The Malazan Book of the Fallen: Too many wor'ds.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The Malazan Book of the Fallen: Too many wor'ds.

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

dwarf74 posted:

So, in addition to the audiobooks, I'm reading through Stonewielder.

Slowly.

Goddamn, this is the third time I've tried to read it. This time I'm distracted because I'm running a new Realms of Cthulhu game, and it's more interesting to prep for that. RotCG was pretty solid on re-read, and I want to give a poo poo about Stonewielder but I just can't. Is Orb, Sceptre, Throne any better?

Dunno, it's interesting to read more about the Sequleh and Moranth, but I've started having serious issues with Esslemont. Sometimes it seems his mission is to kill off most characters that Eriksson created as well as having cataclysmic final battles (well Erikson do that too, but better).

I'm sort of hoping it won't be Esslemont that writes about Assail and what happens there (Silverfox and so on), although odds are against it.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2012 08:41

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 21:33

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

polyfractal posted:

I was curious about that too. She is also a maybhe, which is similar to how Quick Ben can hold a bunch of soulshifted souls. That said, transforming from a woman to a man seems a bit odd. My personal theory is that Quick Ben is the son of Korya + Arathan, and somehow inherited Korya's ability to hold souls.

Shouldn't that be quite unlikely, FOD is at least a couple of thousand years (if not more) before what happens in the BOF. In GotM there is also a Rhivi woman that is a mahybe, which in all likelyhood is not related to Quick Ben.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2012 08:12

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Leospeare posted:

Couple hundred thousand years, isn't it?

Keeping track of time in Eriksons world is doomed to fail.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2012 09:13

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Masonity posted:

Pretty much everyone else in the book is still around, so why? We know that quickben has some very old souls in him. And calls mother dark " mother" and draconus "father" at one point.

Sure, the souls in him might be old, but weren't they wizards from the Seven Cities that Quick Ben enticed to join him during the Bridgeburner pursuit. Of course, they might be old enough to have known Mother Dark and Draconus.
Quick Ben is always described as coming from the Seven Cities, which is in a world separate from Kharkhanas. Also, if Quick Ben was around then, he would probably be an ascendant by now and they typically don't go unnoticed.

In which book does he call mother dark mother, and vice versa for Draconus?

# ¿ Oct 11, 2012 10:44

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Masonity posted:

Should be spoilers! We have people new to the series read the posts too.

And while you are right, we know that at least one of those mages was a Jaghut, and one (possibly a different one) knew very old magic relating to soul shifting. Ben himself was a relatively modern mage from Seven Cities, with a sister in the cult of Poliel, who rose high in the cult of Rashan. He was top tier power-wise already, without the other 11 souls. Either him or one of the other 11 (i'd guess one of the other 11) was a former Malazan High Mage, as was Nightchill / Sister of Cold Nights, who was herself one of the Azathani, kin (and a close ally at one point it seems, along with K'rul) to Draconus. So while they were "seven city mages" at the time of the soul shifting into Quick Ben, who they were before trhat is up in the air. At least one of them is likely to be a contemporary to the Forge of Darkness books, if not an actual character. I'd personally be shocked if at least one of the pair isn't inside him.

And the answer to the last question is "The Crippled God".

Sorry about missing spoilers. Although we're not really discussing the plot here, more the fluff around the characters.

Well, I agree that he probably has some old souls in him, but he is not one of the ancients so to say. For being a wizard with 12 souls in him, he is not that powerful, we regularly see him almost burned out by the magic he is using. For instance, the defence of the Throne of Shadows from the assault of Icarium.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2012 08:17

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Yarrbossa posted:

I can't really answer for the other question though, because I haven't the faintest of ideas behind Mael's motivations there. You get a much better sense of the timeline from Bonehunters though, because I hadn't the faintest idea how far back in the past the MT storyline was.

Mael's motivations is quite interesting. He has 2 sides in the series, as Bugg which is a friendly helpful god, the other side is the blood hungry sea god, which is manifested several times in the story. For instance, when induced by Mallick Rel.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2012 08:21

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

ed balls balls man posted:

In Reapers Gale when he and ghost Hedge are helping to defend the soul of Scabandari Bloodeye, he absolutely destroys the three soultaken daughters of Scabandari (Sisters Dawn, Dusk and Dapple) in straight up magery. He and Hedge mention how he has grown in power since the battle with Icarium. I have no idea what changed in him though, been a while since I read it. Also it's loving Icarium so no suprise he's knackered after that.

