The Malazan Book of the Fallen Thread, Part 2

[VigoTheCarpathian]

Jeez, shit on a stick...I'm not saying the UK version that I bought had a great cover, but damn. Does Tor intentionally pick the stupidest thing to put on the front of the book?

They should've captioned it "With more awesome carriage crashing action than any other fantasy novel this year!"

I really can't think of a more nonsensical scene than the like one page Mr. Trygalle's Wild Ride in BH. The might've been better off just showing a full cover of Bottle with a boner, staring at a monkey-lady. Even a certain scene in a certain bar near the end would've been preferable.

ETA: I was going to mention something about the Trygalle warping into another dimension and carriage-jacking the Tinkers, and taking some of their brightly-colored clothes with them.

I believe Reaper's Gale is out on May 7 in the UK, and sometime in late June for Canada.

[caladanbrood]

Did the 9th book get delayed? I haven't been keeping up with the threads and thought the 9th book was due out this month. Am I on drugs?

Definately on drugs - it's Reaper's Gale, the 7th book, that's about to be released... May 7th for the UK, and June 26th for Canada.

[Jerol]

That cover sucks ass about 500 different ways. May the person that decided on that cover meet up with a horny Karsa in a dark alley. "WITNESS!"

[Werthead]

On a separate note - can someone explain the Houses of the Azath to me? I know that they're these wierd houses that are in certain cities, and only certain people can enter them - and use the to transport between locales. But, correct me if I'm wrong, didn't we see the won Darujistan actually grow out of a stump or something like that? Who/what are the Azath, and what was the purpose for constructing such "houses"?

SPOILER: MBF

The Azath seem to be charged with keeping the universe in some kind of balance, and enjoy imprisoning individuals of extreme power (Gothos etc). Exactly what the hell they are is unclear. The Nameless Ones - who are keeping Icarium under control - seem to be servants of the Azath. Not much more is known about them other than that they are found on every continent and can, with great peril, be used as a transportation system.

The US Bonehunters cover is possibly the most ridiculous book cover I've ever seen in my entire life.*

* Except the US version of Knife of Dreams. And the US version of Mistborn. And maybe a few others.

[caladanbrood]

Full version: it's slightly better with Paran in the picture (not that he looks much like any Paran I imagined).

http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/8416/usbonehuntersty2.jpg

[saint777]

Oh man! How did you guys get a hold of Lees End? Amazon.com and Amazon.ca don't have it. I also want to order Night of Knives but it's out of stock according to Amazon.ca.

The US Bonehunters cover is hilarious. It looks like a bunch of drunks driving a wagon off the side of a cliff.

[Caligula_K]

Ha ha, that is the funniest book cover I've ever seen. At this point, I think Tor is out to make their covers hilarious.

[pat5150]

Oh man! How did you guys get a hold of Lees End? Amazon.com and Amazon.ca don't have it. I also want to order Night of Knives but it's out of stock according to Amazon.ca.

The US Bonehunters cover is hilarious. It looks like a bunch of drunks driving a wagon off the side of a cliff.

You can get The Lees of Laughter's End directly from the publisher, PS Publishing.

As for Esslemont's Night of Knives, there is no link as of yet on amazon.ca, which means that you'll have to order it from its UK counterpart. Or win it on the blog next month!!!

Patrick

[WLU]

WLU; what's your comment on the whole hot/cold iron thing?

It's not great, but here goes:

The person who was expositing the idea was one of the Camp of the Whirlwind followers, thus basically a tribesperson, with a life full of symbolism and a world reduced to easily graspable concepts. What seems like an oversimplification to us, is appropriate to the mindset of a people who rely on an oral tradition and someone who inherited their wisdom from generations past rather than being forced to re-create a whole new worldview with every generation like we are. Like the generations of people who believed in horoscopes, the Greeks who believed in a grossly simplistic concept of the four elements, and the alchemists (who would have been the geniuses of their time) who similarly believed people and concepts could be reduced to a slightly more complicated version of the elemental theory.

That being said, I just realized I can't actually define the difference between hot and cold iron... cold iron relies on battle plans while hot iron just throws men at the opponent? I can see how cold iron is good, but how is hot iron useful? Or being able to switch between the two?

[WLU]

On a separate note - can someone explain the Houses of the Azath to me? I know that they're these wierd houses that are in certain cities, and only certain people can enter them - and use the to transport between locales. But, correct me if I'm wrong, didn't we see the won Darujistan actually grow out of a stump or something like that? Who/what are the Azath, and what was the purpose for constructing such "houses"?

And on yet another note - is a finnest simply a container for holding a soul? Can any common object be "magicked" up to be a finnest?

The finnest was a repository for power rather than a soul I believe. And explaining the Azath is kinda a big spoiler. If it makes you feel better, they are explained in a bit more detail in BH. Their actual role and purpose is much bigger than just being teleportation booths, and they aren't built, they grow. It's all part of Erikson's discourse on power, which forms a considerable backdrop to the series. I'd add to Werthead's spoiler:

SPOILER: Azath

They represent abstract concepts, and stretch not across the world, but across the multiverse. And they map onto the houses in the Deck of Dragons.

Yeah, the US covers are artistic abortions - I never did figure out who the people on the DG cover were. The Canadian/UK versions aren't great either (particularly Midnight Tides), but way, way better than the 'tits 'n scalemail' US ones. I believe I heard once (isn't rumour wonderful) that Stephen R. Donaldson had a written into his publishing contracts his covers would NOT be done by the guy doing the MBotF US covers.

