|
Just finished Book 1. Wow! A couple things I didn't get: What was Dujek Onearm's reasoning in switching up the reinforcements? Was that the point at which he decided to take his entire army and desert? Did Caladan Brood recognize that's what he was doing? What's the deal with the Crimson Guard, were we supposed to think they're deserting from Caladan Brood?.
|
#
¿
Jul 29, 2014 20:25
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 9, 2024 01:32 |
|
|
Almost done with Deadhouse Gates, just hit the reveal that the Captain of the Ragstopper was Cartheron Crust. Jumping on the "Fiddler Rules!" train. This poo poo keeps getting better and better.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 11, 2014 21:42
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2014 22:11
|
|
|
Midway through House of Chains, can we get a spoiler free explanation of what the Kharkanas Trilogy is?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 26, 2014 20:19
|
|
|
Just finished Midnight Tides. It was a bit of a slog at parts to get through but I think the good still far outweighed the bad. My favorite character was Brys Beddict, it was actually surprisingly refreshing to have a straight ahead noble good guy knight character in the series. Second favorite was of course Tehol, although I was bummed that his big plan to topple the economy fizzled out. Looking forward to getting back to Karsa.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2014 13:15
|
|
|
Finished The Bonehunters last night, so much awesome stuff it's almost too much to remember. My favorite character in the whole series is Paran, so I was pretty stoked at what he did and where he ended up. Also, Chekhov's Jade Giants. That was a great out of nowhere payoff to the freakiest scene in Book 4(?). Some stuff I didn't like though, Quick Ben being a dick the entire book, and not the lovable kind of rear end in a top hat he was in Book 3, and the ending was sort of a letdown. Did we really need Part II of Kalam Kills 5000 Guys? Also his "death" didn't hit very hard because we already know he's superman. On the whole, I can tell that Kalam is meant to be a super cool character (and was for a while in the first couple of books), but with other killers like Apsalar and Karsa around he becomes kind of lame. I also wish the individual Bonehunters had slightly more imaginative names, because it's hard to keep track of who the hell everyone is. On to Reaper's Gale!
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2014 02:07
|
|
|
Finished Reaper's Gale. I'm blowing through these much faster than I anticipated. Some thoughts - The Good:Beak's sacrifice and Fiddler's gesture to the Tiste Edur were beautiful. Amazing scene. I also greatly enjoyed the Quick Ben-Hedge-Trull Sengar-Onrack team-up. The Bad: I was disappointed by how Rhulad was dispatched. I had been thinking to that point, why doesn't someone chop off his head and throw it in a furnace? It's gonna have to be something more mystical than that. I didn't think it would be as easy as Karsa chopping off his sword-arm (Yes I know it was more complicated than that with the ghost sacrifice and all, but still). I also didn't get up until the very end why Scabandari's soul was so important to everyone. I still don't really know what Menandore and her sisters wanted with it. What was the deal with Redmask? He was a Letherii who became an Awl warrior? After showing promise in the first battle, why did he start to suck? The Sad: I was devastated by the death of Trull Sengar. He was one of my top three favorite characters, and I figured he would be a big player in the endgame. Toc's death was also really sad. I guess the moral of the book was never become best friends with a T'lan Imass. I'm still digging these a lot, but I feel like the series as a whole peaked with the Siege of Capustan. Everything's been a lot of fun, especially Karsa's arc, but Capustan was the most intense thing I've ever read. Tokelau All Star fucked around with this message at 07:19 on Oct 3, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2014 07:15
|
|
|
Yeah I went into Gardens of the Moon expecting The Sound and the Fury levels of confusion.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 4, 2014 01:45
|
|
|
Ok fair warning, this is kind of a weird post. When reading fantasy books I have a tendency to not pay close attention to physical descriptions of characters (e.g. in ASOIAF I always pictured Thoros of Myr as a black guy, and Areo Hotah as looking like Oded Fehr in The Mummy, although apparently they're both white dudes). As I've gone through these books I've assigned certain looks to characters that can't be shaken no matter how their descriptions don't jive. Here are some of them: Hellian is Calamity Jane from Deadwood.  Whiskeyjack is Cid from Final Fantasy IV. Mappo Runt is also Cid, but with a pig nose.  Torvald Nom is Eric Idle.  Karsa is Drax the Destroyer.  Trull Sengar is Kibito Kai.  Smiles and Picker are both the Warrior Woman from Mad Max 2.  Kruppe is Sallah from the Indiana Jones movies. Tokelau All Star fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Oct 5, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Oct 5, 2014 03:41
|
|
|
Wolfsheim posted:Look man, if you don't picture Karsa as Conan the Barbarian at 250% scale I don't know what to tell you. I guess its because I saw Guardians of the Galaxy right before I started reading House of Chains. I read every Karsa line in the same manner as "Nothing flies over my head, my reflexes are too fast." Tokelau All Star fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Oct 6, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2014 02:01
|
|
|
I'm about 2/3 done with Toll the Hounds and I have the horrible feeling that everyone will get to Darujhistan and the entire city will blow up killing all of the characters at once.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2014 05:08
