Join me as I make my way through the Malazan Book of the Fallen! (Currently: 7 - Reaper's Gale)

Altazor · Mar 30, 2021

Finished GOTM's Chapter 9 earlier today.

Damn, I'm getting hooked now. I really am. I really liked Tattersail's interaction with Paran, and especially what happened with Lorn, Dujek, Tattersail and Tayschrenn. (spoilers)Lorn trying to get vengeance on Tattersail for what happened to her family back in Malaz, all those years ago, was fucking great. And it was sort of heartbreaking (but understandable) how Dujek and Tayschrenn convinced her of letting it go. I mean, what's heartbreaking wasn't that (because - again, it's understandable for whatever it is they're doing now that they cooperate like adults), but rather that what little humanity remained in Lorn seemed to get pushed down yet again in favor of just being "the Adjunct", all business and "nothin personnel... kid." Am I also right that said destruction of the Mouse Quarter that left Lorn orphaned was the riot depicted in the prologue, right? Which means Lorn and Paran are roughly the same age, right?

I also enjoyed the start of the chapter with Toc the Younger and Lorn battling the barghast and the summoning of the T'lan Imass and, of course, the ending conversation between Lorn and "Tool".

Random comments/questions:

Loved Toc commenting that Tattersail looked attractive when she's not wearing battle attire
That sexual tension was obvious from the start. You know what I'm talking about.
Also loved Lorn telling Tayschrenn that Dujek must be spared from the purge because he's pretty much universally beloved and if he's branded as a traitor it means they're the traitors. And Dujek himself seemed, from what I could gather from the feast scene, quite the decent guy.
I wonder why Lorn treated Toc so decently when they met instead of being all cold and 'professional'. Was it because he just saved her life? Was it something else? It's probably a ridiculously minor and meaningless detail, I just felt it kinda... odd.
What are T'lan Imass, anyway? I know they're sorta warrior tribes that got killed earlier in the narrative. They even mentioned some chapters ago that some of them went to a certain place and not many of them returned. We learn sorta what happened in this chapter (another war with the Jaghut, whatever that means). And that more of them are coming back because "the Diaspora ends" (which was a chilling line, well done Erikson!) but... are they humanoid? I think they kinda look like Redeads from the Zelda series, no? Like mummified warriors. Are they larger than a "normal" human? Smaller? I'm asking such stupid questions anyway.
Another thing I quite liked (and I have a hunch it will have large repercusions) was Toc knowing that Tattersail was 100% bullshitting about why the Hound appeared and attacked her, but deciding to go along with the lie as a way to 'return the favor' of what the mage cadre had usually done for the 2nd army.
And yet another thing that I assume will have importance later on was the fact that Caladan Brood is half-human. And that Crone not only serves Anomander Rake, but also Brood. Are they working independently? What could possibly be going on with the Tiste Andii, hmmmm?

All in all, I think I'm finally wanting to read more and more. I wonder if, for all of those who struggled to get into the book, this was also the point in which you realized you were hooked? Or maybe that happened a bit later?

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your impressions!

Altazor · Mar 30, 2021

Just finished the (shorter) Chapter 10, which means I also finished Book Three - The Mission!

Oh wow. I didn't see that coming and I don't think I understood exactly *what* happened. To those who are far more knowledgeable, please feel free to correct me:

So "Tool" had some sort of anti-magic field (or something) activated around it and Lorn. Tayschrenn anticipated that Tattersail would take that route and had Bellurdan expect her once she would come out of her Warren due to it becoming basically impossible to traverse due to Tool's anti-magic field. If she attempted to use magic again (her Warren) near said field she would be consumed entirely and (I assume) die. He instructed Bellurdan to arrest her or kill her if she resisted. She, of course, resisted. Then she had an idea and, I'm assuming, the pillar of fire that resulted (and was seen by multiple characters) was due to the amount of sorcery involved in doing what she did (which, from what I gather, was the equivalent of what Quick Ben did to Hairlock earlier, e.g. "soul transfer" into a new vessel) interacting with the T'lan Imass anti-magic field. So she's... currently inhabiting Nightchil's bones? Is Bellurdan dead? What was Tayschrenn's gonna arrest her for - a way for him to stop her from fucking up the Empress' plans? Something completely different? I don't get why he tried to get her arrested, but, anyway, THAT happened. And I'm just "holy shit".
Not to say that we're finally getting something a bit clearer (or, at least, Tattersail's interpretation of it): Lorn's apparently trying to resurrect a dead tyrant? Well damn.

On another plot, so we finally meet Caladan Brood... and he's certainly an imposing figure. And now I finally know that he's not under Rake's command, he's just allied to him but not necessarily in good terms. Currently this all feels like pure setup so I can't comment much. Obviously Brood is hiding something from Crone (who's, in turn, hiding something from Rake) and there's this Kallor guy that doesn't seem very trustworthy either. Wonder what's with him.
Oh, and we learn that apparently Hairlock's been visiting that same place in the Rhivi Plains, shooting Rake's birds from the sky with his powerful chaos magic or something. We still don't know what's his endgame here, but I think this chapter serves as confirmation that he's further down the infuence of Chaos (which means Quick Ben's hold over him is weakening, I guess?).

And I guess Paran's swears vengeance on Lorn because of what happened to Tattersail. Oh boy.

My remaining questions are inside the spoiler tags. Suffice to say, I'm officially hooked on this.

Altazor · Apr 5, 2021

Oh boy. Just finished Book 4 of GOTM (which includes chapters 11 to 13) and... welp. Shit got real very fast until it stopped and then apparently got real in a very different way.

Spoiler tagged thoughts for y'all.

Starting off the whole 'book' with the scene between Kruppe, the elder god and two new characters (Pran Chole and the Rhivi woman) was mystical, mysterious and engrossing. Apparently his dreams are an actual Warren? Whatever the case, time flows differently there, so Pran's from the past (from before the T'lan Imas even existed as such), and both Kruppe and the woman are from the present. Now we finally know (relative term) what happened to Tattersail. I wasn't so far off last time, commenting that she somehow transferred her essence to Nightchill's body - then what happens *next* I didn't see coming. So -from what I gathered- Kruppe assists Pran (and K'rul) to transfer Tattersail's essence out from Nightchill's body and into the Rhivi woman's child-to-be? So that 'Sail is (almost literally) born again? And that she'll be a shapeshifter? Anyway, the imagery here is beautiful and mysterious. I loved how K'rul answered to the question about the child retaining Tattersail's memories ("The woman was consumed in a conflagration. Her soul's first flight was carried on wings of pain and violence. More, she entered another ravaged body, bearing its own traumas. The child that is born will be like no other ever seen. Its life is a mystery, Kruppe."), I loved the entire dreamy, time-is-in-flux-here atmosphere, and Kruppe managing to have a moment of levity despite the importance of what was happening.

To be honest, I feel we learn a shitton during this book and it's probably because a shitton happened!

The 'main' gist of the book is that both parties (Bridgeburners and the Darujhistan guys) finally collide with each other, after plenty of buildup. I loved the interconnected POVs here, with the reveal that the road repair guys that Baruk complained about in an earlier chapter were the Bridgeburners all along, stealthily (also a relative term) planting mines under tiles. On one hand I fucking loved that reveal. On the other hand, fucking hell, planting mines under the streets... a shitload of innocent people's gonna die. Yet another reminder of the actual cost of war (something this book doesn't shy away from). I also loved that Whiskeyjack has plenty of doubts and sees himself reflected in Sorry - a remorseless killer, something inhuman. He tries to keep it all together for his men's (his friends', I loved that part) sake.
The thing with Crokus and the D'Arle maiden was fucking glorious. I really laughed at one part ("Crokus frowned at that. What was she talking about? What did she know about how he looked at obligations? And why was she right?") and the fact that said infiltration ended up completely different as he had imagined it only heightened the hilarity of it all.

We also learn what was Quick Ben's idea that he mentioned to Whiskeyjack *and* we see him executing said idea. Holy fuck he went to talk to Shadowthrone himself. And he learn that he was a *High Priest* of Shadow! And his name! Fucking hell! Of course, he goes there to bargain - he wants the assassination order against him lifted in exchange for delivering Hairlock to him. What a deal, my man. I wonder what Hairlock's up to.

And, of course, the action in Chapter 13 is another holy fuck moment, with the supposed ambush turning quite sour because the Tiste Andii decide to kill every assassin they can find. Oh boy. Thankfully Kalam and Ben (I'm legit digging their friendship a lot) managed to escape without major injury, thanks to Ben summoning a fucking *demon*. Damn. And that said demon got instakilled by Anomander Rake and his sword! Damn again. Rallick also managed to escape, he urged Crokus to abandon the life of a thief/assassin and just walk the straight and narrow, and telling Murillio he ain't going to do what Baruk asks of them. Plenty of shit happening.

And things we learned (a lot) in this book:

Quick Ben's actual name! Ben Adaephon Delat and that he used to be a High Priest of Shadow
Darujhistan's founding was "born of a rumor" and said rumor was directly linked to the resting place/barrow of the Jaghut Tyrant mentioned earlier
Derived from the previous point, we learn that the power of said buried tyrant or whatever else is there is apparently big enough to level the city so it's a very very bad idea to wake it up
Sorry's multiple personalities start to slowly emerge before being subdued once again. Both the witch seer and the actual fishergirl, it seems.
That Moon's Spawn has FIVE BLACK DRAGONS AND A RED ONE, fucking hell!
Confirmation that the "assassin war" in the city was instigated by Rake, who wanted to prevent the Bridgeburners getting in contact with them to kill Darujhistan's leaders. And, in relation to that, the leader of the guild of assassins is also a High Mage
That Anomander Rake's sword somehow consumes souls and binds them into "the world that existed before the coming of light". Somehow represented as a wagon with many chained slaves?
First mention of a God who is 'cripped' and 'chained'. Consiered the name of the last book, I'm betting this'll become horribly important later.

Man, I'm getting more and more into this book. So far, the 'slog' has been worth it only because now you can make the connections between characters, their interactions have meanings and some pieces of the larger puzzle are no longer completely unknowable artifacts, but you can somehow fit them for a start. Can't believe I'm little over halfway and it feels like it's all coming to a climax... I still have hundreds of pages to go, lmao!

Altazor · Apr 12, 2021

Time for another update! Earlier today I finished GOTM's Book 5 (Chapters 14-16).

So... I guess something happened. I mean, "a thing" happened, but after a couple of sections where Erikson basically spelled out for you what was going on (or, at least, what was the characters' plan) we're back on "...what just happened? This is totally going to become important later, right?" territory. I mean I get that Paran did something about the wagon and the chains in the Warren that's linked to Dragnipur but I don't know *what*. Like, I know he somehow got one of the Oponn twins to serve as bait and then... it ended and he's back at the Rhivi plains? Something like that. Anyway, at this point I'm sure Erikson left it intentionally vague so he could reveal the consequences of the act (more than the actual details) later.

I'm also still a bit confused about how is it Lorn and Tool have opened the Tyrant barrow. I know that Tool said something about his Warren and the Barrow's magic Warren being... related, so to speak. Variations on the same theme, I'd venture? Not the same, but with enough similarities. And that everyone else has been unable to find the Barrow because they obviously don't have Tool's access to said Warren. And because the barrow isn't *there* right? It's in the other Warren? That's why there's only "a marker" but it's not the actual location - they need to open the Warren from that point? I'm just asking to make sure I got that right.

That being said, this book was filled with great moments. From the Hairlock puppet getting torn to shreds thanks to Quick Ben fulfilling his end of the bargain with Shadowthrone to Rake's encounter with Shadowthrone that was filled with tension between two powerful figures to Paran getting to hang out with Coll and finally learning some of the latter's backstory - in fact, this last one has some of my favorite writing in the book so far. I quite enjoy Erikson's characters just being them and having some downtime as compared to when they're all "business". It gives them depth, shows them as... well, actual people instead of pawns on a board, I think.

And, well... big developments! Hairlock is no more (it seems)! Lorn is having second, third and fourth doubts about Laseen's plans - enough that what Lorn feels and what "The Adjunct" feels are completely different! Sorry is free from Cotillion! Paran is free from Oponn, it seems... but his sword is not! He meets with Tattersail (or the kid who has Sail's essence) once again! The girl previously known as Sorry is now known as Apsalar (just like the matron of assassins)! Paran considers himself to be a defector from the Empire! Toc the Younger is gone!. A lot has happened in these chapters even if "the thing" waking the Jaghut Tyrant hasn't actually happened yet.
Regarding the fishergirl being freed from Cotillion, I'll say this: I liked that Erikson made a point of showing how absolutely lost she was after the possession ended. She had a completely different posture and "look" without that influence. What I didn't quite like (or, basically, it didn't hit the mark for me) was how quick she went from "lost girl who doesn't know where she is or *when* she is" to being all buddy buddy with Crokus and even kinda flirting with him. I dunno, I mean, if I basically woke up a couple of years from now in a completely different and unknown place with no memory of getting there, far from my family, a weapon in my hand that I don't remember ever picking up (especially if I were a simple fishing boy or girl) I'd be *FREAKING OUT*, pretty much on meltdown from having spent god know how much time in a state where I can't remember most things, not knowing *what I've done*. But that's just me - I just thought that shift wasn't very convincing.

Still, character interactions were on point during this chapter and I enjoyed pretty much all of them - especially, as I already mentioned, the one that closes the chapter. It's nice when they find a moment to actually laugh about things.

Questions I still have:

What was Hairlock's point? Or, expanding it - why did Quick Ben *need* to kill him? Was it because he was starting to go completely out of everyone's control by falling under the Warren of Chaos' infuence? Something else? And what was Hairlock's endgame here, anyway? Because, as of now, he apparently failed. He spent a lot of time on the run after embodying a puppet and then he got found out and died. Oops. Anyway, if that's an actual spoiler than gets explained later on, then please tell me that I'll get the answer later just by reading the book ;)
The aforementioned "Barrow" and "Wagon/Chains" questions.
Not an actual question, more of a random comment: I liked the parallels between Sorry, Paran and Lorn regarding the idea of 'freedom' or 'independence' Sorry being freed from Cotillion thus becoming herself again, Paran apparently being mortal again and 'freed' from Oponn's influence directly, his deciding to 'defect' from the Empire, and whatever he did in Dragnipur's Warren, and Lorn herself having immense doubts about carrying the plan for the Empress and that part of herself that's still Lorn just becoming more and more pronounced the closest she gets to the Tyrant.

Thanks for reading this fucking wall of text :D

Altazor · Apr 17, 2021

New update time, with me finishing GOTM's Book 6 (chapters 17-19) earlier today!

I think this one was more of a setup, probably? If "shit happened" in Book 5 (even if it wasn't the shit I expected), then this one felt more like "shit was told". I reiterate my praise for the conversation between Rake and Baruk in chapter 17, still one my personal highlights in this book. I also appreciate Whiskeyjack finally opening up both emotionally and knowledge-wise, first by accepting that he cared for his squad and he accepted they were his friends, and then by revealing that he knew *a lot* of the shit going down, thanks to some magical communication device he and Dujek have. And thanks to that, we finally seem to have some sort of understanding of what the fuck were the Bridgeburners planning in response to Laseen/Tayschrenn's imminent disbanding of said squad with an added revelation, late in the game: knowing the rebellion against Laseen is also imminent and, thus, the empire is gonna have to fight on *multiple* fronts, they wanna conquer Darujhistan their way... to eventually battle this Pannion Seer guy that has, apparently, started a Holy War.

Welp. So there really is *a lot* of shit going on, in different places, with varying levels of threat the Tyrant, which will apparently go against Rake, or at least that's what Laseen wants; Bridgeburners' plan of bombing Darujhistan and contract the assassin's guild to take out the rulers, so they leave the city in chaos and, thus, is more easily controlled when Dujek's army -now fugitives- arrives; the Moranth are apparently going to renege on their alliance with the Empire and Brood is marching upon Pale. Got that right?

For "The Daru Guys™" (original nickname do not steal) this book brought some hardships: Coll's injury got even worse and he got saved in time thanks to Paran's insistence and... well, luck. Funny using that word. Anyway, luck, because he basically stumbled upon Kalam by mere luck and he remembered the Bridgeburners had a healer. Good thinking there, Ganoes. On the other hand, Rallick did go to kill his boss and, bless him, he succeeded! That scene was particularly brutal and vivid, so kudos to Erikson for that. Then he and Murillio realize he came out unscathed out of that fight, despite actually receiving a very real injury. Obviously that "dust" he used on his face had nooooothing to do with it, oh no. Also, Murillio has "a hunch" about who The Eel actually is.
It's obviously Kruppe, isn't it? :P
On the other hand, I thought Crokus was insufferable in these couple of chapters. I wonder if that was intentional or not, but I thought he was the wrong type of "annoying teenager" (akin to Harry in Order of the Phoenix), constantly whining and just being a dick to Apsalar. At least in that regard we got the hilarious (really!) POV of Serrat the Tiste Andii, who clearly sees herself as this edgy, brooding, über-competent, über-stealthy killer and she literally got blindsided off-page and then blocked by some unseen force, falling into the street... in the span of a single day. LMAO.

I do think it's interesting, regarding the Bridgeburners' plans, that despite the narrative more or less positioning the Bridgeburners as (relatively) good, and I stress the "relatively", it shows they're not above being ruthless and willing to sacrifice a few lives for their objective of... preventing another bigger war? Fighting fire with fire? I guess that's what's been eating Whiskeyjack from the inside this whole time? As in, he probably thinks is a step too far and will probably mean an irreversible loss to his own humanity. Or maybe I'm drawing the wrong conclusions.

Overall, I liked these group of chapters but the whole thing was a slight step down from the previous, that one felt more eventful and this one's clearly more interested in setting things up for the finale of the book.

Can't believe I'm 4 chapters (+ epilogue) from finishing this. After such a difficult barrier of entry, I'm very much liking the narrative - I'm getting more and more invested in certain characters, I'm definitely expectant regarding what happens in Darujhistan, etc.

Thanks for reading this wall of text!

Altazor · Apr 25, 2021

Time for another update - finished Chapter 22.

Oh.

That happened.

I don't know exactly *what*, but it certainly happened.

Correct me if I'm wrong: so the Tyrant enslaved Mammot and possessed his body after facing with Kruppe, K'rul and Tool inside Kruppe's "dream" (which I'm pretty sure it's another Warren). Said Mammot/Raest then started to wreak havoc at the Estate, disintegrating multiple people, injuring Whiskeyjack and somehow 'disappearing' Paran, and not even the combined might of the fat witch (whose name I can't recall now) and Quick Ben's *seven* Warrens (!) could stop him definitely. At the same time, there was "something" growing at the spot where Lorn planted the acorn/finnest in the garden. So when Paran 'disappeared' he got transported into a Warren in which the essence of the finnest was battling the essence of the wooden thingie that was growing in the garden, called an "Azath", which can somehow trap the Tyrant. In this Warren, the finnest tried to enslave Paran and almost succeeded but somehow it activated Paran's Hound blood (which somehow got into him back when he got transported into Dragnipur's Warren, I guess? Or something that happened earlier?) and he overcame the finnest enough as to allow the Azath to trap it, I think.
Also, Bridgeburners did a deal with the guild leader to kill the councilmembers and assume leadership of the city once it falls into their hands. Considering the Dujek/Whiskeyjack previously mentioned plan, I guess they're not really counting on honoring the latter part of the deal.

So Mammot/Raest is still fucking things up but then Ben sees Hedge about to blow shit up and then... he does. Shit blows up. And then we're told said explosives attract magic, so it was like a magnet to the Tyrant's magic. And it went boom! Well, he actually didn't - he (or it?) is still alive and it was gonna go again until the Azath reached all the way from the garden and then it enveloped the Jaghut and bye bye Tyrant. For now, at least.

And after all that happened - Kalam realized that, thanks to the numerous gas pipes that go through the city, that going through with the original plan would leave no city standing. MichaelScottThankYou.gif was basically my reaction to the realization Kalam had.

Did I get that right?

But between all that happening, there's also smaller scenes that were quite good, like the Bridgeburners discovering there's someone else inside Apsalar and whoever's inside gives off an immense amount of sadness (a very well done, touching scene) or Crokus finding out that he's just a horny teenager that lusted after (not loved) Challice and he's disappointed with her. Like a rude wake up call. It's a bit sad, a bit sweet and funny, at the same time - I like how Erikson writes Crokus. Well, mostly.

That was... eventful, was it not? And I'm still a couple of chapters away from the end. We're nearly there!

Altazor · Apr 26, 2021

Here it is, folks - the final update for Gardens of the Moon. Just finished. It is done.

It only took me a couple of months due to the high barrier of entry but, IMO, it was worth it. I think (and I hope) the next one won't take as long.

As a start, I think I'll refer to the characters: I ended up warming up to them by the time the Jaghut Barrow plot was revealed. It's nice that Erikson gave those who don't really develop or have a major arc I'd put the Bridgeburners here, plus Kruppe, Baruk and Rake some space to show a bit of depth (relaxed conversations, small scenes away from missions, tiny details that amount to nothing in terms of grand plot development but round up a character) as opposed to those with an arc or some semblance of one I'd include Paran, Crokus and Lorn here... and Rallick probably too, though this felt like more the actual jumping off point for his character arc than the arc itself... at least to me. There's a special case here, a character in between (imho), which is Tattersail: major character in the first half, has a semblance of an arc, she shows some change in terms of perspective and motives, then she gets killed halfway through the book, then reborn as a child away from where the action is happening and has no relevance whatsoever to the Jaghut/Darujhistan plot. It's obviously one for the future.

