Memories of Ice [Spoilers]

[Fist and Faith]

Almost done. Less than 200 pages, anyway. I bought HoC a couple hours ago. And DAMN, is every book in the series longer than any that came before it??? 600, 800, 900, and HoC is 1,000?!?!?? Gimme a freakin' break!!

[lucimay]

dude...Reaper's Gale is HUGE...909 pgs. i just started it yesterday!!

i really shoulda read Bonehunters again but dAN's got my copy.
(yes i encouraging ALL my friends to read them, just bought GotM for Balon!)

[aliantha]

Oboy, Kruppe. Thanks for reminding me about him, F&F! I too cannot *wait* to find out what his back story is.

I started re-reading the series in prep for RG, but I only got through the first two books before RG arrived, so yeah, Luci, there's stuff I've totally missed, too...

[Fist and Faith]

Well, another one down. On to HoC.

MoI is truly amazing. Some of the characters are incredible. Some of them ended with amazing deaths, some with amazing lives.

Itkovian is an cool beyond words. Everything he said or thought is great a revelation.

Whiskeyjack... Ah, what a guy.

Tool remains one of my favorite characters from anywhere.

Oh damn, I can't even begin to say all I want to about just those three, let alone all the rest.

And the ending, knowing the story they're about to hear... the Chain of Dogs... Just thinking back to DG... Every time I think of that book...

[lucimay]

yeah i LOVED that ending!!! that was fabulous!

ah...Whiskeyjack.

[Holsety]

Quick question.

Spoiler

Alright, I just remembered this thing me and a friend had been puzzling over a few months earlier. There's this dead edur they find somewhere that's gotten asploded or something, quick ben says most likely by the warren of ruse. The only user of ruse I know of is ebron, who's one of the soldiers w/ the malazans - I don't even remember what group he's with right now, but he was in the ashok regiment during Deadhouse Gates. Anyway, since it didn't seem likely he's the killer, the only reasonable explanation we could come up with is...

And I range into Midnight Tides Spoilers below...

Spoiler

that he's one of those guys mael killed. Firstly, since quick ben thinks it's ruse, one of the ocean warrens (and notoriously difficult to master), it's reasonable to think Mael would have some control of it, or that his magic stuff would resemble it. Also, it'd fit in with some events that happened in MT, sorta, though I have no idea how the corpse would get to where it was in MOI. The only real proof I need is some sorta hints as to the place of MT chronologically w/ the rest of the series - since I'm pretty sure Ben says the edur has been dead for some time, it needs to have taken place quite a while before the other books.

[lucimay]

oh my god...how CAN you remember such DETAIL?????

i'm still trying to figure out...

Reaper's Gale spoiler:

Spoiler

who that errant/cocubine bloke is in the emperor's palace
and how he freakin GOT there. arrrrgggghhhh.

[stonemaybe]

Fist and faith wrote:

Well, another one down. On to HoC.

MoI is truly amazing. Some of the characters are incredible. Some of them ended with amazing deaths, some with amazing lives.

Itkovian is an cool beyond words. Everything he said or thought is great a revelation.

Whiskeyjack... Ah, what a guy.

Tool remains one of my favorite characters from anywhere.

Oh damn, I can't even begin to say all I want to about just those three, let alone all the rest.

And the ending, knowing the story they're about to hear... the Chain of Dogs... Just thinking back to DG... Every time I think of that book...

We're about even then! Just finished MoI yesterday and started House of Chains.

I'll second everything you wrote about MoI. I wasn't too fussed about the Capustan siege, but everything after that had me enthralled. And it is very cool the way the very cool characters just keep getting cooller and cooller!!!!!!!!!!!!

Definitely my fave of the three so far!

Spoiler

Can't wait to see the effect of Paran's blessing on the Bridgeburners' tomb in Moonspawn!

[Fist and Faith]

I guess I just learned the answer to that spoiler!!!

[stonemaybe]

You must be a bit ahead of me still - I'm at the bit where everyone is converging on Ruraku (?)....

[Fist and Faith]

Yeah, I'm 70 pages into Midnight Tides now.

[aliantha]

Okay, re-reading MoI, and it wasn't until yesterday that it dawned on me that...

Spoiler

Keruli is K'rul.

*This* is why I'm re-reading the bloody series, btw -- because of all the stuff I missed (or was too confused to pick up on) the first time through....

[Farm Ur-Ted]

Ok, I'm about 600 pages into MoI, and I just read the section where Rake and Whiskeyjack are discussing Fener, and his priest who had his hands cut off. I'm a little confused. Is/was Rath'Fener Heboric from DG? When Rake says that there was a mistake made during the Reve, was the mistake lopping off Heboric's hands, or Rath'Fener's (if they aren't the same dude). If they are the same dude, how did Heboric end up at the beginning of DG being enslaved? Feel free to hit me with spoilers, if that's what I need. Thanks.

This book is awesome, btw.

