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).

Cardiac posted:

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.

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.

Cardiac posted:

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.

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.

Cardiac posted:

The story behind Lether's cavalry that came from Bluerose/Tiste Andii still cracks me up.

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.

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.

rejutka posted:

They might have it but, since it doesn't hinder their magic, they never noticed it.

Fuzzy Mammal posted:

Fuzzy Mammal posted:

Fuzzy Mammal posted:

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.

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.

Fuzzy Mammal posted:

He said in a recent interview he wrote it in 3 weeks also.

pakman posted:

We'd get an entirely new series with a scientific, mechanical and completely ambiguous magic system.

Dalmuti posted:

Imagine if Erikson and Sanderson were on a 10 hour flight together

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.

He said in a recent interview he wrote it in 3 weeks also.

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).

Willful Child is only the first novel in the ongoing adventures of Captain Hadrian: my follow-up’s are already outlined (The Wrath of Betty and The Search for Spark). As the titles suggest, this is serious stuff we’re dealing with here. In fact, there’s a good chance that the adventures of Captain Hadrian of the Willful Child will offend everyone, without exception.

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.

2: When a scene drags, when it gets brutally hard to get out the next line, the next word; when blood starts beading on your forehead, don’t switch scenes, don’t shift characters, don’t do any of the running-away things you might be inclined to. Push through. Everything up to that point was the lead-up to this moment, and this moment is when you learn – you learn how to write, what it is to be a writer, and all the reasons you possess for being one. That tight, claustrophobic place, is your call to courage. Don’t evade, don’t back away, don’t shift laterally. Keep going, until it hurts.

3: Finish what you start.

Abalieno posted:

Well, maybe he was joking then:

quote:

The Wrath of Betty and The Search for Spark

quote:

As the titles suggest, this is serious stuff we’re dealing with here.

Abalieno posted:

quote:
1: Finish what you start.

2: When a scene drags, when it gets brutally hard to get out the next line, the next word; when blood starts beading on your forehead, don’t switch scenes, don’t shift characters, don’t do any of the running-away things you might be inclined to. Push through. Everything up to that point was the lead-up to this moment, and this moment is when you learn – you learn how to write, what it is to be a writer, and all the reasons you possess for being one. That tight, claustrophobic place, is your call to courage. Don’t evade, don’t back away, don’t shift laterally. Keep going, until it hurts.

3: Finish what you start.

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.

Yes, it does seem like a long dry-spell, but recall, my SF novel is coming out in November. Also, that dry-spell relates only to your side of things. Fall of Light, when I get to writing on it, is not in any way blocked. Rather, I’m finding that I am taking much more time on the language than I used to. It may be that my creative engine is slowing down, and what once came easily now doesn’t; or it may be that I am actually doing something different in the creative process, something that I haven’t yet pinned down, but demands a more measured approach. Either way, I can’t afford to sweat it, or work myself into a panic. I’m pleased enough with what I’ve written (mind you, I was pleased with Forge of Darkness too, and its reception was quiet, with nary a notice or nomination in any Fantasy awards, etc—I can only conclude that something fundamental is eliminating my novels from consideration, but damned if I know what that might be—but even here, I can only shrug and continue on my way. External validation is a weird thing: as authors we seek it, even as we deny its importance, and from all that back-and-forth stuff we have no choice but to ignore its absence, if only to sustain the self-faith necessary to actually write).

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?

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?

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.

Despite the possibility, Forge of Darkness is NEVER recommended as a starting point. I might literally be the only one on the internet who finds that possibility a good one.

So Forge of Darkness, factually, can only tap on a smaller pool of readers, since it's only the pool of readers who already went through 3 millions of words and might have considered that enough.

Moreover, you are dealing with the canon of "prequels" and side stories. They are NEVER, in any series, considered essential or actually appealing. I seriously doubt for example that Jordan's New Spring sequel sold comparably well to the main series. Or that Gene Wolfe Short Sun has the same number of readers of the New Sun (it's very likely a tiny, tiny fragment).

So you've got to ask yourself how these books can look appealing from the outside. What tells them apart if not "another Malazan story, and not even central to the actual series". It's obviously feels like Malazan 10 books is the real deal, and everything else only for the truly dedicated fans.

That's also the reason why I'd consider highly unlikely that you get recognition even from the critics. Series don't do well at awards and that kind of stuff. It's not a completely unrelated that writers like Gaiman or Mieville who rack up prizes have learned to keep projects bite-sized and completely separate.

Now there's the case of the Wheel of Time potentially nominated at the Hugo as one big series. And that's entirely out of unprecedented pressure by the fandom. It's like one thing taking over a separate one, and doing this also cannibalizing the essence of the Hugo itself.

As I said it's like you're writing in a niche of a niche. If fantasy/sci-fi series were winning prizes left and right then I'd understand you getting pissed. But as things stand right now it would be WEIRD if something like that happened. You can even see the rising trends about fantasy-lite and sci-fi-lite offering, getting more mainstream response.

That's on the side of the wider public. On the side of yours, instead, it's more a case of practical stuff. Early Malazan was extremely spectacular and explosive. Faster moving (and maybe more earth-shattering). It had the Bridgeburners that much better offer a comfortable link with readers.

FoD instead is gloomier, with more "alien" characters, or quirky ones. It's an immediately less relatable kind of environment. Stuff happens but it's neither the basic carvings character-level PoV (so all the family drama, weddings and straightforward investment of readers into that stuff) nor the large scale, world-shattering epic scope. It's more intimate and abstract, less levity and humor. And it has some of the characters like Anomander who have that lofty kind of gravitas. That easily oscillates between the serious and the ridiculous (I think you call this melodrama). Melodrama isn't very popular in modern culture.

Beside that, from what I read around the different forums and blogs, those who read the book rather liked it. It seems very well received if not immediately finding a spot as fan favorite among all Malazan. If it lacks something it's the Big Epic Spectacular Stuff happening on screen. The vistas. You know, the fanservice. You give that more sparingly and it's both a good and bad thing.

Abalieno posted:

malazan award nomination problems