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dwarf74 posted:That's one of my favorite sections. I always remember it as longer than it is because his writing is so effective at creating the mood. Ya Erikson's ability to shift mood and create banter between regular soldiers is sooo good.
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Feb 27, 2018 19:46
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Ulio posted:Continung to read The Bonehunters after a leaving it off for a while. Man I just noticed how good Erikson is at mood shifts. That whole section when the Malazan are stuck under Y'ghatan in tunnels. It is so well written, you actually feel claustrophobic with so many people stuck in such a narrow tunnel. The bits with Sergeant Balm and Deadsmiles is hilarious. Yeah it's one of my favourite sections too and why I'll always rate Bonehunters higher than a lot of people seem to.
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Feb 27, 2018 22:10
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Mordja posted:Yeah it's one of my favourite sections too and why I'll always rate Bonehunters higher than a lot of people seem to. Every part of Y'Ghaten is amazing. It's such a glorious clusterfuck, and I was howling with rage at Leoman's cowardice. It's similar to Theon's betrayal in a Clash of Kings - I expected so much better from them, and I can't hate them for what they did. I'm just disappointed in them. Also the controversy over whether or not the conflagration gained sentience and became a fire elemental, or if fire elementals are a myth and it's just a big loving fire. It's one of the bits where Erikson's deliberately woolly magic and history really clicked for me. Edit: The final sections on Malaz island are a bit of a sore point in the whole series for me. While it was a bold move to have Mallick Rell completely escape justice I never felt like there was enough development of how and why it happened. Rather than show us the characters manipulating and out-politicking each other, the book just tells us that they did a load of manipulating and came out on top. It feels weirdly pseudo-intellectual to me - it wants to tell a story about the corruption of history and the creation of false myths to suit a political agenda, and so it flat out tells us that characters are corrupting history and creating false myths to suit a political agenda, but within the action of the story it just sort of happens out of the blue. It's like how Batman Begins ends with Commissioner Gordon asking "but what about escalation?" so that we don't feel so bad about our punch-man movie, even though nothing in the film has anything to do with the themes of escalation. Strom Cuzewon fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Feb 27, 2018 |
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Feb 27, 2018 22:25
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Every part of Y'Ghaten is amazing. It's such a glorious clusterfuck, and I was howling with rage at Leoman's cowardice. It's similar to Theon's betrayal in a Clash of Kings - I expected so much better from them, and I can't hate them for what they did. I'm just disappointed in them. Man that turn by Leoman was so surprising. In all the previous books he was described as this crazy revolutionary that doesn't give a gently caress and he is a really good strategist. Then what he does in so Yghaten is like this is who he really is.
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Feb 28, 2018 20:21
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Leoman did nothing wrong. Joking, but he was one of my favourite characters: a pragmatist and a cynic surrounded by fanatics, sympathetic in many ways, but who then goes on to commit one of the most monstrous acts in the series when his back's up against the wall. No idea if the Esslemont books ruin him in any way, haven't read them.
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Mar 1, 2018 23:20
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Mordja posted:No idea if the Esslemont books ruin him in any way, haven't read them.
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Mar 1, 2018 23:45
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anilEhilated posted:You have no idea. Not empty quoting, though I didn't like him much to begin with.
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Mar 2, 2018 13:44
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anilEhilated posted:You have no idea. Oh dear, what happens? The only reason I attempted to slog through ICE stuff is cos I heard it followed up with Leoman.
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Mar 2, 2018 18:36
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You know everything you liked about Leoman? Scrap all that and have him sit in a cave talking to a boring girl for a whole book.
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Mar 4, 2018 07:55
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pile of brown posted:You know everything you liked about Leoman? Scrap all that and have him sit in a cave talking to a boring girl for a whole book. But you totally don't know who the dude is who carries two flails until halfway through the book because it's a huge mystery and you'd never guess in a million years. Also two flails. Two. Flails. Mentioned over and over.
