|
Yep book 2 and beyond are both substantially better written and much easier to read. Part of the problem of Gardens is that it was originally written as a film script, in book 2 Erikson actually remembered to write a book and add some narration once in a while.Cardiac posted:Latest Esslemont out apparently. Amazon says April 2nd. The Ninth Layer fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Feb 21, 2019 |
#
?
Feb 21, 2019 20:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 29, 2024 00:18 |
|
|
The Ninth Layer posted:Yep book 2 and beyond are both substantial better written and much easier to read. Part of the problem of Gardens is that it was originally written as a film script, in book 2 Erikson actually remembered to write a book and add some narration once in a while. In the UK only. Withholding ebooks for region restrictions is like so 2000s and I can't believe publishers are still doing it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2019 20:15
|
|
|
GotM took me at least 3 tries to get through. The series has become one of my favorite works of fiction since then, though. I feel like it's really easy to bounce off of the series due to the first book, but it does get a whole lot better. And GotM is a lot better on rereads, if that helps at all. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2019 21:32
|
|
|
Wasn't there something of a decade long delay between book 1 -> everything else while he shopped the book around?
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2019 03:05
|
|
|
The Ninth Layer posted:Amazon says April 2nd. My mailbox says tomorrow. Also not through Amazon. Something something book release schemes in different countries.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2019 05:49
|
|
|
Cardiac posted:My mailbox says tomorrow. I've seen people post pictures of it in a facebook group I'm in so it seems to be out. Modest Mouse cover band posted:I managed to finish book 1 after about 10 tries. It wasn't bad it was just a difficult read for some reason. It sounds like book 2 and up are easier to get through? Book 2 is easier, yes. Seems pretty common for people to struggle through book 1 but start to get interested, start to really enjoy themselves on book 2 and be absolutely hooked on book 3. If you want to post thoughts and reactions as you go along, at least I like reading those from first timers.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2019 08:20
|
|
|
Knobb Manwich posted:Wasn't there something of a decade long delay between book 1 -> everything else while he shopped the book around? Basically yeah. He novelized the screenplay in 1991 but it wasn't picked up by a publisher until 99.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2019 13:44
|
|
|
Path to Ascendency gets very silly with the fan service. Bloody everybody seems to crop up and be secretly over a hundred years old. But, like angsty teen age (actually 100 year old) Tattersail cropping up in Deadhouse Landing, it was pretty cool to see Calot suddenly appear, and then be a dick to Tayschrenn. Side point: Studlock and the other renegade Seguleh - they're clearly the results of a goofy, probably drunken, one-shot that ICE and Erikson ran for their Non-Rpg playing mates, right?
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2019 23:56
|
|
|
pretty sure we already knew that everyone in the Old Guard was a hundo plus from book of the fallen
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2019 05:26
|
|
|
Dalmuti posted:pretty sure we already knew that everyone in the Old Guard was a hundo plus from book of the fallen Yeah, but the numbers just seem to be bloating, and it makes the world seem oddly small and static when chucklefucks like Hairlock are revealed to have been present at all the major events. Silk and Ho are just some magical nut jobs in Li Heng, do we really need to find out that they openly ran the city a century ago, and nobody seems to remember? Erikson is great at having loads of tangled bits of history running through the series, but you lose that by turning everyone into an Assassins Creed protagonist. Ditto all the names of things, it feels very simplistic to have a focus-group where the old guard discuss what to call their new generals. Or how Claws and Talons were derived from independent bird symbolism. I do like the way PtA implies the empire was founded almost by accident - everyone was teaming up with different short term goals and it just grew from there.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2019 11:25
|
|
|
I honestly honestly don't get the 'fan service' hate. It isn't bloated and it fits well with the Origins things they have going on imo.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2019 01:15
|
|
|
Partly I feel it cheapens the characterisation and makes a lot of the storytelling feel weirdly fragmented. The strength of the Malazan empire is how it happily accepts and folds-in any random weirdo with useful talents, but when it's the same two dozen weirdos over the course of a century it starts to look just like nepotism. Look at GotM, it starts with the annihilation of the last Mage Cadre. But when all those wizards start to show up in PtA it changes that to the annihilation of the First Mage Cadre, the very people who helped found the empire. That's a very different kind of tragic loss. Or how in MoI, Whiskyjack reminisces about his early days in the marines, when he was just an inexperienced masons apprentice. It becomes very odd in retrospect, because he never reminisces about how he helped create the idea of malazan marines It's also incredibly heavy handed. There's multiple chapters in KR where a character is only described as "the youth" or "the wizard" and then oh-whoops it's this person we recognise. It feels very by-the-numbers, that the character is appearing just because they can. With Surly we see the development of her relationship with Kellanved, young Tattersail is an entertaining look at a much more naive version of a character we all know and love etc. But young Hairlock? Young Calot? They're exactly the same as they were 20 books ago. Also the nicknames are painfully literal: quote:He nodded. "I'll draw the papers up tomorrow. Congratulations, Jack. You're now command rank." I'm just a bit salty about this, it's still a really fun read! Especially seeing the development of the Claw from rag-tag orphans to a proper spy network. And young K'azz is almost as much fun as young Tattersail.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2019 12:21
|
|
|
I'm fairly sure the spoilered example is a retcon, by the way; weren't all Bridgeburners (apart from Fiddler) named by Braven Tooth?
