Amph Steven Erikson - The Malazan Book of the Fallen

On my mammoth re-read I'm now 20% through Reaper's Gale, then Toll The Hounds beckons, Dust of Dreams is where I hit new ground.

Plan is to read Dust of Dreams-Crippled God then do the 3 Esselmont volumes, then the Korbal Bauchelain novellas x3.

Talking of whom, Crack'd Pot Trail is being re-iisued in September, so I'll be nabbing that ahead of Orb, Sceptre, Throne due in November.

 

I have finished The Crippled God. I will have to put my thoughts in order before I really get into a critique of the book and the series.

Initial thoughts: some pretty incredible scenes and obviously one of the most exciting books in the series. Yet I felt he didnt really give us any big answers and indeed, many issues were more or less swept under the rug.

There was a whole lot of Malazan lovin' going on and Erikson even has one of his characters say "we don't know why we're behaving so nobly"

I really felt in the end that maybe the Grey Helms had it right and they should just wipe all the races out, since there's not much to redeem any of the civilizations and races.

This is obviously one of those series I'll have to re-read to get the full gist, but at this point I'd say Erikson could have cut a book or two from the series and tightened it up. Stuff like the Snake/the children I found a real waste of time

 

I intially felt that way as well during Dust of Dreams about the Snake. They were essintal to the BH though as they gave them a reason to FIGHT and Survive The Glass Desert. Save the Kids, save the future.

 

I kinda had a problem with the Crippled God himself. I can't black highlight for spoilers so I won't say anything specific.

I would give the series 7.5/10 after the first read.

For the scope of what he was doing in terms of world-building, breadth and interesting
Discussions on godhood, he definitely nailed it. And in some ways he was obviously trying to avoid the normal fantasy plotlines and tropes.

Marks deducted for a lack of character development, plotlines that went nowhere, and overall, I'd say an overly bleak look at religion, politics and technology. This felt like "man is a virus" from The Matrix.

He had some great viewpoints of characters like Karsa on civilization which made me question some of the basic assumptions about society, but he didn't have a character with an opposing viewpoint.

He mastered the slog in Deadhouse Gates, and I didn't really feel the desire to read more and more pages about long marches and deprivation.

 

Atleast we are gonna get a "Coda" from Esslemont as his last book in the series that will deal with all ending events after TCG.

 

I had the same reaction to the snake...in Dust of Dreams. I was a bit confused, but interested..

I can't block out right now so SPOILER:






The children became important to the Bonehunters....they became their salvation, their redeemers, their reason to press on. They also brought a nobility to the bone hunters that we never really witnessed, by those disgruntled starving men, giving up their water, food, and essentially their lives for these orphans they did not know. They also brought a second chance for Tavore, since she felt like she failed her sister....

Also, one of the scenes that stole the show, was when the kids learned how to play with the toys again...breaking the hearts of those soldiers.

 

But in the end, without Tavore deus ex machining the water from nowhere, they would have failed.

Like I said, I understand Erikson is trying to avoid the neatly-wrapped-up series that everyone wants but is nothing like life, but in terms of a plot/character arc it's frustrating.


So what Malazan books are forthcoming? What is Orb, Spectre, Throne about?

I downloaded Stonewielder to read as well.

 

I liked

Memories of Ice (12/2001)
House of Chains (12/2002)

 

That was exactly the point I was making...The Bonehunters gave up their water and food to those children, knowing they would all die. Until that point, the soldiers didn't have a reason to be there. Tavore never told them.

I actually think it made the series more lifelike, if you will. I believe Erikson said that he wanted to drop his audience into the middle of a story...

Also, ICE is writing the other half if you will. I believe the next book will be set in Darujhistan (Karsa, Tyrants, etc..), then Assail....where many think the storyline with Silverfox will wrap up...

 

Oh yeah Silverfox, totally forgot about her.....for several books now!

 

TCG spoiler:






Reached page 580 of the book and the end of the battle of Lightfall.

That was epic.

Shockingly epic.

Hounds of light, a huge amount of Dragons, a giant wall of watery light, enormous death tolls(20 000 + Liosan, 8000 Shake and Leatheri), Yedan Derryg and his insanely laughing Hust sword, last stands and great speeches, heroes by the bucket load and a ridiculous number of tears shed(from me).

I can?t believe that such an amazing climax isn?t the ending of a book. Its way to big to be just 2/3 into it.

Dammit Erikson, you rock.

 

^^Exactly!

 

Finished Reaper's Gale and on Toll the Hounds, the last book of the reread before I hit Dust of Dreams....

It began in April, now 5 months and 7 books later...