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Mar 5, 2018 15:15
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Mar 5, 2018 16:55
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I wish there was a companion app for this. X-Ray is okay, but I forget names when I read this before bed and I'm half asleep.
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Mar 5, 2018 17:11
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Spermy Smurf posted:But you totally don't know who the dude is who carries two flails until halfway through the book because it's a huge mystery and you'd never guess in a million years. Also two flails. Two. Flails. Mentioned over and over.
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Mar 5, 2018 17:40
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Good Will Hrunting posted:I wish there was a companion app for this. X-Ray is okay, but I forget names when I read this before bed and I'm half asleep. I confused Omtose Phellack and Tellan during MoI, so the climax ended up some sort of recursive madlibs. Spermy Smurf posted:But you totally don't know who the dude is who carries two flails until halfway through the book because it's a huge mystery and you'd never guess in a million years. Also two flails. Two. Flails. Mentioned over and over. This sounds tragic. Not even bad, just sad. I have a real itch for some Malazan-like fantasy - I'm almost at the end of Mistborn, and aside from being written like a childs book, Sanderson consistently takes the easiest and boring route at every opportunity - what other books are out there to help me scratch it? Black Company is one, for sure.
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Mar 5, 2018 19:29
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I mean, there is always Bakker if you have the taste for it... Nothing quite like SE, though.
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Mar 5, 2018 19:31
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anilEhilated posted:To be fair it could be considered a mystery since That sums up all of Ian Cameron Esslemont's published Malazan universe writing.
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Mar 5, 2018 19:34
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anilEhilated posted:I mean, there is always Bakker if you have the taste for it... Nothing quite like SE, though. I'm fairly certain we've talked about Bakker in the other thread. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend PoN to a Malazan fan (Malafan), but Aspect Emperor turned out to be a total waste of time.
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Mar 5, 2018 19:40
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Spermy Smurf posted:But you totally don't know who the dude is who carries two flails until halfway through the book because it's a huge mystery and you'd never guess in a million years. Also two flails. Two. Flails. Mentioned over and over. This is more or less why I bounced off ICE's books. There's a brilliant moment in NoK where he slowly described the sound of somebody limping across floorboards using a cane which is then immediately ruined by the characters going "OMG a cane! That can only be the Emperor, who walks with a cane, which we can hear the sound of right now."
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Mar 5, 2018 21:14
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Strom Cuzewon posted:I'm fairly certain we've talked about Bakker in the other thread. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend PoN to a Malazan fan (Malafan), but Aspect Emperor turned out to be a total waste of time. Still better than Assail.
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Mar 5, 2018 21:22
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I've recently become unemployed, and have started rereading Gardens of the Moon. Man, what a different experience it is the second time around. But what mostly struck me (and to be fair, it's probably a GotM-ism) is that in the scene where Baruk meets Anomander, he describes Anomander's colour changing eyes. Because Anomander is a gigantic drama-laden anime edgelord (and I love him). Also, Anomander accuses Crone of being overly melodramatic. Way to call the Raven black.
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Mar 5, 2018 21:37
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Spermy Smurf posted:But you totally don't know who the dude is who carries two flails until halfway through the book because it's a huge mystery and you'd never guess in a million years. Also two flails. Two. Flails. Mentioned over and over. Lmao, don't read the Jacurucku book. Blood whatever... I don't know if it's funny or sad that I recognize myself as a 13 year old GM in some of Esselmonts writing
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Mar 5, 2018 21:37
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I have a vaguely positive recollection of Blood and Bone, but I don't think I could recount any significant plot point from it. There was something about a tribe worshiping the moon, I think. Oh, and Kyle was there doing nothing interesting. ICE's books would mostly be pretty good if they weren't in the shadow of Erikson's. Assail and Night of Knives are the obvious exclusions. E: I just looked at my review of Blood and Bone on Goodreads to see if it would jog my memory. The last line I wrote was "Eagerly anticipating ICE's next book, Assail, due later this year." What a letdown.
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Mar 6, 2018 00:07
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Hi guys have you met my ambiguous friend Jethiss??
