|
I've just started reading this series, after going through The Wheel of Time and then all of the Cosmere, so I guess I needed another mega series after those two. I picked up the 10 main books from the Humble Bundle a few months ago, and I plan to read through those before the other in-universe series. I've only read two chapters of Gardens of the Moon, but so far Ganoes is a bit of a little poo poo. Seems like he's lacking a bit of self preservation and is pretty OK with picking dumb fights with everyone who shows up. Tattersail on the other hand, had a terrible horrible no good very bad day. She got sent on a suicide mission, lost her boyfriend, and is now teaming up with the office dickhead who is also now a puppet??? I haven't quite figured out if I'm expected to like the Empress. She remembers a weird little meeting with Ganoes from like seven years ago, humanizing her, but also she's cool with a pogrom of any magic users that aren't under her control which is probably not great. Overall interesting so far, curious to see where it's going, especially since I've already had two timeskips early on.
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2024 19:39
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 10:52 |
|
|
I kinda hate how these books are divided. So I'm reading book 1 of Malazan Book of the Fallen, but within this book, which I can confirm is a single book, I have just finished "Book 2: Darujhistan". Just call it "Part 2" like a normal person. (Gardens of the Moon, up to chapter 7) Anyway, I hope all these Councilmen/women have a very swift death so I don't have to read about political intrigue and the massive amounts of adultery they're all committing. Do me a solid, Empress. Is Kruppe OK? He's got weird dreams in which sometimes Elder Gods visit him, narrates his own life, and seems to live to be annoying to everyone around him. He's got more going on though, lying to the horny boy about his coin, while making a very quick wax replica of it to show to Baruk. Baruk almost seems too nonchalant about being visited by a Giant Raven and her dark elf moonlord. Maybe he just decided to accept whatever happened since Anomander Rake seems extremely powerful, but I think most people would be wowed a bit more. The Oponn twins are definitely making a lot of moves right now, saving Crokus the horny lad... a rich girls boobs and had a change of "heart", adding to an already long list of characters who have heard the spinning coin. At least this "book" is over, and all the Pale refugees are arriving, and probably the Bridgeburners with them.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2024 01:59
|
|
|
Man with Hat posted:Would you say you liked Book 1 more than Book 2 of GotM? I guess so, there was some good stuff in Book 2 of Book 1 of course, I still feel like both Books were introductory for Book 1's overall story, so I'm looking forward to reading Books 3-7 of Book 1.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2024 13:55
|
|
|
I didn't think I was gonna find an author worse at writing romance than Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson this quickly, but hell,
|
|
#
¿
Feb 22, 2024 02:54
|
|
|
Gardens of the Moon, up to chapter 16 I'm really glad that I haven't had to see much in the way of political plotting from the Councilmen, though people are going back to the city so maybe that plot will come up again? I AM glad that several of the various groups of people have started to meet each other, though leaving Crokus alone with a lost and confused 17 year old girl who has just come out of being possessed is just the dumbest idea I've seen, apart from Crokus's own decision making. "I saw this one girls boobs and now I want to study to be part of high society and meet her" oh my god. Crokus thinking with his dick is giving Paran's constant habit of pissing everyone off a run for its money of who is the most stupid character. I had sorta become comfortable with the idea that Anomander Rake was clearly the most powerful mortal around, but he's talking gods down from their plans and may not even be mortal himself. And he's got a sword that is a Warren with a massive wagon in it. Paran accidentally entering that Warren and then just deciding to free the hounds just because was another mark of brashness and honestly probably stupidity on him. I had been waiting for Paran to meet Tattersail, first in her corpse form and then in her reborn form, and that went well, but now I want to see Paran meet Anomander Rake again, especially if Rake is fully aware of what Paran did. I am looking forward to Lorn releasing the Jaghut Tyrant, even though neither she nor Tool want to do so. Just gently caress poo poo Up. I hope it crashes the party that the Councilmen are going to. Also, ToC the Younger isn't dead, he's just stuck in a Warren and that sucks a lot, but surely someone will be able to get him out? I'm not convinced Hairlock is dead either since even seeing a body (like Paran's or Tattersail's) isn't enough to know that someone is *actually* dead for good. I really really want more of Whiskeyjack's and Baruk's/Kruppe's gang meeting each other. They're technically on opposite sides, but honestly they aren't actually opposed to each other. We all hate the Malazan Empire here. And Paran and Crokus can become friends and bond over their stupidity and Oponn influence.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2024 03:15
