EPT
looking forward to reading it soon.
[Books] Malazan Book of the Fallen - Page 4
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maitiu
Germany58 Posts
looking forward to reading it soon. | ||
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GGQ
Canada2653 Posts
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floor exercise
Canada5847 Posts
On May 29 2011 03:05 GGQ wrote: My favourite books are Midnight Tides and Gardens of the Moon simply because they feel the most focused. My favourite character by far is Udinaas, I also really like Icarium/Mappo. I feel like I'm forgetting a couple of characters that I really like as well, but oh well. There's tons of characters I like, there's more than a few I don't as well. I have never been a fan of Kruppe even though tons of people like him. I really like Midnight Tides too, most people complain because it's a whole new cast, and they see the Letherii Empire as some sort of allegorical device for anti capitalism or something. I've never understood that, it's just too ridiculous and ham fisted to be any kind of criticism of the world we live in. There's tons to like about MT. Erikson hit his stride as far as comic relief goes with Tehol/Bugg, which I find he completely misses with other relief characters. Trull is awesome, actually I like all the Sengar brothers, I even like Hannan Mosag. On May 29 2011 03:03 Chaoz wrote: I read the first two books and I didn't really like them; it's kinda hard to describe why. There are a lot of characters, but so does ASOIF. I think it boils down to the world building; Erikson doesn't really explain anything. I don't think Warrens were explained at all, you have to piece things together which amounts almost to nothing. He basically just throws all the different races in there and it's just confusing. He not very good at making you feel engaged in the events that are happening. In the second book there's a big war and lots of people dying, but I just didn't care at all. + Show Spoiler + Man I hated the ending. The assassin spent the entire book trying to kill the queen, and decides not to when she said don't. Warrens aren't really explained ever. I think the best explanation of how people in their world manipulate them to use 'magic' is given by the mage character in book 2 who's name I completely forget. There's enough throughout the books that you can piece it all together though and form a decent understanding of how the warrens work. As far as not caring, I completely quit the series halfway through book 3, decided they weren't as good as the college friend who reccomended them only to end up picking it up a year later and ended up devouring the rest of the series. I don't know what specifically made it all click for me but something did in a big way | ||
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Nevuk
United States16280 Posts
But... after that, I have issues recommending the series to anyone outside of diehard fantasy fans. The last five have lots of flashes of brilliance (some more than others - Reaper's Gale is good as a whole, Bonehunters is decent but paced really weirdly). However there are some really boring parts - book 8 I found entirely unreadable until I started skipping the section about the child. The Crippled God especially was a large disappointment. Even The Bonehunters is better overall, I think. (And Dust of Dreams they start to abandon archetypal traits of characters, then go out of their way to point out just how weird it is that they're breaking character. That doesn't even make sense, Quick Ben suddenly decides that force is the way to go and stops using illusion magic - with no real justification given. When you build up that a character acts in a specific way for 7000 pages, you should give at least some kind of a reason for them randomly breaking character. It's almost to the point that some of the characters feel like one dimensional parodies of their earlier selves. (Also, there are an absurdly large amount of chronological issues for something that was planned over the course of 30 years - someone goes from being pregnant in one book to having an 8 year old child 3 books later, when they haven't been visited in between and there's no indication to anyone else that more than a month has passed. ) (I guess the issue with the books is that if I had to rank them, the last 5 would all be in the bottom five, with the final 3 being the bottom three) : Midnight Tides (5) Memories of Ice (3) Deadhouse Gates (2) Gardens of the Moon (1) House of Chains (4) Reaper's Gale (7) Bonehunters (6) The Crippled God (10) Dust of Dreams (9) ***huge drop in quality***** Toll the Hounds (8) Has anyone read ICE's work? I've only read Night of Knives. I heard his later malaz books were just kind of ok and skipped out on them, but that they had potential. On May 28 2011 15:42 nihoh wrote: I started reading this in 2002 when I was like 14. Read up to Toll of Hounds, was severely disappointed by Bonehunters, could not get past 10th page of Toll of Hounds. Bear in mind this was a series I re-read every 12 months. =\ Far too many deus ex machinas. I'll finish it one day. From my experience, this series pinnacled at Memories of Ice. Bonehunters was so bad. But nevertheless, I highly rate this series up to Midnight Tides. I hope Erikson's redeemed himself since BH. Reaper's Gale is better. Everything else is worse. By a lot. | ||
