Malazan Book Of The Fallen

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Hateyou

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spronk said:
Took me around 4 years and a lot of down time between books to read other series but I finally finished the main line series. Huh. Definitely an interesting read, not sure I'd ever really "recommend" it to anyone unless they are hardcore fantasy, nihilist/goth-emo kind of people. I enjoyed it although hoped for more from the ending. Reading a lot on the subreddit, The Malazan Book Of The Fallen since it has a lot of spoiler-y threads about characters I didn't really understand or threads that just kinda never went anywhere.

Reading through the last few pages I guess there is a kharkanas prequel trilogy, some side books, and maybe a new karsa trilogy? Not sure I really want to tackle any more of it now, feel like jumping into a totally different genre for a while.

Anyways if you are a huge hardcore Malazan fan then the author has donated his own copy of book 4 for a charity, bidding is currently up to $800 and it ends Oct 10th
Read For Pixels 2018 - The HOUSE OF CHAINS Book Auction

When I was 3-4 books in I thought this series might make for a fantastic TV show some day but I'm not really sure anymore, way too many characters, locations, weird stuff. It would definitely be interesting.
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I think it could be a good animated series in the style of Berserk, one of the only anime I’ve ever liked. No way would I want to see this attempted to be a live action film, it would cost so damn much to produce to make it correctly.
 
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Vimeseh

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That’s pretty cool. I have all the same numbered editions of the SubPress run, finally getting to the end.

Yeah there’s a Kharkanas trilogy as well as the Esselmont books and the Bauchelian & Korbal Broach side stories. I’m a nut and love the stuff but agree with you that it’s hard to recommend unless you know someone is just a weirdo for shit like this.
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Agreed. It is so weird to think that the same author wrote the epic genre defining chain of the dogs while also writing the incredibly silly and boring snake. On the whole it was more good then bad but the bad tended to be really bad.

I also noticed the same thing with the aspect emperor series (different writer) very strong and intriguing first couple of books that seemed set to redefine fantasy only to get lost somewhere on the middle and putter out in a weak fashion.
 
Deathwing

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Kellanved's Reach was published today, at least according to wikipedia. Publisher says 21st. Amazon says April 2nd. In a world with the internet, why does one English-speaking country get a book months before another?
 
Deathwing

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Finished Kellanved's Reach today. Obviously it was good since it took me only a few days(I'm a slow reader). But overall it felt like the finale was less explosive and the overall plot rushed. Maybe Esslemont has more books planned, but I felt like one of the best "characters" in the entire series was almost completely absent from this book: the Malazan Marine squad.

Dancer was completely useless. He was basically Kellenved's straight man. He killed no one.
Actually, now that I'm writing this out, a lot of heavy hitters were basically absent. Dassem didn't kill/duel anyone. Urko didn't crush fools. Surly was just around to advance the plot. Tayschrenn basically the same. Dujek and Whiskyjack did nothing to earn their fame. This easily could have been at least another book.
Esslemont(and his editor) goofed and a reveal for one of the "guess who this?!?" was left in my copy. In retrospect, it should have been obvious. But since the character wasn't referred to a such afterwards, I'm not sure what Esslemont's intention is. Maybe he will be writing more books on the early Malazan Empire. The secret reveal's compatriot was never revealed either and I'm guessing he is supposed to be a reveal but I can't figure out who.
Where did Tattersail go? I want my THICC cadre mage, damnit.
 
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ver_21

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Deathwing said:
Finished Kellanved's Reach today. Obviously it was good since it took me only a few days(I'm a slow reader). But overall it felt like the finale was less explosive and the overall plot rushed. Maybe Esslemont has more books planned, but I felt like one of the best "characters" in the entire series was almost completely absent from this book: the Malazan Marine squad.