Well, one of them got creamed by a cusser, right. Anyways, his increase in power should then be related to some accord with Ammanas/Shadowthrone for helping out?

Sort of boring that Hedge didn't have unlimited ammo for his cussers once he became mortal again, although that would probably be a little too much.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2012 09:14

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

User posted:

Quick Ben is sandbagging more than any other character in the novels, with the possible exception of Shadowthrone. Everything we know about his limitations is based on his own testimony, and he is basically a pathological liar. He's also quite clever; plently clever enough to not want to start a convergence centered on himself. Note that going toe to toe with Icarium during one of his episodes is about as buff as you can get in this series. He just generally prefers to rely on cleverly using the smallest amount of power that it takes to get the job done.

Edit: He's probably a soletaken gerbil though, or something equally useless.

There was also the time he scared of the Tiste Edur from the Perish fleet by a huge illusion of some horrible sorcery, and afterwards he confirmed he was spent. There is also a situation in Memories of Ice (?) where he faces of against Bauchelain and Korbal Broach and uses 6 warrens on them each, emptying him. There are also multiple scenarios where he gets swept away by sorcery which shouldn't really happen if he was that powerful. For instance, the fight against the short-tails .

Anyway, I like Quick Ben, but I think he's more of a smart opportunist than a full-blown ascendant. By being able to manipulate his way he doesn't need that much raw power.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2012 11:06

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Mozi posted:

Obviously I'm not talking about the series in general. There is a point in GotM where new characters stop being introduced and the focus of the book narrows, and that's what I was referring to. I'm not sure why you would think that I would presume to understand the arc of a 10-book series partway through the first book; I did not mean to give that impression.

I have always felt that GotM is written as a stand-alone book. Probably since it could have been his only book if it had failed in stores.

Compared to the rest of the series, it feels more like a generic fantasy book compared to the rest of the series. Deadhouse Gates feels much more fleshed out in comparison.
Incidentally I started reading the series with the second book, and went back to GotM after loving Deadhouse Gates.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2012 12:08

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Loving Life Partner posted:

I think TtH was a bit of an experiment for Erikson, trying to relay Rake's tale like an epic mythological story from a larger than life storyteller. The last two don't really have that style.

TtH has the biggest oh poo poo is he dead, I thought he was immortal, moment of the series when Rake gets it :stare:

Although, are you really dead when you end up in Dragnipur considering how many escapes from there during the 2 last books

On a (probably obvious and old news) side note, Anomander Rake is a straight rip-off of Elric, although in a better way since Rake is not such a whiny bastard as Elric.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2012 09:46

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

HeroOfTheRevolution posted:

Halfway through Blood and Bone and it's a mess. The Crimson Guard just aren't the least bit interesting.

Just finished it. The Crimson Guard is a bunch of wuzzies. No wonder they got beaten by Kellanved.

Seriously though, there were too many tracks that ended up in nothing.
Quite neat how it tied in with Stonewielder though, when they explained why Skinner was at the Wall.
So the only interesting that happened was that they stopped a repeat performance of calling down one of the Crippled Gods followers.
Otherwise, Kallor was much less interesting than in other books.
The Crimson Guard is reunited, Skinner is dead, and they are still quite pointless. For being an army of semi-immortal mercenaries with a grudge, they really lack focus.
Ardata and the Enchantress was not particular interesting either.
Although, Golan and the Thaumaturg army was quite interesting although I really dislike long jungle treks.

Only redeeming feature, now we can finally get to know what happened in Assail and where Silverfox went.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2012 09:03

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

HeroOfTheRevolution posted:

Not a single one of the Blood and Bone story lines pay off in the least.

The piece of the Crippled God from Stonewielder is stolen by Lady Spite, then turns out to be nothing anyways.

Pointless page-filling garbage with Osserc, with L'oric showing up for no reason. I think this had something to do with Saeng opening the path to Elder Light and Osserc returning there but I... have no idea.

The Crimson Guard and Spite/Envy are probably the least interesting characters in the entire series.

