Ah. awesome. I just this week felt the urge to get back to malazan. Kinda ended up skipping blood and bone for the moment and have jumped straight into assail, and will probably get into dancers lament next.
I don't intend on reading the book any time soon so I read the secret online.
The Crimson Guard are an off-shoot of the T'lan ritual somehow? Can someone explain this further. The Crimson Guards aren't Imass are they? Were they a group of "humans" who conducted another ritual?
Somehow their swearing into the the Vow sort of tapped into Tellann, so they are basically a new group of T'lan Imass. The other Imass start calling them the Red Clan. This is why the Avowed are so dammed tough.
The oath that they swore to get revenge on the Malazan empire was also a ritual tapping into Tellann to give them increased life/strength. So it was basically the exact same thing that the Imass had done in order to try to exterminate the Jaghut.
I'm a terrible person about reading spoilers, but it doesn't ruin anything for me, so whatever.
Assail spoilers, I guess
I.....kinda always assumed it was that? Like, I assumed that it was the same SORT of ritual, if not the same thing. So I guess the Imass accepting them is one thing, but yeah, the revelation of it being the same as the ritual is kinda like a "oh, okay" moment for me
LOL. I have read about 5 or 6 of the books, can't remember where I stopped. I will pick it up at some point. But, this is exactly me. I'd have to know WTF is going on for the spoilers to spoil anything for me!
I read only RoTCG and decided that it's just not for me - im glad that i was right, considering that none of Esslemont later books is apparently significantly better.
Shame, that a lot of interesting concepts that would be great in Erikson's books are wasted on Esslemont. HOW DO YOU MAKE BLOODY KALLOR BORING!? HOOOOOOOW?
Yeah, its so weird. I thought night of knives decent enough for a start, and really liked rotcg and sw, but just remember orb scepter throne being really underwhelming and kind of non essential. From what I've heard a decent amount of people dont hold his last few in very high esteem at all.
At the same time though I thought forge of darkness seemed good but still found it a bit hard to follow some of what was happening in it and kind of bounced off of it by the end. I think I just have a hard time staying invested in things once the "main" portion of it has been done.
I figure if I start with the Esslemont books it might be a better way back in, Assail seems good enough so far and the worst that could happen is if they seems a little underwhelming I'll probably just go back into another re-read of the main series anyway.
I don't know I'm just out of "shape" or If Erikson's writing changed, but parts of Fall of Light have been really tough to get through. Every single chapter is "2 people have an extremely high-level philosophical conversation". And I don't remember a lot of who's who from the previous book since it's been a couple of years. There's been some good scenes, and some of the philosphy stuff is interesting but it is slow going.
I hit the same wall with books 8, 9, and 10, honestly.
It's a large part of the reason that I haven't read Forge of Darkness yet - I'm waiting for the trilogy to be done so I can read them all in one shot. For good or ill, Erikson's novels seem to just require more effort/attention of the reader, and I don't have as much time to give anymore.
Finished Fall of Light. Probably not going to end up high on my list of favorites. Too confusing when the previous book isn't fresh in your memory. And some of the philosophy stuff really drags.
Started Dancer's Lament tonight. Much more immediately accessible. Set back in the city of Li Heng, for those of you that enjoyed Return of the Crimson Guard. Set somewhat earlier, of course.
I really love Malazan series, but im afraid that Erikson's time as a writer has ended - Toll of the Hounds was weak, Dust of Dreams average, Crippled God great again, Forge of Darkness average, and apparently Fall of Light weak again. There is 0 learning from earlier mistakes.
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I finished assail and with it my malazan reread is completely finished.
Who the fuck were the humans killing the t'lan on assail? I don't remember reading it
So super late to this, I guess, but I'm about halfway through Dancer's Lament.
I am really enjoying this. It's a lot tighter than any of ICE's previous stuff, and I'll admit that there's a certain amount of "returning to this world after not reading a book from it in years" and also really liking the characters, but I am devouring this book.
I will say that it definitely feels, beat for beat, like a tabletop game a bit more than some of the previous books did, but yeah. Thoroughly enjoying myself.
It took me a minute to remember that I had actually read Dancer's Lament. And another to remember I liked it. Both true though! Relatively easy to wrap your head around. Made me want to read Return of the Crimson Guard again.
It took me a minute to remember that I had actually read Dancer's Lament. And another to remember I liked it. Both true though! Relatively easy to wrap your head around. Made me want to read Return of the Crimson Guard again.
Aaaand finished.
