Malazan Book of the Fallen Series

keane2097

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I'm noticing an abundance alright, hence the comment. Perhaps Erikson is taking the p*ss out of WoT?

I never read WoT as I said above. Could have been your posts that put me off it. I think I'd rather finish Malazan and then try some Sanderson or Cook.

I'm after noticing it now, feck you anyway!

nesf

keane2097 wrote: »

while I remain open to the possibility that braid tugging is a real thing I've yet to witness it :pac:

If your wife/girlfriend ever does it, run.

Tar.Aldarion

keane2097 wrote: »

I'm after noticing it now, feck you anyway!

It's like in Tolkien's works where somebody was always best in the land, bar one.

wyrn

nesf wrote: »

If your wife/girlfriend ever does it, run.

I thought she was pretty kick ass. Hated Nynaeve for the first half of the book until she was able to track them down and gained Lan's appreciation. Yes, I only finished the series because of that.

keane2097

I think I get away without noticing because I'm listening rather than reading. I don't actually see the word written all over the place!

keane2097

The scene towards the end of Reaper's Gale with

Beak dying and, especially, Toc's death and the excruciating realisation of what has happened by Tool

made me have to put the book down last night.

Erikson is as tough on his readers as he is on his characters at times

hadoken13

keane2097 wrote: »

The scene towards the end of Reaper's Gale with

Beak dying and, especially, Toc's death and the excruciating realisation of what has happened by Tool

made me have to put the book down last night.

Erikson is as tough on his readers as he is on his characters at times

Ye anything can and will happen. No happy endings in his stories.

keane2097

Hit the wall at the start of Toll the Hounds again - I've been reading Malazan books on and off for about 5 years at this stage!

Someone encourage me to keep going please!

ancapailldorcha

keane2097 wrote: »

Hit the wall at the start of Toll the Hounds again - I've been reading Malazan books on and off for about 5 years at this stage!

Someone encourage me to keep going please!

If you put in that amount of time then surely you'd have to finish.

I'm nearly finished House of Chains so I bought books 5 & 6. The description of book 6 opens with a huge HoC spoiler. Blast.

keane2097

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

If you put in that amount of time then surely you'd have to finish.

I'm nearly finished House of Chains so I bought books 5 & 6. The description of book 6 opens with a huge HoC spoiler. Blast.

I remember that actually, very annoying.

ancapailldorcha

keane2097 wrote: »

I remember that actually, very annoying.

I also looked up Hood on the wiki and the info in the background was spoilerish. For some reason, I keep forgetting that about the wiki and keep visiting it from time to time.

ancapailldorcha

Just saw this on the wiki:

Spunge

Just about to start midnight tides, Just did the prologue. Series hasnt blown me away at all, favorite so far was probably Gardens of the Moon.

Keep in mind i did it all on audiobook so the confusion level was high.
Id probably enjoyed the other books a lot more if i read them, so many characters with similar names and just one name.

Pretty underwhelmed but theres a lot of interesting crazy stuff in it that keeps me going and want to find out.
The names of all the warrens are just bleh on audio, so confusing.

I need to read the wiki but dont wanna spoil stuff.

Gardens of the Moon and Memories of Ice i liked a lot, the others were just alright.

Its actually the first fantasy series i read/listened-to apart from lord of the rings, i usually listen to sci-fi(about 20 or so books) and enjoyed most of them a lot more.

So a bit disappointed. And i i love the game of thrones show. Just wanted a fantasy series rated as highly as GoT without having to read stuff i already watch on TV(and is of high quality). Like game of thrones show blew me away a lot. thats why im reading this series.

Definitely not going back and reading them all. Deadhouse gates was supposed to be awesome but i just thought it was meh.

Cant really stop now. (though i took a break and did The Road and Leviathan's Gate this week to take a break from mad confusing storylines, the latter was pretty good, just finished it there.

Also i seem to be the only one who liked Gardens of the Moon the most(so far anyway).


EDIT: Any recommendations for a single fantasy book thats a few hundred pages (i know zero fantasy books, took me ages to choose malazan)

Thargor

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Just saw this on the wiki:

Whoa every race in that pic up to and including Jaghut is exactly how I pictured them in my own mind while I was reading the books even though I never look up this stuff online, genuinely shocked at that :eek:

Errikson is very good at making up names for things, even when he's conjuring names out of the air and making up languages they always seem to fit just right.

