Malazan Book Of The Fallen

Rod-138

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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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Skinner

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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

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.
 

Skinner

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Also Intrinsic 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.
 

Intrinsic

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Also Intrinsic 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.

Yessir, I have my copy locked in and it will be the same number as my Book of the Fallen version.

Also there's a guy I found from eBay that may be doing some custom tray case stuff for Malazan. He's a part of the SubPress group on Facebook and said he'd put a notification there.
 
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Oblio

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Over half way through Memories of Ice. I am really enjoying it this time, is this the one people complain about? I feel like there are way more info dumps in this book than the first two combined.
 

Hateyou

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Over half way through Memories of Ice. I am really enjoying it this time, is this the one people complain about? I feel like there are way more info dumps in this book than the first two combined.
No, people like that one. It was some of the later books that had big info dumps without a lot of things going on. Book 8+ maybe? Been years since I did a read, just restarted it a few weeks ago, about 2/3 through Gardens of the Moon.
 
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Rod-138

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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
 
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Kajiimagi

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This is a 9/10 series for me personally. I was fine with it being all over the place and inhaled it the 2nd time though. I'm prepping for a 3rd readthru now.
 
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Intrinsic

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SubPress is shipping Forge out this week. A couple of days ago they posted that 10 copies were available then it went back OOS with a possible few more to be released.
 

Kajiimagi

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SubPress is shipping Forge out this week. A couple of days ago they posted that 10 copies were available then it went back OOS with a possible few more to be released.
for those of us barely paying attention, is this a new book or a reprint? I like the story not the media personally so a 0/1 e-pub is just fine.
 

Intrinsic

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for those of us barely paying attention, is this a new book or a reprint? I like the story not the media personally so a 0/1 e-pub is just fine.

Oh yeah, sorry, this was a special print edition by a publisher that has done a limited numbered and lettered edition run of Erikson's work. A couple of us have had them so I just periodically drop a heads up as announcements come out in case anyone else is interested.
 
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Kajiimagi

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FYI: Forge of the High Mage (path of ascendancy #4) is out by Ian Esslemont, being an ICE book I do not have high hopes.
 
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Intrinsic

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I started my re-read last night. Been a LONG time since going through these. So much stuff in Gardens makes more sense and it is easier to follow. The second or third chapter about the battle at Pale that Tattersail flashes back to was my main memory of the book and I forgot that was only 1/3 of one chapter.

It got me thinking of the Path of Ascendancy novels bc Tattersail makes comments about Dancer and Kellenved the night they ascended and there are other small comments as well.

I don’t expect a lot of continuity being the state Gardens was in at the time and the fact it is an ICE book, but maybe it’ll be interesting.
 

Valorath

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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!
 
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Intrinsic

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The part above I didn't remember at all from GotM, because on first reading you have no reason to pay attention, is Tattersail mentioning that Mock was her lover and Kellanved slitting his throat.
 
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Kajiimagi

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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!
Me either, on a fluke I went to an old Malazan message board and saw it was listed as 'published'. Currently it's out in UK / Canada but not US yet. I 'found' a copy online.
I liked books 1&2, 3 read like very bad fan fiction to me. I hope this one is good. I also wish Erikson had that hot writing bug up his ass again like he did with the main 10. That is my all time favorite series. It was crazy that he was coming out with 1000+pages every 12-16 months when ol' fat bastard cannot be bothered to write a new GOT book at all.
 
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Valorath

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

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

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Another thing from the re-read last night, and there were more than just this one, but there was a whole paragraph from Toc the Younger about Dassem and the deal with Hood and the events at Y'Ghatan. And I don't think we saw that whole thing go down for quite a while in either one of the later Eriksen books, or maybe it was an Esselmont novel?

Just crazy how many random throw away comments there are that eventually come back up in later novels. Gardens reads like a whole prologue to the rest of the entire series and reinforces the amount of thought and planning that went in to crafting these.

Will plug this again since I'm following along as well. Years and years ago when I attempted a re-read this was in progress already but could be helpful for re-reads and 1st time reads as it follows both someone new to the series as well as someone familiar offering commentary on a chapter by chapter basis:

 

Kajiimagi

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I finished 'Forge of the High Mage' last night. This is book 4 (of 4) of the path of ascendancy so you would think there would be a conclusion. I previously wrote that book 3 read like bad fan fiction. Well I am happy to report that this read like a genuine adventure! We get to reconnect with all our old friends as they go on a merry adventure. There does seem to be about 100 pages missing of this story, the part where something happens.
Your life isn't any better for reading this book than it was before. It does read well but it's pretty much a waste. I would not pay money for this for sure. I guess if you are bored and need something Malazan to read , this fits the bill but wow what a waste.