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In the last few months I blazed through all of the BotF series, FoD, and the the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach series. I intentionally avoided the ICE books until I had nothing else left to read because everyone in this thread saying that they were pretty terrible. I just finished Night of Knives and... I liked it. Does this mean that I've had terrible taste all this time and didn't know it? Or do the later books suck more and tarnish this one? I've heard Kiska's storyline doesn't actually go anywhere so I tried not to get too invested in what her ultimate role will be, but I liked the Temper parts. Granted they both seemed a little too Mary Sue/Marty Stu-ish, but that's most fantasy books for you, and there are definitely characters like that in the main series. The parts I enjoyed the most were Temper's flashbacks that revealed a lot more about Daseem and the first assault on Y'Ghatan, seemed almost like it belonged in a different book.
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Mar 5, 2015 03:17
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Captain Monkey posted:This, because Crokus becomes a straight up badass without having had a God teach him everything he knew. It's just straight up will and determination from some literally nobody street kid. I thought this had less to do with any level of badassery Crokus attains and more to do with the fact that he only becomes an assassin because Apsalar is one and he thinks that becoming one as well will bring him closer to her. What he doesn't realize is that she doesn't like who she has become and with every step down that path he takes she feels more and more guilty for causing him to follow in her footsteps.
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Mar 30, 2015 22:01
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I just finished the last ICE book and I feel like it didn't go through a very rigorous editing process. Everyone kept referring to Barathol as Kalam's brother when the main continuity clearly established them as distant cousins multiple times. Also before Antsy reveals who he actually is to the rest of his group people call him Antsy instead of Red at various times. And last but not least the whole referring to K'rul as a woman thing just seems like ICE and Erikson had some sort of disagreement about K'rul's gender and ICE decided to just go his own way with it. I'm sure there's more things but those are the major ones I can remember off of the top of my head. Fake edit: Oh yeah and also I didn't understand why the Malazans were so upset when the Moranth used their munitions to blow the gently caress out of the Seguleh. Don't they use those munitions all the time? Seemed super out of character for any Malazan army. What were they just supposed to get mowed down while admiring the Seguleh's swordsmanship? A huge theme of the series is old ways being displaced by newer ones and no one seems to ever be particularly upset about it, barring the old powers that is.
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Jun 29, 2015 02:53
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Oh right, there's more after Orb, Scepter, Throne. I'm an idiot who forgot that Blood and Bone and Assail exist just because I hadn't downloaded them to my kindle yet. Still, I got them as a Christmas gift so I might as well power through them. Habibi posted:
I was always under the impression that the reason sappers hoarded their munitions was a combination of the fact that they were emotionally attached to them, they were "too good to use," and they didn't know when they would get more to play with. The Bridgeburners never seemed to have a problem blowing people up when the situation called for it, and the sappers in the Chain of Dogs used plenty.
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Jun 30, 2015 02:37
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Fenrir posted:That's still one of my favorite scenes in the series. Especially since you can just picture Duiker and that other captain (gently caress, what was his name) desperately trying not to laugh. Bult? Fake edit: Just looked it up, yeah it's Bult.
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Aug 26, 2015 15:31
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mornhaven posted:Was it manned by the Malazans? I thought it was manned by recruits specifically for the wall or criminals mainly since I remember it being a big deal that Sort had served on the wall. I could be completely wrong though. No it was manned by the Korelri, who the Malazans were apparently unable to conquer previously.
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Sep 15, 2015 00:40
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Cardiac posted:Eh, like I haven't read MoI 3 times. Am I the only one to think that Itkovian is a really bland character? He never really did much for me and I'm not sure why there was so much focus on him.
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Oct 2, 2015 16:39
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Illinois Smith posted:Itkovian's role in MoI was mostly to introduce the concept of shield anvils without 10 pages of exposition, the same way Gruntle is used to show what a mortal sword is. Yeah but Gruntle was entertaining and an interesting character that did more than just introduce a concept. We had plenty of other characters with survivors guilt, plenty of characters giving up on their gods, and we had plenty of other shield anvils, and they all had other characteristics.
