Malazan Book Of The Fallen

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Bodhy

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Rod-138 said:
Give him some sci fi detours and save Malazan. Wheel of time is great if he ever gets a summer job as a security guard or something with tons of downtime.

I took a job as a safety guy offshore and plowed through it.
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I've read as far as Book 5 in WOT. It's about here where Jordan just disappears up his own ass in terms of exposition and verbosity. It's like the allure of dumptrucks full of money led to him just dragging the series out with excessive convolution.

Reading the series at this point was like walking through treacle and left me with little motivation to keep on reading through the series. Though a friend tells me it gets a lot better once Sanderson takes over.

Some Sci-Fi detour sounds alright. I recommend he grab something like RingWorld and go from there, then to the Hyperion Cantos, Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, and Greg Egan for some really, really, rigorous sci-fi.
 
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Lenthan

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For less complex reading, The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is something I enjoyed when I was younger. Weddings has already been mentioned. I liked the Elenium and Tamuli better than Belgariad and Mallorean. Sparhawk is good. Abercrombie has a young adult series, Half a King is the first book. You can do better but I read the Drizzt books and main trilogies set in Krynn.
 
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Bodhy

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Lenthan said:
For less complex reading, The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is something I enjoyed when I was younger. Weddings has already been mentioned. I liked the Elenium and Tamuli better than Belgariad and Mallorean. Sparhawk is good. Abercrombie has a young adult series, Half a King is the first book. You can do better but I read the Drizzt books and main trilogies set in Krynn.
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Am I the only one here who doesn't like or recommend the Belgariad to any newcomer to fantasy?


I just think it's some of the most cliched, unimaginative and trope-laden garbage I've ever read. Compared to some of the series mentioned ITT not the least of which is Malazan, it's nothing.
 
wormie

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Bodhy said:
Am I the only one here who doesn't like or recommend the Belgariad to any newcomer to fantasy?
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Not to anyone over the age of 18. But it’s a fine enough series for teenagers.
 
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Lenthan

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wormie said:
Not to anyone over the age of 18. But it’s a fine enough series for teenagers.
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Agreed. For kids getting into fantasy, Eddings is a fine start. Terry Pratchett's Discworld is also great. Some are young adult but he weaves characters across 41 books, which is impressive.
 
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Oblio

Oblio

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Bodhy said:
Am I the only one here who doesn't like or recommend the Belgariad to any newcomer to fantasy?


I just think it's some of the most cliched, unimaginative and trope-laden garbage I've ever read. Compared to some of the series mentioned ITT not the least of which is Malazan, it's nothing.
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How is it possible that you have the wrong opinion about everything?
 
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Bodhy

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Oblio said:
How is it possible that you have the wrong opinion about everything?
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You can't have the wrong opinion about something, since it's an opinion. And that is my opinion on Belgariad, I never said it must be shared or that no one else can enjoy the series. I just have a particular taste when it comes to narratives and I like to avoid cliches.
 
Oblio

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Bodhy said:
You can't have the wrong opinion about something, since it's an opinion. And that is my opinion on Belgariad, I never said it must be shared or that no one else can enjoy the series. I just have a particular taste when it comes to narratives and I like to avoid cliches.
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That wasn't my question you insufferable mouth breather. My question was how are you wrong about everything! I guess your wrong response above just proves my point.

I really want this place to gain membership, but in your case I hope you go back to bb.
 
Kiroy

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Bodhy is probably the biggest piece of work on this forum but I gotta admit, I agree with him

Feel the same about the broken empire trilogy

Malazan is hard core fantasy for for mature adults with working brains and patience - for me, nothing compares, not even the black company, which I read after malazan and left me wanting and disappointed /gasp

There's fantasy for the masses, and there's malazan
 
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Bodhy

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Kiroy said:
Bodhy is probably the biggest piece of work on this forum but I gotta admit, I agree with him

Feel the same about the broken empire trilogy

Malazan is hard core fantasy for for mature adults with working brains and patience - for me, nothing compares, not even the black company, which I read after malazan and left me wanting and disappointed /gasp

There's fantasy for the masses, and there's malazan
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Piece of work = "He disagrees with me on a topic".


But otherwise, yeah, I'm in agreement. Fantasy these days requires some creativity and originality and writing cliched tripe just isn't acceptable. Unless of course you don't mind limiting your readership to teenagers.


But adults want to read the genre too, and Malazan set a very high bar which IMO, no one has beat.
 
Hateyou

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Bodhy said:
Piece of work = "He disagrees with me on a topic".


But otherwise, yeah, I'm in agreement. Fantasy these days requires some creativity and originality and writing cliched tripe just isn't acceptable. Unless of course you don't mind limiting your readership to teenagers.


But adults want to read the genre too, and Malazan set a very high bar which IMO, no one has beat.
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“These days”

Belgariad was early 1980s not 2020s. Of course it’s cliched and trope filled, they weren’t tropes yet 40+ years ago.
 
