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Illuyankas posted:There's a small problem with that, called the MOI prologue. I doubt Rake would have waited to deal with Draconus until after the Crippled God fell, 120,000 years before Burn's Sleep and two hundred thousand years or so after the events in Kharkanas. Totally forgot anything about that.
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Mar 27, 2011 19:20
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Ok I'm about a third of the way through Deadhouse Gates and I just want to make sure I've got everything straight about the various races (at least what has been revealed thus far) Jaghut: kinda look like Warcraft orcs? very very solitary Jaghut tyrant: a Jaghut that is similar to the Imass; wants to dominate as opposed to leave others alone T'lan Imass: undead, serve the Malazan Empire, kinda sorta precursors to human society? tribal and imperialistic and poo poo Tiste Andii: dark skinned, serve Anomander Rake, shapeshifters?, in some sort of existential funk? Forkrul Assail: ??? K'Chain Che'Malle: ???
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Mar 28, 2011 03:36
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Not to give anything away, you are on the right track.
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Mar 28, 2011 03:40
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I just finished The Crippled God and while I found the series to be pretty mediocre, there's one thing about the ending that bugged me: What the hell happened to T'iam? Was TCG killing Korabas what prevented that thing from truly causing any chaos? It says it emerges... and then TCG is killed, and it's over. I'm confused.
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Mar 28, 2011 05:50
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Azure_Horizon posted:I just finished The Crippled God and while I found the series to be pretty mediocre, there's one thing about the ending that bugged me:
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Mar 28, 2011 06:55
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Rereading TCG since I blitzed through it, and I really can't believe I expected a happy end for Mappo. Not after he actually bargained away those children to Olar Ethil. The first time I read this part my general thought process was "Come on, someone stand up for them! Please! gently caress. At least Torrent's going with them  ". Reading it again, it's just completely heartbreaking to me, solely due to Mappo.
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Mar 28, 2011 07:10
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Doctor Teeth posted:Ok I'm about a third of the way through Deadhouse Gates and I just want to make sure I've got everything straight about the various races (at least what has been revealed thus far) Jaghut: far, far more slender than orcs, very pronounced tusks T'lan Imass: Think Neanderthals (or maybe even Australopiticus?) that didn't die out but became undead Tiste Andii: The nearest thing to elves i'd say. Their skin isn't dark, it is completly black, like charcoal. Very few can turn into dragons, but not because they are Tiste Andii, more despite of it. Anomander Rake is their leader, but "serving" is a bit much I think. Yeah, being 300k years old and having lost everything makes you a bit depressive. Forkrul Assail: Another elder race (humanoid, white skin, crazy bone joints). More to come about them. Same with the K'Chain Che'Malle (lizards).
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Mar 28, 2011 14:17
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He's only on the third book, you don't need to spoil him like that.
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Mar 28, 2011 17:07
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I don't think there is anything in it that wasn't said in the first two books. It's just often not spelled out very clearly.
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Mar 28, 2011 17:16
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Tavore kills Felisin
Weaponized Cum fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Mar 28, 2011 |
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Mar 28, 2011 17:35
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Weaponized Cum posted:Tavore kills Felisin Oh god, is this becoming the Bad Thread?
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Mar 28, 2011 17:43
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A Nice Boy posted:It's bizarre to me, the mainstream appeal Rothfuss's series has claimed already. I mean, his world and characters are great in ways, and there are the seeds of a great fantasy in there, but the books are so loving flawed for all the reasons we've stated...I just don't get it. Junk Science posted:Not to derail too much, but it really doesn't help when your premise is "the truth behind the legend is not at all what it seems," and then it turns out that Kvothe is actually pretty much exactly what he seems: awesome at everything from music to academics to magic to fighting to love(!). As a character he's incredibly boring. Decius posted:I liked them. They are of course completely different von Erikson, and not the same quality in my opinion, but still some quite good books and I was entertained well enough. Honestly, I think WMF suffered at least as much from poor editing as writing. A good editor would have kept that book to 500 pages instead of the 1000-and-change it ended up being.
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Mar 28, 2011 18:51
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Weaponized Cum posted:Tavore kills Felisin But did she know it?
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Mar 28, 2011 18:53
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Habibi posted:But did she know it? TCG Spoilers Not until the end she didn't
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Mar 28, 2011 19:07
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Boogle posted:TCG Spoilers Not until the end she didn't I was just being a jerk. 
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Mar 28, 2011 20:08
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Junk Science posted:Reading Malazan and then moving on to The Wise Man's Fear has been really jarring. I enjoyed Name of the Wind a good deal, but now it just seems like young adult fiction. You can really tell that Rothfuss doesn't have anywhere near the life experience of someone like Erikson. I'm about 40% through of The Wise Man's Fear as an audiobook and it's been quite like the first one. Bad decisions: the novel. It helps that I really like the guy reading it and that the ideas are kinda cool and novel, but I just continually facepalm like I did with the first book. Stop doing so loving stupid poo poo, ok? Also just loving go and buy a pair of gloves and a hat. And a new shirt. It's impossible that it would be too expensive with all the money you spend on useless poo poo every single chapter. I've almost completely forgotten the first book but why don't his friends you know, like help him with money a bit? Is it just that he's too loving proud to receive monetary aid? I don't want to go to the Rothfuss thread because I'm not sure about the spoiler policy there, so forgive me. (end derail)
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Mar 28, 2011 21:00
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General Battuta posted:4) he talked a bit about the difference between his writing and Scott Bakker's, which is probably only of interst to those who are fans of both. I'm interested! Hearing Malazan compared to Bakker's books is the reason I read this thread.
