Slick Mongoose Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Nice map, Wert, but given the tundra nature of the Edur lands, shouldn't the Lether continent be further north? That's exactly what I thought, but since the tundra is magical, I guess normal rules don't apply. It does seem a bit odd though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint777 Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 I just picked up House of Chains,Midnight Tides, and The Bonehunters from Amazon.ca along with the two novellas Blood Follows and The Healthy Dead. I would rate the series so far as: 1. Deadhouse Gates 2. Gardens of the Moon 3. Memories of Ice I know people consider Ice his best but I think it's a bloated mess. The book comes to a screeching halt whenever the Mhybe appears. She just whines and whines. I wished Caladan would just smack her with his hammer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hark Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Memories of Ice is possibly the best novel I have ever read. I am a huge Erikson fan. I'm about 250 pages into Midnight Tides.. having trouble with this one, but it's still quite good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhaco Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 I'm about 250 pages into Midnight Tides.. having trouble with this one, but it's still quite good. Yeah, MT is the only Malazan book I've never reread. Excepting the prologue and a few bits here and there, it's just a little tedious, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stego Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Due to coaxing from Mr. Scott Bakker, I have decided to give Malazan another chance, and will begin again very shortly. He also made me feel pretty bad about some negative comments I made with regards to Erikson's work. Ah, well. I'll read four of them straight through and then give my opinions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Itkovian84 Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 How didn't everyone love the dialouge between Tehol and Bugg!!! That is some of the best dialouge i HAVE EVER read. Itkovian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Due to coaxing from Mr. Scott Bakker, I have decided to give Malazan another chance, and will begin again very shortly. He also made me feel pretty bad about some negative comments I made with regards to Erikson's work. Ah, well. Guilt-tripped into (re-)reading Erikson? Welcome to the club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry. Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Due to coaxing from Mr. Scott Bakker, I have decided to give Malazan another chance, and will begin again very shortly. He also made me feel pretty bad about some negative comments I made with regards to Erikson's work. Ah, well. I'll read four of them straight through and then give my opinions. Scott's that persuasive? Wow. At least he didn't try to convince you to give Goodkind another chance As for Erikson, lowered expectations should help with the early sections at least - I do think he improves as a writer, even if his writing style is still below that of Scott's (at least in my opinion it is). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hark Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 How didn't everyone love the dialouge between Tehol and Bugg!!! That is some of the best dialouge i HAVE EVER read. Itkovian It is indeed a highlight of the book so far. The entire Tehol story line has been very interesting, and the interaction between those two is a hoot. But MT has far more introspective/descriptive/ponderous passages to it than previous books. This is something with which I lose patience quickly. (One of the things Bakker does that irks me.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stego Posted July 15, 2006 Share Posted July 15, 2006 What can I say, guys? I'm a fanboy, and the object of my mancrush talked up Erikson while I drank the beer he bought for me. Who the fuck can resist that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted July 15, 2006 Share Posted July 15, 2006 What can I say, guys? I'm a fanboy, and the object of my mancrush talked up Erikson while I drank the beer he bought for me. Who the fuck can resist that? Assimilated by the Canadians! At least Scott fed you beer. (DF -- stop acting all innocent. you've been shamelessly encouraging me in this damned MBF experiment as sure as Scott harassed and bribed Stego into giving it a second chance. For the record, the story is getting better, but Erikson still falls short on the crucial "writing chops" axis.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zadok Posted July 15, 2006 Share Posted July 15, 2006 It is indeed a highlight of the book so far. The entire Tehol story line has been very interesting, and the interaction between those two is a hoot. But MT has far more introspective/descriptive/ponderous passages to it than previous books. This is something with which I lose patience quickly. (One of the things Bakker does that irks me.) The Lether storyline in MT might be the best I've read in the series so far. Of course, the dreadful Udinaas/Featherwitch story plagues the entire book and I found the early portions dealing with the Edur quite dull as well. As I've found in most Erikson books around the halfway point or so the story starts to kick into high gear and the whole thing becomes quite enjoyable. I do enjoy the books but I think with a little tighter editing they would be much more enjoyable reads. But as I've said we'll see whether or not some of these seemingly unecessary plot lines figure in the series conclusion. The introspection itself isn't so much the problem as the fact that Erikson can't quite pull it off. I'll glady continue to read about Bakker's characters wallow in self pity for another 4(?)books Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Relic Posted July 15, 2006 Share Posted July 15, 2006 Stego...next time you go out for beers with Bakker, let a brotha know. Just finished Bonehunters. A bit in awe of the scope of Erikson's work, as i started making connections introduced in Deadhouse Gates. Crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry. Posted July 15, 2006 Share Posted July 15, 2006 Assimilated by the Canadians! At least Scott fed you beer. (DF -- stop acting all innocent. you've been shamelessly encouraging me in this damned MBF experiment as sure as Scott harassed and bribed Stego into giving it a second chance. For the record, the story is getting better, but Erikson still falls short on the crucial "writing chops" axis.) Ha! All I was doing was encouraging you to finish it - I didn't persuade you to buy it, remember? How are are you? Some of his fans say it's not until the halfway point of the second book that the series becomes above-average epic fantasy (then again, there's a joke about that as well, right? ), so just keep on keeping on, even if it's not exactly filet mignon that you're digesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Endest Posted July 15, 2006 Share Posted July 15, 2006 *deleted upon waking* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arakasi Posted July 15, 2006 Share Posted July 15, 2006 I'm very confused by that post. What do you mean by "providing us with the standard of fantasy literature"? So did you like it or not? It seemed you didn't but I'm not sure. Is there any way you can elaborate more without spoiling anything? You really have me wondering. Edit: As in I'm really dying to know. Please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Itkovian84 Posted July 15, 2006 Share Posted July 15, 2006 How did you get ahold of Repears Gale already? Secondly please do as the above posters says and clearify your stance on the book. Without spoiling anything of course:) Itkovian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Endest Posted July 15, 2006 Share Posted July 15, 2006 *as above* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraken Posted July 15, 2006 Share Posted July 15, 2006 Honestly, I don't think it is anywhere close to the level of Martin. I thought GotM was okay -- nothing spectacular, but I went on to read DG which I thought was fantastic and if the entire series was like that, I'd retract my initial statement. I kind of felt let down by the ending, but otherwise I liked it alot. MoI was pretty good, I had some issues with it but it was better than GotM if not as good as DG. Then comes HoC, which was dreadful. Aside from being overall terrible, denying the reader the payoff that had been building the entire book in such a contrived fashion had me throwing the book down in disgust. I might have continued to the next book anyway, but upon hearing it took place on yet another continent with a new cast, plus some fans of the series telling me it was their last favorite of the bunch caused me to stop. Maybe I'll get back to it someday. I think the biggest reason I don't enjoy the story as much as others is that I highly prefer character-driven stuff. Erikson CAN write great characters (I love Itkovian and Duiker, and there's others like Lorn and DG Felisin that are also pretty good), but the vast majority of them -- and there are alot -- are either bland, superflous, or make ridiculous decisions that don't really make any sense but are made to drive the plot in the direction he needs it to go. Also major pet peeve of mine -- I hate dumb names and the series has it in abundance. I think I face-palmed at the transition to "Cutter". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doppelganger Posted July 15, 2006 Author Share Posted July 15, 2006 Another thing I love about Malazan, is the T'Lan Imass. They're just the epitome of "cool". They're smart, mysterious, and they kick serious amounts of ass. Argh, I can't get enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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