[aliantha]

Ok, I'm about 600 pages into MoI, and I just read the section where Rake and Whiskeyjack are discussing Fener, and his priest who had his hands cut off. I'm a little confused. Is/was Rath'Fener Heboric from DG? When Rake says that there was a mistake made during the Reve, was the mistake lopping off Heboric's hands, or Rath'Fener's (if they aren't the same dude). If they are the same dude, how did Heboric end up at the beginning of DG being enslaved? Feel free to hit me with spoilers, if that's what I need. Thanks.

This book is awesome, btw.

Spoiler

Rath'Fener is not Heboric. The mistake was lopping off Heboric's hands. (Which is another of the details I read right past, the first time through the series...)

[Farm Ur-Ted]

Spoiler

Rath'Fener is not Heboric. The mistake was lopping off Heboric's hands. (Which is another of the details I read right past, the first time through the series...)

Spoiler

Thanks, that's more or less what I figured; I didn't think that there was any way R'F was Heboric, but I'm not real clear on the timelines of the two books. I figured the mistake had to be lopping off Heboric's hands, mainly because Rake mentioned that the priest had gotten in contact with the Chaos Warren. I think that that was when Heboric touched the hand or whatever it was that was sticking out of the sand in the desert in DG, and then he started to be able to feel his hands again. I'm gonna have to re-read the first two books, I guess.

[I'm Murrin]

Spoiler

Heboric was convicted on false accusations fabricated by Laseen. He was the true Destriant of Fener at the time, and that's why it was a mistake to take his hands--it created a situation where, when Felisin forced Heboric to contact his god after he touched the statue, the fact that he was Destriant (and thus had power over his god) and that the hands were in Fener's possession meant that Fener was pulled into the world against his will.

It was after Heboric pulled Fener into the Malaz world that Rath'Fener's hands were severed. Because Fener was no longer in his realm, the hands were claimed not by Fener but the first powerful being to come across them--something in Chaos, in this case, which destroyed the man's body. In this case, it could be considered wrong to have punished him by the Reve when Brukhalian already knew that Fener was gone, and so couldn't predict what would happen to Rath'Fener.

I'm not sure of the specific conversation you're referring to, so I can't say which situation it is they're discussing.

[Farm Ur-Ted]

Spoiler

I'm not sure of the specific conversation you're referring to, so I can't say which situation it is they're discussing.

Spoiler

Thanks; I'd forgotten that Heboric was the destriant, although I knew that word was familiar for some reason. I re-read the passage I was talking about (starting on p. 566, ch 18 in my edition), and Rake was definitely talking about Heboric. What a bummer, getting your hands lopped off. My golf game would go to hell if someone did that to me.

[Farm Ur-Ted]

Well, another one down. On to HoC.

MoI is truly amazing. Some of the characters are incredible. Some of them ended with amazing deaths, some with amazing lives.

I finished it last night. That was one helluva book. I was fully satisfied with it, unlike the previous two. Those books would grip me for a while, and then push me away. But MoI was just awesome, I could hardly put the thing down. I think that it had the best dialogue I've ever read in any book. I just loved it when I'd flip the page, and could tell from scanning all of the paragraph breaks that the next couple of pages (or more) were just going to be dialogue. Erikson comes up with better conversations than anyone I've ever read. I personally found Kruppe annoying in GotM, but he was a hoot in this book! Paran was my favorite character in GotM, and he was awesome in MoI. His outlook on life is just hilarious. I hope that there's more of him in the books to come.

I think it's pretty cool that the first three books are nicely self-contained trilogy. It's wild that DG and MoI take place at the same time on different continents. Finally, the Trygalle Traders scene in DG makes sense! I absolutely hated that scene when I first read it. It reminded me of the hokey scene in Lion, Witch, Wardrobe when Santa Clause just appeared out of nowhere (seriously, how stupid was that?). When I first started MoI, I kept thinking I should re-read GotM and DG, but as the book progressed, I was able to recall most of the big happenings in those books, so I don't really feel like I need to do it so much right now. I need a break from the Malazan world right now, but I'm definitely going to start HC in a few weeks to a month.

[Spiral Jacobs]

Spoiler

Heboric was convicted on false accusations fabricated by Laseen. He was the true Destriant of Fener at the time, and that's why it was a mistake to take his hands--it created a situation where, when Felisin forced Heboric to contact his god after he touched the statue, the fact that he was Destriant (and thus had power over his god) and that the hands were in Fener's possession meant that Fener was pulled into the world against his will.

It was after Heboric pulled Fener into the Malaz world that Rath'Fener's hands were severed. Because Fener was no longer in his realm, the hands were claimed not by Fener but the first powerful being to come across them--something in Chaos, in this case, which destroyed the man's body. In this case, it could be considered wrong to have punished him by the Reve when Brukhalian already knew that Fener was gone, and so couldn't predict what would happen to Rath'Fener.

I'm not sure of the specific conversation you're referring to, so I can't say which situation it is they're discussing.

Everytime I read one of your posts about these books I feel as if I missed 90% of their content.

[Fist and Faith]

Ted, the first three are not a self-contained trilogy: The first four are a self-contained quadrilogy. It is extremely important to the story of Raraku, Felisin, Toblakai, and many of the other characters in DG. Kind of a must-read if you've read the first three. Don't take too long a break!


And I agree with Spiral Jacobs. Thanks, Murrin!!!