Toblakai and K'Chain Chemalle are all wrong for me though, I always pictured Karsa as a big red version of the Trell in that pic not that Asian/Mongol looking thing and while I always pictured K'Chain Chemalle as reptillian I never pictured them as an actual dinosaur like that, they were always more humanoid in my head even with the tails.

ancapailldorcha

The Seguleh are missing, unfortunately.

Rake looks a bit wizened while Hetan is a lot leaner that I would have thought.

keane2097

I've been finding Toll The Hounds very tough to get through. Dipping in and out of it every so often.

Have been on the re-read on Tor over the last couple of hours and it seems like my eyes just glaze over any of the

Tiste Andii

sections.

I understand that the objective is to portray the

crippling sense of ennui and futility that comes from being so long lived and without Mother Dark, but it just gets so grindingly dull and miserable

.

The sections with

the Bridgeburners, Trygalle Trade Guild, Torvald, Karsa etc

are much better but overall the book is borderline torture to get through.

Crokus/Cutter

has gradually developed into a serious ballache of a character as well.

Spunge

actually loving midnight tides, might be my favourite so far. First one where confusion levels were minimal. Made sure to read the dramatis personae before continuing with the audiobook. Anything to do with tehol and bugg is always great.

ancapailldorcha

Spunge wrote: »

actually loving midnight tides, might be my favourite so far. First one where confusion levels were minimal. Made sure to read the dramatis personae before continuing with the audiobook. Anything to do with tehol and bugg is always great.

Next on my list. Good to hear!

keane2097

Bonehunters still out on its own for me

ancapailldorcha

About a fifth of the way through Midnight Tides. Tehol's great. Looking like a good read so far.

fizzypish

Reading toll of the hounds.

Mallet and Bluepearl

just died. *Goes for a quiet sob in the corner

ancapailldorcha

Midnight Tides was feckin' brilliant. I don't know whether or not it was the story and writing or the fact that it's the first novel I've consistently stuck with instead of reading sporadically. I suspect the former. Anyway, on to Night of Knives.

Tar.Aldarion

I have started the side novels too, currently in the middle of Night of Knives, good to be back into the story.

I'm still sore over buying the Return of the Crimson Guard years ago and somebody nicking it/throwing it out when i had one chapter read ;_;

lucernarian

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

I have started the side novels too, currently in the middle of Night of Knives, good to be back into the story.

I'm still sore over buying the Return of the Crimson Guard years ago and somebody nicking it/throwing it out when i had one chapter read ;_;

Why would anybody do that?! Was it brand new? My heart was broken when I lost a paperback Deadhouse Gates... Not a big deal you say, but it is when it was a library book that costs €11.50 to rebuy... and a €50 replacement fee!:(

ancapailldorcha

I moved house so I decided to go Kindle all the way. So much handier for leafing through books I've already read and I can carry them all around with me.

Tar.Aldarion

lucernarian wrote: »

Why would anybody do that?! Was it brand new? My heart was broken when I lost a paperback Deadhouse Gates... Not a big deal you say, but it is when it was a library book that costs €11.50 to rebuy... and a €50 replacement fee!:(

Yep brand new from Eason, raging! I still haven't read it now, from all the trauma!
Oh ouch, that is some fee, I too now use the kindle for everything.

ancapailldorcha

Came across another spoiler (

Laseen dies

in Return of Crimson Guard). I need stop reading about the series online. I'm 3 whole books away from that.

lucernarian

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Came across another spoiler (

Laseen dies

in Return of Crimson Guard). I need stop reading about the series online. I'm 3 whole books away from that.

Ah now.:eek: You really have to read the BotF series first. Or at least look up a recommended order in which to read the books or read them in the story's chronological order.

ancapailldorcha

lucernarian wrote: »

Ah now.:eek: You really have to read the BotF series first. Or at least look up a recommended order in which to read the books or read them in the story's chronological order.

I know the order, well, I think I do. I was planning to read The Bonehunters after Night of Knives followed by Reaper's Gale and Return of the Crimson Guard which may be intended to precede Reaper's Gale.

Was worried I forgot to spoiler that there.

Glebee

Just started Gardens of the Moon last weekend and i'm flying through it. Had seen this thread before but had given the Malazan series a bit of a wide berth for some reason but so far so good. Its not at all what I was expecting and is fairly straight forward fantasy IMO. I had pictured it as something different for some reason maybe because I saw it labeled as high fantasy somewhere(what ever that is) . It does get going straight away and drops you right into the action which is great.