But I think that's one of my minor problems with the book - it clearly is "part one of ten", or "prologue" or essentially just the first part of a multi-part narrative, so much that it introduces many characters with the (understated) promise of developing them much later. Which means that in *this* book, they're a bit... undercooked. Or just kinda exist to move the plot along, but they don't feel like... actual people, you know? It's obvious some characters are only secondary and it's obvious they're not gonna get the spotlight, that's always been the case - but I feel like there's *plenty* of them in this book, and it's like a wink wink nudge nudge "isn't s/he COOL AS FUCK? Just wait 'til we get to book 4, when we finally get to know what s/he thinks!".
Someone already said ITT that Erikson's weak point was the characterization. I sorta agree? I mean, with what I said just now, I'd say we're of a same mind. But, on the other hand, those that *do* have development I think were well written. As I said on previous posts - I enjoy Erikson writing Crokus. I think he gives him a street-smart innocence, a wide-eyed wonder that's a fresh contrast to the rest of the cast (which are, essentially, all soldiers or killers or politicians mired in 4D chess) without feeling obnoxious (except for that section that I also mentioned in a previous post with him being a bit of a dick to Apsalar, but I guess it still works in the context of him being a confused teenager who thinks he's older and rougher than he is and also naïve as fuck). Also, Kruppe's a goddamn delight and I won't hear otherwise, despite him not really having an arc per se. He stays Kruppe, as he's always been.
I warmed up to the Bridgeburners as I advanced in the narrative. They start as these... sort of mythical figures ("a super famous squad! They're fucking awesome and known throughout the Empire!") but also distant and distrustful, very rough and ragged, and as you move on the narrative, you start to see the bonds they've formed with each other and that they complement their personalities and skills. Paran being probably the most "improved" in my mind learning to be a badass at the climax of the book, arguably the closest thing the narrative has to a "hero" figure? And he started like a whiny asshole imo and Quick Ben being the "kruppe" of this group as in he's a delight and he's fucking awesome (so far) and I'm not gonna hear otherwise (for now).

But the biggest surprise, imo, is Lorn. She was a... difficult character, by design. Part of her was all business, cold killer, I-am-a-human-tool-of-destruction-and-I-only-follow-orders. The other part was a kid who witnessed her entire family get killed and got denied a chance of a normal life by being, basically, conditioned to become a human tool of destruction that only follows orders. Which meant that sometimes she followed said orders (booooo) and then having a very human moment of weakness and doubt and regret (yay) afterwards, only for "the Adjunct" personality to reassume control and dissipate all those feelings once again (booooo). That was basically her entire dynamic through the book. I liked when she let her guard down, and it's sad to see that a woman, a young woman who lived her life as a tool for others, ended up dying shanked in an alley by two lowlifes. It's darkly ironic, of course (you're led up through the entire book to believe she's a major player due to her direct connection to the Empress, her being Paran's superior and dealing with the Bridgeburners, and even until the last moments you see her fighting with "cool guy who will be possibly developed later on"... but no, she gets killed by the two women (thieves) who hung out at the Phoenix Inn, after her (well, the Empress') plan failed. Sad end for her, but I guess it was fitting - sometimes you don't end up going in a big blaze, sometimes it just happens in the most unexpected way possible.

That takes me to another thing - themes. Unless I'm a moron, there's a couple of major themes in this book that are almost constantly present. To me, they are: War is Hell (and sometimes you'll be forced to make horribly hard and nasty decisions because of it), Secret Plotting (E V E R Y W H E R E) and Being a Tool/Being Used by Others.

War ir Hell is obvious: Paran, as a kid, wanted to be a soldier. Glory! Of course it's everything but glorious. You get physically and mentally scarred. You can fuck up entire cities. It's not glamorous and it's not to be taken lightly. Sometimes you even lose yourself due to it, and sometimes you're so close to the brink, right at the edge of losing yourself, and you're able to reverse course at the last minute due to some unexpected and unforseen circumstance. As a point of contrast: Crokus, who's still a teen and not a soldier, still having some semblance of naïvete.
Secret Plotting: literally all over the book. The Empress' plan, Dujek/Whiskeyjack's plan, Quick Ben's plan, Rallick/Murillio's plan, Baruk's plan, Shadowthrone's plan with possessing the fisher kid. Everybody's plotting something in secret. Not all of them succeed.
Being a Tool/Being Used by Others: There's a character that's literally named Tool. You can't get more obvious than that (heh). But apart from that, it's something constantly present: Lorn being a tool of the Empress (and accepting that role), Paran being a tool for Oponn (and rejecting, in quite a badass moment, that role), the fishergirl being a tool for Shadowthrone and Cotillion, even the Tyrant, such an awesome and dangerous force, is trying to be used as a tool by the Empress in a bid to weaken Rake. There's a moment near the end, where Cotillion asks Paran whether it's worse to be used and not knowing, or being used and knowing exactly everything you did. I don't have an easy answer to that, but I guess "not being used" would be a start.

In terms of minor themes, I found there's the idea of revenge (and, arguably, the futility of it) present in both Murillio and Rallick feeling hollow and in unrest after fulfilling, the plan of restoring Coll's seat, also present in Lorn's feeling of hatred towards Tattersail that she ends up swallowing and subsuming behind 'The Adjunct' and unfulfilled, and Paran's vow of revenge against Lorn for the death of Tattersail, which also ends unfulfilled because Lorn's at her dying breath when he finds her again, (religious) belief very much shaping the world (especially seen with the Elder God, but also obviously Oponn) and this one can be linked to the major theme of being used, as Gods/Ascendants are very much into using mortals for their own purposes.

As a special mention, I have to say kudos to Erikson for addressing in the narrative my main gripe with what happened to Sorry (after she stops being possessed by Cotillion - I said I didn't believe how calm she was after 'waking up' in a place very much not her own and few definite memories. At least we're being told it's because the Seer that linked her being with the kid at the start of the book is shielding her from all the ugly shit she did while being Sorry, otherwise she'd totally have a breakdown). It's a convenient excuse/reason, but... it kinda works and it's a nice, emotional scene too when that's being explained.

All in all, I liked it a lot after overcoming the obstacle. Someone earlier compared the book with LOST and I can see where's that's coming from - you have a very large ensemble cast, a bunch of unexplained shit and the ride's gonna take you where you least expect it. There are obvious differences (including the medium, which is a pretty damn big one) but the comparison kinda holds. I do think one point of comparison that favors LOST over this book is that the unexplained shit is framed as a mystery in the show (like - the Crash! the Numbers! How is Locke able to walk in the island! The Smoke Monster! and so on) while in this book it's... just unexplained shit. No 'mystery', because the writer knows everybody in this world knows that shit and what it's used for and the differences between, etc., so he's not gonna explain it because why would he? Everybody knows already, and infodumping shit isn't good for pacing. But anyway, that links to what I mentioned earlier: the very evident fact that this is "part one of ten" and so, despite the 'major' plot already closed (the Empress' plan for Darujhistan and the Jaghut Tyrant, it still feels like setup for the actual 'narrative meat' for the series, so to speak. You put the characters in motion (and it took you a whole doorstopper), now go and see how they develop.

Do I recommend it? Sure, with some big caveats - if you're not into Fantasy, I don't think you're gonna like it at all. If you are into Fantasy, you might still have a hard time and you should know that: A) there's gonna be a constant stream of words that mean nothing to you, B) it's OK, you're not gonna understand all of it at first, so C) use the glossary at the end, ask around, don't be shy. Once you get to the point in which you can more or less understand the "what", you're gonna have a great time.
Or maybe it'll be too late for you at that point and it never really quite comes together. Which is fine.

Thanks, many many thanks, for reading this ridiculous wall of text but I needed to write some #THOUGHTS about it. Plenty of them. I wonder if you have a completely different opinion - I'd like to read them :D

I'll try to start Deadhouse Gates tomorrow!

PS: I wonder why Erikson chose that title for the book. It's evocative, sure, but it doesn't seem to have importance in terms of plot... or even characters. Considering it's about a story that the fishergirl's father used to tell her when she was a kid I guess it'd be because it kinda refers to innocence and keeping it in the midst of the ugly reality of war and political intrigue? Also, obviously, a roundabout reference to Moon's Spawn.

Altazor · Apr 27, 2021

Here it is, we're finally tackling Deadhouse Gates! I've finished reading up the prologue and these are my short thoughts on it:

I can totally see the difference in prose from GOTM to here - I can't pinpoint exactly what it is that's different, but I feel a bit more immersed. I think it's probably that how the sentences flow (at least on this prologue) is different, less 'plain', if I had to describe it somehow, and more focused on painting you a vivid picture of how it feels instead of how it just looks.
And, man, the prologue goes dark. Pulls no punches. It's obviously a grim, grim moment in history (I'm assuming it's very shortly after the end of GOTM? But still within that year, 1163) but, shit, they're not shying away from some really gruesome stuff like watching a lady get necksnapped then beheaded with a chain, holy fuck. Laseen clearly was not fucking around with that Cull, eh?

One thing that shocked me was Tavore, the sister of Ganoes and Felisin, being the new Adjunct and going all in with the Cull, even against her sister. Like, holy shit what happened there for her to do such a thing, I need an explanation ASAP. I know (early GOTM spoilers)she wasn't very amiable when Paran rolled by the house, so clearly there was like a cold sibling relationship there but there's a world of difference between disliking your sibling and (DHG, prologue) signing up for massacring the nobles and selling your sister to slavery.

I'm really intrigued by how the hell did Baudin ended up there. I dunno if it's ever explained, or was already explained and it totally went over my head.

Baby steps and more than a thousand kindle pages to go, but we're on our way!

Altazor · May 2, 2021

Update time with brief thoughts on the Prologue and Chapter 1.

Oh boy, back at Square One, aren't we? Back at the not knowing, the future promise of "this'll be explained later, just you wait", the sensation of being dropped right in the middle of something that already happened and you need to pick up the pace or risk getting lost.

"We're building something here, detective. We're building it from scratch. All the pieces matter," as Lester Freamon from The Wire once said.

I've missed that feeling. We're back at setting down cornerstones so we can build a house later.

As I've said earlier, the Prologue is moody and dark as fuck. It does not shy away from showing you the ugliest parts of something that already sounds ugly ("the Cull"). It's one thing to see it from a distance, as an event mentioned in passing, spoken of as something it's "usually done" as a means to curry favor with the masses. It's something different to see an old lady get beheaded with a chain basically happen right next to you. Erikson's prose gets you right in the midst of it and I appreciate how vivid it was during the section, despite me wincing through it - I appreciate the craft and how it improved with the years. I can't pinpoint exactly what, but I think his sentences flow better while also being more than mere descriptors? Probably. Might be wrong though.

In Chapter One, the "now knowing" feeling comes back in full force with the first PoV of the chapter - that of Mappo and Icarius. Oh man, that's a surprise right from the start, isn't it? Back in GOTM it's introduced veeeery late that the mechanism that's used in Darujhistan to determine the name of the year was a gift from a guy named Icarius, a veeeeeery long time ago. And there he is, now in the first chapter of DG, exploring a desert searching for some "gates" that probably grant Ascendancy and, who knows, maybe restore his lost memory. As it's mostly all introduction + set up I can't say much more about it only that I quite liked the encounter with the D'ivers (how is it pronounced anyway? Like the english word "divers"? Duh-eye-verse? Duh-ee-verse?). I asked earlier what did Trells look like? Thanks to Alavard an his quick reply I'll picture them as a mix between neanderthals and ogres.
Then we jump up to a completely different part of the world, and are introduced to Duiker (apparently pronounced "Dooker"), Imperial Historian and friend of Heboric (from the prologue), and this kinda slimy guy called Mallick Rel (which is a very similar name to Rallick Nom, tbh) that's the adviser to High Fist Pormqual and a priest of the god of the sea. Again, mostly set up (Duiker doesn't trust Mallick and wonders how he climbed up the ladder so fast; with the arrival of the Wickans we're treated to an infodump to show us why are the Wickans there and who's the new Fist, a guy named Coltaine -- also explaining why he ithe new Fist. Who better to quell a rebellion than one who lead one?) so not much to comment there.
And then we go to see some old friends - Kalam, Fiddler, Crokus and Apsalar, traveling the seas in route to Seven Cities after a grueling journey. The appearance of the soletaken dhenrabi was a nice, imposing scene, but I loved how they dealt with it and Fid's cheesy oneliner after. Then we're revealed the *actual* reason for the journey they're undertaking, 'cause it's not just about returning Apsalar to Itko Kan - it's about Kalam trying to commit good ol' Regicide. We'll see how he fares.

So far, mostly setup so I cannot offer more in-depth commentary for now. I do have a couple of random comments and questions though!

One thing I noticed is that Erikson is more open (willing) to explain stuff to readers, even if it's in infodump form, by either having a character explain the situation to another character that doesn't or wouldn't know (like the Duiker/Kulp/Mallick scene) or by having one character review their previous (off-page) actions during an inner monologue (as in Fiddler remembering their journey). It feels slightly more natural than just dumping the info, so it's appreciated.
I wonder what's with the "Season of Rot" and why it's been more common "in the last ten years"
Felisin being self-centered and snobbish feels on-point with her being a teenager that's also a member of the nobility.
I also wonder what/who is Sha'ik. I guess I'm gonna find out soon, right?
Just as a completely random, not really related to DG in particular, comment - I finally have a specific "look" for some characters in my mind. Crokus, for example, I imagine as a younger Aladdin (Disney). Quick Ben totally looks like a young version of Lance Reddick. Kalam... I don't have a specific 'someone', but I totally imagined him like in this illustration, only a bit... rougher/less attractive.

Gonna take a while to finish Book 1 (more than a 150 kindle pages!) so I guess the update's not coming soon. I don't want to put a threadmark every time I finish a chapter, otherwise it's gonna be endless and that ain't it. So... i dunno, maybe I'll just sprinkle some updates here and there with no threadmarks and just use them whenever I finish a book (not The Book, which is DG) for a more 'formal' means of navigating the thread.

Thanks for reading this wall of text!

Altazor · May 10, 2021

Time for the new update! Deadhouse Gates' Chapter 3 and 4 are done!

Honestly, gonna start with the obvious. I hope I don't end up devoting *that* much time writing a wall of text - I'll try to keep it as brief as possible.

Skullcup:
Oh boy. "Bleak" doesn't even begin to make these segments justice. Might be the bleakest, darkest stuff I've read in a fantasy novel in quite a long time - reminded me of the Ramsay Bolton chapters in ASOIAF in terms of overall hopelessness depicted, and, to be honest? I got very uncomfortable reading those parts. I'm pretty sure that was the intent but, still, I don't know if we needed to know in detail that not only Felisin, who's 16 years old, sells her body to Beneth, who's like this slave overlord in the mines, in exchange for favors (mostly drugs for her and certain minor benefits for Heboric)... no, she's basically abused by that guy, passed around to different people around the camp and gaslit by that same guy and groomed/manipulated so much by him that even when he beats the shit out of her for nothing that could be blamed on her, she thinks on apologizing to him. Jesus. That should've come with a trigger warning (and I'm doing so, if you're interested in reading that. Trigger warning.) because that's fucking horrible. It reminds me of those naturalist/realist novels from the 19th, which strove to show the sordid, depressive, miserable and hopeless lives the poorer strata of society had, without any revisions or exaggerations (or, at least, that was the intention of said writers) - I assume that might've been the inspiration for Eriksen in these sections? They clearly don't resemble the standard fantasy fare and I applaud, once again, the craft, the intention going beyond the conventions of the genre. It just made me feel icky and heartbroken for someone who doesn't exist, and they feel to me like a drag... in both the best and the worst way: I appreciate how moody they are, how bleak and in your face they can be for the genre and, despite that, still feel well written (imo) instead of pulpy torture porn; on the other hand, they drag because they feel like too much misery at times. And there are moments you don't want that misery on your own life.
I can only assume it hits incredbly different if you're a woman - in fact, I can't blame you if your reaction is "well, yet another example of sexual and physical abuse of a woman 'because of reasons'", if you think this is pulpy torture porn. I don't think I could convince you otherwise. I'd respect your opinion and take it into account, even if my own current perspective is different.

Hissar:
I quite liked these sections, to be honest. From Duiker seemingly striking a certain rapport (even if strictly professional) with Kulp to the overall creepiness of their scene in the oasis at the end of C4, these sections had plenty. The confrontation between the Red Blades and the incognito Wickans near the harbor in C3 had me *very* tense, it had the atmosphere of a bomb ready to go off and taking out only innocents there. Thankfully the situation was defused by quick thinking by Kulp (and a decision previously made by Coltaine about having those Wickans defending the market, as that would show the populace they'd be willing to fight for them; that shows Coltaine is a very apt leader, something that's reinforced with the "heavy drills" anecdotes told by Kulp later, and how the 7th earn their day of rest).
On the other hand, as I mentioned before, the creepiness of the scene at the end of C4 is a very noticeable shift from earlier and we manage to get a "confirmation" that indeed, there will be a Convergence, the Path of Hands will open and the soletaken and D'ivers will try to reach them. Or something.

Ehrlitan and environs:
I gotta be honest - I'm enjoying the hell out of Fiddler's chapters if only because it finally gives him a perspective after being "just a sapper" in GOTM. And it's interesting that not everything seems fine in their group with him fighting with Kalam leading to Kalam going on his own 'mission' and leaving with barely a word towards them, and also the arguing with Crokus. The kid's back at being "annoying teenager" but while I think he's justified here in feeling shut out and angry at the idea from Kalam and Quick Ben (that Fiddler didn't even thought about!) of using Apsalar as a failsafe method if their Plan A for killing Laseen fails, I did like Fiddler's retort of YEAH STOP BEING A WHITE KNIGHT THOUGH, SHE CAN STILL THINK FOR HERSELF. Oops.
Another moment I really liked from these segments was Fiddler talking to Crokus about Mammot's death, and the idea of what was important about family, beyond powerful connections. That was yet another humanizing moment that I quite enjoyed tbh, though I do wonder what's with Moby disappearing.
Nearby Ehrlitan we find Kalam riding towards Ladro Keep, alone (or so he believes?). Very intrigued by the sudden/serendipious reading of the Deck of Dragons born out of a fraudulent/scam reading. I wonder what's in store. Death, I assume. Lots of it. And then the Red Blades following him... then murdering everyone at the Keep. Holy crap, they don't fuck around, do they? And I'm sure it's made even *worse* because the lady got it wrong thinking Kalam was in cahoots with the sergeant there, when he had no idea about the plan. Or did he and I missed it completely?

Tessem Temple:
Even more intrigued. By a lot of it. First the books in the library with titles straight out of academical papers and thesis. They're almost like literal undergrad thesis! I wonder if that's a slightly in jest "take that" to academia (by saying theirs was a search for pointless knowledge) or Erikson is framing that point of view as inherently wrong and we're meant to find out later that the civilization that produced said texts wasn't undone by their own trivial pursuits or something like that. Not only that, but what said findings trigger in Mappo I don't "get" his flashbacks and I'm sure I'm not meant to. I wonder what was the ritual and what did it entail exactly. I hope I'll find out later.
Then we have the octogonal chamber deep under the "main" temple. The one defiled by shapeshifters. That small segment gave me a bit of chills - with both characters outright refusing to enter said chamber and then realizing that may be the gate to the Path of Hands that will open eventually. Of course Iskaral tells them nothing that isn't riddles so I haven't got a clue. I'm still intrigued. And I wonder why the fuck does he want to kill ALL the spiders (even though I agree with him on that. Fucking creepy wretches).

Jesus, I wanted to be short and brief and a wall of text still came out. There's no being "short and brief" with these books it seems, right? Otherwise you're doing them a disservice hahaha

I'm liking this more than GOTM, confirmed, but my caveats regarding the Skullcup section remain. Hell, there's a scene at the end of C3 with Felisin finding out Heboric and Baudin are talking to themselves, without her, and she just cries feeling abandoned and unloved despite what she's done for them and FUCK, that got me. Poor girl. That was so fucking sad, so depressing and contributing to the overall dreary mood that it just... I dunno, it makes it "hard" to read, but -again- I think that was Erikson's intention. Or maybe not and I'm just wildly guessing.

Anyway, thanks a lot for reading and enduring these ridiculous walls of text! I appreciate your comments a lot, even if I can't read read them because of spoilers :)

Altazor · May 19, 2021

time for a new threadmarked update - Chapter 5 (thus, the entirety of Book 1: Raraku) is done!

This one felt shorter. Arguably less dense? Less jumping viewpoints, more focused on a single group (Fiddler/Apsalar/Crokus). I'd say it's a chapter of two halves, clearly defined. Let's get to it.

First half:
We follow Fiddler, Apsalar and Crokus while they're going towards G'danisban. They find the city surrounded by rebel armies and are stopped by a guard, whose face gets bitten (fucking OUCH) by Fid's horse. Said scene is watched by Arak tribesmen, who find this funny and are in awe of the "Gral", thus Fiddler gets invited to the Arak camp. The group learns G'danisban is being purged at the moment and they worry they're gonna get discovered, so they convince the Araks to let them travel ASAP to the city. There we learn that: A) yes,the city *is* being "purged" and it stinks of death and bile, B) Shadowthrone and Cotillion were Kellanved and Dancer, who escaped the assassination attempt by Laseen and ascended.
We had the insinuation before, in GOTM, but here it's basically outright spelled out by Apsalar, whose mind still has the imprint (I guess) of Dancer/Cotillion's memories. She remembers stuff *he* did and thought. And, with that, we learn that Dancer didn't really trust the Bridgeburners (despite them considering Dancer their friend), and that Cotillion doesn't trust *anyone*, not even Shadowthrone.