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Oct 2, 2015 19:01
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Edit: ^^^^^ This is a stance I can get behind.Cardiac posted:Funny thing, Gruntle is basically the classic reluctant hero and while he have some cool scenes, he is really not that complicated. I also enjoy the fact that you don't seem to realize that I'm not an idiot. I understand taste is subjective, my original comment was acknowledging the fact that my stance was a minority one. I was hoping to get some insight why most people seem to enjoy a character that wasn't all that interesting to me, and see if anyone else shared my viewpoint. The only thing I seem to hear about Itkovian is people singing his praises and I was wondering if there was some other read on him that I was missing that could lead to me appreciating him more.
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Oct 2, 2015 20:17
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I just finished Assail last week and actually thought he did a pretty good job with it. Not with actually making the Forkrul Assail themselves interesting or seeming like an actual threat, but the continent of Assail was pretty interesting. Certainly way better than Jacuruku was portrayed. Shouldn't have been named Assail though, would have been a way better story without them entirely. That and if there were fewer ship convoys and parties moving overland so the story could be more focused. That's pretty much par for the course with ICE, though.
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Mar 14, 2016 16:09
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Hahaha, I was about to write the book off entirely based on that review but I actually laughed out loud when I read "triple fuckdamn." I might need to check out that train wreck.
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Mar 25, 2016 15:29
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The Ninth Layer posted:Congratulations, you're done with arguably the worst book in the entire series. Ehh, Night of Knives wasn't the worst ICE book. I think that honor falls on Blood and Bone personally. I know you said arguably the worst, so that's my argument.
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Apr 8, 2016 20:38
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Habibi posted:I rarely tell people outright that they're wrong. At least it was relatively short and focused on fewer characters, even if at least one of them was a Mary Sue. Blood and Bone was so much slog and had about 5 too many groups of people traveling through the jungle. Normally he's content with focusing on only around 3 too many groups traveling. And the Thaumaturgs were so much wasted potential.
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Apr 8, 2016 22:13
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Well here's to hoping that Dancers Lament will be a big step up from both of them. If not, well at least Fall of Light is coming soon as well.
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Apr 8, 2016 22:34
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Captain_Person posted:That's more or less what I was looking for, thanks! I'm probably going to skip the Bauchelain and Broach books though, at least for now. While they aren't really necessary to the story, they are pretty fun reads and very short. Definitely read them at some point.
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Apr 22, 2016 12:28
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I just slogged through Fall of Light, way too much philosophizing, not enough convergence. I was looking forward to a badass battle that would make all the buildup worth it and then it all got told secondhand psychically and I got pretty mad about that. Then I read Dancer's Lament and actually really liked it. ICE avoids his normal pitfalls of writing too many POVs by limiting the action to one city, even if half of the characters are members of the Crimson Guard pre-guard and he still does the whole "who could this character with a different name but all the same traits and weapons/armor of a known character possibly be?" thing. Anyways, I finished it super quick and was way more into it than Fall of Light, which I never thought would be the case. Prazek and Dathenar were cool bros though.
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Jun 27, 2016 21:50
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bucketybuck posted:As a massive Malazan fan, I have just had the misfortune of finishing Fall of Light. It was complete and utter drivel. I'm glad someone shares my opinion on this. I posted about it a few weeks ago and no one responded. That coupled with liking Dancer's Lament was making me question my tastes in fiction. Fall of Light's plot could easily have taken place within a handful of chapters, and should have.
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Jul 25, 2016 23:11
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Monocled Falcon posted:Liking it so far, but the thing I hate most in a fantasy novel is when the normal humans are seeminly powerless against the supernatural but haven't factored that into any part of their society. lol, not trying to sound condescending, but keep reading/listening and definitely keep posting reactions. Best part of the thread.
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Aug 9, 2016 00:13
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Yeah we don't want to discourage the newbies. It will ruin their enjoyment and ours. Please post all predictions as well as reactions, thanks.
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Aug 11, 2016 15:38
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I also think Itkovian is dumb and boring, never got the love for him.
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Aug 14, 2016 22:45
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Everyone's forgetting Kalam rolling his shoulders.