|
|
|
Cardiac posted:Besides Beak, is there any character in this series that can be considered genuinely good? I'm just starting Dust of Dreams, but Brys Beddict?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 26, 2014 23:12
|
|
|
Wolfsheim posted:To be fair by the second or third book it's pretty much past being even an open secret to what seems like common knowledge. I mean, I know the series pretty much follows the most capable and knowledgeable actors in the narrative, but still. Yeah it kind of bugged me along those same lines that in Gardens of the Moon the Malazan High Mages had to dig through some arcane poo poo to figure out who Caladan Brood and Rake were, and that the Adjunct didn't know about Omtose Phellack and the elder warrens, then after that everyone seemed to know everything about everything. But I guess the alternative would be lots of reiteration in the future books and that would be awful. I'm getting started on Dust of Dreams, but I have a few thoughts on Toll the Hounds I wanted to discuss: Highs: About 95% of the book. Can you say dread? I fully expected Crokus to get killed by Vidikas, and then when that didn't happen I fully expected everyone to die facing off against the Hounds of Light. I thought the whole city would blow up leaving everyone dead but Kruppe (of course) and maybe Karsa. I am glad that things didn't turn out that way. I really enjoyed Seerdomin's unwinnable eternal battle versus Salind (who I pictured as Spiral from X-Men). The return of Iskar Jarak! I figured the Army of the Dead would end up battling the forces of Chaos, but the way they ended up there was great. Kallor skyrocketed up in my list of favorite characters. Really want to see how he screws up whatever plans the Crippled God has. Also any section narrated by Kruppe. We need more of that, please spoil me if we get any more of that or not. I wish larger parts of the series had been written that way. "Lows": Not enough time with my favorite guys! I was pumped for the return of Rallick Nom, only to get barely anything. I guess it was part of the theme that Erickson is riding, that the old world is being replaced by the new, and that Rallick getting hosed up in the alley by Crokus and Crokus stealing his thunder over avenging Murillio's death led to him not having much to do in the book. Also, I know Rake is the big death that everyone talks about, but I was crushed more by Murillio. Second saddest death after Trull Sengar. Actual Lows: Any section with Endest Silann's Kharkanas flashbacks brought the book to a halt for me, killing the quick clip at which I was running through the series. I was looking forward to jumping into Forge of Darkness after I finish the main series, I hope they aren't as boring as those parts. I guess they were boring because I still don't really understand what the gently caress Mother Dark actually did to get all the Tiste Andii so mad at her, thus greatly lessening the impact of the reveal that Aranatha was Mother Dark the entire time. God[s below], there's so much to talk about in that book, I'm sure I've missed a ton of things. I love this series so much.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 27, 2014 04:21
|
|
|
Ok, blew through Dust of Dreams. A bit of a grind that ended with some massive out of nowhere HOLY poo poo. One question though, what the hell is the deal with the Shake? They were Tiste Andii who lived at the border between Galain and Thyrllan, then ended up in Lether after the fall of Kharkanas and interbred with the First Empire colonists, and also K'Chain Che'Malle somewhere along the way?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 1, 2014 10:08
|
|
|
Halfway through The Crippled God. Just get to the drat fireworks factory already! I still enjoy the series but I think Erikson kind of disappeared up his own butt in the last three books. Character has devolved into endless philosophizing such that it's difficult to tell anyone apart. Everyone says the same drat things. edt: Nevermimd, the book just got way better. Tokelau All Star fucked around with this message at 09:29 on Nov 5, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Nov 5, 2014 08:17
|
|
|
Stayed up all night finishing The Crippled God. Thoughts - How the hell is Olar Ethil also Burn? This just doesn't make any sense to me. The Crippled God is poisoning Burn, who is also the whole world, so she went to sleep. If Burn wakes up then everyone dies. But here's Olar Ethil just walking around doing poo poo. What? I really liked Torrent. He was one of the better character arcs introduced late in the series. After all the build up of Amby Bole's fists of iron, I was really hoping to see him punch out a Forkrul Assail. Made me think back to Memories of Ice (I'm probably remembering this all wrong), when it was a big mystery how the Mott Irregulars took down the giant condor that was murdering everyone: a bunch of them just jumped on it and beat the poo poo out of it.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2014 14:16
|
|
|
Ok, what do I read now? Which ICE book is generally considered the best one? I'm thinking either going on to Forge of Darkness or ICE's Darujhistan book.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2014 20:08
|
|
|
Xachariah posted:Eh, I'm still waiting for a better explanation of warrens. Yes. I gave up trying to figure it out. I figured that each warren was another planet created by Krul with his god blood. But then where was the Refugium? They walked from Kurald Emurlahn through Omtose Phellack and ended up in Tellan? All of these are connected? And then Kurald Galain and Kurald Thyrllan are right next door to each other but with a big white curtain of milk down the middle? The Imperial Warren was Kallor's old kingdom that he trashed but is also Jacuruku which also is a continent in the normal world? A wizard did it.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2014 22:58