Oh, and also learn that the order for Aren's massacre wasn't given by Kellanved or a general or whatever, it was given by Laseen. Which, I guess, shouldn't surprise anyone (since -so far- ruling by violence seems to be her thing).

So far I'm enjoying -technically speaking- how vivid Erikson's writing has become. Even when he speaks of things outside of the reader's orbit of knowledge, it never feels as *dry* as it could get in GOTM. The things he depicts are not necessarily enjoyable (like what happens to Felisin, or the descrption of G'danisban's current situation, what happened to the guard's face) but the way in which he writes about them makes you feel invested -personally speaking- and immersed. It seems a lot of my DG wall of text updates is dedicated to me praising Erikson's prose improvement but I feel it's warranted :)
Apart from that, there's not much to say about this half but some random musings/questions I'll be listing at the end.

Second half:
We follow Kalam getting detained by Sha'ik's bodyguards. Are they in Raraku or the Odhan? Can't remember. Anyway, he's stopped by them and then Sha'ik appears and Kalam gives her the Book. He's sorta surprised she looks so young and then later he muses that she and Laseen are 'cut from the same cloth' and even look alike.
Sha'ik has prophesied the meeting and the start of the Whirlwind - she says that she'll open the Book at dawn and then she'll be 'reborn', 'renewed'. She senses something in Kalam and offers him a place in her army, but he declines, so she gifts him, as an escort, the same Aptorian demon we saw earlier from Icarium and Mappo's perspective. He leaves and has a moment of self-reflection, musing on WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING and the untold amount of deaths he'll indirectly cause in his crusade against Laseen. He reminds me a bit of Rallick and Murillio at the end of GOTM, both having some self-doubt and wondering if they're losing themselves in their own missions, crossing a line they weren't meant to cross.
Then the chapter gives us a big swerve... or does it? At dawn, Sha'ik opens the Book. And before she's able to read it, she gets murdered by the Red Blades who were tailing Kalam. Well damn. Thankfully (I guess?) the young Toblakai bodyguard just beat the shit out of the Red Blades, being surprisingly agile and nimble for his size - on othe other hand, as Tene Baralta thinks, it's useless because the bodyguards have already failed to protect Sha'ik. Point taken.
The chapter (and Book 1) ends with a totally-not-ominous line: "There's a storm coming."

Again, not much to say except that I appreciate having a chapter being more-or-less self contained. I enjoyed the final swerve (with the hope/expectation that it's not a swerve at all and that probably her body's gonna get possessed by *something* older, and then *that* will lead the actual Whirlwind? She mentioned "young, yet old. One life whole, another incomplete" when referring to what happens to her at dawn and her "renewal".

That's it for Chapter 5 and Book 1. It's mostly a "setting the pieces up right before I start to move them" book because we know the starting point and first steps of many of the characters (Felisin's in Skullcap with Heboric and Baudin; Duiker and Kulp in/near Hissar, with the plot to rescue Heboric (thanks to a man inside Skullcup, which is strongly implied to be the guard that chats up with Felisin); Mappo and Icarium in the temple where the gate to ascension is located; Fiddler, Apsalar and Crokus crossing G'danisban; Kalam crossing either the Odhan or Raraku (can't remember) and 'delivering' the Book of Apocalypse). I wonder how and when they will converge. It's gonna be interesting, I guess. Onwards to Book 2!

Random musings and questions:

I wonder what's with ascension, how much of your "former life" do you remember if you ascend? Do you become something completely different? The answer might be spoilerific so feel free to not reply if you think it's gonna give up something important that'll come later.
Seriously, I totally understand Crokus' reaction to watching the guard's face get bitten off by Fiddler's horse. Fucking hell.
Fiddler starting to fall for Apsalar... and did I catch this right? He's essentially trying to convince himself of not giving in to his darker impulses and outright 'dispose' of Crokus, leaving him alone with the girl?
Hey, Moby's back! And looking like shit!

Thanks for reading this wall of text :)

Altazor · Jul 24, 2021

Oh boy. Time for a very very late update, which will take a different tone/structure than the previous ones. Considering this one's threadmarked it means I'm done with Chapter 10 and, thus, Book 2 of Deadhouse Gates.

Where do I even begin?

Probably with honesty - it took me far too long to muster the willpower to advance through this chapter. It was, to put it mildly, a slog for most of its length. Probably the fault lies more with me than with Erikson, tbh, because real life (and other interests) kept getting in the way of me reading the chapter fluidly - it meant I lost track completely of who/where/what.

And boy, losing track of who/where/what, in *this* chapter, meant you're not gonna enjoy shit, because Eriksen decides to go full steam ahead with the minutiae of military formations/tactics about fictional tribes clashing over fictional geographical locations featuring fictional factions. It's a smorgasbord of terms that pass you by and, unless you're somewhat "tuned into", or very much on board with Erikson's worldbuilding so far, it's gonna make you go "why am I even supposed to care about this?" at times. Like "who are these people and why are we spending so much time reading about this flank of the river and that oxbow and that island and the ford and that other flank and the other shore and the ford and..."

really, I was just lost. Like veritably, almost irrevocably lost. I had zero geographical reference as to where everybody was, Erikson kept going "this flank" and "that flank" and "the ford" and "the shallows" and "the road to fuckknowstown" and I was trying to wrap my head around the shape of the river to begin with and I just couldn't. I just couldn't. To be pefectly honest, I still don't know "exactly" what happened, in terms of how the battle developed before the "spotlight moments".

And, if I'm honest, despite this being a chapter focused pretty much entirely from Duiker's perspective (instead of jumping around from locale to locale), there's two different chapters in there. And I enjoyed one *far more* than the other. First, the one I already mentioned - the detailed description of the battle lost me and, despite being supposedly epic, I can't even say if that's the word that comes to mind when thinking about it. The other chapter 10 is when Erikson decides to focus on certain moments, feelings, musings and the reaction of Duiker to what was happening - please, I hope there's more of this instead of the other one. Please.

I mean first, the moment in which the dead rise up and then it's explained to us that all of them died in a kinslaying was fucking *chilling*. Especially the imagery of undead mothers killing their own babies before getting murdered themselves by other tribesmen it's just... damn, dark as hell. And it works. The whole section is ominous and heavy, especially the clincher that explains *why* the Wickans are loyal to the Empire. Again, that moment *works* - the fact that Kellanved broke and humiliated them so bad it made them forget their own petty squabbles it's like.. hell, *that's* some 4D chess, managing to not only remove from the board a pesky enemy, but to bring it back completely loyal to you? Damn.
Then, the moment in which the sappers blow the 'bridge', taking down a third of the enemy's forces with that and leaving the rest stranded on the other shore - again, that moment *works*. You know something's gonna happen, you have Duiker in first person realizing what *will* happen only a moment before and then you get to see, through him, the carnage that victory brought. That moment is why Duiker's later comment to Bult feels poignant - "Victory tastes sweetest in the absence of haunting memories, Bult. Savor it."
Duiker has seen too much shit. I can feel the weariness upon his soul. He feels he can't deal with all that despair and violence and utter savagery war brings. Again - War is Hell (a leitmotif from GOTM, present here and I'm pretty sure across the entire saga).

And then he witnesses something mystical and powerful as fuck - the Wickan shamans somehow revealing the god from the Semk (an Ascendant from long ago) and "killing" it -or, as they said, 'dispersing' it- in another scene that actually works. It's more about the mood and the reactions from Duiker and how powerful it all seems despite you not really understanding it. I very much enjoyed that.

The ending of the chapter was fucking hilarious, though, and I don't know if that was exactly what Erikson intended but I laughed at Duiker not caring one bit about the snotty wealthy guys yet managing to slightly give a fuck about the one who actually behaved decently towards him. Big big "I'm too old for this shit" energy from him there.

All in all, as I said - two different chapters in one. I liked one of them a lot (some of those moments were harrowing, others were poignant), the other I could definitely do without. Book 3: Chain of Dogs is next and I hope Chapter 11 doesn't take that much time for me. Let's be positive :D

Thanks so much for being patient and for reading this, even if you vehemently disagree with my take on this particular chapter (or *anything* else I've written!). I appreciate y'all taking the time to read these ramblings.

PS: If there's a MBOTF tv adaptation I want Clarke Peters (Lester from The Wire) as Duiker. I see Clarke Peters as Duiker in my mind, and it fits perfectly.

Altazor · Aug 19, 2021

Well, shit. I finished Chapter 14.

That was intense as fuck, emotionally.

"Raraku reshapes all who come to it. This is one truth you can cling to. What you were falls away, what you become is something different"

oh boy.

Bringing back the rat D'ivers from earlier chapters in such a crafty and sly way, the absolutely creepy/horrifying way in which Kulp was devoured (I assume he's dead unless Erikson pulls some sort of magic shenanigans, so for all intents and purposes he's dead until explicit evidence to the contrary), the hilarious lines from the D'ivers undead servants (before the whole thing goes to hell), Baudin coming back for some Big Damn Heroics (really!), Heboric having a complete breakdown over his inability to save Kulp and also getting poisoned by the D'ivers and then

Baudin comes back *again*, looking like absolute fucking shit, but having fulfilled his purpose.

Up until then, it was fucking amazing, but then Erikson just went all the way and pulled (yet again) one of my favorite moments of both books so far and I fucking L O V E D I T

"Felisin waited, hoping the life would flee this husk, flee it now, before— 'You ... were ... not what I expected ...'

Armour can hide anything until the moment it falls away. Even a child. Especially a child."

I fucking wept. What a line.

But the chapter doesn't end there, and after a shift in perspective we're back with Fiddler, Crokus, Mappo and Icarium, discussing the end of the Whirlwind and Apsalar's apparent plan. Again, very nice scene in terms of dialogue and I was a fan of Fid trying to make Crokus a bit happier by saying at least Apsalar ha reunited with her father.

But the chapter ain't done yet, because we now shift to Sha'ik's guards still holding vigil over her body... and then a girl and an old man appear.

I love the intentional misdirection here: the young girl and the old man, are they Apsalar and Servant? Or are they Felisin and Heboric?

"'You are reborn,' he said.

The woman's low laugh was triumphant. 'So I am,' she said."

Damn damn damn. It just confirmed that I am, for all intents and purposes, hooked. And I'm invested in these characters. And that the "armour" line I previously mentioned emotionally got me good.

And that, despite being a short-ish chapter, it was packed with so many good moments it was amazing.

Last (and longest) book of DG awaits. I feel like I want to read all of it ASAP. We'll see ;)

Thanks for reading these posts! :D

Altazor · Sep 16, 2021

Final DG threadmark update - Finished the book!

To be perfectly honest with y'all - this was a tough read at times, whether because of its subject matter, my own confusion regarding geography and topography (and military tactics) or because I couldn't understand certain parts (Erikson has that style, whether you like it or not, I guess - it's part of his signature). Tough read in a different way than GOTM, however; I think it's evident Erikson's prose got better with the years, I think he got a bit better with managing different perspectives and making it feel cohesive despite that, and I think he got a *lot* better at making you care about the characters in the book (I mentioned earlier that I had a hard time empathizing with a lot of the cast in GOTM while also being confused by terms and events, which I think is a bad combination). I think DG is a better book than GOTM, told in a better way, with a far more impactful climax.

I just think it's a *tough* read. By design, of course. By the end of the Chain of Dogs you feel the exhaustion, the physical, mental *and* spiritual tiredness of the entire caravan - you are as "on the edge" as all of them. And they're basically your companions, too - Duiker and his heart of gold; Corporal List, who died a thousand mock deaths in military exercises; Captain Lull and his very dry sense of humor (and ugly grin); the warlocks and their hard-to-pin wisdom inside childish bodies; Uncle Bult and, obviously Coltaine. You get to know them (even if relatively) after spending so much time with them and you gleam their qualities. Those qualities shine like a beacon.
After finishing chapters 21 and 22 I don't think I've felt as emotionally drained with a book ever since... I dunno, the Red Wedding in A Storm of Swords? I think C21 and C22 share some things with that ASOS chapter, not only because it 'deprives' the reader of the expectation of a happy ending, or because the realization of both events depend on the treachery of a supposed ally, but because it shows that the world doesn't 'owe' you a happy ending even if you put all blood, sweat and tears upon a task - there could always be someone ungrateful that misunderstands you, that takes credit for your work or that outrights undoes it. The world can be a cold, ugly, cruel place, in which selfless people die and are forgotten, or good deeds get punished instead of celebrated.

But it can also be beautiful, and worth fighting for.

And it also showed me something terrible but true: you do good deeds, selfless deeds, because it's the right thing to do. Not because you're expecting a reward at the end, not because you're gonna get something out of it. You do it because it's right. And there's a bravery of going all the way, even when the world misunderstands you and hates you for it. You just do the right thing.

I think the main difference between C21/22 and the Red Wedding chapter in ASOS is that these ones also show a different side: compassion. I think that ends up becoming one of the main 'themes' of DG: it was present when Duiker sent his mount back to Aren, knowing what was going to happen to him, but also when he was about to die and had the vision of the Jaghut ghost, it was present in Mappo's concealment of the 'truth' to Icarium, even if he thinks it's cowardice, and even when we learn at the end that the Nameless Ones are manipulating Mappo by making him believe Icarium razed his village and, tellingly, it was absent between the Paran sisters, 'ending' with Felisin becoming the vessel for the Goddess of Vengeance about to clash with Tavore and absent in Korbolo's decision to crucify thousands of children first and then tens of thousands of soldiers along the Aren Way. The Red Wedding was ugly and tragic and heartbreaking - and this one too, but it also happened to show bravery and selflessness and actual Heroism, something the RW (because of its very nature) couldn't show.

Continuing from GOTM this book again shows the themes of War is Hell (especially in the Chain of Dogs narrative strand, but also shown... well, basically everywhere except the Path of Hands. It's ugly, it's bloody and it's almost inescapable), Secret Plotting (Iskaral Pust, Mallick Rel, the very late revelation that the Bridgeburners' outlawing was a work (wrestling terminology) from Laseen and it was done so they could join forces with Rake and others against the Pannion Seer) and Being Used/Being a Tool (again Iskaral Pust, and Shadowthrone, and the Azath, and Sha'ik/Dryjhna... Hood knows what the endgame is for all these)... but also Vengeance (Felisin vs Tavore, apparently the whole cruel 'you're a traitor!" humilliating spiel from Mallick and Pormqual towards Duiker was born out of a slight from the Historian to the Jhistal near the start of the book? Unless I misread that. and... well, the rebellion itself, revenge against conquest from outsiders and years of domination).

My main criticisms of the book remain constant: I think Erikson goes too far at times with the Felisin storyline it's basically torture porn, 'how much more miserable can life get for that teenager? Hold my beer...' and, when I asked earlier ITT if it was worth it, I got ambivalent replies. I understand them now - it's still "step one" for her. We gotta wait for her clash with Tavore. And is she still Felisin at that point, anyway? Or has the Goddess essentially overwhelmed her being? We'll see.
Of course, my other main criticism being endemic to Erikson's style. He's not gonna change it no matter how much I complain - sometimes he just throws at you a wall of made-up words that mean absolutely nothing to you and yet mean something to the characters, so he doesn't bother explaining because that'd be "unnatural exposition" and of course he's not gonna have characters 'discover' stuff they already know, or should know. It is what it is and I have to deal with it (or don't, if I end up falling off this ride.)

On the other hand, as I already mentioned, he did get a lot better with his prose, and the pacing (save for the Felisin narrative), and how his characters behave (they're not just walking plot devices) from GOTM, so that makes me feel good for Memories of Ice. But I also admit there's a part of me that wishes that I could skip to whatever happens next for *these* characters, considering I feel more invested in them than (most of) the GOTM cast.

Still, plenty of hype for Memories of Ice! I just hope it doesn't take me 5 months to finish, lol.

Thanks for reading and commenting, I really appreciate it.

PS: COLTAINE!! Oh man, that epilogue made me smile. Motherfucking Coltaine!!! He deserves so much more.
PPS: I wonder what's with the bhokarals sent by Baruk - I assume they wanted Coltaine, right? That's why they were looking for the tiny bottle... I wonder what's the alchemist's reaction's gonna be when he realizes he didn't get who he'd thought he'd get.
PPPS: The Chain of Dogs storyline is gonna remain a long time with me. It was such a gutpunch... the ending of this book is mostly bleak as fuck. Not grimdark, just bleak. I think there's a difference - it's not gratuitous (IMHO), it's just brutal, but there's also pockets of bright light that make you think that you need to focus on them instead of the all consuming void. It's like what Rust said at the end of True Detective: "if you ask me, the light's winning".
PPPPS: The Spanish version of Deadhouse Gates has a SPOILERIFIC AS FUCK front cover, thankfully I read this shit on Kindle (and in english). I'll put it in spoiler tags just because:

Altazor · Sep 20, 2021

So, let's dry the tears from our eyes and dust ourselves off from the sorrow and tragedy of Deadhouse Gates' ending, and move onto Memories of Ice, the third book of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Finished the Prologue already. As a good Prologue should, I feel it gives you enough hype and questions to make you wanna read on - you don't know *why* or *what* exactly but you know enough to make sense of some stuff, venture some guesses and feel like you should keep on reading to see whether the answer comes up or not.
And it feels different enough from GOTM and DG's respective prologues - GOTM's had the (difficult) work of introducing you to the entire MBOTF while also being a starting point for that book's narrative - I think it succeeded partly (it really benefits from a reread once you more or less get the hang of what's happening and where; the first time I feel it's mostly a kid having a vague-ish conversation with a soldier while the rest of it is a blur that doesn't make much sense), while DG's felt far more intimate, bleak and violent... which set the tone for most of DG quite well (obviously Felisin's storyline but also the Chain of Dogs, thematically).

This one feels... expansive. Mystic. Like the uncovering of just enough ancient knowledge to make you feel you know more than before, but NOT enough to make you enlightened. It features characters we've already known (Pran Chole comes back! Kallor comes back too! Hey, that's K'rul!) but also others we don''t (the female Bonecaster who turns out to be Tool's sister!, two other Elder Gods I wonder who the Sister of Cold Nights is... and whether we've seen her before and the Jaghut kids I wonder if we know who they are, too) and we finally learn *something* of the Chained God (AFAIK, he was 'summoned' from the edges of *another plane* by people who craved power and it basically took A SHITLOAD of power from different people to chain him, which left a lot of the land in ruins and there's this whole revelation about Kallor that continues from what little he was mentioned in DG (there we learned he was "the High King" and had an empire, now we learn he basically killed/turned to ashes the entire population of his Empire. WHAT? WHY DID HE DO THAT?!).

There's also a couple of questions but I'm sure for at least two of them the answer will be Read And Find Out (and if it is, please just tell me that!):

What's the deal with whatever was going on with the Bonecaster, the Jaghut children and the Warren opening: Pran mentions something about an 'exchange', so I guess the kids were going to be trapped in there forevermore in exchange for something/someone being summoned *out* of said Warren and into their world? And, obviously, the Bonecaster didn't know that until Pran told her.
Is there any connection between the first part of the prologue and the second? the first one being like 100000 years before the second one, and featuring Pran Chole, the Imass and the Jaghut kids; the second one featuring the Elder Gods dealing with Kallor on an (apparently) completely different continent
Could you please explain what was the First Empire? I'm sure GOTM mentioned it but I forgot and I don't want to google it or search it on the wiki because I might spoil myself with stuff from future books. IIRC they were the first *human* empire? But the book also says it was fashioned after the T'lan Imass and I don't know what that means. So, if any of you MBOTF could shed light on it, I'd really appreciate it!

So that's the Prologue and we're into the 'main' part now. I quite liked it, the flavor was different enough to make me curious and there were plenty of evocative passages... yeah, I was hooked.
Thanks for reading!

Altazor · Oct 11, 2021

Update time. Finished Chapter 6 and, with that, MoI's Book 1 is done!

In which a caravan enters Saltoan; a tavern filled with crimelords (and ladies) witness a speech while certain hands are anything but idle; we learn more about the Pannion Domin; a number of badly burnt corpses are found in the way to Capustan while warrior siblings are on the hunt; a wrecked wagon is found and we see the evidence of necromancy; two friends try to connect; a girl is rejected twice; the hunted become the hunters.

Oh boy. What a way to end this first part of the book, right? It's... weird, in a way. It's not like there's this constant feeling of dread right from the start, because if even the scenes are bleak (Saltoan definitely doesn't feel like a nice place to live), there's still this undercurrent of camaraderie that lightens the mood. And even during the big info dump (Keruli's speech about the Pannion Domin) gets intercut by small moments like Nektara putting her hands to good use with Stonny, and the latter part of the chapter still has those instances of levity, such as Stonny getting rejected by Buke and one of the Barghast, or "Mancy" Reece telling Gruntle that it was either going with Bauchelain and Korbal Broach or staying with his wife... and he doesn't regret it, lmao. But then you realize how fucking bleak it all actually is, and the chapter is sprinkled with these "actually, this is NOT RIGHT!" moments throughout that when the end comes it's like "...yeah, i didn't see *that* coming but I was a fool to expect something that wasn't tragic or brutal". We've got awful stuff like the Pannion Domin being insanely fucking awful as shit, the whole idea behind the Children of the Dead Seed, Saltoan feeling like fucking Mos Eisley, the bandit corpses on the road that were burnt and/or melted (!), the Barghast on the hunt for "demons" with BLADES FOR ARMS, Bauchelain/Korbal's wagon being absolutely fucking *wrecked*, the awful and creepy necromancy experiment in one of the chests of said wagon, Buke's little "we're not gonna see tomorrow" spiel and Keruli's late "oh shit, it might not be enough" moment all sums and builds towards that ending. Yeah.