|
|
|
Jaxyon posted:One thing I like is that as you said, characters are stupid, but it's realistic. Like yeah Crokus is behaving like a stupid teen....he is one Finished Gardens of the Moon, and Crokus seemed to get a tiny bit smarter right at the end. I thought he would lose it when he saw Mammot die, but he was able to hold it together and help out Baruk (by defeating a master magic assassin by throwing two (2) bricks at her). Him also choosing to go with Apsalar to her home (which is mostly toast, unfortunately) was nice too, but then he just tossed the coin into the ocean? That seems like quite the move. Honestly Oponn got hosed over this book, with that and then also Paran going "hmm I just survived getting bitten by a Hound, seems like my luck has turned bad, better give up this lucky sword".   Bro no one else is surviving this, how is this your luck turning?? And then Paran lucks into an even cooler sword.And then, because Rallick Nom didn't want to be left out he covered himself in the rust dust that he was told very specifically to not put on his skin. I swear, is "Book of the Fallen" referring to everyone's IQ??? I am super curious about him going into that house though, that the Tiste Andii couldn't follow him into. I get that the Azath (which was never explained, even in the glossary) did something to the finnest, but I thought the house was the finnest/acorn growing, but the house is peaceful? I'm pretty sure all the braincells that Crokus, Paran, and Rallick Nom are missing ended up in Kruppe, because he was pretty smart in the end, even if his gambit with Raest didn't directly work. Anyway, the book was cool, but I do think Chekhov's landmines not going off was a bit anticlimactic, but it's nice they didn't turn the city into a million craters. Raest also didn't quite crash the party, but Rallick Nom got to kill that one idiot (though, him doing that after barely being able to stand earlier was... OK SteveE whatever), and Anomander Rake got to fight some other beastie in the streets. I really thought the landmines were gonna be set off to gently caress with that demon. Going forward, I do think Raest/Mammot is coming back in some capacity, Toe the Younger is probably not dead (he just got yeeted into a Warren, why is Paran instantly assuming he's dead?), Anomander Rake is going to eventually figure out Paran freed (?) the Hounds and will be Big Mad about it, and Tattersail better grow up quickly so she can kick Tayschrenn's rear end. RIP Lorn, you were a real dumbass, had a crisis of faith, unleashed a monster anyway, then got shanked by two Phoenix Inn regulars who are definitely totally normal women.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 29, 2024 23:04
|
|
|
Gravity Cant Apple posted:lol yet another victim of the bad OCR scanning of Toc The Younger If my brain is the OCR sure, I read Toc, I know it says Toc, then later I recall that "actually" it says Toe.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 29, 2024 23:27
|
|
|
NmareBfly posted:Congrats on finishing the one most people say is the worst! Up next is one many people consider the best (though there's plenty of disagreement.) Yeah it was good overall, it was interesting because somewhere in the middle I kinda sat back and went "OK wait, what is actually happening here?" The Malazan Empire, eponymous to the books, would clearly be the bad guys in any other story, and yeah OK they're pretty bad here. We do not like them, even though the Bridgeburners are ostensibly part of that empire (for now). But the books are being setup to be about the Empire, and maybe the empress falls and someone better takes over? Though it would be funny to end the Malazan Empire series with no more Malazan Empire. So who are the "good guys"? Or more accurately the protagonists. Baruk and Kruppe and their friends? The Bridgeburners? I guess? What about the gods/ascendants? I have no real idea about them. Oponn was loving around with a bunch of people, Shadowthrone was scheming, but if they're opposed to the Malazan Empire are they bad? (probably still yes). And the Tiste Andii? Rake was willing to leave Pale to its fate, and send assassins after some of our other protagonists all in the name of harming the Malazan Empire. And then there are things that seem to be worse than the Malazan Empire too, namely Raest, though probably a few of the gods too. If Raest was free and he was going head to head against the Empire, who would I want to win? Probably the Empire! What I'm really wondering though is what is the overall plot of the ten books. Is it the downfall of the empire, is it a metamorphosis of the empire? Is it simply for our little band of idiots to survive?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 29, 2024 23:56
|
|
|
Oh I definitely don't want to know. I was just putting into text what I was thinking about at the end of the book.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2024 04:06
|
|
|
