Malazan Book Of The Fallen

wormie said:

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So I have heard but if it adds to the lore I'll read it,

A couple of esselmonts books were decent. Return of the crimson guard was pretty solid.

Rod-138 said:

I’m reading it for the first time and it’s a weird and difficult writing style to describe. Reminds me of Black Company a bit in terms of vibe - like every military character is 80% the same person with little nuances that make them different. They’re all that good ole boy that is bout that soldiering and speak in an annoyingly similar way. I’m starting to hear Cartmans voice pretending to be a work out bitter soldier since that’s what most characters are.

Trying to figure out wtf warrens do and how they work after something like Mistborn; which spoon feeds you an explanation, is tough, but also makes it feel more scary because it’s less predictable wtf can sorcery do? Like ok we spend all this time slugging out the military shit, but usually the sorcery just determines who da man?

Overall it’s a cool series but definitely all over the place with how much time and effort it’ll spend on the importance of a situation only to not even mention it again for several books. Think I’m on B4 and enjoying it, even though I hear Cartman talking about another day on the deathmarch out here on the plain of no hope.

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Old reply:

I really liked the Black Company books (they got weird when they went into another plane) but they simply do not have the depth or the breadth of the Malazan books. The Black Company have their howevermany nemeses that keep coming back, and they keep their book to tie all the stuff together through different characters. Malazan skips all over the place, from peasant to gods, but ends with the same characters it starts with, Fiddler in particular.

There were scenes in the Malazan books that emotionally moved me, but I never encountered that with the Black Company. The writing just isn't as personal.

Like when Death comes for that retarded kid who saves a ton of people from an explosion but gets reduced to ash doing it.

There are good and bad parts to every series, but I have read the Malazan stuff three times and I get something different out of it every time. I think it's part of that skipping around thing that you mention, it is kind of annoying on a first read but allows you to pull more out of it on repeats.

However, due to the fact that there is an original and recommended reading order means it is all a little fucked up lol.

Finally, I thought the warrens were an amazing way to represent magic, and it is probably my favorite representation of different types of power in any fantasy setting. In the end, I still don't understand it either, the warrens are the veins of a god or some shit. Whatever, the different facets of power are really cool.

Yeah, I am a total gushing fanboi.

Look I love it and don’t need it to be perfect. I just like to mention my gripes to see if anyone else felt similar when reading.

There’s lots of little loopholes That I can’t tell if they’re left open or I missed em. Like - we follow this historian with Coltaine for a whole book and it always seems like he’s going to plow this female soldier and they keep interacting with each other, but that doesn’t really happen or it’s super subtle or who knows.

Rod-138 said:

Look I love it and don’t need it to be perfect. I just like to mention my gripes to see if anyone else felt similar when reading.

There’s lots of little loopholes That I can’t tell if they’re left open or I missed em. Like - we follow this historian with Coltaine for a whole book and it always seems like he’s going to plow this female soldier and they keep interacting with each other, but that doesn’t really happen or it’s super subtle or who knows.

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He banged her once then they decided not to make it anything more since they would both likely die

Went back immediately and reread the beginning of gardens, so much more to it after finishing the series

Kovaks said:

Went back immediately and reread the beginning of gardens, so much more to it after finishing the series

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Definitely agree, Gardens was definitely much better during a reread. Still wasn’t my favorite since it really seemed like some of the characters (like Tayschrenn) were retconned in later books but it made it much more enjoyable

Kajiimagi said:

I recently read somewhere that GoTM was written 10 or so years before 2-10 which could explain why. It was actually about why tellan cancelled magic in the first book but didn't in any of the others. Also if that is considered a spoiler please have amod kill this.

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Yep, that was one I remember now that you mention it. There were quite a few things like that, but it’s been long enough that I don’t remember most of them.

Kajiimagi said:

I recently read somewhere that GoTM was written 10 or so years before 2-10 which could explain why. It was actually about why tellan cancelled magic in the first book but didn't in any of the others. Also if that is considered a spoiler please have amod kill this.

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Makes sense. Rake being virtually unknown in the first book doesn't quite fit with the later books, where he has been everywhere, done everything, has had books written about him, Fisher poems about him, was at the chaining (planned the trap IIRC) etc. At least the military brass and the educated should have heard the name in GotM, especially since Brood and Rake were fighting the Malazans for something like 10 years before GotM.

And yeah, Beak... Him asking Hood if he would be able to help his brother now