|
|
|
Ugh, I've been thinking about it the last couple of days and The Crippled God could have been so much better with just a couple more scenes. Paran is my favorite character in the series, so naturally my main complaint with the book was not enough of him. A showdown between Paran and the Errant was building up for multiple books, just a quick meeting between them, a "gently caress you I don't even want this power and I'm way stronger than you" and I would have been happy. Also, if I didn't know that a Karsa trilogy was planned I would have been pissed at his [lack of] treatment in the book.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 9, 2014 21:16
|
|
|
I want to name my fantasy football team Graham Ganoes Paran but I don't think anyone in my league would get the reference.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 11, 2014 04:23
|
|
|
Over a year after I finished The Crippled God, I finally got around to reading Forge of Darkness. I liked it, but not as much as the Malazan series proper. Good: poo poo went from 0-60 really quickly. It took me a couple weeks to get through the first half, and three days to read the second half. My favorite section came about 3/4 of the way through when a bunch of the characters make it to Jaghut territory. I also dug the forest adventure of Sukul Ankhadu, Rancept, and Ribs. I'd like to see a whole chapter following Ribs around in the next book. Not As Good: I am an Erickson vet, but there were too many characters. Toward the end, it felt like different pairs were having the same or substantially similar conversations. No one really stood out. The few characters who did leave an impression (Haut/Korya especially) got short shrift. General Thoughts: So the world as it exists in the Malazan times, with the "world as we know it" plus the warrens/holds were originally all the same world. We're gonna see something happen that results in everything getting broken up into their own dimensions. Perhaps the chaining of the Crippled God? This also would explain how people walk from Kurald Emurlahn into Omtose Phellack into Imass territory. But then what about Starvald Demelain and the demon realms? If Kilmandaros is the Forulkan Azathanai, who is the Forkrul Assail god that became the Glass Desert? The references to the High King being around but across the ocean make Kallor's claim to have ruled an empire when the T'lan Imass were but children make a little more sense. But then the idea that humans evolved from the Imass gets all hosed up. Was the initial thing headless thing that washed up from the Vitr a K'Chain Che'malle? Speculation: The Jheck child hostages are the Hounds of Shadow. Sharenas Ankhadu is Menandore. Arathan's mother is the Queen of Dreams. I hope Icarium shows up and fits into this somewhere. Tokelau All Star fucked around with this message at 10:24 on Jan 22, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Jan 22, 2016 09:59
|
|
|
What I glean/speculate from Forge of Darkness: Kallor's empire is out there at the same time as all the Tiste poo poo going on. We knew Kallor was old as poo poo but he's even older than we thought (and "humans" as a whole by extension). Dog Runner is the Tiste word for Imass. The Eresal have come and gone by this point, at some time both humans and Imass split off from them. Some poo poo is gonna go down (my guess is either the first chaining or Icarium going nuts) that kicks the Tiste, Forkrul Assail, Jaghut, and Imass over to the Malazan part of the world. The Dog Runners might already be there. At this point Dessimbelackis' empire isn't around yet, but he crowds out the Imass on Seven Cities, which will be after Kurald Galain splits and people gain Soletaken/Divers ability.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2016 02:23
|
|
|
King Crab posted:I'm rereading now and back up to House of Chains. I'm also in House of Chains. Some stuff: Karsa destroys a statue of Fener while he's on his initial rampage. I'm also trying to wrap my head around the Silanda/Nascent sequence of events. This is how I see it and I welcome clarification: 1) Rhulad makes a deal with some demons, floods the Nascent with a river from a demon realm 2) The catfish come from that demon river 3) Trull Sengar is dragged to the Nascent, shorn, left to die on the big wall 4) A Malazan fleet (including the SIlanda) runs into a Tiste Edur fleet off the coast of Drift Avalii, during the battle a bunch of ships from both sides fall through a gate into the Nascent 5) Binidas Sengar survives, steals the Silanda, enslaves the crew, has no way out 6) The Faces in the Rock stumble into the Nascent while running away from Onrack and crew 7) The Faces in the Rock need help, yank Karsa and Torvald through a gate 8) Karsa and Torvald find the wrecked Malazan ships, find a crate of Moranth munitions 9) Karsa finds the Silanda, kills Binidas 10) Karsa and Torvald leave with the Slavers through a gate in a crack in the big wall 11) The Moranth munitions wash up on the big wall 12) Onrack frees Trull, finds the munitions, frees the Deragoth, punks out the Liosan, escape from the other T'lan Imass 13) Gesler and Stormy fall in, steal the Silanda, leave in Olar Ethil's wake Who is the mad mage that caused Gesler and crew to go there? Was the rent caused by Onrack fouling up the T'lan Imass ritual? I know I'm screwing up the timeline because it would seem that the Malazan-Edur sea battle takes place not long before the Drift Avalii stuff in HOC, but I'm trying to figure out where the Moranth munitions came from, and of course there's always the wonky "time works differently in warrens" hand wave (which I'm fine with).