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Logros
Netherlands9913 Posts
 .You should definitely start with Gardens of the Moon. I remember not knowing what was going on for half the book when I read it at first, but I reread it only a short while ago and if you're more familiar with the series it's easy to follow. Just don't expect to understand everything in any of the books when you read through them the first time (or even 5th time). | ||
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Nidoa
Canada239 Posts
On May 28 2011 14:46 snotboogie wrote: The picture's labeled Itkovian so it's probably a MoI battle. wait yes, i think i remember him taking an axe in the shoulder or something, at Capustan. Apparently he had an aggressive horse. | ||
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floor exercise
Canada5847 Posts
About Toll the Hounds + Show Spoiler + It had an insane ending. The story of the killer/city guard was great too I thought. It had many problems for sure though. Cutter I have never liked, the kid was terrible and broke all sorts of continuity. Also the best part of his story went nowhere (at least not yet anyway, the broken Imass he gives legs to) There was also Nimander and the group of tiste andii that are insufferable until the last book. Iskaral Pust I have never loved, The Redeemer I hated even though I loved Itkovian. There was a lot about the book I didn't like, I think I'd rate it the lowest too. But every sour note comes with something interesting too, lots of Kallor, Spinnock Durav, Traveller etc. I think it was a necessary transitional book to tie up some loose threads and set us up for the finale | ||
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Nevuk
United States16280 Posts
On May 29 2011 06:08 floor exercise wrote: I agree that the series got a little bit worse, I rank Bonehunters way higher though, it's one of my favorites just because it dealt with a lot of characters I like. 1-7 are awesome, 8 is alright, 9+10 struggles with the issue of having to put a cap something as big as the Malazan series but ultimately does a good job I think About Toll the Hounds + Show Spoiler + It had an insane ending. The story of the killer/city guard was great too I thought. It had many problems for sure though. Cutter I have never liked, the kid was terrible and broke all sorts of continuity. Also the best part of his story went nowhere (at least not yet anyway, the broken Imass he gives legs to) There was also Nimander and the group of tiste andii that are insufferable until the last book. Iskaral Pust I have never loved, The Redeemer I hated even though I loved Itkovian. There was a lot about the book I didn't like, I think I'd rate it the lowest too. But every sour note comes with something interesting too, lots of Kallor, Spinnock Durav, Traveller etc. I think it was a necessary transitional book to tie up some loose threads and set us up for the finale I can see an argument for Bonehunter's being higher. I personally just thought they were a lot weaker as characters than the original bridgeburners (I don't mean the major characters, but the supporting cast - fiddler is a minor character who gains prominence). Toll the Hounds has about 200 pages that are incredible - it's such a shame that it's like 1000 pages long. | ||
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oXoCube
Canada197 Posts
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Undrass
Norway381 Posts
Murillo dies to some spoiled noble | ||
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Sanctimonius
United Kingdom861 Posts
edit: spelling | ||
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sJarl
Iceland1699 Posts
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Logros
Netherlands9913 Posts
On May 29 2011 07:00 Sanctimonius wrote: I bought the first one on the rec of people on here, and I have to second people who say it's confusing - I have pretty much no idea what the hell is going on, who the people are, what a warren is etc. Still slowly making my way through and might pick up the second one but as it stands, not the best I've read. Complicated doesn't necessarily mean good. edit: spelling Stick with it, the first book starts a bit rough but once you get past that it's amazing. | ||
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Dirt McGirt
New Zealand129 Posts