[Jagged]

The Bonehunters US cover.

Who's worthless ass nephew thought that was a good idea.

The might've been better off just showing a full cover of Bottle with a boner, staring at a monkey-lady. Even a certain scene in a certain bar near the end would've been preferable.

[Jagged]

That being said, I just realized I can't actually define the difference between hot and cold iron... cold iron relies on battle plans while hot iron just throws men at the opponent? I can see how cold iron is good, but how is hot iron useful? Or being able to switch between the two?

Cold iron is all plans and precision. It's hard for them to inspire the troops to put fire in them to get them to do things they never would before. Cold Iron commanders would usually be horrible for tribal warriors with no discipline or structures. They however are extremely effective when these are present. Sometimes when a battle breaks down a commander might need to switch from cold to Hot to fire the troops up. Get them to do things they normally wouldn't do.

It's all rather complicated but that’s my take on it.

[WLU]

OK, I've compiled everyone's lists for comparison purposes, including my own (Best to worst, MOI/HOC/MT/GOTM/DG/HUGE DROP/BH). So without using powerful sophisticated statistical programs and re-reading my notes from my stats classes, I have reached the following conclusions of dubious worth:

1) Bonehunters, it is generally around the bottom of the list. Except for Pat, who loved it. And should therefore have to send the rest of us copies of Reaper's Gale as a punishment. I promise to still buy a copy when it's released, I don't mind giving Erikson money.

2) GotM also near bottom of lists

3) MoI is a consistent list-topper, as is DG; if you liked DG, you are less likely to like GotM

4) F'you liked MoI, you generally didn't rate HoC as highly.

5) Pat's use of Reaper's Gale skewed the system. As a forefit, he should send the rest of us copies of Reaper's Gale.

That's about all I can say without subjective ratings on five point scales, ideally with a forced choice and without. Any undergraduates out there looking to do a thesis?

Stats is bullshit.

[WLU]

Cold iron is all plans and precision. It's hard for them to inspire the troops to put fire in them to get them to do things they never would before. Cold Iron commanders would usually be horrible for tribal warriors with no discipline or structures.

It's all rather complicated but that’s my take on it.

See, all of that is much better than my idea. Listen to Jagged.

[kuenjato]

That Bonehunters cover is friggin' terrible. Is there some reason they can't simply use the UK covers?

[PuroGeo]

I just bought Gardens of the Moon and I am struggling through it. Already read close to 130 pgs and nothing really has happened yet that makes me want to read the rest. I am going to keep at it though because I have heard a lot of good things about this series.

[duchess of malfi]

I just bought Gardens of the Moon and I am struggling through it. Already read close to 130 pgs and nothing really has happened yet that makes me want to read the rest. I am going to keep at it though because I have heard a lot of good things about this series.

I thought that the second book was much better than the first, which I did not particularly care for. So please hang int there, and give the second book, Deadhouse Gates a try.

And that Bonehunters cover is a joke? Please? Please let it be a joke? April Fool's Day is over...

[Kat]

I just bought Gardens of the Moon and I am struggling through it. Already read close to 130 pgs and nothing really has happened yet that makes me want to read the rest. I am going to keep at it though because I have heard a lot of good things about this series.

I was hopelessly lost in GotM, and on retrospect it makes a whole lot more sense. I made some friends over at Malazanempire who have been cheering me on to get through the series, and I got over the necessary hump. I believe the advice I got was "Read GotM....if you don't like it, read the second book anyway. If you don't like that, start the third one, and if you still find yourself lost, it's probably not for you, but if not, you'll find the investment worthwhile." I think this is the last time I'm going to take such advice about such a long series, but I actually did find it useful because I really enjoyed Memories of Ice and would probably rank it as one of my favorite fantasy novels now.

Meanwhile, I need to go pick up the US release of MT.

[kedlav]

It takes a long while to work through Gardens the first time around. A lot of it, I've found, is the way Erikson just drops you right into the story and you feel like you're in a small room with Andre the Giant who's tossing you from wall to wall. After reading the series through Bonehunters, Gardens stands on its own quite a bit better, but still suffers from other deficiencies that Erikson has clearly improved on since its writing (dialogue being the biggest one IMO). Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice occasionally still drag and make you wonder why your friends keep prodding you to read the series, but as they wrap up, you usually sit up, look around, and basically say 'Holy $#@!, that was awesome.' House of Chains can be a bit baffling at first and I enjoyed each individual storyline, but found the novel as a whole not too spectacular. Midnight Tides I thought blew on the first read through, but the second time Bugg & Tehol really grew on me, to the point where it climbed above House of Chains. The Bonehunters both frustrates me and gets me really going. Things that have been building and you expect to be almost Chain of Dogs significance tend to end up being wrapped up too quickly (a both pair-off duels and the actual siege -- trying not to spoil at all here) ended up being unspectacular to me, yet other parts had me really, really going, as well as other things have me looking forward to Reaper's Gale. The biggest issue for the Bonehunters to me though is that it struggles more than any other in the series to stand up on its own, and I hate paying $30+ (Hardcover + shipping from UK->US) for set-up novels <shakes fist at AFFC>.

[Voland]

Meh! That cover looks like a bad Jordan-reject approved by the aforementioned, slightly retarded, Tor-exec's nephew. Honestly, are they trying to not get people to read the damn book?