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Kreega Bondola posted:Just popping in to say that book 3 was loving amazing. And book 2. And that I can't wait to re-read book 1 knowing what I do now. Right with you, 3/4 done with Book 3 now. I'm consistently blown away by everything I'm reading thus far. Best moment up until now: "You know that is impossible, Itkovian!" "Then your defence is over, sir." I cancelled my cable so I plan on this series being my entertainment for the next year. It kills me not being able to talk about the books with anyone. The argument and speculation are half the fun of reading ASOIAF, but at the same time I'm enjoying reading these far, far more. I wish I could have come into them earlier and gone along for the ride.
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Aug 21, 2014 22:11
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One of my favourite things about the series is that the list of the Malazan Empire's High Mages include names like Tayschrenn, Nightchill, Bellurdan Skullcrusher, A'Karonys, Tesormalandis, and Stumpy. You think they'd be a Low Mage, surely.
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Aug 21, 2014 23:15
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Illuyankas posted:One of my favourite things about the series is that the list of the Malazan Empire's High Mages include names like Tayschrenn, Nightchill, Bellurdan Skullcrusher, A'Karonys, Tesormalandis, and Stumpy. Maybe they got that nickname because they'd tear off the limbs of their opponents.
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Aug 21, 2014 23:22
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Dumb question, do they every explain how the Malazan and Letherii get so many mages? It doesn't seem to be institutionalized, as a lot of them seem to either be random geniuses, partially non-human, or tribal shamans.
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Aug 22, 2014 04:06
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I'm so pissed ICE made Assail lame. No spoilers, just venting. It had SO much built up tension in the series.
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Aug 22, 2014 04:36
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amuayse posted:Dumb question, do they every explain how the Malazan and Letherii get so many mages? It doesn't seem to be institutionalized, as a lot of them seem to either be random geniuses, partially non-human, or tribal shamans. They're born with it I think. Like Beak :`(. I guess they learn from others who have mastered it?
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Aug 22, 2014 04:37
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amuayse posted:Dumb question, do they every explain how the Malazan and Letherii get so many mages? It doesn't seem to be institutionalized, as a lot of them seem to either be random geniuses, partially non-human, or tribal shamans. I'm not sure I really understand the question. Some people are mages. Some of them are recruited into the military. There are plenty of 'normal' mages that don't fall into the categories you lay out, but 'normal' is sort of a flexible term when discussing mages in the Malazan setting.
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Aug 22, 2014 05:26
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When people can slam a hammer in the ground that massacres the earth, yeah 'normal' is hard to wrap your head around.
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Aug 22, 2014 05:29
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Anomandaris posted:Assail is probably the worst ICE book. The reasons are too many to list them all here, but I'll try to just name a few in no particular order:
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Aug 22, 2014 05:30
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Barreft posted:When people can slam a hammer in the ground that massacres the earth, yeah 'normal' is hard to wrap your head around. I meant more in the sense of their psychology or the source of their power. When you think about it, most wizards do what they do either by forcing their way into another realm which, if they aren't careful, exerts its own forces upon them, or by forcing or negotiating with powerful demons to do their bidding, or communing with spirits that could result in a feedback (like I think happened to Sormo on the Chain of Dogs) etc... It's little wonder that so many of them are mentally imbalanced or verging on not being entirely human.
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Aug 22, 2014 05:35
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So, I just finished Midnight Tides and decided to try Night of Knives before jumping into Bonehunters...I can't read it. I don't know what it is, but the writing just puts me off. Is there anything in the book that's actually relevant, or can I just read a plot synopsis and forget about it?
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Aug 22, 2014 12:05
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Dimo ArKacho posted:So, I just finished Midnight Tides and decided to try Night of Knives before jumping into Bonehunters...I can't read it. I don't know what it is, but the writing just puts me off. Is there anything in the book that's actually relevant, or can I just read a plot synopsis and forget about it? You don't even need that. Just skip it altogether. The 'mystery man' that you meet is unimportant Kiska's plotline goes nowhere.
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Aug 22, 2014 13:54
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Barreft posted:They're born with it I think. Like Beak :`(. I guess they learn from others who have mastered it? I think they are born with an affinity for a warren and can be taught to use it. I remember Tattersail reminiscing about her tutelage in Thyr. Beak was unique in that he had a natural affinity for every warren and so his magic teacher brought in practitioners of all the warrens to teach him to use each of them one by one. The only other person who seems to be able to use multiple warrens with ease is Quick Ben, who got that by soul shifting a dozen mages with differing warren affinities into himself. I'm not sure a non-mage can be taught magic if they don't have an affinity for a particular warren, perhaps only warlock/spirit/shamanistic magic can be taught that way, such as with Bottle and his grandmother?
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Aug 22, 2014 14:26
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I think even spirit magic can only be learned by people who have a particularly sensitive connection to the 'spirit world' - although I think that being able to access a warren implies the ability to learn the spirit stuff. It's just that warrens tend to be more powerful by appearance, plus there's so few people who still care about the 'old ways'.