I didn't foresee MBOTF becoming Jurassic fucking Park all of a sudden. I still don't know how to feel about it but, I dunno, it's a goddamn fantasy novel, it shouldn't *bother* me, right? It's just that DINOSAURS aren't something I usually associate with the genre but that's more on me. At least now I know what the K'chain Che'malle look like.

And, uh... that really doesn't look good for poor Gruntle. From what it's described in terms of wounds, it'd be a shit cop out to reveal later on that "nah, he's alive! He barely survived his injuries!". I mean, he was a moment away from sharing Gennaro from JP's fate, lol. And he had his chest all destroyed by talons, so... I don't think he made it. I hope at least Stonny did. I liked her.

Thanks for reading!

Altazor · Jan 12, 2022

Whoa, this sure has turned into an actual discussion while I was away 😅

Since it's "my" thread (only because I created the OP, tbh I feel it belongs to y'all) I'll reiterate my idea that I don't mind discussion of series-long arcs, themes and/or characters as long as it's done behind spoiler tags not only for me (still on MoI) but also everybody who's still reading the books for the first time; or, if not using tags, it's done in such a vague way it's not really a spoiler unless you specifically know what to look for (so, as an example, less "I think Robb and Catelyn Stark should definitely avoid dinners and wedding invitations, AMIRITE GICE?" and more "I think there's a case to be made about how ASOIAF treats, in its narrative, oaths and oathbreaking, and how it shapes the events that happen", for example).

This is basically my only 'demand' for this thread, so to speak. I'm glad it's sparked discussions and I don't want to stifle them - I only want them to be mindful of those of us still behind 😅

Altazor · Jan 17, 2022

It's a new dawn, a new week, a new life for me... and a new update for all of yous! We're finally done with Chapter 13 and, by extension, Memories of Ice's Book 2!

Let's get into it, shall we?

In which a Mother talks to Whiskeyjack about her fears; we learn a bit more about Whiskeyjack's past; the Guild arrives; High House Chains has a new High King; a new couple is formed; a Mother dreams, hears voices and wakes up with hatred.

Another mostly self-contained Chapter (I've been saying this for quite a lot... it seems MoI's chapter dynamic seems less 'hopping around the world' than previous books... at least *so far*) this one concerning WJ + Rake + Brood + Rhivi host's travel to Capustan and... it's mostly a character focused chapter too. There's some interesting tidbits revealed in this chapter, for sure (and we'll get to them later) but the 'meat' of it is just... Whiskeyjack interacting with different people en route to Capustan, and the weight he carries on his back as a leader of men (yet again the theme of leadership appears in this book).

His conversation with the Mhybe shows just how fearful and bitter she has become over her situation - her increasingly older body, the fact that her daughter is not 'really' her daughter, the realization that she'll die sooner than most. TBF, it's not a pretty situation to be in, and the picture she paints of the "true abyss" that apparently waits for her once she dies is pretty damn horrifying... but, then again, maybe WJ is in the right and she's just projecting her innermost fears and belief that she must be 'punished' somehow. It's an interesting contrast of viewpoints and Erikson avoids (in this chapter) to side with either one, so it's left up in the air - though we see the Mhybe's thoughts about it and she seems to begrudgingly accept the wisdom in WJ's words. Whether he's 100% *right* or not, we don't know. But there's at least a grain of truth in there.
We learn that they're expecting the Trygalle Trade Guild to arrive and, while they're not really counting on them to fulfill their contract, Kruppe assures them the Guild always does. We *also* learn that Silverfox is starting to look more grown up and also feels estranged and bitter over her mother, it's like a loop of awful feelings between mother and child. Still, basically the marines around her recognize the Tattersail in her (so much that, apparently, she even walks with the same gait she used to have in her previous life) and are loyal to her - this pivots to a conversation between WJ and the (female) marines that reveals a bit of WJ's past. That was interesting - he used to have a sister, they didn't get along too well, by age 12 she said she was running off to marry a king and never saw her again. Damn. Wonder what became of her.
Then it's a short conversation between WJ and Silverfox about isolation and leadership (and that, despite both being leaders, she feels the weight of many many more) until the TTG finally arrives... in style, so to speak: one wagon crashes, completely burned; a couple of wagons come out alright, under protective sorcery; one final wagon, big as a house, pulled by thirty horses. All of them preceded by a river of blood... which Silverfox recognizes as the blood of K'rul.

the Warrens (thus, K'rul) are bleeding.

And it's gotten so bad even demons (!) wanted to get the fuck out of there, so much that even one of the wagons ended up with a demon's arm holding one of its wheels 😅

Then we cut to creepy-ass Kallor ranting againt magic, about how alchemy is different than magic, and that the candles that are lit in front of him extend his lifespan. Damn. He then thinks about what happened a long time ago (the events depicted in the Prologue) and we get confirmation that he, indeed, burned his entire empire down. Damn. He seems delighted that Nightchill seems to have died and K'rul is on its way to...
After which Gethol appears and offers him, after a back and forth, the 'position' of High King of High House Chains - something Kallor rejects at first because he has no intention of bending the knee to TCG. Gethol says that, despite TCG's influence in creating House Chains, it basically exists independently of TCG's will... and that the mantle of High King must be taken up freely.
Which, we see, Kallor does. In exchange for a moment of vulnerability in Silverfox. Oh shit.
And we also learn that the Warrens' corruption is something more than that - TCG is *changing* the Warrens so that his servants may freely travel through them, and the nature of said change manifests as a 'poisoning' or 'disease' to non-servants. Ugh.

After that we're back to the road towards Capustan and, I gotta be honest with y'all: I really like that conversation between WJ and Korlat. It's a very honest, sweet, candid conversation and... I like them as a couple. I can see how Korlat falls for someone like WJ - he's everything the Tiste Andii aren't. And he's a decent fella, all things considered (respectful of his enemies, doesn't tolerate shit within his own ranks) and knowing that 'war heroes' are still basically glorified murderers. But still, he's a decent guy and I like him (so does Korlat). And now they're together because she doesn't want just sex, she wants a deeper connection with a man that offers her something nothing her kinsmen would. Sweet <3

The chapter closes with the Mhybe dreaming once again - she's at the edge of the "True Abyss", and she falls... until she's rescued by an Undead Dragon (!) before she starts to hear voices around her that tell her the Dragon was a T'lan Imass Bonecaster (!) that was summoned by Silverfox (!!!). That was damn cool tbh. Oh, and the voices reveal that the "small round man" has some choice words for Silverfox that "might've" influenced her summoning of the Dragon to help the Mhybe - awww man, Kruppe's great: "Kruppe is not alone in refusing to abandon her to her fate". Compassion, man. Compassion.
Sadly, the Mhybe is in her young body within the dream but, once she wakes up suddenly, she's old once again... and she curses. She hates and curses. Can't blame her, poor girl.

All in all, the chapter feels 'odd' for a closer - if anything, C12 with the oppressive and horrifying reveal of the Pannion Seer and Toc's torture would've "felt" as a more natural closing point for the book, with a kind of cliffhanger that leaves you wanting to know what the fuck happens next. C13 feels far more subdued, with only a hint of ominousness, than the previous. It's more introspective, in a way. It's a bold choice for Erikson, I'd say. But I liked it - it gave us Kruppe showing compassion and WJ getting together with Korlat. It's worth it.

Thanks for reading! Onto Book 3 and Chapter 14 now! :D

Altazor · Mar 20, 2022

Ironically it's a threadmarked update and it's gonna be a shorter one. Chapter 20 is done and that means we only have the last part of MoI (the s/t Book 4), Chapters 21 to 25 + epilogue to go!

So, about C20...

Toc gets some respite; Capustan slowly comes to life again; a parley is held; over at the coast an iceberg brings ill tidings.

I thought this one was evidently a transitional chapter, a "comedown" after the tensions of the Capustan Siege and the Second Gathering. Not much 'happened' except, you know, talks and different kinds of conversations and gatherings, but it was enjoyable in that regard. Man, I love that Erikson insists on Blend doing the "Batman/Gordon" gimmick with her and everybody else - she's basically "blink and you miss her" lmao
And I loved Picker and Blend punching B+K, lol. Everybody respects them and/or fears them and then these two Malazan marines just go and punch them and leave them KO'd 😂

And the whole chapter is filled with great moments, from everyone respecting the hell outta Itkovian yet him rejecting said honors, to Brood showing how Burn had a "third option" for him instead of the original two (and offering mercy to Rath'Burn after the demonstration), everyone leaving Kruppe to his ramblings as they go drink, and the "fell gathering of women" being sassy and badass. All great moments, and some poignant/melancholic ones, like the chapter opening with Toc and the Seerdomin.

Of course, we *do* learn some new stuff in this chapter:

Keruli being not "a servant" of K'rul but the Elder God himself, embodied.
Brood can use High Denul warren without issue, unlike others.
There's no apparent conflict between the different souls inside Silverfox, they're in agreement. And Tattersail is there, "waiting"
Poliel, "Queen of Disease", is allied to TCG and Envy's use of her warren ended up inadvertently poisoning Garath
A floating city (on an iceberg) appears and insider there's a T'lan Imass from a different clan that offers an ill update: the Kerluhm and Ifayle T'lan Imass are all but gone after a battle with a new tyrant. And this time it's not even a Jaghut - it's human

The last part feels ominous, as it connects with Kruppe's wisdom during the previous chapter and the realization that the fight against tyranny doesn't stop with the Jaghuts.

Path forward seems... clear, I think? Some are going one way, others are going a different way. Seems "our" group is going to Coral.

Last but not least, I'll leave you with a beautiful quote that got me right in the feels: "We are all worthwhile, sir, once we assume the burden of forgiveness and the effort of absolution."

See you next time, when we start the last part of this wonderful book.

Altazor · Apr 17, 2022

This is it, the final MoI threadmarked update. Instead of summing up what happened in the last couple of chapters (which would take more than half this post alone by pointing out every important detail/event), I'll offer my thoughts on the climax and the overall book beyond what I wrote earlier.

Let me start by saying, once more, that out of the three I've read so far, MoI is my favorite. Learning that Erikson had originally written it as a direct sequel to GOTM yet lost what he had done in a computer failure only made me respect the man even more: I might've been devastated to lose all that progress and yet he took it on the chin, worked on DG and came back to redo this. It does feel like a novel written twice, in a way: I found it, despite its doorstopping length, surprisingly tight and scarce of filler and wheel-spinning. It shows a very confident Erikson writing, what I assume, *exactly* what he wanted to write and in *exactly* the way he wanted it. Pure confidence in its structure, its pacing and its themes.
Because, apart from the usual War is Hell and Secret Plotting themes (everpresent in the series, and in MoI evident -respectively- with everything that happened in Capustan and Coral, and the secrets hidden from the Allied faction, what Kallor wanted to do, what Silverfox wanted to do and so on) there's also a deepening of a theme already present in DG and, arguably, coming up to the forefront in this one: Compassion. Back when I finished DG I wrote it was present in some of its storylines and elements but in MoI it ends up being a major part of the resolution of its main conflict. And I think that's absolutely beautiful.

The same way Erikson managed to craft something beautiful and worthwhile out of actual loss (the guy had written hundreds of pages that were lost in that incident!), the narrative tells us to craft said beauty out of outright tragedy and, arguably, even more important: that compassion is a way (I wouldn't say *the* way, but it's an important one) to break the toxic cycle of violence. The Jaghut vs T'lan Imass conflict had been going on for thousands of years and it featured an entire race doing a ritual that damned them to eternal servitude in the name of warfare against tyranny, losing everything that made them 'human' along the way - it's a horrible, horrible loss and it's a horrible sacrifice so much that they *beg* for release after so long. And it ended when a human decided to absorb all their grief, take upon himself all the grief he could from hundreds and hundreds of individuals who had thousands of years of sorrow as a burden, and did it selflessly, out of compassion. The 'main' conflict of the book, the Pannion War, ended (surprisingly, imo) with Paran and QB realizing the Seer was one of the Jaghut children from the prologue, who were thrown into the rent/warren, and said child had been manipulated into overall hatred and wanton destruction by TCG. So what did they do? Purged TCG's influence from him, reunited the children, mercifully gave the Seer's sister different memories so she could see the Seer as her uncle instead of brother and left them in Burn's warren, far and safe from TCG's influence and the T'lan Imass's vengeance, so they could live their lives in peace. It doesn't *erase* what the crimes committed were, but redirects the punishment towards their actual author instead of just taking it all out upon what was basically a kid under a corruption he didn't understand.

If anything, even beyond "compassion", I think underneath the whole thing there's a core of altruism: of doing things *for* others without expecting a reward in kind, doing things because it's the right thing to do. It was already present in DG as I mentioned in the previous "end of book" threadmark but it's incredibly evident here, in basically everything Itkovian, Whiskeyjack, Kruppe and in a somewhat lesser (but not unimportant) way, Ganoes and Gruntle. Hell, even Coll and Murillio's segment at the latter part of the narrative is born out of compassion and altruism for a woman thrust upon a very unfavorable situation. Even Silverfox's narrative touches upon that, despite the twists and turns it takes her childish nature gets in the way of having enough compassion for the T'lan Imass and releasing them from their torment, even though she later realizes she should've been upfront with how she wanted to use them a bit longer and *then* granting them release. Even her idea of granting them that dreamworld to let them live their lives without the ritual/vow is compassionate, though very clumsily executed by her. And Dujek too, even if he's not a "main" character like WJ or Paran, also has more than a trace of this with his idea/order of having the Bridgeburners be the first ones to get into Coral knowing they'll probably not make it out alive, because that'll stall the Pannion forces enough to give everybody else a chance to arrive in time to deal with a decimated Pannion army.
I won't bore you that much with my opinions on WJ and Itkovian - enough gushing. I can't wrap my head around the criticism that Erikson can't write characters when we have examples like Itkovian and WJ in the same book feeling differently enough despite the similarities: both are military men, both with large amounts of empathy towards the people serving under him, both feeling duty-bound to their respective missions even if they'd rather be somewhere else and doing something else. Both men that defy the logics of traditional, toxic masculinity by being compassionate and understanding - especially WJ, that serves in a pretty regimented institution that's basically a nest of traditional toxic masculinity (the highly efficient army of a conquering empire). And both men are seen by others, by those around them, as the ideal candidates/examples of what they're supposed to be. Hell, there's a whole dialogue in the book between characters discussing WHY Whiskeyjack would've been the perfect Emperor: he *never wanted* the throne in the first place. The fact that he's a natural leader of men but completely unambitious about the promise of power is one of his defining traits. The same with Itkovian, who, when faced with the prospect of vengeance against the man directly responsible for the death of most of the Grey Swords and leaving said individual to a fate worse than death, he decides instead of releasing his grief and 'saving' him from said fate. That shows the kind of characters they are and, despite those similarities, there's enough flavor in both to know the difference (a mysticism and a celibacy in Itkovian that's not present in a guy like WJ). So, yeah, both became two of my favorite characters in the saga by virtue of being... well, virtuous. For doing what's right because the right thing to do is a reward in itself - much like Coltaine in DG.

I don't have much in the way of criticism this time around except some grievances that I've already mentioned in this thread but aren't (and weren't) major detriments to my enjoyment of the book: mostly the idea of Stonny getting raped being a catalyst for Gruntle's "transformation"; as in the idea, or plot point, of yet again using sexual violence against a woman for "character development" though I thought even that was handled with more tact than the Felisin storyline in DG. The horrors of war and what the Pannion Seer unleashed upon its own subjects was harrowing and sometimes veered into the gratuitous but by the end of the book I think I got why it needed to be so explicit: to show that even the Jaghut Tyrants weren't as wantonly destructive and mindlessly evil as a child corrupted by TCG could be - and even his subjects, thrust upon this world of utter despair, depravation and damnation, longed for release... even if that meant destruction of others *and* destruction of self.

Some quotes from the book will live rent-free in my head for quite a while, I think. Powerful, powerful stuff that resonated deeply with me, especially in these troubling times.

"We are all pushed into a world of madness, yet it must now fall to each of us to pull back from this Abyss, to drag ourselves free of the descending spiral. From horror, grief must be fashioned, and from grief, compassion."

"The hand of vengeance stayed cold only so long. Any soul possessing a shred of humanity could not help but see the reality behind cruel deliverance, no matter how justified it might have at first seemed [...]
Destroyed lives. Vengeance yielded a mirror to every atrocity, where notions of right and wrong blurred and lost all relevance."

"We are all worthwhile, sir, once we assume the burden of forgiveness and the effort of absolution."

"We humans do not understand compassion. In each moment of our lives, we betray it. Aye, we know of its worth, yet in knowing we then attach to it a value, we guard the giving of it, believing it must be earned. [...] Compassion is priceless in the truest sense of the word. It must be given freely. In abundance."

And, of course, a beautiful and poweful image near the end of the book: "I was the Shield Anvil. But now… I am done.

And beneath the Moon's torrential rain, he died."

Just thinking about it gives me chills and brings some tears to my eyes.

Anyway, time to bring it home. I re-read my previous "end-of-book" threadmark and remembered I had said "I just hope it doesn't take me 5 months to finish". It didn't.
It took me 7.

Life got in the way and it made for very slow progress at times but, man, I regret nothing about reading this book. I don't care it took me a lot and it tested me at times, it was absolutely worth it. Every laugh, every tear, every bitten nail. All worth the time I spent.

House of Chains next. Hope to see you too along the way! Thanks for reading all this and thanks for commenting in this thread, it's also something that adds to the experience and I greatly appreciate it.

PS: I wonder what's with (big spoilers): Paran blessing the corpses of WJ and the Bridgeburners at Moon's Spawn. I don't think he realized what he was doing (I'm sure he said "bless" in a non-Master of the Deck way but it was a blessing from the MOTD anyway) so that "dance of mystery" thing right at the end of that sequence got me all hyped and curious
PPS: I still don't know who the fuck Circle Breaker is, I guess that's something for the *next* book? 😂
PPPS: When I finished DG I said: "But I also admit there's a part of me that wishes that I could skip to whatever happens next for *these* characters [the DG cast], considering I feel more invested in them than (most of) the GOTM cast." Funny how that works, because I became incredibly emotionally invested in the GOTM/MOI cast *and* the new faces, even beyond what I was feeling towards towards the DG ones. So I guess the same thing'll happen once I finish HoC: I'll get emotionally invested with them all over again. Goddammit, Erikson. And some say you can't write characters.
PPPS: Bless the friendship between Toc/Anaster and Gruntle. They can be drinking buddies and I'll read their stories gladly.
PPPPS: Other incredibly emotional moments were Everyfuckingbody paying respect to my man Itkovian and fashioning a barrow for him ("if you refuse us this, we will defy you" was an incredibly powerful statement in context), Anomander Rake proposing Moon's Spawn as WJ and the fallen Bridgeburners' final resting place, the last goddamn line of the book.
PPPPPS: Bless the Mott Irregulars and their mysterious, hillbilly ways. Am I the only one that imagine them speaking with a very heavy "hillbilly" accent? "The Malazans know wood, all right. Did you know Whiskeyjack was apprenticed as a mason, before he became a soldier? || 'No, I didn't. What has that got to do with carpentry, High Marshal? // Nothing. I was just saying. " 😂😂😂

Altazor · Apr 21, 2022

It's time for a change because now we are going for House of Chains! Finished reading the Prologue and Chapter 1, so, here it goes...

In which Trull Sengar is cast away from his people

and

We meet Karsa Orlong and his Teblor companions; we see the Faces in the Rock; Karsa and his companions go on a raid.

Damn, this book doesn't fuck around. Prologue is vague enough to make you get interested in what's happening without giving you any major context or specific clues, and the visuals are striking enough to make you picture the scene in your head. I wonder who Trull and his people are (from the description I really assume they're Tiste Edur? Or something related. The line about the people you knew, laughed and shared things with suddenly turning into your "captors" is chilling. I wonder where's he gonna re-appear in the book. From what I could gather, he turned against a member of his community he believed was leading his people astray, serving a "hidden master" (hmmmmmmm I wonder who) and for that he was basically exiled from his people and "shorn", which means that for them he never existed. Damn.

From there we jump into Karsa Orlong and the Teblar plotline. Far away from the setting of the Prologue, we assume... and, AFAIK, far away from *everything* we've seen in MOTB thus far. And, oh boy, Karsa is something, all right. It's funny we go from guys like WJ, Itkovian and Paran in MoI which were somewhat thoughtful men that viewed war as a (sorta) necessary evil and they were more or less duty bound to fight even if they'd rather be somewhere else in peace, to Karsa Orlong (always both names, never just "Karsa") who is a goddamn barbarian who's all "CRUSH OUR ENEMIES, SEE THEM DRIVEN BEFORE US, HEAR THE LAMENTATION OF THEIR WOMEN" and "ALL FOR THE GLORY OF URUGAL!" all the time. And he basically wants to raid, pillage and (sorry) rape the women and have them bear his seed and he wanted Dayliss to be his wife but she already got herself attached to Bairoth Gild, who's one of his companions and also his cousin and they have an incredibly obvious passive-aggressive bullshit vibe going on and I don't know if Karsa Orlong doesn't know or he knows and he DOESN'T GIVE A FUUUUUUUCK.

