated, plot hooks were firmly set, and there was some comedic moments to balance out everything. Overpowered characters had flaws and got sidetracked/killed off/encountered people just as strong. ...which resolved the second issue I worried about. Lastly, plot advanced at staggering rate, and the books switched continents & characters. Undead cavemen, elder gods, light/dark/grey elves, korbal broach & company, good friend kruppe, the whole finest idea that robert jordan would have spent 5 volumes to just acquire ONE, etc. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Jul 19, 2014 |
# ? Jul 19, 2014 22:57 |
I'd like to think that Erikson's response to book awards is Crack'd Pot Trail.
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# ? Jul 20, 2014 08:58 |
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# ? May 30, 2024 10:06 |
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Yeah I was going to say all issues Erikson has with critics and audiences are well explored in that book.
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# ? Jul 20, 2014 09:31 |