Yeah, that was a good, albeit easy, read. Only real thing that bothers me is the usual Malazan "none of these people from back here should still be alive in the main series" aging bullshit this series has. But yeah, this book and RotCG really feel like a call and answer to one another. I presume we'll see the return to Li Heng as part of this series, and I can't wait.
It took me a minute to remember that I had actually read Dancer's Lament. And another to remember I liked it. Both true though! Relatively easy to wrap your head around. Made me want to read Return of the Crimson Guard again.
Aaaand finished.
Yeah, that was a good, albeit easy, read. Only real thing that bothers me is the usual Malazan "none of these people from back here should still be alive in the main series" aging bullshit this series has. But yeah, this book and RotCG really feel like a call and answer to one another. I presume we'll see the return to Li Heng as part of this series, and I can't wait.
I haven't read Dancer's Lament, but you're complaining about people involved with the creation of the Empire still being alive a century-ish later?
I see it as all being tied into Ascendancy. They've made it clear it's not a binary process--you're not either fully ascended or totally unascended, the road to ascension is (sometimes) a long one. I tend to just assume that powerful people have started on the road to ascension. They may not be immortal, they may not be demigods, but they're very resilient. See, for example
Main series and Return of the Crimson Guard spoilers:
Urko Crust punching out Karsa and going toe to toe with Rhyllandaras.
Malazan has its roots in role playing games, and I think this is an artifact. They may not have reached the Malazan equivalent of epic levels yet, but they're still high level characters with stats well beyond a normal person.
Oh, I know about its roots. And actually it's less the people involved in the empire itself (which there's justification for) and more some of the other people around them. There's a LOT of cameos in DL, most of which admittedly having some justification for the slowed aging (Mages, seeing some of the Crimson Guard before they joined/took the Vow, etc), it just kinda underscored the silliness of ALL these people being around later.
I'm about 80% through Forge of Darkness and I'm really conflicted about this book. I'm really intrigued by all the Azathanai stuff going on but there was definitely some slogging going on until it all started to "come together" for me. Felt very similar to Garden of the Moon in that I feel like I was dropped into the setting midway through without all the information.
So Erikson now has an official facebook page, and some news was posted there.
Status Update: Completing the third and final Willful Child novel, The Search For Spark. Then it's onward to the first Karsa Orlong novel (what about the third Kharkanas novel? On hold). Thanks everyone for your kind greetings.
Hmm, okay. I've made a point of never dissembling to my readers so why start now? The reasons for this decision (delaying Walk in Shadow) are varied: the basic situation is as follows. For reasons unknown to me, my agent or my publishers, DoD and FoL have tanked in terms of sales. I wasn't even aware of that until we started marketing the First Contact novel, RKH, but when the details came out it took the wind out of my sails (putting it mildly). Now, if it was a matter of the style I employed for the Kharkanas trilogy turning readers off, then the sales of FoD should have been decent, only to then fall off for FoL. But that wasn't the case. Strangely, the Book of the Fallen series remains strong in terms of sales. Was it because it was a prequel? Possibly. Did FoD come too soon after TCG? Maybe. Or is there some kind of reader-fatigue going on? Could be. One theory I've been considering is a more general wariness among fantasy fans regarding trilogies and series -- having been burned by other authors waiting for books, are readers just holding back until the trilogy is done, before buying in? But then, Dancer's Lament sold brilliantly (and it too is a prequel). Anyway, the upshot is, given what we perceive as considerable enthusiasm for the Karsa trilogy, we decided to jump right in. The story picks up four or five years after the ten book series, so there'll be plenty of room to explore the fall-out, and room for favourite characters to make an appearance beyond Karsa himself. I do remain committed to writing Walk in Shadow and humbly apologize for you (few?) readers eagerly awaiting that novel.
I think it's underestimating how word of mouth matters, honestly, but good news/bad news, I guess. Folks who were interested in the third book in the trilogy, sorry. Everyone else? More Karsa!
On one hand, i probably should get back to reading the series, last one i read was memories of ice.
But on the other hand, that would almost certainly mean reading more Karsa, and i fucking hate everything about that guy.
I'm glad I'm not alone in really having no interest in Karsa focused books. He was incredibly obnoxious and uninteresting to read.
Unfortunately, I am in the camp of wanting to wait for a trilogy to be finished before reading it, unless the author is very slow and there are a lot of people that want to talk about it already.
I read Forge of Darkness a couple months ago. I didn't buy the next one because I saw the third book wasn't out. Guess I won't be getting it for a long time now!