 

Twilight and The Watch, Shake...is one of the best arcs for me in that series. When Yan Tovis is introduced in MT who knew the kinds of epic awesomeness her and her brother would unleash?

 

TCG spoilers:





Almost finished with chapter 22(around page 700). It feels just bizarre how heavy the last two chapters (about 80 pages) were with Ganoes Paran and The Host.

After having followed The Bonehunters, the K`chain Che`male, Grey Helms, Bolkando and Leatheri armies for 600 pages, where they spent most of their time traveling, planning and talking, it feels crazy that suddenly we have two chapters of Ganoes Paran and his army fighting and utterly crushing two large separate armies.

I just wonder why Erikson gave regular focus throughout the book to all these other groups, that so far hasn?t done anything epic, but neglected The Host for the first 500 pages. It feels really unErikson like to do that.

That being said, Paran probably had more screen time in these chapters than any other main character has had so far in the book. I?m really loving his relationship with his officers, and particularly the scenes with him, Quick Ben and Kalam work really well. He certainly delivers on his potential as Master of The Deck. I love that guy.

Ps: Don?t take me wrong, I enjoy reading about The Bonehunters and their allies, but it?s a weird way to structure a book.

 

Finished TCG.

The ending to the book made me cry so deeply. It was such a poetically beautiful end with Fiddler and the boy, and then the ending line "Like a thing in chains" just hit me in the core of my heart, and the ending poem was magnificent.

 

the latest in the bauchelain and korbal brooch series was released in the us recently. picked it up, but have yet to read it since i'm still working through a dance with dragons.

 

Finished Toll the Hounds and have began the finale with Dust of Dreams and no way does a reading of the Deck of Dragons with 13 people present go well...

 

That is where Fiddler shines the most while reading The Deck.

 

I'm halfway through Memories of Ice, and loving it. However, there's a lot of casual sex in this series (thankfully offscreen) between characters that have had maybe three scenes together, the most recent case being Whiskeyjack and Korlat. Some of these have at least flimsy reasoning, but the "romance" between Ganoes and Tattersail that seems to be so important had no setup at all (in fact, they had just met and were deciding whether or not to kill each other). This seems to be the main romance so far in this series, which is kind of disappointing.

 

I have started the Crippled God.

Dust of Dreams ended in a demented and epic fashion - K'Chain civil war, multiple sky keeps, tech versus munitions and magic in a truly stunningly vicious battle and then there's that cliffhanger too.

Good job I had the next book to hand!

 

Enjoy it. Dont cry too much.

 

This was my biggest problem with the Crippled God and even the one before - I didn't have an emotional connection to many of the main players in the last 2 books because they weren't around for most of the series. Plus, The Crippled God himself really didn't seem like the main villain, and Anomander Rake's gambit seemed rather pointless in the end.

And you get stuff that seems to be building for 10 books like Mappo and Icarium that goes absolutely nowhere, I was pretty frustrated.

Wasn't there seriously one page of Kruppe in the Crippled God for basically no reason, or am I misremembering?

 

TCG spoiler:








?Wasn't there seriously one page of Kruppe in the Crippled God for basically no reason, or am I misremembering??


It?s possible that there were more than one Kruppe scene, but at least one was essential to Torrents plotline. Kruppe gave him Toc`s bow and arrows.

Don?t really see how you could think Anomaders gambit was pointless, he saved the world and all the Warrens.

And while there were a bunch of new players in the end game, there were also a bunch of oldies as well: The Bonehunters, The amazing Commander of the Bridgeburners (Hedge), Stormy and Gesler, Brys Beddict, Toc, Torrent(his third book after all), Tool, Ganoes Paran, Kalam and Quick. Though taking into consideration that Paran beats 4 Forkrull Assail armies, seriously weakening the enemy forces before the battles at the Spire and the blessed gift, saving Tavore and giving Fiddlers group a chance by destroying 80% of Brother Graves army, it makes absolutely no sense that we didn?t have regular POVs from him in the first half of the book.

While I wasn?t completely satisfied with the resolution to Icarium and Mappo, Mappo was essential in saving Icariums life, and saving the world from an unleashed Icarrium. Also, when Icarium at the end said that he felt he was close to the place he was seeking, you knew that this time he was actually very close to Icarias. It isn?t unlikely that he would find it, being on the right continent and having all the time in the world to search for it.

 

Hi guys, as I posted a while back I finished TCG almost two months ago. I have been planning to post my thoughts on it, but I have been completely blasted by work in real life in those two months. A lot of the minor details of the book are starting to fade so I will just be very general about my feelings on the book.







This is my favorite book of all time.