Michael Seswatha Jordan Posted August 14, 2014 Author Share Posted August 14, 2014 Tehol and Bugg's dialogues are my favorite of all time.After RG, do we see Tehol and Bugg anymore? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toblakai Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 After RG, do we see Tehol and Bugg anymore? I am about to start Dust of Dreams, and they are listed in the Dramatis Personae at the beginning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 After RG, do we see Tehol and Bugg anymore? As Toblakai says, they do appear in DoD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Seswatha Jordan Posted August 18, 2014 Author Share Posted August 18, 2014 Enjoyed Stoneweilder, but it was ICE's weakest book so far. And I prefer Erikson to ICE. But that being said, both are very good reads. Getting ready to start DoD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toblakai Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Enjoyed Stoneweilder, but it was ICE's weakest book so far. And I prefer Erikson to ICE. But that being said, both are very good reads. Getting ready to start DoD.I started DoD last night, but I read OST after Stonewielder just because I heard it didn't really matter. But I think I liked Stonewielder more than you did. My ICE order so far is OST > Stonewielder > NoK > RotCG (other than the Nait thread which is ICE's best). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aceluby Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Well, almost done with Deadhouse Gates and I think I'm going to take a break from Malazan for a while. I just feel like I'm forcing myself to read this and am just slogging through and am not really intrigued enough to keep at it. I'll probably come back and tackle Memories of Ice in a month or so and see if there's anything there that keeps me interested. Malazan may just not be for me though... One thing that REALLY bothers me is the switching of POV mid chapter. Erickson will have a POV of one character, they'll do something, meet someone, then have a conversation with another person and at the end of that conversation I'm all of a sudden following and in the head of the other character. I HATE this in writing and it's really jarring. I wish authors would not do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toblakai Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Well, almost done with Deadhouse Gates and I think I'm going to take a break from Malazan for a while. I just feel like I'm forcing myself to read this and am just slogging through and am not really intrigued enough to keep at it. I'll probably come back and tackle Memories of Ice in a month or so and see if there's anything there that keeps me interested. Malazan may just not be for me though... One thing that REALLY bothers me is the switching of POV mid chapter. Erickson will have a POV of one character, they'll do something, meet someone, then have a conversation with another person and at the end of that conversation I'm all of a sudden following and in the head of the other character. I HATE this in writing and it's really jarring. I wish authors would not do this. To be fair, the chapters are very long. He could have just made like 75 chapters instead, and had each chapter focus on one POV or thread. It may have seemed less jarring then. That actually would make it similar to ASoIaF, so I wonder if you are being caught up more by chapter breaks than actual content. I am sure Erikson has thematic reasons for his long chapters and I occasionally catch them, but often don't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowborn Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 I don't know why he makes most of his chapters that long, but there's a reason for The Bonehunters, chapter 7, which is the longest in the series I think. From the Tor reread Q&A: I remember thinking, as I rolled into Chapter Seven, how delicious it was going to be writing it -- in not letting go, not offering up any breaks, any breathers, not for the characters and not for the readers. I imagined, somewhat evilly, forcing readers to stay awake late into the night, exhausted in their crawl through that chapter, and how that exhaustion would perfectly reflect what the characters were going through. The ending of Deadhouse Gates is great, it got me more into the series. Memories of Ice is one of my favorite books ever, and my favorite from the first half of the series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aceluby Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 To be fair, the chapters are very long. He could have just made like 75 chapters instead, and had each chapter focus on one POV or thread. It may have seemed less jarring then. That actually would make it similar to ASoIaF, so I wonder if you are being caught up more by chapter breaks than actual content. I am sure Erikson has thematic reasons for his long chapters and I occasionally catch them, but often don't. It's not the long chapters that bothers me, or the obvious space left when changing POV mid chapter (though I hate his tendency to not let you know which POV you're in until 3 paragraphs in, which almost forces a re-read of some sections). What I'm talking about is a section of the book where you're in one characters head and see their thoughts, they have a page long conversation with someone else, then after the conversation I'm suddenly in the head of the other character. It's bad writing and jarring and he's done it more than a half dozen times in two books. For instance, you're in the head of Kalam as he's looking across the ocean, Pearl is behind him, Kalam is stabbed, Pearl has a conversation w/ him and pushes him over the side, then all of a sudden we're in Pearl's POV as he watches Kalam splash into the water. This doesn't work when you write 98% of the rest of the book in 3rd person, single POV narrative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
End of Disc One Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 I remember that whole "switching POV without breaks" thing coming up earlier in the topic, and I'm still going to assume that it's just an editing mistake and that it doesn't happen later in the series. I don't remember it happening in of SE's Malazan books and I'm pretty good at noticing POV shifts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Patrek Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Well, I finally wrote and posted my review of Ian Cameron Esslemont's Assail here. A major disappointment and no fitting end to the Malazan saga. . . :bawl: Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anatúrinbor Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 For that review 6/10 seems way too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 For that review 6/10 seems way too much. New to Pat's Fantasy Hotlist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 New to Pat's Fantasy Hotlist? Ohhhhhhhhhh no you didn't! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Reckoner Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 I liked how some passages in Night of Knives had a horror vibe. Ditto for some of the villagers Nimander and co encountered early in Toll the Hounds. Do the final two in Erikson's ten-part sequence have similar horror elements? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anatúrinbor Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 New to Pat's Fantasy Hotlist?Actually, I've been reading his reviews for some now and I thought it was way too much for a book that is, according to the review, a terrible conclusion to the entire Malazan series. That deserves a special one time only - 1/10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhom Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Actually, I've been reading his reviews for some now and I thought it was way too much for a book that is, according to the review, a terrible conclusion to the entire Malazan series. That deserves a special one time only - 1/10. From what I'm reading, it just confirms my initial dislike for the ICE/SE split narrative structure. I liked the way TCG ended things. I stopped reading ICE after RotCG but I do have Stonewielder on my shelf, information like this makes me think I may not get around to reading the others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
End of Disc One Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 For that review 6/10 seems way too much. Pat's review system really only has three ratings: Above 7.5 7.5 Below 7.5 So yeah a 6/10 is bad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gormenghast Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 It's perfectly in line with other Esslemont books: no one agrees which are the good/better ones. I've seen reactions across forums and there are people who thought Assail was good and those who thought it was bad. And those who thought it's the worst, and those that it's the best. No one seems to agree on anything. There are those who say Orb, Sceptre Throne is the very best and that Blood and Bone is utter trash, and those who say the exact opposite. If you look at Goodreads Assail is the best rated among all the books (but I guess there's bias since it's recent). The only minumum consensus seems to be that Stonewielder is among the best, but even that is often contested. As an example: both forum dwellers Pat and Larry reviewed Assail. Pat gives it 6, Larry also says it's the worst in the series. But take Blood and Bone and Pat again gives it again a 6, yet Larry says it's the best in the series. I guess we wait for Werthead to join the fun. He gave 4 and half stars to all the latest books, so we'll see what Assail gets. But in general? I guess you can only read the books yourself because othewise EVERYONE disagrees when it comes to Esslemont. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Goodreads reviews mean jackshit since being bought by amazon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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