|
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2016 18:33
|
|
|
I'm in the middle of The Bonehunters in my reread, and I gotta say this probably the weakest book in the series. I enjoy the wild adventures of the Master of the Deck, and anything with Corabb but it feels like nothing really happens in this one. I'm slogging to get to Reaper's Gale, which was probably my favorite the first time around.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 22, 2016 23:30
|
|
|
Spermy Smurf posted:Havent read the ICE books huh? Why would anyone do that?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2016 08:18
|
|
|
Mustang posted:The best is in Letheras when Silchas Ruin in his dragon form is flying back to tear poo poo up and Fidler fucks him up with a cusser then Quick Ben tosses some magic at him. Silchas then promptly flys away like "eh, yeah I'm not loving with those guys." Actually, I'm pretty sure Fidler is the one ordinary dude that has hosed up more super powerful creatures/people than anyone else. This is my favorite moment in the entire series.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2016 03:23
|
|
|
I tried to recommend the Malazan series to someone on facebook and some nerds I don't know made fun of me for it. "It reads like a D&D campaign . . . but more of a slog!" I was very sad, it was quite a low point in my life. I thought everyone loved this series.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 9, 2017 18:18
|
|
|
The Reapers Gale cusser crossbow bolt is the peak of the entire series
|
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2018 20:56
|
|
|
Dust of Dreams is brutal and confusing but cranks to 11. Crippled God is really good. Honestly I feel like Reaper's Gale is the peak but see the ride through.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 8, 2018 22:19
|
|
|
Is the Yedan Derryg stuff in Dust of Dreams? That's a real underrated part of the saga. Edit: Nm it's in the Crippled God. Tokelau All Star fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Oct 8, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Oct 8, 2018 22:55
|
|
|
Ben Nerevarine posted:Post/describe how you pictured characters in your mind, I'll start An old post I made Tokelau All Star posted:
Tokelau All Star fucked around with this message at 07:06 on Apr 9, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Apr 9, 2019 07:03
|
|
|
The series is plenty dark, but I wouldn't call it grimdark, with the exception of the start of House of Chains (but even that is for a good reason). Oh yeah, and those parts I skipped in Dust of Dreams on reread. And I guess a bunch of the Lether stuff. Hmm, maybe the series is grimdark.
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2019 17:19
|
|
|
I thought all the Yedan Derryg stuff was excellent, easily my favorite part of the last two books.
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2019 22:55
|
|
|
NoNotTheMindProbe posted:Midnight Tides Chapters 12 - 25 I'm really digging your reread. You're just plowing through this poo poo. It took me a good full year to read the whole series and I thought I was going quickly.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 1, 2019 06:46
|
|
|
I figured Rallick Nom was gonna be a bigger character in the series. Paran too.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 1, 2019 19:53
|
|
|
The Boles punching the poo poo out of the K'Chain assassin is one of the best scenes of the whole series.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2019 23:15
|
|
|
If you want to read a book about a big rear end battle, I really liked Joe Abercrombie - The Heroes.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 7, 2019 21:57
|
|
|
I think it was who wrote the Xanth books.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 12, 2020 03:26
|
|
|
BigHead posted:You meet one later that is many dudes who turn into one big animal. Who was this? I read the books a long time ago.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 24, 2023 22:11
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 9, 2024 01:32 |
|
|
pik_d posted:So who are the "good guys"? Or more accurately the protagonists. Don't read this unless you REALLY want to know. The short answer is "it's complicated." The only characters from Book 1 who matter throughout the whole series are: 1) Fiddler, Quick Ben, Kalam, Hedge, Whiskeyjack 2) Anomander Rake 3) Shadowthrone/Dancer 4) Toc the Younger, Tool 5) Apsalar, Crokus, Kruppe 6) Paran There really isn't a good answer to who the "protagonist" is. Fiddler? Tokelau All Star fucked around with this message at 04:06 on Mar 1, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2024 04:03
|
|