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Mar 6, 2018 00:42
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So instead of rereading GOTM I decided to reread the thread instead. Jesus Lord, some goons are HUGE contrarian bitches.
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Mar 6, 2018 05:51
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turboraton posted:So instead of rereading GOTM I decided to reread the thread instead. Jesus Lord, some goons are HUGE contrarian bitches. You been a part of this forum for 7 years and just noticed?
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Mar 6, 2018 06:06
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Cardiac posted:You been a part of this forum for 7 years and just noticed? Here is my secret, I skimmed through most of the thread because I didn't want to get spoiled so I started reading this thread recently. Gotta re-read Deadhouse Landing because I missed the Elingarth-Kallor part for some reason.
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Mar 6, 2018 06:29
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dishwasherlove posted:Hi guys have you met my ambiguous friend Jethiss?? At least there's more ambiguity there than any of the other "reveals."
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Mar 6, 2018 17:02
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Erikson wrote a cool post doing a very in-depth deconstruction of the Siege of Pale from GotM. Interesting for fans of the series as well as prospective authors. Find it here.
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Mar 8, 2018 14:07
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"The God is not Willing" when will you be here..
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Mar 16, 2018 21:41
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Yep, the end of Deadhouse Gates is exactly as bleak as I remember. Saw some cool connections to the recent Deadhouse Landing which has made me even more excited to see where ICE goes with that. And of course it's lit a fire to really chew through a reread... This drat series, I tell ya.
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Mar 25, 2018 23:56
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About a third of the way through Midnight Tides right now. I know it's not his most popular book with some folks because it's a completely different cast of characters and what not, but so far I'm loving it. "A riotous proliferation of mammary excess" has to be one of the funniest combination of words I've unexpectedly run into in this series. Also Tehol is fantastic, please tell me he shows up more in other books. As well, the image of Rhulad coming back to life, burial coins and all still attached to him is absolutely chilling.
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Mar 28, 2018 16:38
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IMO Midnight Tides is one of the best books of the series. Yeah, it's jarring, but it's really got everything.
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Mar 28, 2018 16:51
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My initial reaction to MT was "oh god drat it, not ANOTHER new cast of characters!" but I got over that really fast. Didn't hurt that Tehol and Bugg are just the loving best 
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Mar 28, 2018 16:56
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I've tried to get through the series twice before and stalled at Midnight Tides both times. So jarring just starting from scratch with a completely new set of characters (barring Trull who wasn't very interesting in House of Chains) in a completely new part of the world. On my third attempt now and I'm most of the way through MT. Hoping I have the fortitude to keep on to the end this time.
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Mar 28, 2018 17:11
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I just finished Midnight Tides after having stalled in the beginning of it a few times. Once you get to Rhulad's death and resurrection things really get going, and of course some of the characters like Tehol and Bugg are unforgettable. I found the ending a bit of a wet fart, though.
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Mar 28, 2018 18:00
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Really? I found it extremely fitting - the whole thing has a very Shakesperean feeling about the plot, with the Edur storyline going for tragedy and the Lether one comedy (crass jokes included). The climax has something of Hamlet's in it. Taken as a single book, I think it's up there with Deadhouse Gates as the best in the series.
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Mar 28, 2018 18:12
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Midnight Tides has Moroch Nevath who gets one of my favourite deaths in the whole series. Even if I did just have to look up their name,
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Mar 28, 2018 19:33
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Midnight Tides has Moroch Nevath who gets one of my favourite deaths in the whole series. Even if I did just have to look up their name, Agreed. And Brys cutting Ruhlad to pieces. And also the Ceda. It really is a fantastic book, I love midnight tides.
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Apr 3, 2018 12:54
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IRON BARS!!!!!
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Apr 3, 2018 15:45
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CoolHandMat posted:IRON BARS!!!!! Aka known as one of the bigger let downs of Assail or was it Blood and Bone? The dialogue between him and Shimmer comes to mind.
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Apr 3, 2018 17:13
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