Malazan Book Of The Fallen

I think almost all of Esslemont's book happen around the same time as the 8th book in the main series. He usually gives the proximity of the jade travelers in the sky to let you know a rough estimate. The last couple might have advanced beyond the end of the main series though.

All of Esslemont's books have been worth it. Night of Knives was his first book(ever? in this series? don't know) and it really shows. But it gives a lot of important history to the empire, so still worth reading. The rest of his books are a dramatic increase in quality.

Erikson's side books...meh. Korbal Brooch and Bauchelain, whom are side characters I don't think you've met yet, are best done in small doses of comic relief. I don't think Erikson has the talent for humor to base whole books on these two.

The Kharkanas trilogy hasn't been that good either. It continues Erikson's trend to wax philosophical that he delved heavily into by the end of the Malazan series. I haven't read Fall of Light yet because the first book didn't excite me much. I'm really hoping the Karsa trilogy is much better because he's one of the more interesting characters in the main series.

Finished up Dancer's Lament(kinda forgot about it...). I was somewhat worried about Kellanved being a main character, see comment about Korbal Brooch and Bauchelain above. But Esslemont pulled it off pretty well. Couple things bothered me as out of character, but now I can't even remember one of them, so must not have been that bad. I was expecting Dancer to play their trump card on Mister Ho once they lost the upper hand on Shalmanat.

Was that arrowhead something useful or a violation of Chekov's Gun? Not that I really care about the latter.

Oh, I didn't mean that the characters seems OOC compared to their later selves. Just within the book itself, I expected them to do a few things different. Of which I can't even remember besides Mister Ho, so whatever. Kellanved definitely seemed within character, there's definitely a believable transition from Wu to Shadowthrone based on the snippets of Shadowthrone we got in the Malazan books.

Dorin...can't really judge? I don't remember him having much of a character in the Malazan series TBH. Which, probably makes him the perfect "protagonist" for a story like this. You're not really rooting for anyone since you know how most of the characters turn out anyway, so it makes sense to tell most of the story from a blank slate sort of guy.

I want the next book to be told from Kellanved's perspective. A kind of fish out of water story but with a character that has the power to make everyone else respect him anyway. Which I guess what the Korbal Broach and Bauchelain were supposed to be but nobody respected them. Quick Ben lazily blasted both of them through the wall.

Speaking of characters that need more back story...

I think Crack'd Pot Trail is where I put down that mini series. I don't want more humor from Erikson after that. I just enjoyed Kellanved in Dancer's Lament. The reviews for Willful Child don't look good.

Oh, hah, finally remembered on of my very minor gripes about the book. I kept expecting Dorin to kill someone with rope. Or just plain do something with rope. I think he fails once to try to grapnel something. That "He was of the opinion that one can never have too much rope" comment didn't seem to pay off.