I'm usually a ICE apologist and I thought OST was a really good book, but this was more like Stonewielder. A ton of pointless poo poo that goes nowhere with no particular relevatory payoff.

For what it's worth, read B&B after The Crippled God because it explicitly makes mention of the climax of that book.

gently caress you Esselmont, you get a bunch of interesting threads from the Malazan Books and you just poo poo on it. I understand why you didn't get to write the main storyline.

Some comments though:
The piece of the Crippled God is probably inert since the Crippled God and his believers have moved on, and the time line in B&B is in sync with the Malazan Book of the Fallen. Envy and Spite are more interesting in FoD, here Spite is just pointless and behaves like Gollum. My precious......

Although I would argue that the impression of Osserc in FoD, where he is a self-interested prick continues in B&B. Funny part is that all other Ascendants find him quite pointless, which is constantly remarked in the series. Sort of explains why the Tiste Liosan are so hosed-up.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2012 08:34

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Fuzzy Mammal posted:

It's not healthy to binge on this series anyway IMO. There's too much and they're too dense. I'm confident you'll enjoy the chain of dogs.

Chain of dogs is one of the best parts of the series. I keep forgetting it since it is in the second book in the series, but it is the best part of Deadhouse Gates.
Mappo, Icarium, Fiddler, Crokus and Kalam are just sort of meh compared to Coltaine and the Wickans.
And the ending...... :stare:

# ¿ Dec 11, 2012 08:45

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

NovemberMike posted:

Deadhouse Gates is a slow boil but it's worth the payoff. If you hate Felisin then I'm pretty sure that's intentional, and Coltaine is really one of the biggest badasses in the series. The climax is a little less epic in terms of gods duking it out but on a personal level it's much more fascinating than the first book.

In some ways I would be perfectly happy if Erikson just wrote military fantasy on squad/army level and didn't give a gently caress about the gods.
It is quite obvious Erikson have great influences from Glen Cook and the Black Company. He is quoted on the Black Company collection, where he says "reading Black Company is like reading Vietnam squad fiction on peyote".
Although in my opionion, Erikson is better than Cook at it.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2012 09:14

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

FlyingCowOfDoom posted:

Some of the intrespection stuff gets long winded in the later books, with TtH being the chief perpetrator. Dust of Dreams seems like he is back on track and I am pretty enthralled again.

Question about a man named Pearl he dies in the bonehunters right? Who is the demon Pearl chained to the wagon in Dragnipur in TtH though? I kinda remember a demon like that from the first book or something, he was enslaved by Tayschrenn and Quick Ben (?) stole the vessel and freed him or something. Is that right, and if so why did he name 2 characters the same thing?

The demons in the series are actually quite cool and I wish we could see more of them.
Like the demon lords summoned in Midnight Tides, who chases down a Forkrul Assail and urinates on him, also shows up in Reaper's Gale as a bunch of farmers that gets assaulted by the Bonehunter marines.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2012 08:33

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Laxon posted:

Not sure if this is the right thread, I finished the main series a few months ago and have been taking a break going through some other books. I read Night of Knives before GotM but am now faced with the decision of whether I should be continue with Esslemont or Forge of Darkness? Would love some suggestions in ether direction.

In the choice between Esslemont and Erikson, the answer is always Erikson.
FoD is the background story for the Tiste Andi, whereas Esslemont describes what happens in the rest of world and is relatively separate from the BotF

# ¿ Dec 15, 2012 14:16

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

dishwasherlove posted:

They aren't as good as Erikson but they are no worse than your standard fantasy fare. Quality varies, most people here would say Night of Knives is the worst and Orb Scepter Throne the best. I just finished Blood and Bone and thought it good. The only ICE I haven't read NoK because everyone here was ragging on it. If you like the Malazan world then I would say go for it. In saying that I just started Forge of Darkness and goddamn Erikson is on a whole other level.

True.
The main reason for reading Esslemont is to get the back history of different characters and factions that appear in the main series. The difference in class between Erikson and Esslemont is quite noticeable.
Let's just hope that Esslemont don't gently caress up Assail, I've been waiting for that story since Memories of Ice.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2013 14:52

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

One good example of how intricate this series is
how in Memories of Ice the Bridgeburners find a dead Tiste Edur, while infiltrating the Pannion Seers Domain, who apparently have been killed by being submerged and crushed by the pressure in the sea. Later we find out in Midnight Tides that the Tiste Edur comes from when Bugg/Mael saves Tehol from being bludgeoned to death by the Tiste Edur and his friends.