Dancer was completely useless. He was basically Kellenved's straight man. He killed no one.
Actually, now that I'm writing this out, a lot of heavy hitters were basically absent. Dassem didn't kill/duel anyone. Urko didn't crush fools. Surly was just around to advance the plot. Tayschrenn basically the same. Dujek and Whiskyjack did nothing to earn their fame. This easily could have been at least another book.
Esslemont(and his editor) goofed and a reveal for one of the "guess who this?!?" was left in my copy. In retrospect, it should have been obvious. But since the character wasn't referred to a such afterwards, I'm not sure what Esslemont's intention is. Maybe he will be writing more books on the early Malazan Empire. The secret reveal's compatriot was never revealed either and I'm guessing he is supposed to be a reveal but I can't figure out who.
Where did Tattersail go? I want my THICC cadre mage, damnit.
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I don't think Esselmont is as strong a writer as Erikson. Esselmont seems better with fewer pages to fill. I base this off of Night of Knives being a good read and Return of the Crimson Guard being a slog. If I weren't addicted to the lore, I would have put it down without finishing.

Has Esselmont actually gotten to write the marine squads? It might be something that Erikson has control of. The other thing is that there's a good bit of humor to the marines, and not all authors can write that.

Love Tattersail. I would like to read her backstory more than Karsa's.
 
Deathwing

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ver_21 said:
I don't think Esselmont is as strong a writer as Erikson. Esselmont seems better with fewer pages to fill. I base this off of Night of Knives being a good read and Return of the Crimson Guard being a slog. If I weren't addicted to the lore, I would have put it down without finishing.

Has Esselmont actually gotten to write the marine squads? It might be something that Erikson has control of. The other thing is that there's a good bit of humor to the marines, and not all authors can write that.

Love Tattersail. I would like to read her backstory more than Karsa's.
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Hmmm, I regard Night of Knives as Esslemont's worst book, his writing ability is very green and raw. The rest of his books are at least better written.

One of the main viewpoints in RoTCG is a marine squad in the Malazan army formed to respond to the Talian League and Crimson Guard. Two actually, I think. One in Li Heng too.
 
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ver_21

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Deathwing said:
Hmmm, I regard Night of Knives as Esslemont's worst book, his writing ability is very green and raw. The rest of his books are at least better written.

One of the main viewpoints in RoTCG is a marine squad in the Malazan army formed to respond to the Talian League and Crimson Guard. Two actually, I think. One in Li Heng too.
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Oh I agree Night of Knives is still weak writing, but the pacing and story worked for me. It was bikini method--short enough to keep it interesting but long enough to cover the important parts.

RoTCG is like all B-Team cast. Has Esselmont ever gotten to write Fiddler?
 
Intrinsic

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Esselmont better keep his B-Team writing squad skill off fucking Fiddler.
 
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Kajiimagi

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Ian Esslemont's latest, Kellenved's Reach (Path to Acendancy) is out now in the usual places. I'm just starting it myself.
 
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Kajiimagi

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Finished Kellenved's Reach and holy shit was it bad. It read like fan fiction. Nothing happened and when I got to the end I thought it was a joke. Don't bother paying for this POS.
 
Valorath

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Well that’s disheartening. I’m picking my copy up in a couple days. I’ve liked Esslemont’s work for the most part, and most seemed to have not cared for it. So maybe I’ll still enjoy it.

Did you like the first two books in Path to Ascendancy?
 
Kajiimagi

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Valorath said:
Well that’s disheartening. I’m picking my copy up in a couple days. I’ve liked Esslemont’s work for the most part, and most seemed to have not cared for it. So maybe I’ll still enjoy it.

Did you like the first two books in Path to Ascendancy?
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Yes I've actually enjoyed all of ICE's work. I hope you like it more than I did.
 
wormie

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This one hurt much worse than the others. Also the fuck is with the power creep on Ben. No, dont tell me.
 
Deathwing

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It was Whiskeyjack for me in MoI. But, yeah, Trull was pretty close too.

I don't think Ben is ever full explained.
 
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Onigen

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On Quick Ben
Wasn't it explained in one of the books that he has the souls for multiple different mages in him so he has access to almost all the warrens or something?
 
Hateyou

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Onigen said:
On Quick Ben
Wasn't it explained in one of the books that he has the souls for multiple different mages in him so he has access to almost all the warrens or something?
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Yes, that’s his origin story flashback. He seemed to grow during the books which was never explained but I just assumed he was just slowly unleashing more of what he could do over the course of the books rather than actually gaining more power.
 
Rime

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He was cautious about which powers he revealed, as he did not want the world to know where he had gained his powers from. Heck, there were hints that he also had the powers of a Soletaken, even though it never outright stated it.
 
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