|
Just finished Toll the Hounds and I have to say this one was amazing. I've read a lot of reviews saying Erikson is too heady and crams a lot of philosophy into this book, which I can understand. Personally I really like philosophy so the book was a joy to read for me from start to finish, and the ending was wild. I think this, Memories of Ice, and Midnight Tides are tied as my favorite entries so far. The implications moving forward for the final two books are impossible to see and I'm really excited to read them. My only complaint is that I couldn't really see the motivation for some of the characters making the moves they did at the end. Particularly regarding the events in Dragnipur, but I assume that I will learn about that later as well.
|
#
¿
Sep 2, 2022 15:36
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 12:23 |
|
|
Just finished Dust of Dreams and I have to say I think this was my least favorite entry so far. I had a feeling this and The Crippled God were going to function as one big novel, with DoD being almost entirely buildup and TCG being almost entirely finale, and so it wasn't quite like that but almost. Hopefully TCG is a real banger. Going to read Stonewielder and Orb Sceptre Throne first though
|
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2022 13:55
|
|
|
lol alright, I will jump straight into TCG then, the only reason I thought to read the other two first is because I read Return of the Crimson Guard before Toll the Hounds and the story told in there felt like absolutely necessary to read before at least Dust of Dreams, I wasn't sure if a similar thing would happen with Stonewielder and OST, since they come before it in the suggested reading order
|
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2022 17:02
|
|
|
It amazes me that in a book series so huge I find myself wanting to still know more about a lot of the characters.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2022 14:50
|
|
|
Remember that time you guys told me not to read Orb Sceptre Throne and Stoneweilder before The Cripple God. I probably should have done that... Stoneweilder took me SO LONG to get through it just dragged the whole time. I enjoyed Orb Sceptre Throne much more though. I'm ~500 pages into TCG and I'm not noticing anything that was enhanced by reading either of those two stories so far. I'm hoping at the very least the events with Tayschrenn at the end of OST impacts TCG...
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2023 16:55
|
|
|
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2023 20:47
|
|
|
Alright finally finished TCG. Honestly I don't even know what my feelings are, aside from it being great obviously. I was a little disappointed not seeing Silverfox, I thought for sure she was going to show up, especially with the other Imass playing such a large role. I feel like there would definitely have been a way to make her play the role Fener played in turning them back to humans somehow, I thought Fener was kind of out of left field. Though making it so Gesler and Stormy summoned him was an interesting touch. I'm also not really sure what exactly happened in the sequence with Heboric and TCG chaining Korabas. I was following it fine until Cotillion killed TCG, why did he kill him? I don't feel like I found the motivation. Finally, what happened to all the other dragons and T'iam after Korabas was chained? They just left? Dead? Exploded? Did Quick Ben kill them?. I also thought that he could have stopped being unnecessarily vague in the epilogues, having to guess who he was talking about in some of the closing paragraphs was kind of annoying. I always assumed he was doing that not to ruin the surprises for later in the book/series, but now there is no later in the book or series so why are we still being obtuse. Overall though I'm not sure there's anything I've ever read that even approaches the scope of this. I've never attempted the Wheel of Time but everyone who has says not to because there are just gigantic narrative sections where nothing happens, and issues rehashed over and over again. McSpankWich fucked around with this message at 12:44 on Jan 25, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Jan 25, 2023 12:42
|
|
|
I mean I guess the magical disappearing dragons wouldn't be as weird if Silchas and Tulas hadn't made such a big deal about the storm making you into a frenzied killing machine with no mind of your own. You'd think if that was the case they'd start mindlessly attacking everything around them even if their catalyst was gone.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 27, 2023 20:02
|
|
|
kingturnip posted:Let's just say you should enjoy them in Midnight Tides I actually disagree with this, I thought Return of the Crimson Guard was the best ICE book and the only one I would recommend actually reading during the course of reading the main series (between Reapers Gale and Toll the Hounds). Though now that I'm thinking about it, the highlights weren't necessarily the Guard themselves as much as the huge plot reveal and other characters surrounding it.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 4, 2023 20:23
|
|
|
So should I read Blood and Bone and Assail? I've read all the other ICE books, I've heard uhh, bad things, about Assail, but not much about Blood and Bone.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2023 22:45
|
|
|
I just finished The Wise Man's Fear and I'm about half way through Before They are Hanged. So maybe I'll finish them off before or after book 3 of First Law. I know this isn't the place for this but what's the deal with Rothfuss?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2023 23:49
|
|
|
I actually really liked The Name of the Wind but in the second one Kvothe became way too much, just totally amazing at everything for no reason. I'm hoping that it ends up being some kind of unreliable narrator thing but probably not. Also, we'll apparently never find out either way so it's whatever I guess.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2023 00:26
|
|
|
Wait who's his aunt? I don't remember that at all
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2023 19:04
|
|
|
Yeah.. I have a post in this thread I think about how disappointed I was with DoD because it's the only one that really doesn't have it's own standalone plot which resolves, while also contributing to the greater narrative. You really need to be prepared to read the last two as one.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2023 16:04
