Malazan Issues [And Stuff] (Spoilers)

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Ah, ok. Wondered if he might have been somebody we'd met.

--A

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Gotta say I seem to find DoD quite difficult to digest...maybe it's all the Icarium stuff in the beginning that I found needlessly complicated, but this has been my 3rd read of it, and I feel I only now got to grips whith what was actually going on.

200 pages into TCG now, and it's getting better. Found the short jumps between viewpoints a bit confusing for the first 150 pages or so.

--A

[Farm Ur-Ted]

I found DoD a little hard to read as well. I spent maybe a month and a half reading the first book of it, then I put it down for 8-10 months, then I managed to start over and get through the book. I liked it, but I definitely don't consider it the best in the series.

[Onos T'oolan]

Honestly, I think Erikson just lost track of a few things, and messed up. But it's not of any concern to me. If the series was a whole lot shorter, I'd probably keep better track of them, and post a lot about it. But the series is just so extraordinary that I'm entirely willing to pretend none of the mistakes are there.


Re DoD, yeah, it dragged a lot is some places. But we learn a seriously cool thing in TCG that makes it much better!

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Say, Picker's torcs in DHG were ivory, not silver.

Ok, finished the series. Wow.

This time round, since DHG and Duiker's comments about the Roll of the Fallen, I've expected this to end up being the book of everybody who died.

Spoiler

Was not expecting it to be the book of the Crippled God.

Great books. Totally worth it.

--A

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So, this is not an issue so much as an observation, but toward the end of MoI, which is where I am on the re-read now, Dujek and Whiskeyjack have a conversation before heading to Coral...it basically resolves the majority of "imperial tension" issues in the whole series, if you can just remember it across enough books. The first part I'd remembered (although not where it was mentioned), the rest I'd forgotten about.

1) All of the talking about how Laseen broke what was left of the old guard back down to the ranks, Whiskeyjack, Stormy & Gessler, most of the Bridgeburners...Dujeck reminds Whiskeyjack that "Lassen saw this coming...that's why she inverted the command structure. To make sure the right people were on the ground.

1a)Tayschrenn thought he was saving the Bridgeburners by ordering them to remai in the tunnels at Pale, thinking it would be the safest place.

2) Tayschrenn was grooming Tattersail to be the Master (Mistress) of the Deck. Because Paran was involved with her at the time, the remnants of that preparation affected him when Bellurdan killed Tattersail, making him the unintended candidate.

2 is interesting, but 1 is really worth keeping in mind.

--A

[Holsety]

Regarding number 1: Erikson actually may have shored this up a bit in GotM before getting to it again in MoI...specifically, at some point it's mentioned that the, how to put this, geological structure/rock, ground formation under Pale was already set up to collapse the tunnels. So is that something the Malazan Empire already knew about? Well, one of Erikson's characters remarks while Tayschrenn is leaning over a battle map that Tay probably can't even read the thing to save his life. So he may be completely out of the loop in terms of problems like that, assuming anyone knew about them. It's not clear to me exactly when the Malazans found out the rock structure would be a problem for the tunnels, but it's unlikely that Dujek would've let something like that happen to the tunnelers and if he didn't know about the structure in advance it's unlikely anyone did?

[Fist and Faith]

I have a tough time imagining anyone had greater knowledge of that land than the Bridgeburners who were tunneling through it.

[Holsety]

The people of Pale or the Moranth (due to their long enmity) might. It's true the malazan sappers are well regarded, though. The Moranth seem specifically nonhostile to the Malazans (they don't think they are corrupt), at least according to that one conversation where they say as much. So I don't think they would have let a landslide happen.

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So, I changed the title of this thread a bit, since I'm running ahead in my re-read so I might as well use this for just random stuff as well.

Just finished HoC and I'm reminded why this was for a long time my favourite, and remains such a good book...I might skim the first couple hundred pages, at least until Karsa gets free, but from then on it's pretty enthralling.

I do like how quickly Erikson turns Karsa from a 1-dimensional character to a multi-dimensional one, although that said, it is a very thick book, so a character arc that could have encompassed books is handled pretty quickly.

I think about the meta of a big series like this quite a bit...to what extent was stuff planned, and to what extent did it arise organically, and the "roundness" of most of the major characters from the start always makes me think more of it was planned out in advance than wasn't.

(Also they had the advantage that they'd basically gamed in that world for years as far as I know before turning it into the books, so they had plenty of time to develop stuff.)

Anyway, thrilling conclusion to the Chain of Dogs, great new characters, more about characters we already know...

Of course, now it's MT, probably my least favourite book of all as we jump back to before GotM to hear Trull's story of how the Edur...uh...had problems. I really only read this for Tehol and Bugg.

(Also, I always get Onrack and Onos T'oolan mixed up...I totally forgot about

Spoiler

the Whirlwind being Onrack's spurned wife.

)

--A

[Onos T'oolan]

(Also, I always get Onrack and Onos T'oolan mixed up...

Are you insane? Blind? Onrack can barely handle a butter knife!! Do not tempt me, mortal! I'll ban you from this warren!

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He did pretty well against the Liosan.. (That whole scene is pretty hilarious...when they finally find Gesler and Stormy and get themselves beaten up again. )

--A

[Fist and Faith]