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Mar 29, 2011 00:41
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Calde posted:I'm interested! Hearing Malazan compared to Bakker's books is the reason I read this thread.
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Mar 29, 2011 01:30
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Cervixalot posted:Oh god, is this becoming the Bad Thread? It was in spoiler tags, it will take a lot of work to get this bad boy as bad as the bad GRRM thread. We spoil every series in there. Wild Cards bitch. And to add content I literally 10 minutes ago finish TCG... I am going to reread these drat things now. I want this story again. Erickson better keep writing.
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Mar 29, 2011 05:10
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Decius posted:Jaghut: far, far more slender than orcs, very pronounced tusks They are not like elves, christ.
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Mar 29, 2011 14:21
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Nigulus Rex posted:They are not like elves, christ. Gay whiny twats? gently caress yeah they're like elves. Nimander totally redeemed himself, and the entire Tiste Andii plot actually went somewhere finally, but christ which a bunch of whiny assholes. It was so hard not to skip over anything that mentioned "super-ultra-black skin" Edit: Yes, that is still my stance after finishing TCG.
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Mar 29, 2011 14:34
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KenMornignstar posted:It was in spoiler tags, it will take a lot of work to get this bad boy as bad as the bad GRRM thread. It was left unspoiled until he edited it
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Mar 29, 2011 16:53
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Calde posted:I'm interested! Hearing Malazan compared to Bakker's books is the reason I read this thread. savinhill posted:I'm interested too. Well, he talked a bit about how Bakker had a background in philosophy (duh) and therefore had a big philosophical point to make, whereas he (Erikson) was more interested in creating a world that made sense, and then telling a story in it where the characters were independent actors. He likes Scott Bakker but really hated Neuropath (a feeling I shared, intensely). He commented on their different approaches to battle scenes, where he likes to get down in the trenches and Bakker likes to zoom out and do this epic Iliad stuff with the great champions meeting and the lines clashing. He seemed...not exactly critical, but disinterested in Bakker's tendency to use fiction to comment on the real. For example he talked about how the Three Seas setting is basically a transposition of Medieval Europe/Asia, with magic and an (awesome) ubermenace, whereas the Malazan stuff is built from the ground up to account for the differences that egalitarian magic would bring to the social order. I love Bakker but I didn't sense more than a friendly rivalry here. I'm glad we have both of them. His chief critic-fan, the handsome dapper Irishman, was more blunt, saying 'I like Scott Bakker's work, but Erik's stuff is just better', and commenting on his distaste for how broad the narrative strokes in Bakker's work could be - specifically he cited the deaths of thousands in The Warrior-Prophet as feeling insignificant because of the total size of the Holy War. General Battuta fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Mar 30, 2011 |
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Mar 30, 2011 04:15
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Just finished Return of the Crimson Guard. This being my first time reading through the Malazan series, I made a commitment to read the IES books as well. First off, I hated Night of Knives. One of the worst books I've read in a while. I kind of dreaded picking up RotCG, which is like 5x as long, after finishing the utterly fantastic Reaper's Gale, but I decided to give it a chance. Overall, Esslemont's 2nd book is a massive improvement over NoK. The first half of the book or so is still kinda lovely. He introduces way too many new characters too quickly, and they all had some variation of the exact same thoughts ("What are we doing here? What's going on? Who's that guy? What's he doing? What are they talking about? etc) Somewhere around the halfway point, however, right at the contingent of Crimson Guard landing at Unta, I'd say, everything suddenly got much better. Characters became more distinct, interesting plot happened, and the general terribleness of the writing went away. Even though the 2nd half of the book basically consisted of 4 extended major battle sequences, I actually for once cared about some of the characters and understood their motivations, something that was utterly lacking in NoK. Also, actual major plot stuff happened. I'll be interested to see if and how Erikson makes references to these events in Toll the Hounds. Kind of like what happened with Erikson in Deadhouse Gates, it seems to have taken IES a bit of experience to develop as a writer. He's still not a fraction of the writer Erikson is, though, but he's getting better. Hopefully Stonewielder won't suck when I eventually get to it. Four books to go!
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Mar 31, 2011 01:44
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qbert posted:Hopefully Stonewielder won't suck when I eventually get to it. It will.
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Mar 31, 2011 02:05
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I'm the opposite -- I thought RotCK was bloated, unfocused, and ultimately contributed little to the Malazan world, but Night of Knives was focused, had interesting characters and fleshed out that particular world-changing event really well. Of course, I generally dislike Malazan's overall bloated epicness anyway so NoK was refreshing.