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Aug 22, 2014 14:30
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Xachariah posted:I think they are born with an affinity for a warren and can be taught to use it. I remember Tattersail reminiscing about her tutelage in Thyr. Beak was unique in that he had a natural affinity for every warren and so his magic teacher brought in practitioners of all the warrens to teach him to use each of them one by one. The only other person who seems to be able to use multiple warrens with ease is Quick Ben, who got that by soul shifting a dozen mages with differing warren affinities into himself. What about all the Claws and poo poo who were granted access to the imperial warren?
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Aug 23, 2014 08:33
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Habibi posted:What about all the Claws and poo poo who were granted access to the imperial warren? Maybe like Kalam they're given objects that allow them to access it? Either that or because it's not aspected maybe any mage can access it if they know what to look for. I can only really recall two people using multiple warrens(e: not including imperial), Quick Ben and Beak. Bit of googling reminds me apparently (RotCG) Cowl of the crimson guard can too? Maybe he was born with it like Beak, copied Quick Ben's method or there's some other way? Xachariah fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 13:26
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Xachariah posted:Maybe like Kalam they're given objects that allow them to access it? Either that or because it's not aspected maybe any mage can access it if they know what to look for.
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Aug 23, 2014 14:46
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I don't think that anyone gets magic from the Imperial Warren. It's all travel and demons in there.
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Aug 23, 2014 14:49
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Habibi posted:Kalam accesses it but not for magic - just travel. I could have sworn that at some point it was alluded that it was possible to be taught magic even without natural predisposition, but hell if I can remember where that was or any of the details. I seem to recall this, too, from one of the earlier books. I lumped it under the category of, "Something a character said which may not be true."
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Aug 23, 2014 15:09
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Habibi posted:Kalam accesses it but not for magic - just travel. I could have sworn that at some point it was alluded that it was possible to be taught magic even without natural predisposition, but hell if I can remember where that was or any of the details. In Night of Knives Temper says "Touched. Common slang for anyone who knew the Warrens. The skills to access them could be taught, but it was much more common for someone to just be born with it - the Talent." I don't know how accurate that is, I would expect more multi-warren mages if that were the case, but maybe Erikson was just showing restraint in any case? I don't know.
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Aug 23, 2014 15:46
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So BnB is a lovely plot in a great setting and Assail is a lovely plot in a bland setting. Seriously, about half of that book could've been axed without any great loss (Orman, I'm looking at you - and your stupid spear). About the only thing I enjoyed about Assail was seeing Cartheron in action (and Possum getting some closure, he was one of the few interesting ICE characters) - and even there you just can't help but wonder how aweseme would that be in Erikson's hands. e: Honestly, is there anyone who even likes the Crimson Guard at this point? They read like Sanderson. This is not a compliment. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 17:18
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anilEhilated posted:e: Honestly, is there anyone who even likes the Crimson Guard at this point? They read like Sanderson.
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Aug 23, 2014 17:27
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Apparently I'm the only person in this thread that actually enjoys Assail. Picked it up about 2 days ago and I'm about 400 pages in. The gold rush setting is entertaining, seems pretty much based on historical gold rushes and keeps me interested. Then again I've more or less enjoyed all of ICE's books so far. Poor taste I assume
Baudin fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 18:54
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Baudin posted:Apparently I'm the only person in this thread that actually enjoys Assail. Picked it up about 2 days ago and I'm about 400 pages in. The gold rush setting is entertaining, seems pretty much based on historical gold rushes and keeps me interested. Then again I've more or less enjoyed all of ICE's books so far. Poor taste I assume This was me. I enjoyed it during the first 3/4 of my read and then I realized 'this is it? Assail is a bunch of pussies.' It was hyped up to be a huge thing and ended up 150 Imass cleared the loving continent. Now I think about it and get angry. Also the people debating if jethiss is rake, we are talking about an author who didn't tell us Kallors name for 300 pages when we already knew it was him during the loving prologue
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Aug 24, 2014 00:13
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Spermy Smurf posted:This was me. I enjoyed it during the first 3/4 of my read and then I realized 'this is it? Assail is a bunch of pussies.' It was hyped up to be a huge thing and ended up 150 Imass cleared the loving continent. That was the worst dramatic - "dramatic" - reveal ever.
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Aug 24, 2014 02:12
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Dumb Malazan trivia: The word "hell" is only used once in the entire series. It's when Fiddler is pretending to be a Gral and curses a bunch of Apocalypse fanatics. Shoe/s is only used 13 times, and mainly it's Kruppe talking about his shoes. Footwear seems to exclusively fall under either moccasins or boots. amuayse fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Aug 24, 2014 |
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Aug 24, 2014 02:24
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Spermy Smurf posted:This was me. I enjoyed it during the first 3/4 of my read and then I realized 'this is it? Assail is a bunch of pussies.' It was hyped up to be a huge thing and ended up 150 Imass cleared the loving continent. They're imass. Just finished the book and I still like it. Then again I assumed that a large part of the danger would be as depicted.
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Aug 24, 2014 02:53
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Spermy Smurf posted:This was me. I enjoyed it during the first 3/4 of my read and then I realized 'this is it? Assail is a bunch of pussies.' It was hyped up to be a huge thing and ended up 150 Imass cleared the loving continent. Yeah, after finishing the book it's obvious that it's Rake. I think the friend he is visiting is the Redeemer or Whiskeyjack. One or both of them is buried at Coral, right?