So most of the chapter is Karsa Orlong idolizing his grandfather for being a GODDAMN RAIDER and not giving a shit about his father because he's apparently a mediocre failure that didn't want to RAID AND PILLAGE and instead just stayed in their village and didn't even give a fuck about erecting decent monuments to his sacrificed children, and also Karsa Orlong leading his Teblor companions into RAIDING THE OTHER TRIBES VILLAGES AND BEING ALL "FUCK YOU, I'M GONNA KILL YOU ALL AND URUGAL WILL SEE THIS OFFERING AND I WILL BECOME A LEGEND AND THEY WILL ALL BOW BEFORE ME" in a heavily forested setting.

If that was all about the chapter then I'd call it fun, but a bit simplistic. But we're talking about Steve Erikson here, so obviously he throws some goddamn curveballs that make this whole thing interesting as fuck. First, not even a couple of pages into the first chapter, we get the first bomb dropped. Those Seven Faces in the Rock the Teblor worship and venerate? They're not gods. They were never gods. They're a fucking sham. And they're in cahoots with "a new master" (hmmmmmmmmm I wonder who) who has (somewhat) freed them from their imprisonment but can't leave that glade yet until something else happens and someone actually manages to free them. So they plan and plan. And it seems Karsa Orlong is a big part of it... and, if that fails, Emroth (one of the Seven) is nurturing 'something' in Dayliss's womb (something that "isn't a child and isn't a girl"... which is chilling, too).

Second: The Teblor's "actual name" is not known by the Teblor. Ohhhh shit.

Third: Karsa Orlong's father knows the Seven are bullshit (calls them "false gods") and he also knows the "sacrificed children" still exist somehow (which explains why he didn't give a fuck about the signposts... also, more on that later, at the end of this post).

And fourth: Apparently Karsa Orlong's grandfather was also bullshit - instead of being Big Billy Bollocks and raid and pillage and rape (sorry), he begged a Rathyd tribe to let him pass. That according to the wife of said's tribe chief (also a victim of Karsa Orlong's thirst for... yeah, that.)

So it's an interesting turn of events and all those elements seem to give the chapter a seemingly unsettling quality beneath the surface: Karsa Orlong seems so... rigid, for the lack of a better word, so steadfast in his beliefs that his faith in the Seven and his own apparent greatness appear unshakeable. I believe he's either: due for a very rude awakening (thus beginning a long process of change) or he remains as pigheaded and stubborn and ridiculously over the top as ever to 'hilarious' results (meaning he becomes relevant for majorly fucking things up by behaving just like that). Either way, it's obviously RAFO because we're at the very start of his journey.

Onwards!

Random stuff:

Okay, I need a bit of clarification: I thought the "Found" tribe (the children sacrificed to Siballe) weren't actually dead, they were just taken away to live in secret, unseen by the rest of the tribe, and disfigured in their faces so that they all speak in monotone. BUT (and here's my confusion), the Companion Guide says they're "spirits" (so, they *are* actually dead and that's why nobody sees them). What's their actual nature? Of course, if it's an important spoiler or it will be explained later in the same book, then just pointing out it's RAFO will suffice :)
Karsa Orlong's father having dinner with his own father and then throwing him out of his house and telling him "if you come back, I'll fucking kill you" was hilarious.
I don't know what the Teblor (Karsa Orlong and his companions) look like. I assume they''re almost like humans but I guess there's some difference if they get to live for a looong time and consider 80 years to be "entering adulthood". Any physical characteristics? In my mind they're just a block of muscles and long dark hair.
It all feels very... viking, in a way? Like, how Erikson describes the landscapes reminds me of the Skellige parts of TW3.

Altazor · May 23, 2022

It's been a whiiiiile (heh) and it's high time for a new update. Threadmarked update, in fact, as it marks the occasion in which we finish House of Chains' Book 1 :D

Let's get to it...

In which Karsa and Torvald's travels come to an end. A new companion is gained. Some familar faces reappear.

Oh boy, I did *not* see the ending of this chapter coming. I should have but I didn't. Especially because I had totally forgotten about Leoman and Toblakai from DG apart from their names, so when Karsa gets all scarred in the face that should get all the attentive readers who remember every detail going "hmmmm, wait a second..." but, as I tend to forget plenty of stuff, that did fly over my head so, when the last couple of paragraphs hit I was like "OH SHIT!"

As usual, well done Erikson - not only because it's a character we only saw before from a distant perspective (Kalam and then Felisin) and we never knew exactly how they had gotten there or their backstories and whatnot, but now we know. And, retroactively, it gives their previous scenes in the series a bit more "oomph". Now I can't wait to see how their adventures continue from the last time we left them.

As for the rest of the chapter itself... damn, man. I knew Silgar and Damisk had to come back somehow but that doesn't mean I was pissed off to see them reappear yet again. I guess I have an innate dislike for people like them hahahaha
In any case, it all goes to shit and Karsa gets captured once again... twice, actually. First by Silgar and his group and then the Gral (!) murder the shit outta them thanks to quick thinking from Torvald (damn he's resourceful) and, the second time, by Malazans. He can't catch a break, tbh. Thankfully Silgar is put into otataral shackles so he's unable to cast sorcery anymore - I don't think we've seen the last of him anyway, he's like a goddamn cockroach.

It's during the first of those sequences that Torvald is left for dead... I mean, it's *barely* a fakeout, isn't it? We've seen someone get their throat slit and survive in this series before (in Memories of Ice!) so it's like "oh noooo... well, he'll probably be fine, there's no way he gets such a ridiculous death". And... he didn't. He's also a cockroach, but one I like. He survives despite all odds, and he's enough of a bro to break Karsa (and his new companion) out of the Malazan compound. Hope we meet again, Torvald.

This one's a shorter chapter and it shows - it's got a bit of a breakneck pace to be honest, with Karsa going from setpiece to setpiece without much downtime (and even his captivity in the Malazan compound feels incredibly short) and it all seems to build towards Karsa meeting "his new companion" (who is called Leoman) and the subsequent escape from their captors. And it builds towards that because it's the "gotcha!" moment, because even though you know the events of these chapters have been happening more or less at the same time as early-mid GOTM, the characters (and setting) feel so different to what's in that book it's almost like you're *not* supposed to put 2 and 2 together until the book reveals "hey, you thought they were new characters but they're actually Leoman and Toblakai!"

Anyway, this Book 1 feels like an extended prologue for the book, if you catch my drift? The whole thing can be boiled down to "how Toblakai left his hometown, got captured and much later escaped to Raraku in the company of a guy called Leoman" and we're still in pre-GOTM, pre-DG, pre-MoI time. So... yeah. It's been a nice, interesting and sometimes insightful (hilarious and surprising considering the type of guy Karsa was at the start of the book) extended prologue. And now we've got the rest of the book to enjoy!

Random shit:

We get confirmation that the blood-oil the Teblor use is actually otataral. And that, while the Malazans believe they control the only place in which otataral is found, in reality otataral is also found in the Teblor homelands. And they should definitely keep that a secret, lest they get invaded by the Malazans.
Speaking of the Teblor, we also learn they're actually Thelomen Toblakai, which is something I kinda suspected for quite some time considering the corrupted//deformed name.
I wonder if Silgar's still alive by the time Kalam rolls by the Sha'ik camp. If he's not... well, I hope his death was fucking painful.

Thanks for reading! :D

Altazor · Jul 3, 2022

New threadmarked update time because I just finished Chapter 11 and that means I'm done with HoC's Book Two! Let's get to it, shall we...?

In which Tavore and her army march out; bad news are delivered; a commander is in crisis; revenge is best served by a cold iron.

Honestly? This might've been one of the most emotional MBOTF chapters so far even considering there's no major deaths contained within it - it deals with death, death screams silently but constantly throughout it, but we see nobody die. We just read about it, hear about it, see what it means to everyone around and we see the scars it leaves on people and the landscape. The weight of that void, the weight of that absence, that unquantifiable loss, is something that's felt throughout the entire chapter. And it is a testament to Erikson's skill as a writer that he's able to pull the strings in such a way that it doesn't feel gratuitous and it doesn't feel forced, and that the consequences of previously mentioned events are felt (pardon the expression) still instead of being quickly forgotten and discarded beyond the literal.
As this chapter is mostly self-contained (despite jumping through perspectives it's all about Tavore's army) and there are no major plot developments except them being notified of what happened in Genabackis, I'll be doing something different this time I think, something a bit more freeform and rambling than usual - for which I apologize in advance.

There's something profoundly emotional/devastating in some of the scenes in this chapter, and to Erikson's credit, he doesn't overplay his hand, opting instead for something more subdued and subtle. The horrors of Aren Way are only alluded to, since we've already seen them firsthand at the end of DG, but now it's time to see how it affects those who survived the awful trials of the Chain of Dogs and those who only knew of it from secondhand accounts. The emotional gutpunch of Tavore and her army learning of what happened in Genabackis (filtered through Dujek and Tayschrenn's conscious lie) is one of the outright saddest moments so far because we know how much WJ meant to the Empire as a whole (he was basically a mythical figure who had almost universal respect and admiration, unless you're a psychopath with tyrannical ambitions like Korbolo Dom) but especially because we know how much he meant to his soldiers. He was even more than their friend, he was their father figure. And so the way Erikson describes Fid's reaction upon hearing the news, delivered so matter-of-factly by Bottle, is powerful in its own right - the shock of not hearing everything else, the need for being left alone, the denial of reality... it's all there. And even if Fid's conversation with Temul is powerful by itself too, I think the cherry on top is how Erikson closes that sequence - after Temul leaves, Fid remains alone and he just sinks his face into his hands. Nothing more to say, nothing more is needed. That particular moment of grief is Fiddler's and Fiddler's alone, I don't think even us as readers are meant to witness that.

Speaking of Temul, not only the kid is buckling under the pressure of a command post he didn't want, he's also trying to deal (and failing) with a bunch of soldiers who served under Coltaine and completely refuse to follow *his* lead. This particular crisis of leadership seems to be mirrored on a grander scale on both sides of the conflict - not only Tavore's soldiers follow her so far mostly because of her rank but they're not particularly confident in her commanding skills, but we've also seen the dissent present in Sha'ik Reborn's camp and the overall distrust her own generals and bodyguards seem to have for her supposed leader. These are two armies in conflict and two armies conflicted. It's only fittingly poetic that both commanders are sisters.
Still, Fiddler shows some impressive leadership skills once again (he's only learned from the best, obviously) when talking to Temul and giving him the idea to do what he needs to bring those Crow Clan guys under his fist. And Tavore herself shows some skills too, this chapter, refusing to be considered as a lost cause by either her soldiers or the Empress/Topper. In a way we've been intentionally led to not have a very high opinion of Tavore (IIRC, it's mentioned she's not very close to Ganoes when he goes to visit his family, and then we only see Felisin's POV during DG and it's clear what she feels for her sister) so the few glimpses that we've seen of her in this book have shown us a very reserved young woman that is obviously carrying an immense weight and yet cannot afford to show any sort of weakness or crack in her armor in front of her soldiers or her superiors, lest everybody's suspicions be proved right - that she's an untested noble brat, unfit of leading the Malazan army. And it's not that she doesn't care, it's just that she can't show it. Gamet sees a bit through her and he hates it because he's also doubtful - loyal to her because of loyalty to her family, not because she's done anything to "earn" said loyalty. He's constantly wishing she'd show nothing, just to prove all of them wrong. But she ain't dumb - we have Lt. Ranal as a direct comparison, and it's shown he's clearly a clueless nobleborn. Tavore, on the other hand, gives the order to halt and rest just as the troops are wishing for it. She doesn't buckle under the heap of bad news Topper has given her - she basically tells him to fuck off instead of being condescending and to not stick his nose where it doesn't belong (I really liked that "Dujek's advice I will listen to, for he is a soldier, a commander" from her to Topper). She's clearly more than whatever people seem to think of her...

which seems to be a common thread for the Paran siblings, now that I think about it.

There's something that clicked in my mind when I was reading this chapter - since I've been trying to buy some of the physical books for the saga, I've browsed plenty of pages in search of good offers for them. As I read this one and thought about the Bridgeburners, Strings thinking about his new squad (especially the heartbreaking line about "Cuttle being like coming home"), the idea of turning the omen on its head and having that figure clutching a bone as their standard, it 'clicked' that the guys in this squad *are* the Bonehunters that the latter book is talking about. Then I made the parallel between "Bridgeburners" and "Bonehunters" - similar sounding in its construction, similar cadence, fits with the new standard they're rallying under. So... yeah. The Bridgeburners are dead, long live the Bonehunters. The first ones' have earned their rest, and it's time for the new blood to write history.

"First in, last out. For the last time." as that immensely poignant moment from Memories of Ice read.

I hope it doesn't end in immense tragedy this time.

Random stuff:

Strings is feeling "strangely fevered" and "strains of a barely heard song rose up from the depths of his mind on occasion [...] completely unfamiliar". A Bridgeburner is heading back to Raraku to complete the song. It is known.
One of the most haunting things about this chapter is the fact that they're mirroring the Chain of Dogs in reverse - a fact that doesn't escape Tavore or her soldiers. Hell, Gamet laments the fact that Tavore's being forced to retrace Coltaine's steps because it's like she's walking under his shadow and it's an impossibly tall shadow to stand under.
The fact that Temul doesn't seem to worship Coltaine as much as the members of other tribes (evidenced by the start of this chapter) but idolizes Duiker instead is pretty fucking emotional IMHO. And he knows both Duiker and Coltaine have returned, so he's "keeping Duiker's horse" until he comes back. My fucking heart :'(
Bottle having access to a completely different kind of magic that makes him undetectable by "standard" (use of Warrens) magic and it allows him to 'possess' other creatures is something that will definitely be important later on. You can't just throw a power like that in a casual way into the narrative and NOT have it come back in the future.
Seeing as Gesler mentioned he saw the (considered dead) Urko Crust "punch down the side of a mudbrick house" and earlier on we saw one Napan dude leave Karsa knocked out with a single punch, it's pretty safe to say we now know who "Keeper" is.
It is kinda heartbreaking to see things how Gamet sees them in regards to the position Tavore's been put by Laseen: an untested girl being thrust into the command of unfit soldiers, then told her brother died a hero and "redeemed the family's name" and realizing what she did to Felisin was unnecessary, then being told the legendary Dujek and what little remains of his forces will 'assist her' because the idea was for him to assume command but he'll probably arrive with a broken spirit after the death of WJ and his Bridgeburners... so it's basically "we have no confidence in you or your abilities but now you're all that remains and our last hope so... good luck". Thankfully Tavore seems more than up to the challenge when her back's against the wall.

I probably forgot something relevant so I apologize. All in all, Book 2 was far more somber than I was expecting not in terms of violence or death, but because it showed the cracks in every place and every spirit - from the Malazan army to Sha'ik Reborn's forces, to the inner conflicts in different people, it was a chapter that gave even more depth to the ending of Deadhouse Gates - apart from, of course, starting to move the pieces upon the gameboard already. We don't know how those disparate plotlines will converge but I'm pretty sure that Convergence is gonna make some waves, both within the narrative and without.

Thanks for reading!!

Altazor · Jul 15, 2022

Two chapters and we're done with Book 3 of House of Chains! Let's not waste any more time, shall we...?

In which Kalam leaves the temple and enters the Whirlwind; Crokus speaks to Cotillion once again and gains yet another mission; Cotillion expresses sadness about a certain death and speaks with Shadowthrone about plans; Pearl and Lostara retrace a path in Raraku, encounter some corpses and put two and two together; we learn a bit of Onrack's life before the Ritual of Tellann, and in the present both he and Trull approach the cave in which Karsa freed the Renegade T'lan Imass; the Tioste Liosan are having a miserable time in Seven Cities but one of them has an idea...

In which Karsa Orlong gives his reply to the Unbound and The Crippled God; Onrack gains something missing; Karsa finds a couple of very interesting Jaghut and makes a choice; the Jaghut talk about a certain House...

As it's *a lot*, I'm gonna be kinda structured this time and talk about stuff in order. Or, at least, the most structured I can be while not just repeating the summary of events.

Kalam: Eh, Iskaral Pust is funny. The b'hokarala stuff was funny too. Kalam realizes Mogora wasn't the one singing (it's the Tanno song!), he enters the Whirlwind thanks to Iskaral Pust doing "misdirection" (an Azalan demon is summoned and carries Kalam through the Whirlwind wall). Something interesting: Pust described himself as "High Priest and Master of Rashan, Meanas and Thyr" - all three warrens. Of course, if he's a master of illusions and deceit, it makes sense he's skilled in all of those warrens (since all involve deception). That and, in the midst of his rambling, he talks about Kalam hearing the Tanno song. Oh, and Kalam can't hear the song inside the Whirlwind. Not much to say about this, really - feels a bit superfluous, or (at least) by-the-numbers. Next.

Drift Avalii: Now *this* is the good stuff. I wasn't expecting Erikson to humanize Cotillion, not to this extent, but... damn. Especially because we're talking about the Patron of Assassins here, and someone who possessed Apsalar right at the start of the story (in a scene I always found cruel). And now we see Cotillion being actually sad about the passing of Hawl (holy crap, Admiral Nok's wife was still alive! Did he know?!) and it's heartbreaking when he brushes the hair back from her face and caresses her, and later on tells Shadowthrone "not in the most important way [...] she was a friend". It's like Cotillion still has something of humanity in him, he's not gone completely beyond mortal understanding - Shadowthrone less so, he's more distant (and deranged, in a way), but even he can recognize the sadness in the situation and, I feel, that small measure of humanity remaining in the former Kellanved is what makes him remain silent when Cotillion is mourning and even calls him "friend" though I'm sure he doesn't really "understand" anymore the idea of grieving. Maybe. Also, shout out to Crokus hastily denying the similarities between him and Cotillion holding the bodies of Apsalar and Hawl. Also - the ambiguity of the final line of this segment is intriguing: does Apsalar accept Crokus' "walking this path" alongside her, or "just" the ladle with water? Curse you, Erikson! 😂

Pearl and Lostara: Their dynamic is still interesting and quippy, though slightly less hostile. There's not much to say that isn't just repeating info dump pero I really like characters who weren't present in certain events try to piece together what actually happened - if done well, there should be a certain accuracy mixed with a reasonable degree of inaccuracy due to said characters not having all the info available, and, as such, this scene is enjoyable - it's right on the edge, though, because Pearl and Lostara are not "common" folk so one assumes their powers of deduction can be reasonably higher. We get confirmation on the identity of Hood's Knight from MoI (hey Baudin!) and the speculation/confirmation that Baudin, Gesler, Stormy and Truth were actually affected by the warren of Light instead of Fire (since they're contiguous).
Lostara correctly deduces that Felisin and Heboric were there *after* Sha'ik Elder was killed and that they're at the Rebellion camp, but (thankfully and obviously, otherwise the chapter would lose a lot of credibility) can't know that Felisin is leading the Rebellion, so I'm sure they'll get a nice surprise once they realize that. As an aside, I have a hunch Pearl's there not only to rescue Felisin.

Onrack and Trull Sengar: Oh man, another excellent sequence from Erikson. All things considered, this might have some of my favorite Erikson writing in the book - how vivid are the images he paints with words, making the past come alive with his prose. I greatly appreciate that, and there's a certain rhythmic cadence to some of his sentences that really seals the deal regarding the quality of his prose there and how effective in establishing mood they are: "[h]is mouth bitter with spit, charcoal and ochre, the backs of his hands stained where they had blocked the spray from his lips, defining the shapes on the stone". Hnggggh, so good. The anthropologist in Erikson really came out to the forefront there, bless him for that. And we learn that there's history between Onrack, Kilava and our beloved Tool - not only Onrack loved Kilava despite being married, he also captured her likeness while she was alive (something forbidden by the Imass, apparently) and might, because he doesn't know and we don't know either, he might have slept with her the night before the Ritual of Tellann. Damn, Onrack, you really fucked up in the eyes of your kin. And the whole thing's really tragic because he remembers Tool (or Onos, as he was back then) actually looking at Onrack's painting of Kilava with reverence, knowing he had made it out of love... but having to disguise and put aside that feeling because of duty, because the law meant Onrack *had* to be punished. Apart from that, it's nice to see the bond between Onrack and Trull growing, especially considering Onrack has always preferred solitude.-
Oh, and apparently the reason Kilava was still flesh and bone despite being hundreds of thousands years old when we met her in MoI is *because* of Onrack's painting of her. And she went batshit insane and murdered basically in her clan except for Onos! Damn son, what the hell did you use in that paint? 😂
Honestly, I loved this section. Seriously gripping stuff even if "nothing" happened. And that moment: "Yet look at what you are doing right now, Onrack [...] you're returning home." Beautiful.