I've read half (by "Books" which is still dumb, not chapters or %) of Deadhouse Gates. I knew it was gonna happen, but it's still very weird to have mostly left behind the characters from GOTM. Crokus and Apsalar have smaller roles, Fiddler and Kalam bigger, and Felisin is more than just a name. I know a lot of the groups of people are traveling literally just to survive, and Apsalar still claims to want to go home, but I'm really curious what happens when everything converges later, I'm guessing at Aren since that's where Coltaine is heading. But Kalam? No real idea, he's literally on the move to survive, and now he's picked up some Malazan family, but the officer has brain damage and Kalam has already upset the one woman so doing well there. Felisin, I feel for her, she's been in one terrible situation after another, but holy poo poo she is not making a single friend. I'm wonder if she'll ever meet up with her brother in a future book, she needs someone on her side but also she needs to stop being Darth Felisin because eventually someone is just gonna kill her. I also have this absolutely cracked theory that Sha'ik is gonna somehow end up the Ascendant that rules over all of the shape-shifters that are fighting across the continent in the background of everything. She's definitely not staying dead, and maybe there will be two new Ascendants, but I'm assuming some reason for all this happening concurrently.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 12, 2024 22:07
|
|
|
habituallyred posted:Yeah, once they get off the island even that half of the book is good. And the other half was already great! With my prediction that Sha'ik is (obviously) not really dead, I've also been jumping around with who ends up as the meat puppet. Iskaral Pust wants it to be Apsalar but I'm wondering if Felisin will stumble into the role just to continue her constant torture by SteveE.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 13, 2024 12:31
|
|
|
I finished Deadhouse Gates  This book was a hell of a ride for me and everyone of the characters. SteveE likes keeping us waiting, and I definitely was waiting for a long long time for Minala to catch up to Kalam and save him, given how telegraphed it was. It was very nice that she got to do that for him, though the ending of the line for them being Shadowthrone giving them 1300 kids was extremely weird. That doesn't seem sustainable. Really funny that Kalam got all that way then the empress got just enough nuance to her character (and the fact that she literally wasn't there) that Kalam decided not to kill her. Best mom is Apt, so far. Really doesn't need any explanation. Felisin/Sha'ik is the worst mom probably. I haven't seen how bad New Felisin (please stop reusing names SteveE, Apsalar is apparently a reused name too even though I never met the first one). I had to admit that when Coltaine got the double handouts of the merchants from Dujek and then the Khundryl introducing themselves with no obvious foreshadowing, fighting off three clans, and then announcing the Wickans the victors, it felt really weird. Coltaine fought the entire book for every foot of ground and then gets two saving graces in a row, it was very jarring. I'm really curious what happens to Duiker in the bottle, and Coltaine in the new body. Not sure how much time this series covers but it'll be a while before we see him again. I also love Moby, in my head he's Momo from ATLA, but also a demon and an Azath guardian? Great stuff though. Hope we visit him agian. I also love Mappo and Icarium and feel for them both not knowing poo poo. Hilarious that Mappo just bonks Icarium whenever he gets too angry. I'll start Memories of Ice in a few days, I've seen the reading order flowchart so I know that it's sort of in parallel to book 2, so I assume it'll be characters from Book 1 that didn't appear in 2, like Paran and Rallick Nom and Anomander Rake? If so, I look forward to seeing them all again. Can't wait for #1 idiot Paran to be dumb some more. Tequila Bob posted:These are good guesses. Not 100% right, not 100% wrong! Obviously not gonna say more than that for now. Yeah, she's not a meat puppet, she's made some sort of deal with Sha'ik and taken her name and can do some magic. It's weird, I'm looking forward to seeing how she navigates that with the three magic dudes who don't really but her poo poo quite yet. Tequila Bob posted:I love this paragraph. You're gonna love it too once you're done with DG. She's still Darth Felisin but now has the powers to back it up, lol. Still feel bad for her.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 21, 2024 01:52
|
|
|
Still early in Memories of Ice, but SteveE really pulled a "she looks like a child but has the soul of a 100,000-year-old goddess" 
|
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2024 14:15
|
|
|
Memories of Ice up to Chapter 6 (or Book 3: Book 1, if you will) lmao there's dinosaurs with blades for arms. Dinoswords, if you will. Paran going fully unwilling... Ascendant or whatever Master of the Deck is is really interesting. I'm also glad that everyone seems to be aware of it. Some other series I've read (WoT, the Cosmere) would have everyone in the dark for way too long. I do like how there was a meeting of the minds going on, then Paran teleports into the middle of them to have a very public headache or whatever it looked like to them. His whole family is not having a good time. And as much as I had some issues with Silverfox earlier, "Uncle Whiskeyjack" is adorable. Someone needs to blast Kallor into outer space though. gently caress that guy. As much as I like Toc the Younger still being alive, and as much fun as him and Envy are, he better watch out because she'll eat him up. She's clearly only Team Lady Envy. (WoT books 2/3) Envy has HUGE Selene/Lanfear vibes for me, and therefore I love her immediately.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 28, 2024 21:52