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Aug 24, 2014 12:08
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zokie posted:Yeah, after finishing the book it's obvious that it's Rake. I think the friend he is visiting is the Redeemer or Whiskeyjack. One or both of them is buried at Coral, right? Some people on the Malazan empire forums think Jethiss is Spinnock Durav and he's visiting Seerdomin's tomb in Coral. He fought at a gate (the Shore in Crippled God) but it's nowhere said that he died or got lost during the battle. Him being just a shipwrecked Spinnock without any revivals involved would be a nice troll from ICE, but I doubt it. More likely it's Rake and he's either visiting Itkovian's or Endest Silann's tomb. I don't remember if it's ever stated that he played Kef Tanar with Itkovian, but I think that in a hundred thousand years he had the time to play a game or two with Endest Silann.
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Aug 24, 2014 19:19
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I also think Spinnock and Rake talk about how it's actually Rake playing via Spinnock by planning turns or something.
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Aug 24, 2014 19:24
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Anomandaris posted:Some people on the Malazan empire forums think Jethiss is Spinnock Durav and he's visiting Seerdomin's tomb in Coral. He fought at a gate (the Shore in Crippled God) but it's nowhere said that he died or got lost during the battle. Him being just a shipwrecked Spinnock without any revivals involved would be a nice troll from ICE, but I doubt it. It turns out Whiskeyjack was buried in Moon's Spawn with the rest of the Bridgeburners. And I Itkovian's grave is actually called modest before everyone covers it "gifts".
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Aug 24, 2014 21:34
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Anomandaris posted:Some people on the Malazan empire forums think Jethiss is Spinnock Durav and he's visiting Seerdomin's tomb in Coral. He fought at a gate (the Shore in Crippled God) but it's nowhere said that he died or got lost during the battle. Him being just a shipwrecked Spinnock without any revivals involved would be a nice troll from ICE, but I doubt it. I haven't read Assail so I have no idea what Kef Tanar is, but Seerdomin played some game with Spinnock in TtH.
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Aug 24, 2014 22:11
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Concurred posted:I haven't read Assail so I have no idea what Kef Tanar is, but Seerdomin played some game with Spinnock in TtH. Yes, and it's basically the one specific reference that leads people to the conclusion that it's Spinnock. The funny thing is that whether Jethiss is either Durav or Rake, the hints given along the way don't appear to be consistent (to me), almost as if ICE hadn't made up his mind.
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Aug 24, 2014 22:29
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Count me in the Assail is terrible camp. The whole thing was a major letdown but after finishing I'd say my biggest disappointment that hasn't been mentioned is the way he wasted Kilava. If there was anyone on that continent who could've pulled a Hood and bitten the head off of some stupid Forkrul Assail that thought it was a real badass, it was Kilava. Instead we get a meeting with an unbeatable army of Forkrul Assail, even though the group in The Crippled God struggled to gather more than 4 full bloods. No one even fights.
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Aug 25, 2014 00:20
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Just finished Book 3. Quick question, do we ever see the K'Chain Che'Malle turn up again?
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Aug 25, 2014 16:04
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Here and there, yes.
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Aug 25, 2014 16:08
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I'm finding it hard to grasp the timeline. I'm about midway through Midnight Tides and I find odd that this is happening while the siege of Pale is happening on another continent. I would've thought they (especially the Letherii since they seem more advanced) already knew about other lands but I guess they're not really interested in sea exploration. I suppose the explanation is that some mages/people in power know about other lands and stuff but not very many. Edit: haha I literally just got to a chapter that sort of explains why the Letherii don't know about the other continents. ExCruceLeo fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Aug 25, 2014 |
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Aug 25, 2014 16:27
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ExCruceLeo posted:I'm finding it hard to grasp the timeline. I'm about midway through Midnight Tides and I find odd that this is happening while the siege of Pale is happening on another continent. I would've thought they (especially the Letherii since they seem more advanced) already knew about other lands but I guess they're not really interested in sea exploration. Yeah, MT begins prior to the rest of the series, but by the end is basically caught up to where everything else is.
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Aug 25, 2014 16:40
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Habibi posted:Yeah, MT begins prior to the rest of the series, but by the end is basically caught up to where everything else is. And don't forget that the entire continent where Lether is on has been cut of from the rest of the world due to ?Gothos? using Omtose Phellack and freezing everything. When they start exploring the rest of the world after it all starts thawing after during MT.
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Aug 25, 2014 21:58
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lockdar posted:And don't forget that the entire continent where Lether is on has been cut of from the rest of the world due to ?Gothos? using Omtose Phellack and freezing everything. When they start exploring the rest of the world after it all starts thawing after during MT. Sort of. Only the northern reaches of the continent are still thawing when MT picks up. Lether seems like they've had plenty of opportunity to explore being their land mass - but why go through all that trouble? (and like Rome, they are not much of a sea power despite their coastal home).
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Aug 26, 2014 01:53
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