Karsa Orlong: KARSA MOTHERFUCKING ORLONG. What a dude. What a sequence. What a chapter! I fucking loved everything about his confrontation with the Renegade T'lan Imass. LOOK HOW MUCH HE'S GROWN. WITNESS. "To be a god is to know the burden of believers. Did you protect? You did not. Did you offer comfort, solace? Were you possessed of compassion? Even pity? To the Teblor, T'lan Imass, you were slave-masters, eager and hungry, making harsh demands, and expecting cruel sacrifices— all to feed your own desires. You were the Teblor's unseen chains." WHAT A DUDE. Man, I was basically fist pumping throughout all this section. And then... "Very well. To you, and to the Crippled God, I now give my answer.'"

Fuck yes.

But let me get away from Karsa for a small moment. There's this whole speech by the Renegade Imass in which they essentially justify their actions and it's a window to how warped can the Imass can get - "We have known wars beyond counting, and what have they achieved? The Jaghut were doomed to extinction—we but hastened the inevitable. Other enemies announced themselves and stood in our path. We were indifferent to their causes, none of which was sufficient to turn us aside. And so we slaughtered them. Again and again. Wars without meaning, wars that changed virtually nothing." This is the dark(er) side to the T'lan Imass, an existence filled with indifference and a single-mindedness that becomes dangerous to the world at large. And even then, Erikson shows us the traditional viewpoint in these Renegades: "Order wars against the chaos of dissolution, of disorder. Karsa Orlong, this is the only worthy truth, the greatest of all truths. What do the gods themselves worship, but perfection? The unattainable victory over nature, over nature's uncertainty. There are many words for this
struggle. Order against chaos, structure against dissolution, light against dark, life against death. But they all mean the same thing." Of course, that's before telling us that TCG offers a third choice, that perfection is unattainable and, thus, there's imperfection to be worshipped. Sounds interesting, right? I have a feeling there *has* to be a third choice, but I'm not sure the 'correct' choice is going to be the one TCG offers.

And then Karsa just shatters 'Siballe (she gets better) and tells the rest of the Renegade Imass to, basically, fuck off and never come near him or the Teblor again lest they be destroyed ("You are done with us, T'lan Imass. I have delivered you here. I have freed you. If you ever appear before me again, I will destroy you. Walk the dreams of the tribal elders, and I will come hunting you. And I shall not relent. I, Karsa Orlong, of the Uryd, of the Teblor Thelomen Toblakai, so avow."")

So fucking good.

And, of course, the good content doesn't end there because he then finds Cynnigig, a very loquacious Jaghut... and he's a riot. I don't know if I trust him but I fucking *laughed*. I wonder who'd manage to piss the other first - Cynngig or Kruppe. Loved Cynnigig's interactions with Karsa, especially because the Teblor has no time whatsoever for big speeches or word games ("and do such people exist?" // "I have no idea. I rarely get out.")
Karsa choosing the jhag horse was suitably epic and the whole scene felt triumphant and liberating in a very... natural way, so to speak.

Onwards to the final part of the book!

Random stuff:

"The Jhag Odhan. He knew, suddenly, that this land would capture his heart with its primal siren call. Its scale… matched his own, in ways he could not define." Beautiful.
Karsa naming his new sword Bairoth Delum was such a nice touch. I legit loved this passage: "Bairoth Delum —so I name you. Witness. The Jhag Odhan. So unlike our mountain fastnesses. To this wind I give your name —see how it races out to brush the grasses, to roll against the hill and through the trees. I give this land your name, Bairoth Delum."
"No matter how brief a child's life, the love of the parents is a power that should not be denied. And know this, 'Siballe, it is immune to imperfection." It's a nice passage and it's a beautiful feeling but it's, sadly, not always true. Should be, but it isn't. From relative close experience I speak this (thankfully not my own).
The fact that Onrack and Trull's encounter with Karsa was so brief and they were so insignificant to him he didn't even care about asking for their names or whatever, he was just "piss off and move aside", lmao
Onrack now has two arms once again, using 'Siballe's remains to add to his own body. I wonder if this will have any implications for the future.
Oh, those Tiste Liosan... I laughed at their misfortune. I assume Erikson had a very dark sense of humor with that section. And they're gonna get Icarium... I wonder if they know he's lost his memories. Also "Slayer of the Ten Thousand" sounds ominous and metal as fuck.
Phyrlis grows over the ruins of the Azath House in which Gothos was imprisoned - willingly, by the sounds of it. And Icarium was KO'd by "a toblakai companion" - someone we didn't know about! How interesting.

Altazor · Jul 27, 2022

It is over, finally. I kinda mean that and I kinda don't.

I do have some thoughts but they're scattered and maybe they're not as deep as I would've liked. They're a mess of contradictions.

I liked this book, but I found it disappointing after MoI. It ended strong (as MBOTF have done so far) but it was the least emotionally invested I've been in a MBOTF climax so far. I feel nothing happened in this book until everything happened at the same time. If it weren't for Karsa Orlong and some of the other characters' specific moments in this book, I would've found it really boring - but, at the same time, some moments are so strong they kinda redeem plenty of its flaws. And despite me being not that emotionally invested by the end, there's some actually *really* sad and/or poignant moments in the last couple of chapters.

A mess of contradictions, as I said. I'm not even sure *how* I feel about it. It's like it's, at the same time, the closing of that dangling story loop from DG but also the starting point of other shit - and it's in this "starting point" thingie that it feels like a slog? Or uneventful, more accurately - that, knowing these people are going to be important later, then we can't do much with them now except move them around until they are at their proper position. Like, sure, it's thematically interesting to separate Crokus and Apsalar after three books together because he really needs to figure out which path to take in life and gets offered one of actual protection instead of mindless destruction - sure, the conversations Cotillion has with each one of those two kids are poignant, but I don't think either of them actually *did* much of anything in this book? Crokus killed some Tiste Edur and left the Throne with Traveller. Apsalar spent some time protecting the Andii kids and then she got KO'd and after that she just barely talked to Crokus until she left at the end? They were like, I dunno, 4 or 5 scenes in a 1000+ page book and it *kinda* (ugh, don't get me wrong please) feels like padding. I wonder what's in store for Apsalar and I wonder how Crokus will get on with Felisin Younger - I sincerely hope it's a healthier dynamic than the one between Baudin and Felisin Paran at the very least.

Let's talk about Felisin Paran a bit, shall we? Heartbreaking. I did not see that coming for her and it's all very depressive because, in the end, she was a kid who was robbed of her life on a misunderstanding and then it was a constant cavalcade of utter misery for her, being used by everybody around her and then getting murdered by her sister - without her sister knowing her true identity. Bleak bleak bleak. I wouldn't say I "loved" it because that'd be weird, but I thought it was just goddamned sad. Well written (those final thoughts of Felisin are heartbreaking, really) and bleak and I keep on wondering if Tavore will ever learn the truth or she'll keep on thinking what Pearl and Lostara told her (which is a half-truth - they weren't lying, they just omitted a very specific detail). And I wonder if that's that for Felisin Paran or there's something in store for her spirit/afterlife beyond this, considering a big big part of this book seems to be the theme of "nothing is ever dead dead, the past can come alive". If there isn't, then it feels insanely cruel for the poor girl. If there is, then it needs to be carefully done lest they cheapen out the emotional punch of getting easily killed by a Tavore that didn't know who she was actually killing. At least, so far, Erikson has managed to earn my trust *even* when I don't like the results as much as I would've hoped.

Anyway, back into the book in general - I'd say this one's more about "themes" than "plot". It's an ugly, unfair distinction (and I feel dirty for using it), and I'm sure Lit grads will probably roll their eyes, but it's the most... simple way I can put how this book felt to me. It's not that it doesn't have a plot, it really does (the clash between sisters, the plotting inside the rebellion, learning the machinations behind the scenes from TCG and Shadowthrone/Rope, etc.) but it feels... sparse, like these nuggets of plot come after a lot of navel-gazing, musing, philosophizing and applying the Socratic method in conversations. In a way, those moments of thinking *are* the main dish, and if you like that then you'll probably have a great time. Hell, most of Trull and Onrack's burgeoning bromance is built on them discussing DEEP SHIT for many a chapter, after their sort of action-packed beginnings (especially Onrack fucking up twice in close succession). It's up to you if you enjoy this kind of pacing and I knew what I was getting into when I decided to read MBOTF, I'm just experiencing first hand that it can get... difficult, in a way, if you're expecting something more traditional or simple. There's nothing wrong with wanting some escapist fantasy that follows the tried and true conventions of the genre, just as there's nothing wrong with wanting some fast food if you're really craving it every once in a while. There's that, and then there's MBOTF on the other hand, and they both fill different niches.

And it's not like this book doesn't have amazing moments: as I mentioned earlier, Bidithal's karmic death made me fistpump. So did the appearance of Quick Ben (fuck yes) and the small Bridgeburners reunion between him, Kalam and Fiddler at the end - I loved that Erikson went understated there and left it wordless, just an embrace between brothers in arms that speaks volumes. Gamet's last ride was so well done I almost teared up, and I had kinda missed (but had a suspicion) on my first passthrough that he had died in bed, only after re-reading that section I noticed Erikson wasn't even subtle about it (Gamet's terrible headaches get worse, he vomits and is unable to basically do anything because the pain is too much, he thinks about getting up and then blanks... and when he recovers his senses he's already armored up and just about to come out of his tent, and the pain is gone. How did I miss that?!) and when Keneb confirms it, it's... sad watching Tavore's reaction. You know she cared and there's a slip of her "über serious and all business" mask at that small moment. But... yeah, Gamet, what a great guy and I'm happy that he felt the rush of doing what he liked doing even after death, joining the ghost soldiers of Raraku and ensuring that, in a certain way, he'll live forever.

And Karsa fucking Orlong. Oh, Karsa. What an arc. I loved that the main book started with him and it ended with him (the same way that the prologue and epilogue focused on Trull) just to hammer home how different he's become. "When I began this journey, I was young. I believed in one thing. I believed in glory. I know now, 'Siballe, that glory is nothing. Nothing. This is what I now understand [...] The same cannot be said for mercy." The Karsa from C1 would've never ever thought that in a million years - he'd say those words would come out of embarrassing failures like his father or some shit like that. But this Karsa has learned. And he's a learned badass who not only survived the attack of *two* Deragoth, but also killed them both and carried their heads as trophies. Oh shit. And one that literally unmade a vow he himself made when he didn't know any better - he doesn't see the Malazans as enemies anymore.

Speaking of themes.. CHAINS. All around everybody. Physical chains, metaphorical chains, people feeling imprisoned by their circumstances or their pasts. Reading some of Erikson's comments on this book made me realize that it's very rich thematically (and, once again, "to the detriment" of plot at times) and it shows. Chains and prisons, the past coming back, being a tool for others/being used and compassion opposed by indifference are arguably "the" major themes I found in this book - even beyond the usual "war is hell" motif (which I found strangely absent except for the moment in which Gamet has his meltdown and realizes the youth of the soldiers being sent to die).

Chains and prisons: Do I even need to? It's in the title of the book and basically everybody feels some sort of chains wrapped around them. Karsa had some literal chains on him apart from the figurative ones, and he had to fight for freedom not only of chattel slavery but of the chains the Faces in the Rock had put upon the Teblor society itself and warped their thinking. The T'lan Imass 'trapped' or 'chained' by the Ritual of Tellann and their Vow means they can't be free to choose, they are ever hunting their quarry in a neverending war. Felisin's true self literally trapped under the influence of the Goddess and chained/linked to Tavore by blood. Heboric before becoming Treach's Destriant feeling chained and trapped in Sha'ik's camp... and so on.
The Past coming back: Literally in the last couple of chapters with all the ghosts of Raraku fighting against the rebellion and Raraku becoming a sea once more (!). Also with the idea of Fiddler, Kalam and QB returning to Raraku; the reappearance of individuals previously thought dead (Urko Crust, Hawl, Traveller); Febryl's supposed motive in helping the rebellion (bringing back Seven Cities to its-pre Malazan invasion status quo); Tavore and her army retracing Coltaine's Chain of Dogs steps; Heboric, Felisin Younger, Scillara and Crokus retracing Heboric/Felisin/Baudin's journey; Onrack's wife from *back then* returning as "the Goddess" and burning with rage and revenge, and so on
Being a tool for others/being used: everybody fucking plots in this book, which means basically everybody's using somebody as a tool for their objectives. Not only the mortals (basically everybody in Sha'ik's camp but also Tavore) but the gods too (the Goddess using *everybody* in her actual plan of wiping out humanity; Cotillion and Shadowthrone having their fingers in basically every pie in this story: from Crokus/Apsalar, to Kalam, to Pearl/Lostara, to the Throne; the Faces in the Rock manipulating the Teblor). Plots within plots within plots. Karsa, on the other hand, directly rejects this and he's not one for secret plotting, he just does. He's tired of being used as a tool for others and being chained so.
Compassion opposed by indifference: the "other side" of the T'lan Imass is this, essentially, and it's especially evident with the Renegade/Unbound. They didn't feel compassion whatsoever to the plights of whoever stood before them and just waged war against them anyway. Also, most of the Tiste Liosan seemed to be bereft of compassion and felt more interested in their duties - again, it's not hatred, it's the idea of not giving a fuck that's most harmful.

All in all, as I said... I feel conflicted. There's plenty I greatly enjoyed and there's other stuff that left me scratching my head in a "was I supposed to really care about this?" way. It's a tough book in a specific way - not always enjoyable or light, but I'm willing to bet there's plenty of thematic and deep stuff you can gain on a reread, with a different perspective once you're not worried about how it will all end.

Onto Midnight Tides, then! Hopefully. If real life allows me to have the time.

Random stuff:

There's lots of random moments of humor I really appreciated. Loved Kalam/QB's reaction to Karsa ("let's just take the body and GTFO of here", "yeah that's a good plan") or how ridiculous those 4 Liosan were - seriously, their whole point in the entire book seemed to be to see them get made fun of by different beings.
There's a dangling thread I hope we see later down the road: whatever's in Dayliss' (?) womb, since one of the Faces said she was her "plan b" if Karsa failed and "wasn't a child".
So, if I'm understanding correctly... Onrack and Kilava are like the Adam and Eve of humanity? Holy shit!
Lt Ranal was worthless in basically every moment he appeared. And he died off-page! I assume the point of the character was to show how ineffectual the purchasing of comissions by nobles ultimately was, and how derided were those nobles in the Malazan army?
So the Bridgeburners have ascended. Everything about that feels so bittersweet - especially for those who survived. Damn. As Kalam said: "Oh, Whiskeyjack..."

I'm sure there's plenty more I forget now but will come to mind later. Hopefully we can have a good talk about it! Thanks for reading and sticking with me through all this time - it's been slow but I hope it's been at least somewhat worthwhile for y'all :D

Altazor · Aug 2, 2022

Midnight Tides starts here.

Erikson, you madman. Now, changing settings in the middle of the narrative and shifting to a completely different place with a new perspective is nothing new, it has been done - the thing is, after a cliffhanger of sorts? You know, when the characters the reader cares about are just coming out of an important event and their future is uncertain and the readers really want to know what happens to them now that tragedy has struck? Like, trying to know if Tavore found out about the identity of Sha'ik Reborn, or what's Apsalar's new mission, or whether Kalam and QB are gonna stick with Fiddler and the (yet to be named) Bonehunters or where the hell is Karsa headed now?

Well, tough luck compadre, you're gonna have to wait a whole book before you find out.

If this were any other writer that I didn't trust, and had I not known this situation beforehand (like... only a couple of weeks beforehand, actually) I would've been pissed off in a very "why the fuck are you interrupting a perfectly engaging plot with a goddamn flashback that features NONE of the characters we know?!" way. I would've still read the book but I would've probably asked "is it OK if I skip this one and go straight to the next one? Will I miss much?" before starting to read.
But it's Steven Erikson, and he has earned my trust with the previous books.

So even if I'm really anxious to know what happens to all those characters I've mentioned...

I'm in, you madman. By the early pages of this book I can already say: I'm in.

The prologue was intriguing (first Bloodeye's betrayal, which I knew was eventually happening but I didn't think *that* soon lol, then Withal and TCG's sequence...) but the first chapter was... captivating? Engrossing. It's mostly a whole new cast of characters, customs, lands and conflict (so far) and yet I feel almost immediately invested in this new setting. I want to know where it leads, I want to know what the fuck happened so Trull went from "hey, it's the middle son of one of my trusted men, I have a sacred mission for you and your brothers!" to "let us cut his hair and brand him and make it so he never existed for our people". Goddamn, that future lingers over everything that Trull does here and I'm invested because it's such a stark contrast.
And the setting itself! My god, I'm a sucker for nordic (and nordic adjacent-ish) shit so having this part set on a "it's far north and it's cold as fuck and there's snow everywhere and we kill seals and it's all timber and stone" stuff makes me feel like I want to get lost in there. Love it.

After reading the Prologue + C1 I feel this could work as another entrypoint to MBOTF. You'd have to learn what the fuck "Kurald Emurlahn" and "Holds" are but with a few changes that aren't that big (or some sort of outside resource like a website or someone who has already read the series) I feel like a completely new reader could start here instead of GOTM and then after finishing *this* book, work their way through the first four. We'll see if my opinion changes as I advance through the book.

Not much has happened except ominous tidings (the white crow, the Holds reading by Feather Witch) and the Warlock King sending the Sengar brothers for a mission to recover a Spear - something that is *also* ominous considering the Book One epigraph. Not much to say about plot, then.

I'll kinda repeat something from earlier - it's interesting and sad to see Trull *then*, in this book, as compared to what he was like in House of Chains. When he talked in front of the Warlock King about how he's skilled with a spear and he's never without it, the "i am not a thief" line/moment from HoC appeared in my mind. There's a certain... joie de vivre to Trull Sengar here that is missing in HoC, for obvious reasons. Trull in HoC was like a broken man, having gained wisdom when he lost everything else in his life (including the right to consider himself a Tiste Edur), and I wonder how tragic were the events that culminated in him getting exiled and chained within The Nascent, shorn from his kin.

I can already tell it's not gonna have a happy ending, eh?

So this is the start of my Midnight Tides journey! Hope that together we can make it a great one!

Altazor · Sep 18, 2022

Finished Chapter 11, which means Book 2 (Prows of the Day) is also finished! Let's get to it, shall we...?

Interestingly enough, this one's a direct sequel to C9, which means C10 was a very intentional breather before shit gets real.
And, boy it does, because it goes from 0 to 10 by the time C9 ends (Rhulad as a corpse to Rhulad screaming in pain) and in C11 goes to 100 in the blink of a fucking eye (Rhulad is now the Edur Emperor and everybody kneels). Holy shit!
As I posted earlier, that opening page to the Chapter is beautiful and, after finishing it, I gotta say it remains a highlight not only of C11 but the entire book IMHO. One of Erikson's finest moments in terms of pure prose, in my mind.
Gotta love the dreariness that pervades the entire chapter. It keeps on building and building from the uneasy happenings in C9 to that moment in which Rhulad refuses to give up the sword - that's when you realize it's gonna turn sour. And then he stands up. Shit gets real.
Seren Pedac speaks with Buruk the Pale outside the Citadel - this conversation lets us learn that Hull is not there (MIA?) and that Buruk basically has Seren dead to rights in terms of her behavior. Her sensitivity can be problematic if she's gonna blame herself when Hull, eventually, embraces the path that ends in his own destruction. The fact that there's no Edur anywhere just makes it creepier and it makes us feel the anticipation that something's going down.
Said conversation also features some of Erikson's finest writing yet: "Language was war, vaster than any host of swords, spears and sorcery. The self waging battle against everyone else." Loved that whole section.
Rhulad's new behavior as the Emperor is creepy AF and yet, Rhulad enough. I mean, he's enough of a little shit to demand his brother's betrothed to be given to him as a wife - that's pure Rhulad, not even TCG influence.
It's proof of his power that even someone like the Warlock King, who has literally unleashed a forgotten god against his enemies and united the different Edur tribes under his banner, ends up kneeling. I don't think he's being genuine as in "he sincerely believes in Rhulad's message of Empire" but he strikes me more of a "let's play along and try to usurp him the first chance we get, hm?" guy. Even if he wanted peace instead of war/conquest (thus, falling out of favor entirely with TCG), it's been shown he's ruthless when he has to be - and this feels, to me, like a prime example of "waiting until the opportunity presents itself". Now... I don't think that's advisable or clever or the optimal way to go, I'm just saying it's a possiblity of Hannan Mosag's behavior.
Speaking of little shits: Prince Quillas. Yet another dumb, unlikeable whelp (Joffrey Baratheon, anyone?). Thankfully the First Eunuch came along to actually discuss stuff in adult terms so Man-child Quillas could play throwing his weight around.
Seren recognizes the sword's making as Meckros and the hilt has a "chain" motif, I wonder why... 🤭
I seriously wonder what's the deal with the Wyval and then Wither - the long term game they're playing, obviously.
Feather Witch is so SHOOK she literally couldn't cast tiles.
The Letherii delegation's talk with the Edur was so damn tense, thankfully Nifadas quickly defused the situation (once again proving his worth being there)
Udinaas telling Seren Pedac that the Letherii are going to have to prepare for war is... guess what? Another downer ending. Gets me pumped to read what happens next, obviously.