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2019 15:41
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:I'm fairly sure the spoilered example is a retcon, by the way; weren't all Bridgeburners (apart from Fiddler) named by Braven Tooth?
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2019 17:14
|
|
|
Infinite Karma posted:I remember it was related to him stealing his sister from... Hood's temple? Like the whiskeyjack bird. anilEhilated posted:I'm fairly sure the spoilered example is a retcon, by the way; weren't all Bridgeburners (apart from Fiddler) named by Braven Tooth? It's kind of both. The Moranth call him "Bird that Steals", because he stole his sister back, but Braven Tooth is basically clairvoyant and can pull out names that will become relevant later on. My favourite little "mystery" is why the Anibar call him Iskar Jarak - it could be a corruption of Whiskeyjack, or it could be that Iskar Jarak is his real name, that Braven modified. It's completely ambiguous, in a way that feels very true to real history (there are poo poo loads of criminals in medieval records referred to as Robin Hood(e), but there's no real way to tell if this was a common way of referring to thieves which became an obvious name for the legend, or if they're being called Robin Hood in reference to the legend) So I'm salty that they retconned out one of my favourite little details. It also means that Corabb's estimation of Dunsparrow being 25 years old is out by 70 years or so.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2019 18:20
|
|
|
i get what youre saying, but on the other hand C O N V E R G E N C E
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2019 05:18
|
|
|
Sry man I just read your words and want to reply a bigass NO. Fact is the dramatis personae of the Malazan universe is huge. Those two dozens of mages you mention become together because power attracts power, that's a main theme of the book and of reality as well. My boy Quru-Kan is chilling on another world and he could take in anyone, like, there are PLENTY of powerful beings in Malaz world and they know better. I guess to each its own. For me Malazan is the perfect example of worldbuilding and splashing it with cool characters and make them interact over time. The gathering of two dozen peeps and Kellanved's cunning is the reason the Malaz empire rose to power.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2019 00:48
|
|
|
So far the PtA have felt like a speed run in how the Malazan empire was formed.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2019 06:35
|
|
|
I forget: is convergence a fan term for how characters always converge at the end of a Malazan book or does it have a similar kind of meaning within the books?
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2019 10:44
|
|
|
snoremac posted:I forget: is convergence a fan term for how characters always converge at the end of a Malazan book or does it have a similar kind of meaning within the books? A convergence is a thing in-universe. They probably say it a lot more but off the top of my head I know they call it a Convergence at the end of Deadhouse Gates where all the D'Ivers and Soletaken go to the Azath to be blown up by Fiddler. Edit: I just read this in Gardens of the Moon: ‘Convergence,’ Tool said. ‘Power ever draws other power. It is not a complicated thought, yet it escaped us, the Imass.’ So that's another example. Man with Hat fucked around with this message at 11:43 on Feb 28, 2019 |
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2019 11:05
|
|
|
turboraton posted:Sry man I just read your words and want to reply a bigass NO. Fact is the dramatis personae of the Malazan universe is huge. Those two dozens of mages you mention become together because power attracts power, that's a main theme of the book and of reality as well. My boy Quru-Kan is chilling on another world and he could take in anyone, like, there are PLENTY of powerful beings in Malaz world and they know better. Yeah, I'm happy to admit I'm being entirely irrational with where I draw the line between "awesome callback" and "needless fanservice". There are bits where ICE is seriously good at it though - part of the fun of RotCG is all the old guard coming out of the woodwork after having hidden themselves away for years. Also seeing Aragan appearing for half a chapter each book, one-rank higher than he was the time before. Also Kuru-Qan's soul got destroyed to fashion the portal, dude ain't chilling anywhere 
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2019 19:07
|
|
|
Rip Magic Gandhi
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2019 21:11
|
|
|
Strom Cuzewon posted:Also Kuru-Qan's soul got destroyed to fashion the portal, dude ain't chilling anywhere WITNESS!