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Bodhy

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Hateyou said:
“These days”

Belgariad was early 1980s not 2020s. Of course it’s cliched and trope filled, they weren’t tropes yet 40+ years ago.
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But still, that was almost 50 years from the Hobbit, and several decades from LOTR, too. Along with D & D entering its adolescence, as well.

So it's not like fantasy cliches were entirely unheard of. Ultimately this is just my opinion, so make of it what you will. If you liked the series, my opinion shouldn't matter. I'd like to think the serious reader would gravitate towards more rigorous and envelope-pushing work anyway, no matter what I say.



EDIT: And how could I forget Robert E. Howard? He was even earlier than the Hobbit and he produced an awesome fantasy world and mythos which was less cliched, since you can see clear Lovecraftian influences in his mythos. So don't think I'm shitting on something because of its age.
 
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wormie

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Bodhy said:
But still, that was almost 50 years from the Hobbit, and several decades from LOTR, too. Along with D & D entering its adolescence, as well.

So it's not like fantasy cliches were entirely unheard of. Ultimately this is just my opinion, so make of it what you will. If you liked the series, my opinion shouldn't matter. I'd like to think the serious reader would gravitate towards more rigorous and envelope-pushing work anyway, no matter what I say.



EDIT: And how could I forget Robert E. Howard? He was even earlier than the Hobbit and he produced an awesome fantasy world and mythos which was less cliched, since you can see clear Lovecraftian influences in his mythos. So don't think I'm shitting on something because of its age.
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You are getting shit on because you presented your opinion as "why would anyone read X?" and given the tone of voice attributed to you due to your political postings, that comes off as you being a dick bag. An opinion is "I dont like this" not, "you guys dont like this ur dum!!11". Learn2post.
 
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Bodhy

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wormie said:
You are getting shit on because you presented your opinion as "why would anyone read X?" and given the tone of voice attributed to you due to your political postings, that comes off as you being a dick bag. An opinion is "I dont like this" not, "you guys dont like this ur dum!!11". Learn2post.
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Maybe, just maybe....don't be such an easily triggered nerd?

Or if you're having trouble discerning when someone is expressing an opinion, and can't take it at face value as being just that, an opinion, you need to work on your conversational and social skills (likely being caused by being an easily triggered nerd).

Back to Malazan discussion, I say.
 
wormie

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Bodhy said:
Maybe, just maybe....don't be such an easily triggered nerd?

Or if you're having trouble discerning when someone is expressing an opinion, and can't take it at face value as being just that, an opinion, you need to work on your conversational and social skills (likely being caused by being an easily triggered nerd).

Back to Malazan discussion, I say.
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Dont flatter yourself, you aren't triggering anyone. And you are the one here who others find to be an abrasive faggot so you might want to take your own advice about those conversational skills.
 
Ritley

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Intrinsic said:
Y'all fucking up my thread :oops:
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Oblio

Oblio

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It has been years since I read this series (up to Book 7) and last night I just finished Book 1 (again). A few months ago I went through all the Black Company Books for the second time as well. I have to say that I am thoroughly embarrassed as to how much these two series melded together in my head over the years. While the Black Company is great and I enjoyed it the second time through, it just wasn't as good as my memory of the first time through. That is likely because I was mixing parts of Malazan.

Now on my second time through of Malazan after Book 1 I am so excited to get through the rest of the series. Erikson is amazing and Book 1 was better than I remembered. I honestly do not recall all the details of the first seven books and I am excited to finally get around to 8, 9 and 10. I am glad I did not jump back in at Book 8, I have clearly forgotten too much.
 
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Kajiimagi

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Oblio said:
It has been years since I read this series (up to Book 7) and last night I just finished Book 1 (again). A few months ago I went through all the Black Company Books for the second time as well. I have to say that I am thoroughly embarrassed as to how much these two series melded together in my head over the years. While the Black Company is great and I enjoyed it the second time through, it just wasn't as good as my memory of the first time through. That is likely because I was mixing parts of Malazan.

Now on my second time through of Malazan after Book 1 I am so excited to get through the rest of the series. Erikson is amazing and Book 1 was better than I remembered. I honestly do not recall all the details of the first seven books and I am excited to finally get around to 8, 9 and 10. I am glad I did not jump back in at Book 8, I have clearly forgotten too much.
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Enjoy the ride. I took a 10 year break (didn't realize it was that long) before a re-read and it was a great experience. I may do it again this year.
 
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Slaythe

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I think the second time through Book of the Fallen is even better than the first. I certainly enjoyed Gardens of the Moon a thousand times more than I did the first time. I almost gave up on the series in the middle of that first book the first time through.

Glad I didn't. Deadhouse Gates still holds the top spot for my favorite book ever.
 
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