Malazan Book Of The Fallen

I think my GoT experience had me scared regarding all these storylines that were at one point central and haven’t been brought up in 3-5 books sometimes. I’m on 9.5 and wondering about a brother that’s kind of a big deal, an assassin who’s fate was left in the air x 2, and a reborn mage from book 1 that was a major plot in 3 just….disappeared!

Finally we got back to the army and I am into it. About to March into the wastelands

Rod-138 said:

I think my GoT experience had me scared regarding all these storylines that were at one point central and haven’t been brought up in 3-5 books sometimes. I’m on 9.5 and wondering about a brother that’s kind of a big deal, an assassin who’s fate was left in the air x 2, and a reborn mage from book 1 that was a major plot in 3 just….disappeared!

Finally we got back to the army and I am into it. About to March into the wastelands

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It’s been so long for me that I’m not sure what you’re referring to in all of the above. Brother? Which assassin? The reborn mage being Tattersail?

Erikson focuses mostly on the Malazan army and their exploits and how it shapes things, but Esslemonts books tend to focus on the Empire itself and many characters introduced during the Book of the Fallen who vanished make an appearance and play a role in Esslemonts stories.

Also Intrinsic you purchased the original first print run from SP, right? Did you preorder Forge of Darkness?

For anyone else that got on the first printing SubPress train for Malazan, preorders for Forge end the end of the month I think and if you’re not interested in purchasing the Malazan SP versions are still selling for a huge massive premium third party and the demand for rights is still through the roof. Once they finish with preorders they’ll announce what if any copies they have left and when they’re going to be put for sale.

Just got to book 10, first read through. I’ll try to summarize the strengths and weaknesses of Erickson I am feeling having freshly gone through this thing.

Character building and world building are top notch.

tone is good, not great. I’d say the whole series feels desperate. Everyone is desperately trying to do this or that, and that kind of works, but wears on the reader.

main story is good, but suffers from too many side quests. Keeps you going for sure, but it’s almost silly how much he uses the same ‘ah HAH’ moments in almost every book at every battle. There are exceptions, but most books end in a big fight with a big surprise. I definitely care about several character arcs, and I definitely don’t care about several. It’s like 6/10 I care about.

Biggest gripe so far - the emotional detail. This motherfucker will talk about exactly how the characters feel for hundreds of pages without ever telling you what they want or where they’re going. He’s such an emo.

overall love the series and absolutely happy to experience it, but yes, 7-10 are tough, not because they’re bad, but I think the reader expects the pace of things to pick up and it somehow slows down. Nothing pisses me off like really wanting to know what happens to my boy Karsa and having to read 100 pages of trade guild/barghast/Tool inner monologue about how sad they are now.

7/10

I enjoyed Path to Ascendancy stuff, only ICE book I liked more was RoTCG I think. I'll check out Forge of the High Mage soon. I generally don't keep up with ICE releases, so thanks for the heads up Kaji!

Kajiimagi said:

I also wish Erikson had that hot writing bug up his ass again like he did with the main 10.

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Yea no doubt. After The God is Not Willing, I'm really looking forward to the second Witness book.