At least for me, the Darkness books are extremely hard to follow and make sense of. I don't know why. Too many characters is part of it. I think his tendency to use hints and innuendo is also getting out of hand.
All of the Malazan books are extremely exhausting to read... I was desperate for something to read and had them suggested to me a few years ago and I plowed through the series but it really left me mentally tired....I've no fear of long or detailed books, and I prefer books that have a long series of novels...I have never felt so tired from reading as i did with this series...except may be the black company series. Usually its very refreshing for me.
That said, I do not remember a single thing about the series. I guess i enjoyed it enough to finish but maybe some of that was just making sure i was not defeated by a stack of novels. I never had the desire to re-read it, which is another thing i usually do with series's i enjoy.
They're very dense novels. Usually when I read, there's parts of my brain that can operate on autopilot without issue, but when reading Erikson I found I couldn't do that - full attention was necessary. They can be tiring because of it.
I found the novels very rewarding, but I honestly don't know if I'd be able to make it through again.
When the Malazan books are good, they are great, but when they are bad, they are horrible.
Thankfully, there is lot of good and little bad.
But damn trying to keep track who is who, where is what, and when is this happening takes a toll on you (and i utterly fail at it).
Still good! Not as good as Dancer's Lament. First spoiler is general spoilers, second is more detailed.
The book jumps between points of view a bit, ala how Malazan books USUALLY are, but I feel like it played to the book's detriment in this case - Dancer's Lament was very blatantly Dancer's story. This one a bit less so, but for most of the book it felt like a....lack of focus. Most of the separate plotlines felt a tad directionless, and a lot of it felt...waiting for updates from one place or another. Which, in turn, made sense given that's what most of the characters were doing, too.
Loved the origin of Kellanved's name. Kallor was 100% extraneous and could have been removed with zero impact, I think what they were trying to go for was someone getting into the Imperial Warren finally "woke" him up or something. Still felt completely unnecessary. I was kinda bugged at some of the things which were different here from the main series (I thought there were some and went looking for other discussion - in the main series, Unta invaded Nap, not her brother. Tattersail thinks Dancer killed Mock, when it was Surly (which, admittedly, she was unconscious, but still). A lot of the nods felt great, a lot of them felt forced. I did like how Dassem ended up with the other two again after how DL was.
LOVED how Kellanved made a deal with the hounds to where they'd follow him since he'd let them out. LOVED how the Azath did basically the same thing with him, but vice versa.
But mostly what I'm left feeling like is more how inevitable the whole "betrayal"/falling apart thing was in the first place. If the first book was how the original trio found one another, then this one should have been how the "family" did. They're not a family. There's the trio, Surly just going along because she feels she can't take Dancer solo, the Napans following her, various other people picked up on the side. The only one of interest in the "pickups" was more Tayschrenn, which was the one side story I really enjoyed.
Basically, what should have been a sort of tragic foreboding seeing where everything would go is instead a "well, duh." That left me a tad disappointed. I feel like Kellanved is a bit too preoccupied with the thrones (which admittedly is his primary goal) and not enough with the 'now.' If he actually seemed to give the slightest bit of shit about the mundane world, it'd just make the whole thing gel more.
I read Forge of Darkness a couple months ago. I didn't buy the next one because I saw the third book wasn't out. Guess I won't be getting it for a long time now!
I started Forge but abandoned it, which is something I almost never do with a book. A bit too grim for me, I got tired of the style and didn't really find myself caring about the story.
Last book in the prequel trilogy was supposed to come out today, has been pushed to April 2nd, but....it's coming. I had actually missed that this was on the horizon, so I'm excited now
Posts
http://www.tor.com/2016/04/20/malazan-refresher-forge-of-darkness/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dancers-Lament-Path-Ascendancy-Book/dp/0593074343
LOL. I have read about 5 or 6 of the books, can't remember where I stopped. I will pick it up at some point. But, this is exactly me. I'd have to know WTF is going on for the spoilers to spoil anything for me!
<-- Dumbhead
He seems as bummed out by it as he was Esslemonts last few but I'm still going to check it out once I get through assail
Shame, that a lot of interesting concepts that would be great in Erikson's books are wasted on Esslemont. HOW DO YOU MAKE BLOODY KALLOR BORING!? HOOOOOOOW?
At the same time though I thought forge of darkness seemed good but still found it a bit hard to follow some of what was happening in it and kind of bounced off of it by the end. I think I just have a hard time staying invested in things once the "main" portion of it has been done.