I believe it was always going to be a 10 book series so that also encourages the long view. There were parts of some books I liked less than others but I was still interested as you knew it fit into the broader story. Funnily enough the zero to 100 miles an hour nature of the 1st book was what hooked me... it just made me super keen to learn more about these characters and stuff. | ||
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nihoh
Australia978 Posts
On May 29 2011 05:41 Nevuk wrote: I like a LOT of things about this series. Midnight Tides is still one of my favorite books. The first 5 books are incredible. (Midnight Tides I've always thought the logical starting point - it functions well as a stand alone novel and is a prequel to the prior 4 books despite being the fifth book and offers the only actual explanation of the Warrens and the Holds). The world building, magic system, cards, gods, etc. are all intuitive and creative. It honestly seems like a really wonderful tabletop system, which is apparently where it originated from. But... after that, I have issues recommending the series to anyone outside of diehard fantasy fans. The last five have lots of flashes of brilliance (some more than others - Reaper's Gale is good as a whole, Bonehunters is decent but paced really weirdly). However there are some really boring parts - book 8 I found entirely unreadable until I started skipping the section about the child. The Crippled God especially was a large disappointment. Even The Bonehunters is better overall, I think. (And Dust of Dreams they start to abandon archetypal traits of characters, then go out of their way to point out just how weird it is that they're breaking character. That doesn't even make sense, Quick Ben suddenly decides that force is the way to go and stops using illusion magic - with no real justification given. When you build up that a character acts in a specific way for 7000 pages, you should give at least some kind of a reason for them randomly breaking character. It's almost to the point that some of the characters feel like one dimensional parodies of their earlier selves. (Also, there are an absurdly large amount of chronological issues for something that was planned over the course of 30 years - someone goes from being pregnant in one book to having an 8 year old child 3 books later, when they haven't been visited in between and there's no indication to anyone else that more than a month has passed. ) (I guess the issue with the books is that if I had to rank them, the last 5 would all be in the bottom five, with the final 3 being the bottom three) : Midnight Tides (5) Memories of Ice (3) Deadhouse Gates (2) Gardens of the Moon (1) House of Chains (4) Reaper's Gale (7) Bonehunters (6) The Crippled God (10) Dust of Dreams (9) ***huge drop in quality***** Toll the Hounds (8) Has anyone read ICE's work? I've only read Night of Knives. I heard his later malaz books were just kind of ok and skipped out on them, but that they had potential. Reaper's Gale is better. Everything else is worse. By a lot. Ahaha my ratings are nearly the same as yours. MOI DH GOTM MT HOC BH Haven't exactly finished TTH to judge it. What pregnant lady? Is that Coltaine @@? | ||
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Metaphysic
63 Posts
I agree that the last few books weren't as good as the earlier ones; I particularly found The Crippled God to be a really unsatisfying ending; parts of it seemed to be contradictory to earlier books, and a lot of it felt rushed. | ||
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floor exercise
Canada5847 Posts
On May 29 2011 11:49 nihoh wrote: Ahaha my ratings are nearly the same as yours. MOI DH GOTM MT HOC BH Haven't exactly finished TTH to judge it. What pregnant lady? Is that Coltaine @@? He means Stonny Menackis (the female caravan guard from book 3 with Gruntle and Harllo) Here's a fun link to let everyone know what they are getting themselves into if they start the series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Malazan_Book_of_the_Fallen_characters | ||
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snotboogie
Australia3550 Posts
On May 29 2011 13:15 floor exercise wrote: He means Stonny Menackis (the female caravan guard from book 3 with Gruntle and Harllo) Here's a fun link to let everyone know what they are getting themselves into if they start the series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Malazan_Book_of_the_Fallen_characters This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it. =P | ||
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dignity
Canada908 Posts
The empire sides just a complete mess to me and I have no idea whats going on besides some conspiracy involving 2 groups of people(?). Also, I actually got introduced to this series through night of knives so that might be why I am so confused right now (Night of knives confused the hell out of me. I still don't get what happened besides the fact that it was a happy ending. I think.). | ||
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icedragon
86 Posts
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