Malazan Book Of The Fallen

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Dalven

Dalven

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Ritley said:
To be fair though, besides NoN, esslemonts books were pretty good. RotCG is one of the better books in the Malazan world
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I should say I havent read any of Esslemont's after RotCG and I actually found it really enjoyable like you said and a lot more accessible than most of the Book of the Fallen stuff. Maybe I just had Malazan burn out after committing to 10 books and finding storylines and huge events that were started in and concurrent with the main series were being finished by some other dude.

I've no idea where the following 3 fall in the timeline of the series as a whole, my interest was gone by the time the third one came out.
 
Deathwing

Deathwing

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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.
 
Ritley

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Been catching up on some of esslemonts more recent books, finished Dancers Lament and started Assail.

Dancers lament was pretty great, reminded me how much I like the world and major characters in it. Really excited that it is first in a trilogy
 
Kreugen

Kreugen

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Oh, Karkanas 2 has been out. Hopefully there's something that can remind me of what the fuck happened in the first one.
 
Intrinsic

Intrinsic

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There was some brooding, I think some weird sex with mother dark, an Azath did some Azath things, and potsherds. The end.
 
Kalaar kururuc

Kalaar kururuc

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Intrinsic said:
There was some brooding, I think some weird sex with mother dark, an Azath did some Azath things, and potsherds. The end.
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Yeah, I have not enjoyed the karkanas trilogy so far, the story itself is good but it's 90% waffle and pointless side stories. The new Esslemont series though has started out fantastically.
 
Valorath

Valorath

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Eh, I really liked Forge of Darkness. I was so looking forward to Fall of Light, because of how much I liked the first. Was pretty disappointed. Probably need to reread it and see if maybe I just missed what Erikson was trying to do with that book.

And with regards to Esslemont: If you enjoy the Malazan world you're doing yourself a disservice by not reading Esslemont's work. A couple of the books aren't great, no denying that, but the rest make up for that in my humble opinion.
 
Intrinsic

Intrinsic

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Dancer's Lament was badass. Really looking forward to more of that.
 
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Intrinsic

Intrinsic

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Reaper's Gale subpress edition came in yesterday. Damn thing is sweet. And huge.

I regret not going with the lettered editions so many years ago.
 
Brikker

Brikker

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I'm only about 50% through book 3 so I haven't read this thread. Once I finish this long ass (but very good so far) series, are any of the other series in the Malazan universe that Erikson or his partner wrote worth it?
 
Deathwing

Deathwing

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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.
 
Deathwing

Deathwing

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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.
 
Intrinsic

Intrinsic

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Deathwing said:
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.
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I think the arrowhead was something TBD. It was stone so maybe linked to the Imass?

The out of character stuff that, at this point, I can remember had more to do with timeline stuff. Kellanved and Dancer as we're introduced to them are very (mostly) calm and conniving and acting like they've been at this game for a long while. Even Knight of Knives we weren't exposed to any real interaction with them. But now they're running around and mostly acting very inexperienced and immature. So like, how many years is it until this crazy old senile wizard founds an empire and this other bro just turns in to a beyond godlike assassin. Then they do the whole ascendancy thing. It isn't like Forge where we know millennia pass between those events and current timeline, so character discrepancies made a little more sense.

Either way it as awesome, and I wanted to be reading book 2 the moment I finished book one.
 
Deathwing

Deathwing

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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.
 
Valorath

Valorath

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Well, Quick Ben is kind of a bad-ass.

Korbal and Bauchelain stuff is just mildly entertaining, but Crack Pot Trail (Crack'd Pot?) was nigh unreadable.

Check out Willful Child if you want comedy from Erikson.
 
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Deathwing

Deathwing

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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.
 
Deathwing

Deathwing

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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.
 
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Reht

Reht

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Deathwing said:
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.
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