I figure if I start with the Esslemont books it might be a better way back in, Assail seems good enough so far and the worst that could happen is if they seems a little underwhelming I'll probably just go back into another re-read of the main series anyway.
It's a large part of the reason that I haven't read Forge of Darkness yet - I'm waiting for the trilogy to be done so I can read them all in one shot. For good or ill, Erikson's novels seem to just require more effort/attention of the reader, and I don't have as much time to give anymore.
Started Dancer's Lament tonight. Much more immediately accessible. Set back in the city of Li Heng, for those of you that enjoyed Return of the Crimson Guard. Set somewhat earlier, of course.
Been a while, but.
Lanas Togg lied. She lied to Silverfox and she lied to the Kerluhm to get revenge.
Well that feels like a plot point that they just switched gears on
I am really enjoying this. It's a lot tighter than any of ICE's previous stuff, and I'll admit that there's a certain amount of "returning to this world after not reading a book from it in years" and also really liking the characters, but I am devouring this book.
I will say that it definitely feels, beat for beat, like a tabletop game a bit more than some of the previous books did, but yeah. Thoroughly enjoying myself.
Aaaand finished.
Yeah, that was a good, albeit easy, read. Only real thing that bothers me is the usual Malazan "none of these people from back here should still be alive in the main series" aging bullshit this series has. But yeah, this book and RotCG really feel like a call and answer to one another. I presume we'll see the return to Li Heng as part of this series, and I can't wait.
I haven't read Dancer's Lament, but you're complaining about people involved with the creation of the Empire still being alive a century-ish later?
I see it as all being tied into Ascendancy. They've made it clear it's not a binary process--you're not either fully ascended or totally unascended, the road to ascension is (sometimes) a long one. I tend to just assume that powerful people have started on the road to ascension. They may not be immortal, they may not be demigods, but they're very resilient. See, for example
Main series and Return of the Crimson Guard spoilers:
Malazan has its roots in role playing games, and I think this is an artifact. They may not have reached the Malazan equivalent of epic levels yet, but they're still high level characters with stats well beyond a normal person.
I think it's underestimating how word of mouth matters, honestly, but good news/bad news, I guess. Folks who were interested in the third book in the trilogy, sorry. Everyone else? More Karsa!
But on the other hand, that would almost certainly mean reading more Karsa, and i fucking hate everything about that guy.
I probably should reorder my bookshelves.
Unfortunately, I am in the camp of wanting to wait for a trilogy to be finished before reading it, unless the author is very slow and there are a lot of people that want to talk about it already.
That said, I do not remember a single thing about the series. I guess i enjoyed it enough to finish but maybe some of that was just making sure i was not defeated by a stack of novels. I never had the desire to re-read it, which is another thing i usually do with series's i enjoy.
I found the novels very rewarding, but I honestly don't know if I'd be able to make it through again.
Thankfully, there is lot of good and little bad.
But damn trying to keep track who is who, where is what, and when is this happening takes a toll on you (and i utterly fail at it).
Still good! Not as good as Dancer's Lament. First spoiler is general spoilers, second is more detailed.
LOVED how Kellanved made a deal with the hounds to where they'd follow him since he'd let them out. LOVED how the Azath did basically the same thing with him, but vice versa.
But mostly what I'm left feeling like is more how inevitable the whole "betrayal"/falling apart thing was in the first place. If the first book was how the original trio found one another, then this one should have been how the "family" did. They're not a family. There's the trio, Surly just going along because she feels she can't take Dancer solo, the Napans following her, various other people picked up on the side. The only one of interest in the "pickups" was more Tayschrenn, which was the one side story I really enjoyed.
Basically, what should have been a sort of tragic foreboding seeing where everything would go is instead a "well, duh." That left me a tad disappointed. I feel like Kellanved is a bit too preoccupied with the thrones (which admittedly is his primary goal) and not enough with the 'now.' If he actually seemed to give the slightest bit of shit about the mundane world, it'd just make the whole thing gel more.
Apparently this artist will be doing all the covers.
https://www.facebook.com/artSimonetti/photos/a.1920759967935040.1073741845.535587956452255/1935576139786756/?type=3&theater
I started Forge but abandoned it, which is something I almost never do with a book. A bit too grim for me, I got tired of the style and didn't really find myself caring about the story.
https://smile.amazon.com/Kellanveds-Reach-Ascendancy-Malazan-Empire/dp/0765379481/
Last book in the prequel trilogy was supposed to come out today, has been pushed to April 2nd, but....it's coming. I had actually missed that this was on the horizon, so I'm excited now