Kevin's Watch

Well, that was something.

Now where's the "favourite book" topic gone?




Very good addition to the series, though tere were one or two small things I think were kind of left out at the end.

Spoiler

Nothing ever came of the thing about the Crippled God's throne, for example; Munung and his temple didn't feature in the book at all after he killed Harllo's aunt and uncle. Which is odd, given that Kallor was supposed to be coming to claim that throne. The book never made it clear if the claiming somehow required one of them to be successful in getting Dragnipur, but it seems unlikely given that none knew that would happen.
Apsal'ara's storyline kind of went nowhere in the end. Her climax, her final act, of stealnig the god's eye, did seem necessary. Nothing really came of it.
Finally, we didn't get any explanation of how Bellam Nom happened to be in exactly the right place at the right time to save Harllo; nor did we see anything more of Snell after he was locked up. It just seems like we should have gotten some closure on that last part, at least.

Other than those tiny things, though--great book, and some huge events in the climax, there. Look forward to seeing where things go next.

What? Favorite book??? What was your favorite before??


And I'm managing to resist your spoilers. Heh.

Onos T'oolan wrote:What? Favorite book??? What was your favorite before??

You replied to the "best book" topic right after I posted in there about TtH.

Yeah, yeah. Unroll your eyes. I went looking as soon as I posted that.

Well, I'm glad you liked it; I've read some lukewarm reviews, mostly complaining that it's slow. That doesn't bother me; for some reason, I haven't found any of the other books to be all that slow.

I should have it in my hands in 2 weeks. In all likelihood, it'll be the only 2008 release that I read this year. I can't believe I've actually caught up with this series. Like everyone else, I was reading this while waiting for ADwD, which may never come (never mind the other 2-3 books that are supposed to finish out the series).

I spent most of the weekend reading. I'm about halfway through.

I assume the complaints about the pacing being slow are due to Erickson's framing the Darujhistan chapters from Kruppe's POV -- he ain't the most succint of speakers, after all -- and the fact that there isn't a battle around every corner in this one. I'm actually glad for a break from the constant fighting; I kinda go ho-hum over battle tactics anyhow. There was one battle involving Redmask in RG that I basically skipped over on the re-read. (IEW was my least favorite of the original Chrons, precisely because of this.)

So do we eventually find out who's at the campfire with Kruppe and K'rul at the end of the prologue?

Spoiler

Is it Traveller?

The fighting does get kind of old. You could tell in Midnight's Tide that Erikson even seemed tired of writing battles scenes. Most of the ones in that book were of the "And the mages on the left threw a giant wall of fire at the mages on the right, who threw a giant wall of fire back, and the two collided!"-variety. After DG, MoI and HoC, I think he was pretty much battled-out.

I just hope that Paran is in this one.

Haven't seen Ganoes yet, but you never know....

So ANYway... Some spoilers below.

I'm 300 pages in. An incredible book so far!!! How awesome to be in Darujhistan again! And so cool getting all this information about so many characters!! Anomander. Traveller. (I'm a bit confused about him, though. I thought Dassem was the one with the undetachable swords on his arms in MoI who was guarding the Mhybe's body.) Vorcan. Apsal'ara. The Elder???

And very briefly hearing about Cowl's exploits! I guess he rocks, and could surely give Quick a run for his money!

Holy...



Damn.



Oh man, I just read a certain fight in a certain bar.



Of course, it's amazing to watch Bridgeburners in action. And how would such amazing warriors rather die? But... My god! It tears your heart out every time. Please, not Mallet!

But then I wonder how sad I'm supposed to be! As of the end of HoC, does any Bridgeburner who dies Ascend?!? I assume I'll find out in the next several hundred pages. I hope I find out! I better find out!!!


So cool seeing Fisher, too. First we heard him mentioned. Then he's talking to none other than Duiker! And now, it looks like he knows how to kick some ass!!!

Damn it! I feel like a moron sometimes. I'm om page 520, and I have only the smallest, most vague understanding of the things Endest Silann is ever thinking about. Very frustrating... Well, maybe the next 300 pages will help a little.

Moved your posts into the spoiler topic.

Well, that was a fun little jaunt, eh?

Jesus!

More power thrown around than ever before?

Hood and Rake both die in the same book??

Hood being a Jaghut was so cool! I think they're my favorite race. I guess that's why the Jaghut fought against Death in times before anything even Kallor had ever heard of. Maybe Hood was the first Tyrant, kind of?

And Pearl, a demon of what we were told was considerable power, but only seen for, what, a page?, in GotM, is back, being very cool. And someone or other in MoI asked what happened to Bellurdan when Silverfox was born - and we find out five books later. When telling Christy about Malazan, I've tried to put into words how amazing it is to have a story so damned huge that it can bring back a minor character seven books later; but the depth is so amazing! Not like having it be just the same book written a bunch of times. Like Xanth. Or what I've heard Robert Jordan did.

Heh, guess you missed the hints about Hood in Reaper's Gale, then. And all the other hints before that.

It would seem so. I was thinking of going to look for the part in MoI where Quick drags Hood out, and see if tusks were mentioned.

Go look for the bit in RG when Hedge's travelling through Omtose Phellack.

Yeah, I remember being confused by all that. Reading it again just now didn't entirely clear it up. I had thought they were saying the Jaghut had made sort of their own realm of Death.

And I assumed Hood was sort of an elemental force (Much as I imagine Mother Dark to be. But then, maybe I'm wrong about her, eh?), ruling the real - the overriding - realm of Death.

So what happened when anybody died before a certain Jaghut took the name Hood?

Good question. Maybe there was another Hood before this one?

More to the point...what will happen to people who die *now*? I assume Paran will recruit (more or less) a new Lord of Death. (I too was surprised that Hood was Jaghut. And I just re-read RG before this book came out, damn it....)

I was sad about Rake. I really liked that guy -- such a great tragic hero. Plus he did right by the Bridgeburners -- and btw, kinda cool to see Whiskeyjack again, huh?

Can't wait for Mappo to catch up to Icarium -- and Icarium's new keeper.

i can never resist spoilers!! arg!!! rake???!!!! arg!!! whiskeyjack!!

crap. i'm only a little ways in but i couldn't resist peeking at this thread!!

Remember in the Bonehunters, Paran and Ganath travel through a place that is beneath Hood's Realm, an older place which was apparently the Jaghut realm of the dead. There were things before Hood.
There is a suggestion, from all the ties between the Ice Throne and the throne of Death, that Hood was the King of the Ice Hold, the same one that Hedge saw dead on his throne, as if his soul had abandoned the body. With this about the Jaghut waging war on Death, I wonder if perhaps the King decided that they could not win, and instead found another way to work around the problem? Though that doesn't quite match up with the earlier impression, which was that it was done after most of Omtose Phellack had fallen to the Imass. Hmm.