It was my first :psyduck:

moment of the series.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2013 14:32

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Habibi posted:

This moment seems to get brought up on a monthly basis here. I think I still prefer everything that ends up revolving around the Silanda. Specifically, the corpse we originally find speared to the Captain's chair, and which initially seems to be just a minor curiosity quickly forgotten.

That was Karsa doing his thing right?

I keep forgetting stuff, so I guess the time approaches for my 3rd read through of the series. Erikson, why did you have to cram your books with so many storylines interacting in subtle manners and forcing me to do this yet again. :negative:

At least I don't have this inclination for WoT or ASoIaF.

Cardiac fucked around with this message at 11:42 on Feb 6, 2013

# ¿ Feb 6, 2013 11:19

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

rizzen posted:

It also introduces you to some great characters. Tehold and Bugg, how I miss reading about you.

Erikson could easily write an entire series based on "The great adventures of Tehol and Bugg" where we can enjoy their shenanigans.

On a side note, I think if Erikson ever put Kruppe and Tehol in the same spot the whole world would implode.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2013 11:07

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

dishwasherlove posted:

Yeah no worries remember how Hood dies? well at the end of TCG you find out that all the characters you liked from the books who died go on living full and happy lives in the new realm of death writing Purst and Kruppe fan fiction. Hope that goes towards making you feel better. Also all the K'chain blade arms are replaced with real ones and you learn all the hunters really wanted was a hug.

I don't dare to search (because I want my goddamn illusions to remain intact), but have anyone written fan fiction about the Malazan world? Esslemont doesn't count.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2013 08:42

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Dramatika posted:

Gardens of the Moon is loving terrible until it clicks. It was a great ride for me, but I tried reading it multiple times until I got to the point that it actually clicked. At that point, I was completely addicted. I'd say wait until 2/3rds through before giving up on it.

Actually started the series with Deadhouse Gates and clicked directly.
Going back to Gardens of the Moon was a disappointment compared to DG.
It is quite obvious that GotM was written as a stand-alone.

The good part is that the books are to a fair extent stand-alone, and I would say it is fairly easy to start the series anywhere in the first 5 books and then go back.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2013 10:03

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

So I was reading Dread Empire by Glen Cook and I encountered Mocker.
Given the influence Cook have had on Erikson, I would imagine Mocker served as the inspiration for Kruppe.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2013 12:33

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Leospeare posted:

Blurb is up for Assail, the next (and apparently final?) ICE novel:

Source

Finally.
Both for finding out about Assail, and for the final novel by ICE . One can hope at least
I've been literally waiting 10 years to find out what happened to Silverfox and the T'lan Imass.
They just disappear at the end of aMoI and are not seen for the rest of the series.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2013 14:01

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

savinhill posted:

There were too many character POVs for me too, and having them always start with the character philosophizing about something made it worse. It really screwed up the pacing of the book for me because it seemed like every time I would start really getting into the story and things would start picking up, there'd be another POV switch and things would slow right down again. I'd love for Erikson to write a book with a small amount of POVs.

I saw FoD as a setup for all of the things that is going to happen in the remainder of the books.
Based of the original series we have some ideas what will happen, but not how it happens.
I'm really looking forward to get the back story of the Tistes, Elder Gods and Jaghuts.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2013 08:29

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

So I keep seeing critics of the Malazan series comparing it to Dragonball Z, which just is a lazyass critic.
Anyways, anyone knows where this comes from? Since there is not that much original thought on the net, I'm guessing people must have picked it up somewhere.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2013 10:39

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

goethe42 posted:

I don't know Black Company, but coming from Alera, I'd rather recommend to read Mistborn or Wheel of Time first.
Mostly, because of what's right there in the thread title, "too many words".

While there are great scenes and storylines, as well as unique characters in Malazan, there is also a lot of pseudo-philosophical filler.
The magic/supernatural system is a plot device, that has no really discernible rules and is capable of doing something or not depending on the needs of the story. This is usually forgotten by the next book/when it is convenient.