|
|
|
dishwasherlove posted:There is an in text reason for the goofy Malazan names. Maybe not a great one, but it exists. I'm sure at some point during the creative process he was just like listen I can't create 437 meaningful names for people and I need a solution for this.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 12, 2023 14:55
|
|
|
The Felisin portions of that book were my least favorite by far, yeah. Chain of Dogs owns so hard. Mappo and Icarium doesn't pay off until much later in the series.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 19, 2023 20:27
|
|
|
Alhazred posted:The Felisin story has an amazing pay off though: Her sister kills her and never discover it. Felisin dies without knowing that her sister tried to save her. Also all the crazy poo poo with Heboric from the final two (3?) books starts in this one
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2023 23:36
|
|
|
Cotillion for sure, Ammanas kind of stayed the same.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2023 00:42
|
|
|
Yeah I would recommend that as an 11th book if you were reading them all, just because of what happens. If you skip it I think the event in question is just kind of mentioned offhandedly by Quick Ben during a totally different conversation and then dropped entirely, which was crazy to me
|
|
#
¿
Oct 24, 2023 01:08
|
|
|
TBH I liked RotCG because I was dreading reading another one of his books after Night of Knives, but he improved so much from one to the next that I was pleasantly surprised.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 25, 2023 12:59
|
|
|
Same. Memories is great, possibly my favorite. Midnight Tides is the other possibility for me
|
|
#
¿
Nov 3, 2023 01:37
|
|
|
Night of Knives is bad. Return of the Crimson Guard has a consequential plot point when read in sequence (between RG and TtH). Also, in terms of writing it's much better than Night of Knives, but still not equal to the main books. I didn't hate reading it and even read the next few. But nothing important happens in any of them so you don't need to read them
|
|
#
¿
Nov 11, 2023 13:00
|
|
|
Jaxyon posted:I'm hard pressed to find any. Like, I guess there's some unique backstory but it's usually such a slog to read that it doesn't seem interesting, you could just read the wiki summaries. What about the full story of the death of Laseen? If you skip RotCG then it's just mentioned offhandedly by Quick Ben in Toll the Hounds. I get that The Empire itself takes a back seat in the latter half of the series, but I feel like such a huge, looming character was done dirty by Erickson in that respect.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2023 13:15
|
|
|
If you think CG did him dirty wait until you get to Stonewielder
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2023 21:04
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:And if you think Stonewielder did him dirty, just wait for Assail. I haven't read OST or Assail but I've only heard bad things and I'm really not interested in where the story left off at the end of Stonewielder. I suppose one day I'll have to finish them but ehhhh
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2023 21:21
|
|
|
The hobbling scene was the only time in the series where I felt honestly disturbed. It was really rough. I always kind of looked at the beginning Karsa stuff as like an acceptable cultural practice among the clans, and the women looking at power and control as desirable traits in men expressed in that fashion. Not that that excuses any of it. I suppose the hobbling is also the same thing but still it was way worse for me to get through, especially after investing so much time into Hetan in the series so far. The only other scene I think worth mentioning was Stonny in book 3, which was also rough and seemed kind of needless. I suppose it further demonstrated the madness of the Pannion Domin, but I think that whole thing was also pretty crazy in general and probably could have been left out and not changed anything.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2023 00:01
|
|
|
If I've learned anything from this thread it's that that book will take every glamourous idea that you have of Assail in your head, and destroy it utterly and completely, along with the Crimson Guard
|
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2023 17:17
|
|
|
It's ok I thought Dessimbelackis was another region of Genabackis for a bit sooo
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2024 00:22
|
|
|
I don't agree that RotCG is as bad as Night of Knives. After NoK I also thought I wasn't going to be able to read another ICE book, but he definitely steps it up from one to the other. RotCG is not amazing but is definitely much better. Also as a previous poster said there is an extremely significant event which takes place in RotCG that wraps up some large loose ends from the main series. If you don't read the ICE book the event is just dropped offhandedly during a side conversation and never mentioned again. Granted, the series takes a narrative shift after Toll the Hounds, and in the last two books it's true that said event doesn't really impact anything, but I am much happier having read RotCG before I read TtH and I feel like if I hadn't I would have felt a little short changed despite it's lower quality.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 25, 2024 02:00
|
|
|
OneSizeFitsAll posted:Nearly finished Bonehunters in my wife-read. She's loving it. I agree with including RotCG in the reading solely for Laseen, though I have to say that the payoff with Traveller is drat disappointing. After all that buildup you get like a single page not-fight and then he's left shaking his fist in the air and wandering again. It was easily the biggest letdown in a book chock full of letdowns. Still think it's worth reading between RG and TTH though, if only for the aforementioned spoiler. Plus it's not super long in comparison to the main series
|
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2024 15:00
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 12:23 |
|
|
Yeah she grows up quick
|
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2024 22:38
|
|