We're almost at the book's halfway point and it's delivered so much in this time. It's been amazing. I'd say my only complaint so far, and it's kind of a nitpick, is that the amount of difficult to remember/gibberish-sounding names is so ridiculously high that someone not accustomed to Fantasy literature could get completely confused and drown in the amount of "who's who? What? Huh?". Like, the section in C10 in which Tehol lists the names of people for Shand and her accomplices to buy shares from, it's like... an insanely high amount of gibberish, rivaling GRRM's Essos naming convention in terms of "how am I supposed to know which one's which? They all sound the same!" And while I appreciate Erikson definitely not going for the generic "[Fantasy-sounding first name] + [Nounverber surname]" (or, as I call it, the Generic Warcraft NPC Creator Naming Convention), he can shit out some really difficult to remember stuff that you can only get into your head with some kind of repetition (I can't blame you if you can't distinguish between Turudal Brizad, Unnutal Hebaz and Triban Gnol at first, especially if they use "finadd" or "preda" beforehand). But, anyway, as I said... it's just a nitpick. I'm enjoying this book so much, and I can't believe I'm only "halfway" through! I can't even imagine how shit's gonna come together for the big climax.

Thanks for reading!

Altazor · Nov 3, 2022

That's it, my friends. Midnight Tides is finally done - some 900 pages done and dusted that I will carry with me for a long time.

There's a couple of things that prevent this book from being my absolute favorite of the entire MBOTF saga so far (mainly how the climax feels and hits) but, nitpicks aside, it's probably my second favorite - not too far behind from Memories of Ice.

What I think this book does pretty damn well is show the reader the idea of poison and corruption, that people and entire nations can get slowly and deceptively subverted by certain ideas or values. Sometimes it turns quite literal (as in Udinaas and the Wyval, or everything about Rhulad, or the effects on Hannan Mosag and his K'risnan by the end of the book, or the resolution to the Ezgara/Nifadas/Brys story) and other times it's more metaphorical (Lether being "poisoned" by greed and unfettered capitalism, the conquered nations being "poisoned" by Lether and thoroughly assimilated after subverting them, Trull and Fear being "poisoned" by doubts and reluctance) but it's like the whole book revolves around that and it works pretty damn well.

The climax I thought wasn't as hard-hitting as MoI's but that's like a very tall order and it's not like there aren't some really difficult to read scenes in this, anyway - the moment in which Tehol and Chalas are brutally and needlessly kicked to death didn't make me cry but I felt the anguish inside because of how utterly senseless it was in the grand scheme of things. I mean, I was furious at the characters, but I didn't feel it was gratuitous or shocking or that it came out of nowhere, if you catch my drift... it made sense for the Edur to devolve into creatures that cared not about mercy or complex reasons, as it mirrored Rhulad's descent into madness. So their brutality, even though it was "in character", was also senseless because it's cruelty for cruelty's sake. And that's another tragedy, one that "carries" from House of Chains - that the Tiste Edur have lost their way and are descending, head first, into wanton cruelty after considering themselves honorable people. On the other hand, that brutal scene also was the impetus for two of my *favorite* scenes, in which Mael, aka "Bugg", just goes HAM on the Edur and we learn that the bloated corpse the Malazans found in MoI belonged to that unlikeable thug Theradas Buhn; and the other one in which Bugg revives Tehol and tells him *why* he has spent all this time posing as his manservant. Just a beautiful, poignant tribute to friendship, that one.
Another thing the climax does great is the feeling of slow-moving dread, a car crash in slow-motion type of sensation akin to Felisin vs Tavore in House of Chains - in this case, everything regarding Rhulad reaching the Eternal Domicile and everything that happens there. From the incredible showdown between Hannan Mosag and Kuru Qan to the quiet, heartbreaking realization in Brys' eyes that it was, indeed, too late, and the crippling indecision of the brothers Sengar that leads to their actual sundering, everything that took place in the Eternal Domicile got me glued to the page. Beautiful, epic and sorrowful - well, that's something that could be applied to the entire saga, right? :P

On the other hand, I thought everything with the Azath Tower and the Barrows to feel kind of... superfluous? It's not filler, but it feels like it's building blocks for something that's gonna be relevant in the future instead of meaningfully closing that narrative thread. I mean, Silchas got out but Sheltatha Lore didn't (for a while, at least) and despite Iron Bars overall badassitude, the threat of the Seregahl was literally dealt with off-page. And that was it. It felt like the "actual" point was for Silchas, the Crimson Guard, Kettle, Shurq and Seren together... and Fear, after parting ways with Trull. But it clearly is more of a "this is a journey's beginning, not its destination" type of thing.

Speaking of the Sengar brothers, it's interesting that we *still* don't know what caused Trull's shorning - we have inklings of ideas, we can assume stuff, but no definite answer (so far). Maybe one day we know. Maybe we don't. But it feels like it's inevitable at this point since Rhulad was begging Trull and Fear to kill him and they both refused (a scene that made me feel *really* bad for Rhulad, I have to admit. It was very well done, Steven Erikson). I can only assume when he comes back he'll probably interpret that reluctance as their brothers disliking him so much they would've preferred to see him suffering instead of granting him mercy... which is doubly sad because Trull stays with him *precisely* to try to steer him, against all odds, from his fast descent into madness. Oh, and Trull... poor guy, really. Not much more to be said considering where he's gonna end up in "the future" of HoC - I do think it's subtly tragic this whole thing with Seren Pedac him gving her the sword, subtly 'nudged' by the Errant I assume, in what's evidently this Edur gesture of betrothal, and both convincing themselves it's "only a weapon to be used". We know they know it's bullshit. And I hope they somehow end up together, these two very damaged precious souls who have seen too much suffering and can't really cope with all the guilt upon their shoulders.

So... all in all, great shit. Great, great shit. Loved the social commentary on capitalism throughout the book, loved the depth of the characters and I thought its somewhat reduced scale (compared to other books in the saga in which we jump from locale to different locale sometimes multiple times per chapter) really worked in its favor, giving it a very... unique flavor in respect to its predecessors. Were it not for the usage of very specific terms (like the Edur/Andii/Liosan stuff, or the KCCM, or Warrens, or the Azath, etc.) I'd actually say some people could start with this one instead of GOTM... but I know people would disagree and I see why. After all, there's a reason Erikson wrote this story after the other four books.

What comes next? You know it, I know it, we all know it... it's THE BONEHUNTERS! I don't think I'll do regular updates anymore (since personal stuff has become really overwhelming) but at least I know I am in the mood for reading, which means the personal issues *are* getting better...

Hidden content

Random stuff, as usual:

The epilogue was great, especially Bugg coming to Withal's aid!! FUCK YEAH!
Whose finger did Feather Witch find in the Throne Room? I totally missed that.
Iron Bars was preeeeetty damn badass, gotta say.
I appreciated the random bits of humor splashed in even when shit is hitting the fan. Harlest doing the hissing shit never fails to make me laugh.
Gerun Eberict was a goddamn psycho and I'm glad he got rekt
Poor Hull and, goddammit, I dunno if I feel in peace or not for Brys' fate.
What I did find horrifying was the fate of Queen Janall and Prince Quillas... ugh.

This is what's in my mind right now. Maybe some things will pop up in conversation! Thanks for reading and all the support :)

Altazor · Mar 1, 2023

It's been a long, long time... hasn't it?

I had tentatively started TBH right around my dad's passing, but those last days of his life/the first days after his passing were emotionally heavy as fuck, so I honestly had no way of doing justice to the book. There was simply no way for me to get into the necessary headspace for reading such a book and a series, so I just had to drop it until I felt ready.

I can't even begin to describe what these 3 months have felt like. They're an unsolveable paradox, both eternal and incredibly transient at the same time. The absence is palpable and heartbreaking and there are moments in which my mom and I just break down crying over small details that remind us of him... but, then again, when basically everything reminds us of him and how great and loving he was, how can we not? We are still in the midst of our grief, this bereavement is far from over.

And it gets worse because there's *a lot* of red tape and formalities that had to be done and, to be honest, it was (and still remains) frustrating. You're forced to do these things right in the middle of your grieving process and that's the window of action you're given otherwise you're fucked. And we have to deal with that, in our way. Some things have worked out fine, others... we're still waiting. And it's that wait what makes us nervous.

So, with all that in our current life... I decided I had regained a bit of myself that was drifting amidst all the sorrow and realized I could finally return to reading the series for the time being. Even if my pace becomes even slower, I think I'm currently at the stage in which I can more or less focus in the narrative when reading instead of just knowing my heart isn't on it.

Thus, I'm thinking I'm back.
Random stuff from the Prologue and C1:

Fist sized spiders would make me run away and don't look back. As an aracnophobe I'd probably feel the same as Hellian.
Kartool seemed like a "nice" place before the Malazan conquest, ay? With all the flaying, the stoning of stray dogs and overall ritual killing. It's an interesting (darkly funny) spin on the "things used to be better until *you people* arrived"
This Banaschar fellow is not who/what he seems to be and I'm definitely intrigued. Considering the previous history of this series, I'm not making a random assumption when I say that Banaschar is either not his real name, or he's far more powerful than he's currently letting on.
Everything about Dejim Nebrahl and the ritual of the Nameless Ones gives me the creeps. It's so ominous and creepy, and I don't know if the 11 Nameless Ones knew they were going to get immediately killed/devoured or was it Spite (Lady Envy's sister!) pulling a fast one on them and freeing Dejim for her own (so far unknown) purposes. Either way, creepy as fuck and it doesn't seem like a good idea to me.
I wonder if the Nameless Ones actually are "the hands of the Azath, the shapers of the will of the Azath" (as in they were clearly tasked by the Azath) or they *believe* themselves to be so, by an actually twisted interpretation of whatever the actual will of the Azath is by imposing *their* meaning upon it?
Due to the blacksmith's appearance and surname, he must be related to Kalam, right?
Apsalar's current state is quite depressive and depressing, though it also stems from her being quite... ignorant of how love and relationships work. I don't forget she was basically a kid when she got possessed by Cotillion and then whisked away from her life. It's clear she's a bit emotionally stunted and can't really deal with the complexity of human relationships.
I don't know if I enjoy Curdle and Telorast, but I am intrigued about whom* do they actually serve. I don't know if I've previously read about "Edgewalker" but it doesn't ring a bell and it's been so long that I'm bound to have forgotten certain details.
I do, on the other hand, enjoy Corabb and Leoman and how they are both dealing with the situation at hand. "Our commander prays to Dryjhna all day" got me laughing.
I also enjoy the reappearance of one Karsa Orlong... loving the fact that the first thing he did inside the city was throwing a guard against a wagon and that him being so forthright almost fucks everything up (for the rest of the guards, obviously - I don't think they would've managed to even scratch him)
Mebra finally got what was coming to him, eh? The duplicitous bastard. Though it's interesting that a literal Nameless One got involved - they're starting to finally make themselves known and active, it seems.

All in all, feels good to be back. I don't know where it will all lead except for having sort of spoiled myself about the ocurrence of one event (an epic siege) but not knowing its result. So, apart from that... I don't know where I'll go, but I'm in for the journey!

Altazor · Jun 27, 2023

Took me a long time but I finally made it :D

As I said earlier, so far it's been pure setup (in the very short term: for the Siege of Y'ghatan; the rest is up in the air, more or less) but it's been intriguing. I have to admit there's been some sections in the book that have been a bit of a headscratcher to me because I'm not understanding what Erikson's trying to say (maybe a language barrier thing, maybe he was willfully being obtuse) and maybe I just noticed it but it's like Erikson's writing style in this book became different - he uses a lot more commas in sentences and it just feels weird to me (an example: "High rock, the sediments stepped and ragged, surrounded their camp, an ancient tree to one side.") so that's also been a bit of a hill to climb in my journey.

Still, what's there has been mostly fantastic! However obtuse or vague it may be at times.

Karsa Orlong/Samar Dev: I really enjoy this pairing. I love how stupidly stubborn Karsa is and how that contrasts with Samar's own confidence in inventions (science, basically). His is more like a mythical faith in their own fate and how he's destined for great things. Just because. The fact that he's a raging asshole only makes it funnier in my mind. I think, if I understand correctly, that they're converging on Dejim Nebrahl and his prey. Speaking of which...
Icarium/Mappo: Honestly, I'm kinda mixed on these sections. On the one hand, I really liked their exploration of the buried Skykeep (it really gave me videogame vibes, lol) but I'm not on board with Mappo's philosophizing this time. I dunno. Feels like I'm really not understanding the point. Their discovery of the crucified (?) dragon is not the first we've seen so... I wonder what the hell's going on. I'm intrigued, as I said earlier - because I know that despite not understanding and having the bigger picture hid from me, I know it'll become clearer in time. Erikson has earned my trust in that regard.
Apsalar/Curdle/Telorast: I have no fucking idea what Curdle and Telorast really *are* but the imagery of them possessing miniature dinosaur skeletons is too damn funny to me. I loved Urko's reaction in C4 to seeing the skeletons in their "proper" posture ("they lean forward -- for balance!") after having assembled them standing upright. Erikson being cheeky there, throwing a bone (ha!) to paleontologists. Anyway, I did a small fist pump when Ganoes motherfucking Paran reappeared in the narrative after Memories of Ice (that feels like ages ago, really). Am I wrong in saying I perceived some very weird sexual tension between Ganoes and Apsalar aboard that ship? And "weird" because she did kill him once, but that was when she was possessed by Cotillion... oh well, that sentence makes no sense whatsoever unless you've read the books 😂 Sadly, their encounter was shortlived and they both went their merry ways - but I do wonder what they'll do next. I have no idea what Ganoes' mission is and even though I know Apsalar's supposed to do "one last mission" for the Patron of Assassins... I still can't imagine who's the one in her hit list.
Heboric/Cutter/Scillara/Felisin/Greyfrog: I enjoy these, all things considered. I think there's a very nice mix between the batshit insane trips of Heboric, the world-weariness and cynicism from Scillara, the fascinating naivetë of both Cutter and Felisin Younger (which is kind of expressed in different ways between them) and how hilarious Greyfrog continues to be. I enjoy their dynamics. I wonder what the fuck is gonna happen to Heboric once they reach the Jade Statue again, however. And now Cutter knows Scillara's pregnant - so I wonder not only how that's gonna affect their trip from now on but also what Scillara's gonna do with the baby.
Corabb/Leoman/Dunsparrow: Absolutely fucking *loved* Corabb's POV in these sections. I love how outright jealous he is of Dunsparrow and his very unsubtle misogyny. Beyond the funny bits, I really liked Dunsparrow and Corabb's short conversation about the Malazan "identity" ("My own people. Who are they, Corabb Bhilan Thenu'alas? The Malazan Empire has devoured many peoples, just as it has done those of Seven Cities. Now that the rebellion is over, are your kin now Malazan? No, that thought is incomprehensible to you, isn't it? I was born on Quon Tali, but the Malazan Empire was born on Malaz Island. My people too were conquered, just as yours have been.") and I understand, also beyond the misogyny, why Corabb is suspicious of Dunsparrow. I think it's somewhat reasonable that he's suspicious. I just think it's hilarious how that suspicion comes out 😂. The whole buildup to the Siege is very gripping, since both sides are in "less than ideal" conditions and yet have to present a mask that's believable to the other side and not reveal too much. Greatly enjoy this.
The Malazans: Erikson spares no expense in showing how dysfunctional the 14th currently is. Zero discipline, soldiers going beyond "friendly" ribbing ahd outright abusing others, nobody having any sort of faith in Tavore, etc. If the remnant of the rebel army weren't in such dire straits too, I'd say the Malazans were fuuuuucked. But who knows, considering the length of the Siege chapter, I wonder how it all will turn out. Man, I'm excited about that. Faradan Sort seems like a very no-nonsense woman and I love how everybody reacts to that with utter abject horror, especially after she literally kills Joyful Union in her first moment of the narrative 😂 What a way to make an entrance, huh? Kalam/Quick Ben's adventures are fun too, with some surprising amount of slapstick (-ish) humor and a lighter tone considering it's all about infiltrating a goddamn KCCM Skykeep, lmao. Cotillion is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters to read, funny considering how appalling/offputting I always found the act of possessing Apsalar when she was younger. As for Tavore... Erikson is keeping those cards close to his chest. She's an enigma so far. She's cold iron (as the book constantly reminds us) and she's willing to sacrifice the respect of her soldiers to get a decisive victory, which shows a bit of how she thinks. I do think she's gonna end up winning that respect, btw. It feels like it's all building towards Tavore being actually a good officer and somehow the 14th getting into respectable shape and the soldier really forming bonds.

I already started on Chapter 7 but there's no telling when I'll finish. It's a single chapter that's longer than other books I've read, lmao. Still excited, and enjoying the tense atmosphere just before hell breaks loose.

Random stuff:

"Warleader. Is there no end of titles you will bestow upon me, Corabb?" // "None, Hand of the Apocalypse." LMAO
Everything about Bottle's trip/scene with the Eres'al woman was... damn. Trippy. Intriguing. And hype. And I know she's the same one that... uh... raped Trull. So the baby she's carrying is some timetravelling entity of some sorts.
The fact that Dujek and his soldiers are emotionally broken after Coral is both harrowing and understandable. I mean, we were there, we know what happened... and the fact that Whiskeyjack got brutally murdered in front of everybody obviously took its toll. The human cost of that battle was insane.
The ending of this chapter was brutal. Falling. Damn.

I hope I don't take 2 months+ to finish C7 hahahahaha

thanks for reading and thanks for waiting all this time for an update. I apologize profusely for the delay.

Altazor · Aug 26, 2023

Ok, ok, it's time to talk about a shitload of things that I haven't mentioned in a while. Will try (probably fail) to not overdo it and just write an interminable wall of text 'cause it's been a while since I read C9 and C10, so my memory's getting a bit fuzzy.

Let's get right to it, shall we?

Everything about Taralack Veed 'replacing' Mappo as Icarium's companion fills me with sadness and dread. What Taralack says to Icarium about "bringing justice" and how/why he slaughtered everybody in the city of E'napatha N'apur just gives me chills. Given what we know about Mappo and his relationship with Icarium this feels like textbook manipulation and it's so gross. Well done Steve :P
And it gets even worse when we learn just right after, from the mouth of Heboric, the (apparently) true reason why Icarium slaughtered everyone there - because someone accidentally killed Icarium's companion with an arrow. No grand gesture, not to rid the world of evil... just a big burst of rage and grief. And that's (part of) why the whole thing with Taralack Veed gives me the creeps. Apart from that I really enjoyed Heboric and Scillara's conversation about the gods and whether they're all just different facets of a single insane one.
Dejim Nebrahl gets some depth (wow!), he's not just a power hungry creature bent on devouring his way to the top, he's also somewhat of a... benevolent dictator type, I think. He's appalled by slavers, for example, especially those who enslave and trade children (I wonder what he would've thought of Bidithal) but, again, he wants to be the top dog so he can enforce said policies.
I still cannot understand anything about the relationship between Iskaral Pust and Mogora. They're apparently husband and wife but they're so antagonistic and apparently opposed in terms of goals I can't even begin to process how and why they're married in the first place. Great source of comedy but I also see how they can get tiring as a pairing for the reader, they're *too much*. We see how powerful Pusk is, too, with how makes Dejim run away with a demonstration of sorcery - and he's the one who finds the barely breathing Mappo.
Eveything about the Mappo healing process is so... mysterious. Mogora does something with the moon's light, apparently Mappo will come back somehow different (there's always a price), we learn from Cotillion that Mogora's loyal to one Ardata (and Mogora turns into a bunch of spiders and goes away... *shudder* fucking spiders, I hate them). Of course, much later on we see Mappo's perspective during his "coma" and a certain conversation, so... we'll get to that.
WHO OR WHAT IS ISKARAL'S MULE? It's not the first time we'd learn one of his... companions? Acquaintances? Is not what we think at first (like Apsalar's father)
Quick Ben, Kalam and Stormy reaching the ruins of what used to be Y'ghatan is also chilling, considering Quick Ben seems to have deduced quite quickly what happened and whether it was intentional or not. Of course this leads to a long awaited reunion! Apsalar, a.k.a. the assassin formerly known as Sorry, is reunited with her Bridgeburner mates... and it's not a particularly warm encounter - they're basically trading barbs but it's not like the typical "we're a bunch of ragtag soldiers in the same squad", it's more of a "we're all dangerous and we better stay clear of each other's lives otherwise it'd be terrible for everyone involved" type of feeling. QB basically treats her as a god's pawn, she retorts they all have the stench of different gods on them (Hood, Cotillion, the T'lan Imass Fire of Life) and that while those gods might be united towards a singular goal (an enemy that might not be "an" enemy, but various) said alliance might not last. At the very least they agree to travel together - but then again, getting into the 14th was part of Apsalar's mission from The Rope...
Stormy learning about what happened to Truth was a great, heavy moment.
I'm gonna put all the Ganoes & TTG talk in this point to avoid repeating myself at different times: I... don't think I'm grasping everything with this plotline? Seems deliberate though. I know Paran is going to (and ends up) liberating the Deragoth, that somehow the Hounds of Shadow entered the realm that party is currently in and somehow "rejoined" the Hounds of Dark but I have no idea what that entails - is it a physical thing (as in "they've fusioned/merged")? Is it metaphorical? I have no idea. There's probably an element of the language barrier here since I often found parts of this plotline somewhat difficult to grasp and I'm not sure if it's, again, said language barrier or because Erikson is being purposefully obtuse in regards to details (only to reveal more of them later). So... Deragoth are freed, Paran speaks to Shadowthrone (and he seems more and more unhinged with every passing appearance) but we don't see what's their endgame here. The people from the wrecked caravan they found earlier are found in makeshift temples at the feet of the Deragoth statues, and they were offered as ritual sacrifices (ugh) to the Hounds. Oh well. Also, in escaping the Deragoth, the caravan passes through (what I assume is) Hood's realm and we realize the dead there have been left behind (!) by the God of Death.. what the hell is with Hood? What is he scheming? Then they end up appearing in a mountain glacier, they fall across the mountainside with disastrous results (including dead Guild shareholders) and, hilariously, one of the dead people from Hood's realm hitching a ride somehow. Again, a lot of what happens is interesting but I don't know "what" is happening and sometimes I get lost so I'm finding it difficult to connect with this particular plotline.
The conversation between Heboric and Scillara in C11 is also fascinating to me because, as far as I know, it's the first time we are told "what" the Chained God is offering its prospective followers and... well, it's basically paradise (as we more or less understand it in Abrahamic religions). Which makes me wonder: is TCG essentially a (re)version of a YHVH-like entity? Whatever the answer might be I really liked the discussion here, the idea of finding meaning in a life that might be rendered meaningless if the promise of free absolution ends up being true and the correlative idea of enacting justice (that word again) if said idea ends up being not only a lie but THE ultimate lie. In contrast to Paran & co.'s sections, I was really enjoying the sections with Cutter's group.
I also enjoyed Erikson's prose ("Crushed and scattered, the tiles that had once made the mosaic of Mappo Runt's life were little more than faint glimmers...") in Mappo's resurrection/dream conversation with... someone. Is that the aforementioned Ardata? If she is, then I wonder (obviously) what's her endgame here. She tells Mappo about what happened with Icarium and now Taralack Veed, and the role of the Nameless Ones in "making" Icarium and now "using" him. What for? Again - what's the endgame here? Man, I am intrigued with this. Definitely. And I can't imagine how Mappo must feel about Icarium and Taralack.
'"Don't mind us,' Iskaral Pust said with a blood-smeared smile, 'we're married.''" I loved that moment. I laughed out loud.
On the other hand, MAN THAT ENDING. Comes out of nowhere (just like the T'lan Imass materializing from dust) and just punches you right in the gut without hesitation. Brutal. Brutal, too, Heboric's closing thoughts - brutal and heartbreaking ("Oh, I have done nothing worthwhile in this all-too-long life"). Damn.
Am I wrong or C11 is literally the first time the section/book title (in this case "Beneath this Name") appears in a relevant chapter? Heboric's musings say that verbatim ("Destriant, what lies beneath this name? Harvester of souls, possessing the power – and the right – to slay in a god's name. To slay, to heal, to deliver justice. But justice in whose eyes?") and I don't recall that happening on previous books, except (obviously) when it's the name of a place (Darujhistan, Raraku, Capustan to name some examples). Didn't feel gratuitous or forced but thematically relevant IMHO so... well done!
"'The Eres'al, who would one day give rise to the Imass, who would one day give rise to humans.'" Well thanks for the handy summary, Steve :P
"'I'd kill the mule.'" Yet another great Iskaral Pust moment, lol

Thanks for waiting and thanks for reading. As I said earlier... I think I failed in my intentions because it still came out as a wall of text 😂 Still, hope it was somewhat worth the wait!