Also, there is no "red thread" in the story, no overall goal. People fight a little bit on this continent, a little bit on that, unify against a new ridiculously evil enemy, who is forgotten by the next book, except for maybe him or some of his minions joining the "good" guys, to fight another ridiculously evil new enemy, who is forgotten by the next book, etc.

There are some really great characters and dialogues, some really heartwrenching plotlines and scenes, but you have to look for them in a lot of irrelevant kitchen philosophy and inner monologues.

BTW. I'm currently on Dust of Dreams (~30 %), which at least is better than Toll the Hounds, only the second book in the last 30 years to make me consider stop reading in the middle of the book/near the end of a series.

Sorry, have we read the same books?

Wheel of Time, if anything, is "too many words".
Mistborn is just a typical Sanderson book with only 3 books in the series, so hardly a comparison.
The Malazan series has some slower moments in various parts of the books, whereas WoT has 2-3 books which are just a waste of words and braid-tugging. Then Jordan realized he was gonna die and killed off half his storylines just in order to bring the story forward.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2013 11:53

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Levitate posted:

I'm almost done re-reading GotM and yeahhhh it's got a lot of weird stuff and inconsistencies with the rest of the series, it's weird. I honesty don't think I'd even say it's a "well you have to read the rest of the series before it makes sense!" I think he just plain wasn't as good a writer then and either couldn't get his ideas across properly or realistically did some retconning in later books.

Characters don't really feel right and it's not a "well you need to look at them from another perspective you don't get until later", it's just that he didn't write them as well in that book and its possible their motivations change.

It's interesting

The easiest way to deal with GotM is to treat it as a prologue, and then the fun starts in Deadhouse Gates.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2013 10:49

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Ethiser posted:

I imagine that that is just one of his additional souls. We meet his sister and learn about his childhood in one of the books so we know the base Quick Ben is just a normal yet powerful human Mage. He just got lucky and was picked to hold the souls of other mages.

I always got the feeling Quick Ben basically got the souls from the other mages by extortion during the escape attempt through the desert. Whiskeyjack and his men encounter one dead mage after another, and finally we end up with Quick Ben that changes side. Also, why didn't just the mages lure out the Bridgeburners into the desert, murder them and escape? Seeing what Quick Ben accomplishes in the main series, that shouldn't really be a problem for them.

Also, Tayschreen in GoTM is extremely badly written and has literally nothing do to do with the rest of the books.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2013 13:23

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Benson Cunningham posted:

I keep meaning to say, the entire Azath house thing is clearly lifted from The Black Company, except it's a house instead of a tree.

I'm pretty sure one of Cooks characters in the second series, forgot the name, was the inspiration for Kruppe.
Hardly surprising with the influences, considering what Erikson have written about Cook.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2013 08:12

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Masonity posted:

Mocker, from Dread Empire.

I read and loved the first Black Company series (It'd just been released as an omnibus, but the later ones weren't in print at the time, I need to pick up the second series omnibus), but couldn't get into Dread Empire.

Yeah, Mocker it is of course.
I was confusing Dread Empire with the second series of the Black Company Series.
The second Black Company serie is by the way not as good as the first, although still enjoyable. Same thing with Dread Empire, good but hardly perfect. Although if you like Cook it's worth it.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 10:04

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Habibi posted:

To expand, the aforementioned Master Seargeant started the trend, but in general *most * Malazan marines will have acquired new names (I hesitate to call them nicknames, since generally they stop using their old names) based on some trait or ability, and often ironic. Limp was mentioned. Far later on you encounter a marine named Smiles, so named because she doesn't.

The names are one of the most difficult parts of the series for lots of people because many are similar. Just in Darujistan in GotM you have Kruppe and Krute and Crokus. The difficulty arises not because of general confusion, but because knowing whom the names belong to is integral to determining the story, history, and mythology of the series.

Anyway, glad to see you're enjoying it. I think that, quite often, people overstate the how bad Gardens is, but I am okay with that because then people like you find it to be a pleasant surprise.

