Malazan Book Of The Fallen

After buying the reprint preorder a couple months ago I fell into the speciality small press rabbit hole and my wallet has hated me ever since. I will say though that SubPress truly is incredibly with their quality so I trust they will get the issues sorted out.

God help me if Suntup Press ever releases a title that I’m really interested in…

Slowly working on my reread, getting toward the end of Deadhouse Gates. Was over at my buddy’s house playing dnd tonight. Most of them have read through six or seven of the books and put the series down for whatever reason.

So I start telling them where I’m at in deadhouse gates, the end basically, 200 pages left. Mappo, Icariium, Fid, Crokus, Apsalar and Pust are at Tremelor. Kalam is about to do his awesome assassin battle after he goes and talks to “Laseen.” Coltaine is nearing Aren, and Felisin is becoming Shiak. Anyway… I thought my buddies would be like “awww nice dude ur at the best part etc etc..”

Nope. One guy didn’t like the chain of dogs, and three of the guys didn’t care for Felisin, to the point where they dreaded her chapters. I’ couldn’t believe it. Yea I’m not big on Felisin but she’s not meant to be liked, her character is tragic, and her chapters include Heboric and Baudin, later Leoman and Karsa. Not enjoying the chain of dogs… I just couldn’t even fathom not enjoying that.

Fucking A. Deadhouse Gates is one of my favorite books in the series, and the only buddies I’ve convinced to read the series all seem to dislike the book. I was floored. None of them have finished the series, so I guess I don’t really care what they think about it… but at the same time they’re my dudes and Malazan is my favorite series ever, so it’s frustrating for me that they dislike what I view as one of the best books in the series.

Anyway, enjoying the reread, as I always do. Fuckin love this series. I’m at the convergence at the end so am in for a ride tomorrow when I push to the finish.

edit: TL;DR: my buddies are dummies for not liking Deadhouse gates.

First reading and I’ve really enjoyed it, but just started passing out after 5 minutes of book 5 each night. Wtf let’s not only constantly fuck you with new characters, but how about we go back in time and fuck you ?

wormie said:

Midnight Tides? I really liked that one because I really liked Trull.

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It was one of my favorite books, but I remember at the time being upset that it completely abandoned the main characters up to that point. On reread I liked it a lot more.

I'm just wrapping up Toll the Hounds on a first read (listen, via Audible)
Weaving in the Esselmont books as they fit in chronologically.
What an amazing series... I tend to enjoy history and the humanities that Erikson likes to dive into (anthropology, sociology, psychology, etc), and man can this guy
write well, and map a story across a dozen books like nobody other.

I've found this website to be an amazing resource (Malazan Reread of the Fallen – Tor.com), and I've developed a habit of reading the summary and forum posts (fortunately spoiler-free) after each chapter to soak up little tidbits of detail or context that I might have missed. It's also just great for that "book club" sort of post-chapter discussion among other fans, not to mention that Erikson visits and posts in the discussion, too!

I was hooked though thoroughly confused by all of the detail in Gardens of the Moon, and the re-read discussions really helped me get my head on straight.

SubPress non-numbered reprinting of GoTM pushed back to September. Entire run was so screwed it had to be scrapped and they’re starting over.

Fuck.

You can tell book 5 has a ‘brothers’ theme and has also been the first book to really dig into a society that’s not Malazan.

I’m feeling like it’s still slow because they’ve talking about this great meeting forever, but still cool for workdbuilding and more perspective on these races and what not.

The people carrying their debt on their back trying to cross the river needs to be a thing.

Midnight Tides is definitely unique in the Malazan world. It's like a completely different storytelling style. Instead of 5-10 different POVs it's just two, and you've met the characters before, and are seeing their backstory.

I'm at the climax of Memories of Ice. Knowing that Whiskeyjack is about to die, Iktovian is about to embrace the T'lan Imass.. There's a lot to look forward to. Just got past the spot where Rake tells Whiskeyjack that Brood is a practitioner of High Denul, and would gladly heal WJ's knee, it's like a slap in the face. WJ had Mallet trying to heal him and was offered healing from Brood... fucker shoulda taken some healing magicks. Course then we wouldn't have whatever-his-first-name-is Jarak leading Hood's armies... but still. Hate to see WJ die to Kallor, every fucking time I read it.

I will say, however, that I love Quick Ben smacking Korbal Broach down with six warrens, then doing the same to Bauchelain right afterward... all civil and shit. I love Quick. I love the whole series.