Altazor · Apr 15, 2024

It's been such a long time, hasn't it?

I gotta be honest - I lost a lot of interest suddenly. I think I might have some form of ADD without hyperactivity or might be in the spectrum, because I tend to get these hyperfixations in waves, so there's like... weeks or months in which I really get into something (a book, a videogame, a series, etc.) and I give it a lot of my time and think about it a lot during that time, and then suddenly I kinda get overwhelmed and just stop. I have to leave that thing alone for a while... a long while, until I muster the energy to return to it. It happened with Mario Odyssey. It happened with Critical Role. It happened with Babylon 5. It happened with Malazan Book of the Fallen.

And so I just had to stop. As I mentioned last time, I was kind of having a hard time with some of the book's passages (like Mappo's extended flashback/history lesson) so leaving it alone wasn't a hard choice. It felt like a slog and I was "man, if I have so little time and I'm not enjoying myself, why not drop it for a while?" and, considering last year was an emotional rollercoaster, I also wasn't in the very best frame of mind. Easy choice, then.

But I've been itching to come back for a while, not gonna lie. I felt like I had some literal unfinished business. I wanted to, at the very least, finish The Bonehunters, and then see where I'm at. Maybe I end up reading the rest, maybe I think that's good for now and decide to give it another rest. But at least finish the damn book.

So... we're back in business!

And even though it was difficult (I essentially had to read some two or three chapter summaries just to remember more or less where I left), I started C15 and found myself engrossed in no time. Unlike other previous chapters, I had no major issues with this one. Hell, I could even say I devoured it - in a very short time I found myself starting C16!

That's when I went online and, after a short google search, found out C15 has a very good reputation with the fanbase - I'm not surprised. It was fucking awesome.

Loved the introduction to Quick Ben's sister, the whole Ganoes/Quick Ben situation with Poliel and... fuck it, basically everything was just top notch. I couldn't have "picked" a better chapter to return to, lmao. Just a serendipitous moment.

Chapter 16 was a bit more traditional but still very captivating... the right amount of foreboding, funny and emotional. Hell, even Mappo's conversation with Lady Spite on the nature of gods, belief and fanaticism managed to be great, though a bit "author tract"-ish (yes, it felt like Erikson himself was speaking through that conversation instead of one of his characters) and considering the current state of the world, all the more poignant:

"A civilization at war chooses only the most obvious enemy, and often also the one perceived, at first, to be the most easily defeatable. But that enemy is not the true enemy, nor is it the gravest threat to that civilization. Thus, a civilization at war often chooses the wrong enemy."

Another of those great Erikson moments.

So... all in all, initial difficulties aside, I'm back for the foreseeable future. Hopefully the ride doesn't stop again until The Bonehunters is done!

Thanks everybody. Hope you're having a great time!

Altazor · May 1, 2024

This is it, then. Finally here. Took me more than a fucking year (started on March 2023, finished on the very last day of April 2024) but we're finally here.

The Bonehunters is finished!

To say it's been quite a ride it'd be underselling it. I think the book's most notable feature is also one of its biggest obstacles - as Erikson has said, it's essentially two books in one. And it kinda shows at times - you have two narrative climaxes with hundreds and hundreds of pages between them (C7 and C23/24) which means after the first one you have to rebuild everything towards the second one. And that march can be somewhat of a slog, especially when the first one was the resolution of a longstanding plot element (the siege of Y'ghatan was, for all intents and purposes, the last gasp of the Malazan vs Rebellion storyline that began in Book 2) and the *second one* was basically the starting point of a new status quo (everything in Malaz City) mixed with the resolution of another longstanding plot (the defense of the First Throne). It's... a lot. Like *a lot*. And I think you have to definitely buy in into everything Erikson's selling and be patient because it's not the most exciting book in the world at times but I think the payoff's worth it. Or both payoffs, to be sure.

I don't think I can summarize and refer to everything that happened in the book after C21 but I'll say some very random, messy thoughts about the whole thing (C22/23):

As I said earlier ITT, I find interesting that the (second) climax of the book was a situation that appeared and was developed basically a bunch of pages before it actually happens, unlike most of the other Convergences we've seen previously. So it takes you by surprise and it's tense and gripping because you seriously don't know where it's gonna go and how dark it can really get.
I appreciate the way Erikson manages to still mix some comedy elements (some worked better than others) in between all the tension and dread - I especially liked Touchy and Brethless' reaction to Hellian dropping off the ship. As for one that didn't work as well for me, the "shit war" between ships wasn't really that funny to me BUT I totally see a bunch of soldiers doing that kind of stuff.
The same can be said about the actual emotional moments in between the brutality and the tension - I adored Fiddler's song for the fallen (those who already fell, those who will) and his realization afterwards that brutality and inequity can also be found in peacetime. Hell, it's often worse, since there's an aura and pretense of moral judgment and grandstanding in peacetime that isn't found during war. Heartbreaking stuff. Then again, Fid has become one of my favorites in the whole series so far. Another moment I found particularly effective even if I had no major affinity with the character was Pearl's dying moments and Lostara's mercy kill. I still don't know how to feel about Pearl but I do think the guy was a mass of contradictions and that made him interesting - and, I guess, he thought himself as a bigger player than he actually ended up being. Poor sod.
Tavore/T'amber/Kalam's journey in Malaz City was some badass stuff. I loved how Erikson portrayed that even with Kalam's actual superiority vs the rest of the fodder, by the end he was kinda running on fumes and his body was exerting itself beyond any limit. Man, that "Well, so be it, I've been getting sick of this life anyway" line when the Quick Ben acorn stuff didn't work was like a knife in my heart. Of course, the fact that Pearl was the one to shoot him with a Paralt bolt because of petty fucking reasons that were also misguided was the shit cherry on top. As for Tavore and T'amber... man, I really enjoyed getting to know them better after hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages in which they were essentially an enigma. Tavore, especially, got some real spotlights in these sections - and you can see she's far more human and far more astute than she lets on. T'amber... correct me if I'm wrong but she was just a normal lady that was possessed by the Eres'al the whole time? Essentially an equivalent to "Sorry"-era Apsalar?
Obligatory FUCK MALLICK REL comment here. Those court room scenes with Laseen/Mallick Rel/Korbolo Dom were infuriating, made my skin crawl. I appreciated Tavore's sly (and some not that sly) digs at Rel and that she ended up doing what was best for her soldiers instead of following the Empress/Rel's plan. That said, I hate myself for understanding *why* Laseen went with that idea, because it's disgusting realpolitik shit that makes my blood boil but it's understandable IMHO if you're a leader of a nation and there's no actual concept of "human rights" and "international rules of war" in this world... like, "we're going to starve soon, the Seven Cities campaign was a bust and it's a big fucking unusable desert + sea, we need farmlands and we're going to have to take them from the Wickans, they're a perfect scapegoat and we'll ensure the Empire's survival with this. Better them than us, right?" is some gross but plausible shit that I'm pretty damn sure every world leader in a similar position has thought *even in this era*, because Human Rights be damned!
The whole Bottle stuff kinda went over my head because it really felt like "hey, go do this important thing" and then he did offscreen and we just see the results of it after everything goes down. At least we end up knowing WHO Foreigner is... and, gotta say, I did let a "oh SHIT!" escape my mouth very loudly when that happened. I did NOT expect to see Withal. And much less Sandalath Drukorlat... who is now his wife?! Damn
A small moment but when we see the Tiste Andii refugees from Drift Avalii and we learn who they are, I find it completely hilarious that Lady Envy fucked Anomander Rake's son out of spite *and* gave him a daughter. I mean, Lady Spite is her sister but the name fits Envy too 😂
The whole "we've got the plague!" gambit was some really clever stuff, loved that from Keneb. And fuck Rynyg and his pompous ass.
Don't ask me about the Fiddler card game scene. I have no idea. I'm sure it'll become clear once I finish the series but at this point I'm pretty sure *most* of it went over my head except some more obvious stuff (like Trull in House Shadow)
Stormy is A SHIELD ANVIL?! TO WHOM?!!?!
Grub vexes me. I have to know how the fuck that kid knows so much.
I loved loved loved Hellian's role in this. Loved the fact that it was the payoff of something that happened in the first 15 or so pages of the book, the fact that she finally found Banaschar again and fucking ARRESTED HIM, lmao
APSALAR!! god I hope she's not forced to be a killer anymore after this. I hope she's *done* after Pearl. Felt karmic but also very cruel/taxing on the soul.
I really wonder where the Bonehunters are going now. I think it's an interesting parallel between the Bridgeburners being (seemingly but not really) outlawed in MoI and now the Bridgeburners being actually outlawed (and almost killed) in TBH.
Kalam ending in the Deadhouse courtesy of Shadowthrone makes me wonder what the hell's going to happen with him now. Exciting times ahead!
On the other hand, Fiddler's farewell... 😭 "Kalam Mekhar, my friend. Farewell." Poor guy has lost so much and so many in these books.

And we haven't even got to Chapter 24 + epilogue...

Fuck you Erikson, you manipulative POS with that kids' scene with Onrack. You bastard. Of course the poor, innocent, sweet kid was going to be immediately murdered.
Fuck Taralack Veed too, another manipulative POS. Of course this one's in-storyline, and I fucking hated seeing him so distraught at what he helped unleash - hey, idiot, it's FAFO.
Of course, Icarium unleashed is some incredibly fucked up stuff. Damn, just... so brutal. So unstoppable. I think it's safe to distinguish between Icarium and his Lifestealer persona? They're completely different even though they're technically the same guy. But, fuck, this chapter was a brutal and stark reminder of what Lifestealer can actually do... and it's not pretty.
RIP Ahlrada Ahn, you at least managed to somewhat regain your honor and do a selfless act. Also RIP the children, RIP Apt the Aptorian and RIP Monok Ochem
Trull continues to be incredible. Love that character. What a dude.
Holy crap Quick Ben! of course Shadowthrone's debt was gonna be repaid in the climax and... hell, even QB wasn't enough to stop Lifestealer!! I literally thought we were gonna lose Ben too
I did think the Eres'al appearing randomly and managing to calm down Lifestealer was a bit Deus Ex Machina, but then I'm sure it has some explanation I'm not seeing right now.
That final scene of Cotillion is just some incredible stuff. Really *chef's kiss*. I love that Erikson managed to make me feel something about a dude that started the series possessing the body of a random fisher girl.
There's a lot of good stuff in the epilogue. I really liked Cutter and Scillara's conversation and especially the sweetness in Cutter's comments about Apsalar's dance. The Karsa/Samar Dev moment is such a fucking tease Karsa vs Icarium, round 2!.
Fuck Taralack Veed again, it's interesting to see him now so broken, bitter and venomous with Icarium after realizing what the fuck he just did. And man, Icarium's "there is no need" just gave me chills. That doesn't fill me with confidence or nice thoughts at all.
And Tayschrenn... well, the guy is playing some long game and basically knows *a lot* of what's going on. And he's still on D'rek's cult, he just managed to talk D'rek out of killing him! And what's with his "fear for your own child" line to Shadowthrone? Something figurative or literal?

All in all, a great -if insanely laborious- read at times. The fact that it took me longer than a year to finish with a months-long hiatus cannot be excluded from the conversation *but* there's also the fact that once I returned from that hiatus I managed to more or less devour the remaining chapters of the book in less than two week speaks volumes. It was, I think, less about the book itself and more about my own frame of mind during part of my read. Once that hurdle was cleared... smooth sailing!

I'm itching to read Reaper's Gale now, since I've got the momentum. It's another big-ass book but I hope there's not another need for a long hiatus in the mix. Hope it doesn't take me a full year :D

See you all soon and thanks for accompanying me in this journey!

Altazor · May 7, 2024

It's a new week, it's a new book ~~it's a new life~~

It's Reaper's Gale time!

We're finally in Book 7 of 10 and we're already some pages in. It's a very cold and rainy day here (which I love!), so I'm in a good mood... let's try and offer some random thoughts on what I've read so far, shall we?

Prologue:

We're back to the more mythical prologues this time, unlike the one in TBH which offered a scene set in the present - even though Gods had left their mark there, we were grounded by more 'pedestrian' characters to guide us then. Now we're back walking amidst gods and immortal beings, hopping between the time of the Sundering of Kurald Emurlahn to the last days of King Ezgara Diskanar (e.g. during the events of Midnight Tides)
I think this is the first time we've seen Kilmandaros? I'm pretty sure the name has appeared before but I don't think we've seen her in the flesh. That appearance is scary but also reminds me of the Forkrul Assail (the long limbs with multiple joints) - I wonder if those are "her children" that are named later in the prologue
Part of this prologue is essentially a continuation of Midnight Tides' prologue - obviously fitting, since this novel focuses on a lot of threads left over from that book. And, thus, we see Mael (hi, Bugg!) and Gothos talk to Kilmandaros about Scabandari Bloodeye *after* Gothos has finished the spell that 'preserves'/freezes the land. We see Mael and Kilmandaros have finally taken down Scabandari *and* we learn why in the present his body's just a dragon skeleton with his skull caved in (can't say he didn't deserve it), but most importantly we see that Gothos convinces Kilmandaros to not outright kill Bloodeye but rather let him prepare a Finnest in which Scabandari's soul will be kept. We don't know which object the Finnest is (Erikson, such a tease) and we don't know what Gothos intends to do with it either. RAFO! 😅
We then see Anomander Rake for the first time in quite a while. Hey there, bud! It's not an entirely comfortable conversation between Rake and Kilmandaros but he manages to convince her that he can help her. He agrees to not occupy the Throne of Shadow and leaves with her.
Time jump into the last days of Ezgara Diskanar and we meet another new character, the then-Preda Bivatt, surveying a scene that leaves her somewhat surprised: not only the remnants of destroyed Meckros city washing ashore but also thousands of war canoes... and no trace of their occupants. They straight up vanished.
We're now in the Aw'ldan (which, I'm assuming, is an expanse of land populated by the Awl), where a rider wearing a mask (in other words, a masked rider 🙄) finds a particular scene of slaughter - an army wearing the sigil of two wolves (Togg and Fanderay, I'm thinking) lies dead and, more curiously, their chests are burst open and their hearts are missing. The wolves on the Awl'dan have fed on the corpses but have only eaten their hearts. Then the rider's companions get near... they sound like "the rake of talons hissing through grass" (hmmmm... KCKM? 🤔)

Chapter 1:

Oh boy, it's a cavalcade of new characters! Hopefully I didn't get that lost considering the first few scenes feature people we have NEVER seen before and they all have particularly unusual names but... after a while I think we can already gleam who's who and that's something commendable from Erikson - even the complicated names in made up languages can be memorable and identifiable.
So... Karos Invictad, head of the Patriotists (Letherii Secret Police) and Tanal Yathvanar is his underling. Both shitheads but Karos more in a creepy "this guy's the head of the organization for a goddamn reason" way and Tanal in a very base "this guy's a fucking creep and I hate him" way. God I hated Tanal, he's probably the most disgusting character since Bidithal and that says a lot. If not Bidithal, then Gerun Eberict.
Hey, who would've thought - Tanal actually admires Gerun Eberict and his mass murderous ways. Scum attracts scum. I think my visceral reaction towards Karos and Tanal comes not only from their evident awfulness displayed on the page, but also the fact that my country suffered 17 years of civic-military dictatorship and we know guys like those two, who tortured and raped prisoners without any moral qualms. They remain part of the darkest corners of our history and a reminder of how monstruous human beings can be towards others. If you want to read more about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirección_de_Inteligencia_Nacional and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Information_Center_(Chile)
We are also introduced to Rautos Hivanar, the head of the Liberty Consign, which is an organization founded by Lether's elite of the elite. Rautos suspects something is wrong regarding the scarcity of coin in Lether... we know he's right. And we know he doesn't know who's behind that (yet), even though his suspicions are correct. On the other hand, he's also somewhat more interested in ancient history, archaeology, that kind of stuff. He finds some ancient artifacts in his state due to a flooding and nobody knows what they were used for. Another mystery!
We rejoin Bivatt (who's been promoted to Atri-Preda now) and she's conducting a campaign in the Awl'dan now, accompanied by a Tiste Edur that's Overseer of the city of Drene - I'm assuming he's there to technically balance the power of the Factor, that rules Drene in the name of the Emperor. Something like that. The scene's kinda ugly at first (ugh, scalping) but then turns uglier in a different way - a discussion of war and, especifically, how the war against the Awl is pretty much propaganda-fuel genocide. The people in Lether have been fed info that the Awl have allied with other border tribes against the Empire and are about to mount an attack on the frontiers... Bivatt knows that's absolute bullshit, the Awl are in-fighting and have had no contact whatsoever with any other tribe/kingdom. And yet she still wages that war. As Slim Charles said in The Wire: "if it's a lie, then we fight on that lie. But we gotta fight."
Some returning characters are finally here! It's time for Silchas Ruin, Udinaas, Kettle, Seren Pedac *and* Fear Sengar to reappear in the narrative - and it's equal parts badass and terrifying. They're on the run, they've been captured by Edur but Silchas just fucking wrecks their captors and then Udinaas finishes the job. Also... yeah, of course they've done shit with Kettle. Of course. We've talked in earlier books about sexual violence against women in this saga and it's a very delicate subject that I don't feel comfortable pontificating about because I'm a male and (thankfully) I haven't been the victim of any sort of sexual violence. It's not my place. If people, especially women, have their issues with that sort of thing popping up every now and then in the story they have all the right to criticize. I'll listen, I'll read, and I'll make my mind up afterwards considering all that.
Welcome back Tehol and Bugg, nice to see you again. Well, Mael we've seen before in this book but not his Bugg persona, heh. It feels like returning to the company of some old friends. I'm worried that Tehol's going to fly too close to the sun, however, considering he's now raising suspicions from the Liberty Consign.
Of course Tanal rapes prisoners. Of course one of those ends up being somewhat important and not just "a rando". Of course Karos Invictad knows and only cares as much as it makes him look bad so he needs to save face. What a bunch of creeps. And of course Karos wants to investigate the Tiste Edur liaison... they're all a bunch of racist pricks in the Lether Empire, huh.

All in all, it's a quite dark opening to the book... but I'm really intrigued. It wasn't *as* confusing as I thought it'd be considering all the new names we're introduced to. It's gonna get more difficult from here on out, I'd guess 😂

Thanks for reading, see y'all soon!

Join me as I make my way through the Malazan Book of the Fallen! (Currently: 7 - Reaper's Gale)

Recent threadmarks

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Altazor

Recent threadmarks