First read - Memories of Ice: Book 3 of The Malazan

[Holsety]

A brief anecdote with personal life info as well as info from quite early in MoI

Spoiler

So, although I am not normally one for horoscopes, I quickly checked the Ares horoscope something like a week or two ago. It said something like "you have all the cards, all you have to do is play them." A few days later, my left calf started hurting inexplicably and lasted maybe a day or two. I'm convinced I was temporarily cast as Munug from that scene where he gave TCG his set of house of chains cards and was rewarded, but wounded, in return.

[Avatar]

LOL, when's your birthday? I'm an Ares too, not that I believe in that stuff.

--A

[Holsety]

On Itkovian's big moment toward the end.

Spoiler

I always really liked Itkovian embracing the T'Lan Imass at the end of MoI. But this time I was a little unhappy with it. Although Erikson does a good job of showing that the Imass are really struggling the entire time, I feel like Itkovian doing it at the worst possible time strategically for the alliance in this book probably runs counter to his acumen as a military commander. Basically I think I could argue he's responsible for most of Gruntle's legion getting massacred, not to mention the Malazans, due to the K'Chain going unrivaled for a while during the battle at Coral. I think Erikson could've done something more to make the need for the embrace more immediate. I even had some ideas, but I forgot them between thinking about this and coming up to actually post it. It's still a really wonderful part of the book.

Also, regarding the end of the book, I feel like MoI has the most well developed epilogue of the series. In some ways, to me, Toll the Hounds feels like it just opens old wounds.