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Aug 18, 2016 21:40
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saviro posted:Haven't read any of the Esslemont books but Dancer's Lament. And I really liked it. Should I dive into his books or is DL just a product of Kellanved and Cotillion being awesome? Dancer's Lament is definitely the best of the ICE books, the others vary from enjoyable to boring. Most would benefit from at least three fewer POVs.
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Oct 21, 2016 17:51
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I thought he stated that Lether was based around the decline of the Roman empire? The fact that it also reflects American society is just icing on the cake.
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Nov 23, 2016 15:21
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Fall of Light should have been at least half as long as it was and also included an actual climax instead of the wet fart that we got. And what kind of civil war is wrapped up in one battle?
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Dec 4, 2016 22:23
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I thought Willful Child was really funny, but I've also never watched Star Trek apart from a few of the movies, so make of that what you will. I'll definitely pick up the new one.
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Dec 7, 2016 16:21
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Hand Row posted:The general rule for Dune is to read the series until you no longer enjoy it. Everyone has their own breaking point. The weird thing is it doesn't feel unresolved or disappointing. God Emperor of Dune was bad, I had to force myself to slog through it and stopped there.
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Jan 12, 2017 14:51
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RC Cola posted:I'm at Idaho talking to Paul It doesn't get better.
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Jan 20, 2017 00:50
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Some of those things are addressed in ICE's books, others come up in the Kharkanas Trilogy. Not much is actually dropped. I'm sure the planned books will come back to even more that feels unfinished now. Also some of those things you're remembering mistakenly. Scillara never had a child of the dead seed and Hood is avenging a dead wife, not looking for one.
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Mar 16, 2017 18:45
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turboraton posted:I'm in the very first pages and GOD drat. Strap in and get ready for some poo poo. Also please post reactions and theories.
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May 2, 2017 22:18
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Cardiac posted:Eh, no. Contrasting opinion, Itkovian is boring and bad and entirely too much time is spent on being in awe of his blah blah blah get back to almost any other subplot.
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May 19, 2017 18:00
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turboraton posted:I'm thoroughly enjoying Forge of Darkness, it's characters and development. One thing tho, Jesus Christ Olar Ethil and everything related to her! Is she like, responsible for EVERYTHING? She likes to think so.
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Jun 12, 2017 14:23
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blue squares posted:I finished book 1 and wow was that Jaghut Tyrant a really lame macguffin that turned out to be of no consequence to the story It also introduces one of the themes that he loves to explore, namely what is old and powerful ain't necessarily poo poo no more, as power creep has made many other characters outpace the threat. Also any random mook can have a lucky day and take out world-ending threats pretty much accidentally. It's a subversion of the "ancient evil" trope that appears everywhere that he does much better later.
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Sep 12, 2017 12:29
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Like, what even was the point of that? What is so important about the smartest man in the city and Because it was hilarious and the best part of the book by far.
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Sep 12, 2017 22:02
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ZombieLenin posted:So I've read absolutely zero of the non-Erickson books; however since I'm currently re-reading the series (even though I'm already through Midnight Tides on the re-read) I thought now might be a good time to pick these up. They range from boring to decent for the Crimson Guard books. Dancers Lament was legitimately good as a prequel.
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Oct 4, 2017 21:11
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Fall of Light ended with a wet fart. Bring on Karsa!
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Oct 27, 2017 16:19
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:The most alive person in Fall of Light was the utterly confused elf kid out for vengeance that ended up wargaming out the darkness/light battle for Kharkanas throne. The worst ending to any of his books. A Convergence-less Convergence.
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Nov 7, 2017 15:33
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Fenrir posted:I thought Erickson was starting a sci-fi series? That already has two books out. I enjoyed the first one but haven't gotten a chance to pick up the second one yet.
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Nov 14, 2017 03:49
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I thought part of Kallor's curse was the fact that he was doomed to an eternity of never being able to attain his goals, therefore he can't be killed, just constantly making minor progress before getting dunked on?
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Dec 27, 2017 18:55
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CoolHandMat posted:is this Special Candle a real thing you're refering to or a joke? They're real things.
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Dec 29, 2017 21:43
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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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