|
|
|
Man with Hat posted:How do you feel about the rest of their crew? MoI Ch6 Not much in the way of strong feelings. Tool is Tool, badass but I don't think I've seen the best of him yet. The dogs are good dogs, of course. And the Seguleh haven't said enough to really help me. They'll obviously be a force to be reckoned with at some point, but these three are quite boring right now.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 29, 2024 00:34
|
|
|
I've finished Memories of Ice This book was really weird, the siege of Capustan felt like it could have been the climax to its own book, but then it was over, and a few of the chapters after it felt like wrapping up chapters and then there was still 40% of a book left. Given that I can read what some of the later books are called, it finally feels like I know where things are going for the series, not just the individual books. The Crippled God being the big bad seems interesting, especially since the Jaghut's warren at the end only slowing his efforts, not stopping them. Paran has also accepted his status as Master of the Deck it seems, which is good. I have to admit, when Whiskeyjack died I didn't really have any huge feelings over it after Baudin came back as the Knight of High House Death very recently. I was pretty set on something like that happening to Whiskeyjack too until the very end when Paran gave his blessing to him and those others entombed with him. I don't know what that'll do but it's definitely something to look forward to. Of all the twists in this book, the one I did call on my read was Toc getting shoved in Anaster's body, though I didn't put together that they had both lost an eye. I also figured one of the mages would Soulshift him into the husk instead of whatever happened where he just woke up in the body. Some Ascendant or god did basically the same thing though. I'm glad all the Ay and Imass are free from their pain or immortal bodies or whatever, I was worried that Itkovian would take their pain and then they'd just pass through Hoods gate. The ending of this book really has shoved everyone in different directions, from the T'lan Imass going to help their people on some other island, the handful of Bridgeburners hanging out with Duiker in Darujhstan, Silverfox... doing whatever, the Mott Irregulars seem like they could be the next company to follow, and of course Kalam and the others from Book 2 who didn't die. Still waiting on that Paran family reunion. Good book overall, a good mix of heartbreak, small victories, and a sense of direction for the next 7 books probably made this my favorite of the three so far.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2024 02:03
|
|
|
I've read about half of House of Chains (up to chapter 13) The first handful of chapters on the Karsa train were quite the trip, but he's honestly been tamed just by realizing the world is bigger than his little plateau. He still pulls out the ol' "we like to say 'kill a bunch of children' as a well wishing" but he hasn't actually done much killing lately. I assume that'll change at some point. The Tiste Liosan give off major "racist high elves" vibes, and I was ready to write them all off until L'oric was suddenly a secret Tiste Liosan. He seemed like the most chill of the Whirlwind high mages, especially with supporting Felisin the Younger after she suffered at Bidithal's hand. Obviously there's lots of cool and not so cool individuals so I'm still rooting for L'oric but not the rest of the Liosan. I am confused about who exactly Osric is supposed to be. I'm also super confused about who Traveller is who helped out on that floating island with the House of Shadow's actual throne. All I really know is he's Dal Honese and he kicks all sorts of rear end, but I'm wondering if he's someone I know who has ascended, or if he's new. RIP Anomander Rake's brother though, and also everyone else on that island. I'm also glad that Cotillion got his hands dirty after sending Crokus/Cutter into that mess. That was pretty rude. I'm not the biggest fan of Pearl and Lostara but they have the chance to do the funniest loving thing by bringing Felisin the Younger to Tavore and having Tavore go "who the loving gently caress is this? you're both dead". I would also like to know what Kalam did that was so bad that Minala would rather raise 1300 kids by herself than have him in the house??
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2024 23:53
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 10:52 |
|
|
BigHead posted:Wheel Takes with Ali and Gus just put up a podcast with Guy Roberts, the actor who played Uno. It's a great listen. I know Gus drops a ton of weird Malazan references (and is in fact part of why I'm reading this series), but I think you've missed the mark here
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2024 00:30
|
|