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2019 03:06
|
|
|
Just finished The Crippled God. Checked my Amazon order history and I first bought Gardens of the Moon in January 2008, a week before my kid who is starting highschool this year was born. Yikes. Only the first 6 or 7 books were out then and I've obviously taken some pretty long breaks (as well as doing some partial rereads) in that time. Either way... it's been a journey.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2019 16:18
|
|
|
Gravy Jones posted:Just finished The Crippled God. Checked my Amazon order history and I first bought Gardens of the Moon in January 2008, a week before my kid who is starting highschool this year was born. Yikes. Only the first 6 or 7 books were out then and I've obviously taken some pretty long breaks (as well as doing some partial rereads) in that time. Either way... it's been a journey. Your 11 year old is going to high school? drat, I'm an underachiever. I started reading them in 2008 as well but bounced off of GotM hard about 1/3rd of the way in. A year later, I made it about 2/3rds into GotM and knew I would read the rest of the series. They were all finished by the time I got to the Crippled God. I was relieved they were all written in such a timely manner after the Wheel of Time debacle. edit: I'm on 4th re-read (1 paper, 1 kindle, 2 audio) and still catching new stuff all the time. The audiobooks are well done if anyone is wondering. The narrator does change after MoI but he finds his groove by the end of HoC after a kinda rough start. His portrayals of Rhulad in particular are excellent. imagine dungeons fucked around with this message at 07:47 on Mar 2, 2019 |
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2019 07:42
|
|
|
gently caress kuru-qan. ole dumbass
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2019 08:40
|
|
|
denimgorilla posted:Your 11 year old is going to high school? drat, I'm an underachiever. UK, so there might be some different terminology here. I think it would be middle school or junior high in the US.
|
|
#
?
Mar 2, 2019 18:40
|
|
|
Dalmuti posted:gently caress kuru-qan. ole dumbass dude was pretty ineffective
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 10:02
|
|
|
denimgorilla posted:dude was pretty ineffective Kuru-qant
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 19:55
|
|
|
He temporarily imprisoned Hanna Mosag's terrifying demon squid!
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 20:07
|
|
|
Lmao kuru-almost destroyed the entire Tiste Edur. His team was just too heavy to carry and he had an elder god among them as well.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 20:13
|
|
|
turboraton posted:Lmao kuru-almost destroyed the entire Tiste Edur. His team was just too heavy to carry and he had an elder god among them as well. Dude spent a week faceplanting a floor to level up and he helped take care of business even after death.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 21:21
|
|
|
More like Kuru-Qanage
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 23:04
|
|
|
why would you pick a court mage named after a funny brain disease. oh yeah here's my high magister, ol' prions johnson. he searches for the forbidden magic that will allow him to finally overcome his eternal rival, melanoma ploots
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 23:44
|
|
|
At this point I think Esslemont would be better served by writing together the Path of Ascendancy as a history book than whatever he is doing now. KR was too much stuff in too few pages.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2019 06:58
|
|
|
Lunchmeat Larry posted:why would you pick a court mage named after a funny brain disease. oh yeah here's my high magister, ol' prions johnson. he searches for the forbidden magic that will allow him to finally overcome his eternal rival, melanoma ploots Friendly reminder that Corabb is such a badass that he's immune to cancer, and probably BSE (bhederin sponghiform encephalopathy) too. I love how him being the chosen one of Oponn is just some random little detail that never amounts to anything. Outside of Poliel's (or T'riss?) offhand comment nobody even seems to care. Edit: Actually he had cancer, but it can't do poo poo to him. Cos he's just that good. Strom Cuzewon fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Mar 5, 2019 |
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2019 13:22
|
|
|
  From Steven Erikson's Facebook page
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 05:28
|
|
|
Karsa comes up against his most terrifying foe yet: a haunted realdoll
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 09:53
|
|
|
hnnh
Lunchmeat Larry fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Mar 6, 2019 |
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 09:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 29, 2024 00:18 |
|
|
Well there's the motivation for me to finish up the Tiste trilogy! Can't wait to witness.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2019 14:19
|
|