And then Crokus becomes Cutter just to mess it up

As for Braven Tooth, it is implied he has some precognition when naming marines, ie he gives them names that reflect their true nature.
Examples: Deadsmell and Throatslitter.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2013 08:49

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

DFu4ever posted:

The first seven or so books are pretty decent, but the big ending doesn't feel like something you've actually built to over the series. It feels more like Erikson repeatedly changed his mind about how things were going to play out since book five, and eventually just had to cobble together something that felt epic. The last couple of books are a slog and the ending doesn't have nearly the impact the finale of a ten book series should have.

While the series does have a few really cool moments and a handful of fun characters, I'm apparently one of the few people on this board that thinks that the series, overall, is pretty mediocre.

Except, you know, that everything leads up to what is the essence of the Crippled God and how to deal with it.
From book 3, MoI, the Crippled God is present in everything that happens and we get to learn more and more about it.
Admittedly, I would have like the Forkrul Assail to be more fleshed out, but otherwise he managed to do a cohesive story line over 10 books in 10 years.
Something that neither Jordan or GRRM have managed to do.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2013 14:06

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

amuayse posted:

I know, it just seems so...ambiguous. One chapter, I'm positively SURE I know what a warren is, and the next second he adds a new twist to it that was sort of hinted vaguely at before. I don't know, I don't want to be in the dark about everything. Malazan is one of those few series where the average character knows more than the reader.

That's one of the charms, we don't need to know everything.
If you wanna know everything, read Sanderson and stay away from Mieville.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2013 08:28

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

amuayse posted:

I like China Mieville. Almost as much as Gene Wolfe.

Then I don't know what to say anymore....

The charm of Erikson for me is how everything is connected in large and small ways as well as the story and the characters.
I don't really need a detailed explanation for how everything works, if I wanted science I have my day job for that.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2013 06:51

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Xachariah posted:

I started re-reading the series, and was struck once again by the incongruity of Fiddlers age. At the beginning of GotM he is started by Paran to look a few years older than him, when Paran was 12. So lets say he's 16 there. In Deadhouse Gates he is described with grey streaking his beard and he pulls off the middle aged personality pretty drat well. It's 7 years later in the course of most of the story, he should be like 23 years old at best.

I imagine him as a middle aged man with a greying beard entirely contrary to the notion that Fiddler is apparently in his early 20's. Did I miss something?

Yeah, since Fiddler in the rest of the series is this grizzled veteran. GotM really fucks up the start of the series and should be taken quite lightly.
It's kinda impressive though how much it changes from GotM to Deadhouse Gates.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2013 08:53

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Habibi posted:

e: you could probably take some of that as unreliable narration on Ganoes' part, the magic of Raraku slowing down their aging, and the fact that there really aren't that many contemporaries of Fiddler's who call or see him as old (mostly it's the newbies).

Eh, in the big picture that change (and most of the other ones) are pretty insignificant. Most of GotM holds up pretty well, which is fairly impressive considering it was written as a movie script and featured a decade long gap before the next book.

Admittedly a slight hyperbole regarding GotM there.
GotM is where people start reading Erikson, so I guess it's not surprising that people get confused by the inconistencies.
Deadhouse Gates is a much better start and also where I started a long time ago.
It kinda says something about the series when people get confused by the first book, but have no problems with Midnight Tides.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2013 08:15

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Just confirmed my preorder of Assail by Esslemont.
July 2014 can't come fast enough, even if it is Esslemont.
Final chapter of that series.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2013 16:03

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Xachariah posted:

(MoI)The group reached a town together where the Tenescowri were, they met some priests of the pannion who said that theyll bring them to a place to watch the Tenescowri in peace, the Tenescowri charged them and Envy/Seguleh/Dog/Wolf/Tool started tearing poo poo apart. Toc was like "aw hell naw I gotta get to my buddies" so he ran away and joined the Tenescowri hoping to get intel and link back up with the Malazans. Didn't work out for him.

Not much works out for Toc through the entire series, he's sort of the Jonah for the Malazan world.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2013 14:49

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 21:33

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

HeroOfTheRevolution posted:

I actually find a huge disconnect in BotF between the power levels seen and the mass destruction witnessed and the idea that normal people and normal villages exist at all.

House of Chains, the start of Karsa's story arc is a good description of simple villages.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2013 09:34

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The Malazan Book of the Fallen: Too many wor'ds.

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