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Mar 31, 2011 03:48
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Azure_Horizon posted:I'm the opposite -- I thought RotCK was bloated, unfocused, and ultimately contributed little to the Malazan world, but Night of Knives was focused, had interesting characters and fleshed out that particular world-changing event really well. Night of Knives had two main characters who put themselves in constant life-threatening situations for no reason whatsoever. Some other character: "Hey, there's a bunch of dangerous poo poo happening that doesn't concern you! Why are you heading towards the danger?" Kiska and Temper: "Because I haaaaaave to! I just doooooooooooo!"
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Mar 31, 2011 04:08
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Azure_Horizon posted:Night of Knives was focused, had interesting characters and fleshed out that particular world-changing event really well. Of the three things you listed, only the first is actually true. ICE's method is to render interesting characters dull, and use pages upon pages to add essentially nothing to the story.
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Mar 31, 2011 05:09
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Stonewielder's about as good as RotCG: It's better written, has fewer awful characters, but it deals with less interesting source material. While the Crimson Guard were already set up as interesting badasses by Erikson, the Korel continent is a bit less exciting. It's definitely worth a read, though, while I wouldn't recommend Night of Knives to my worst enemy.
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Mar 31, 2011 05:39
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Is there a website somewhere that summarizes all the plot stuff that happens in ICE's books? So the rest of us don't have to suffer reading through supposedly mediocre writing.
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Mar 31, 2011 06:10
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Vanilla Mint Ice posted:Is there a website somewhere that summarizes all the plot stuff that happens in ICE's books? So the rest of us don't have to suffer reading through supposedly mediocre writing. I hate stuff like this. "suffer through supposedly mediocre writing." Agh. ICE is better than or at least equal to almost every other fantasy author out there. He's no Erikson which is the main problem since they are the same universe, but honestly just read them (except NoK).
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Mar 31, 2011 14:24
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a lot of us disagree with you. i think ICE is a bad author by any standard. "JUST READ THEM" is honestly very weird advice and doesn't answer his question or mine at all. what if we don't.. want to?
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Mar 31, 2011 14:32
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I dont want to read ICE's stuff, I read NoK and was astounded that it even went to print. It was like reading the Magic The Gathering books with Gull the woodcutter. Or Tasselhoff Burrfoot. I'm probably going to read the RotCG just because there simply isnt anything else I want to read and I'm bored, but I am dreading it.
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Mar 31, 2011 14:55
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you should read Richard Morgan's Market Forces instead, it's v. good. it's scifi though.
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Mar 31, 2011 15:03
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Spermy Smurf posted:I dont want to read ICE's stuff, I read NoK and was astounded that it even went to print. It was like reading the Magic The Gathering books with Gull the woodcutter. Or Tasselhoff Burrfoot. I could recommend a lot better books than RotCG to help pass your precious time. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, for instance. The Black Company books by Glen Cook. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
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Mar 31, 2011 15:52
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also even though they were likely written for a slightly younger audience, i found Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams to be pretty good actually
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Mar 31, 2011 16:05
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the periodic fable posted:also even though they were likely written for a slightly younger audience, i found Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams to be pretty good actually Ohhhh absolutely, that is a very high quality series that I still look back on really fondly. Every fan of 'good' fantasy should read it. It has a fairly typical formula that is reminiscent of Tolkien, but Williams creates something so unique and beautiful. And it all wraps up in a neat little package by the end, which is something Williams is quite good at. Since we are recommending stuff I'll throw in Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay, which is more like Historical Byzantine Empire Fantasy. It has some of the best action scenes I've ever read in the form of chariot races.
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Mar 31, 2011 16:14
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the periodic fable posted:a lot of us disagree with you. i think ICE is a bad author by any standard. Shrug. The point is that it's Malazan Universe. If I wanted to read something by a 'better' author, then I would...but it's not Malazan and therefore I care less at this point in time.
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Mar 31, 2011 16:18
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the periodic fable posted:you should read Richard Morgan's Market Forces instead, it's v. good. it's scifi though. Altered Carbon was way way better.  Also I strongly recommend The Prince of Nothing (Darkness that Comes Before, blah blah, R. Scott Bakker) to people who have not read them. Even if you hate PoN with the burning of a thousand stars it'll probably be an interesting kind of hate.
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Mar 31, 2011 16:20
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I dragged it out as long as I could because I didn't want it to end. Questions: (TCG) Who is Awakening Dawn in the Shake royal house? What is the secret that Shorn/Ruin discuss, the one that Rake kept? Is Tavore the Talonmaster, or merely a member? Other stuff: (TCG) That Pormqual/Blistig thing somebody mentioned was interesting. I think that Blistig's survival is more a part of Tavore's story than anybody else's: the only soldier who refuses to die at her command, she managed to navigate him through alive. If you follow the Pormqual thing further, it's like, here is one general who will kill all his soldiers for no reason at all, but with Tavore, here is a general who will send all of her soldiers to certain death and somehow get them through. Blistig's found himself a more worthy commander. Also, I liked that one of the dragons chained to Ruin's sword was named Kalse. That means that every KCCM spire is named after and probably modelled on one specific dragon that they liked.
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Mar 31, 2011 16:23
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