95% through Deadhouse. I fucking love this series. Just really hard to sit down and power through because of its density and style
His eccentric characters (Kruppe and iskaral pust are the ones I've experienced) are just phenomenal. Crazy enough to be enjoyable and humorous but just within the bounds of acceptable to not make it silly or distracting. Hard thing to do and Erikson is really really good at it so far
He's literally been in 2 scenes (excluding the opening scene obviously) No opinion formed from me yet
I've decided to jump into Assail once I finish my current book. Should probably start tomorrow or this weekend. Kind of a crummy reason to really want to read this book, but the next book in the expanded reading list is another Erikson novel. So that's some good motivation.
Assail and Orb, Scepter, Throne are by far my favorite ICE books. Significant quality gap between those and the others, IMO.
I finished Assail yesterday. I definitely liked it better than Blood and Bone, but I still thought it bogged down a bit in the middle. Orb, Sceptre, Throne is my favorite of the Malazan Empire books.
Concur. The storyline in OST is outstanding. Really fleshes out some major plotlines (Dassem, Seguleh, Tyrant) I've been fascinated with since the beginning of the MBotF series. Esslemont did a good job of bringing it together.
I started Forge of Darkness today. I'll be honest, I got kind of bummed when I looked at the Tor re-read and the articles stopped after chapter four. RIP.
Deadhouse Landing, Esslemont's newest book, is supposed to be released this week. I'm pretty sure there are a few users in here who are that far into the series. FYI.
Still about 20% into Forge if Darkness. Tooka break to reread all things Sanderson before Oatbringer. Will dive back in to Malazan when I’m done with that
I'm about 40% in. Works out well, though, because by the time I finish reading FoD (which is a hard copy), I should be wrapping up the audiobook of The Way of Kings.
This from Steven Erikson's Facebook author page: Spoiler I've made a point of never dissembling to my readers so why start now? The reasons for this decision (delaying Walk in Shadow) are varied: the basic situation is as follows. For reasons unknown to me, my agent or my publishers, DoD and FoL have tanked in terms of sales. I wasn't even aware of that until we started marketing the First Contact novel, RKH, but when the details came out it took the wind out of my sails (putting it mildly). Now, if it was a matter of the style I employed for the Kharkanas trilogy turning readers off, then the sales of FoD should have been decent, only to then fall off for FoL. But that wasn't the case. Strangely, the Book of the Fallen series remains strong in terms of sales. Was it because it was a prequel? Possibly. Did FoD come too soon after TCG? Maybe. Or is there some kind of reader-fatigue going on? Could be. One theory I've been considering is a more general wariness among fantasy fans regarding trilogies and series -- having been burned by other authors waiting for books, are readers just holding back until the trilogy is done, before buying in? But then, Dancer's Lament sold brilliantly (and it too is a prequel). Anyway, the upshot is, given what we perceive as considerable enthusiasm for the Karsa trilogy, we decided to jump right in. The story picks up four or five years after the ten book series, so there'll be plenty of room to explore the fall-out, and room for favourite characters to make an appearance beyond Karsa himself. I do remain committed to writing Walk in Shadow and humbly apologize for you (few?) readers eagerly awaiting that novel. Also a further update from Erikson: Thanks so much for all your comments and encouragement. To those of you waiting for the trilogy to finish before buying, no need to apologize. Waiting for books sucks. Personally, I wish FoL hadn't taken three years to write. That alone is a long wait for any reader. I think what's made the Kharkanas trilogy so fragile for me is that it was always a risky proposition, in terms of tone, atmosphere and writing style. It's dense stuff, and while the style is seductive (for me) it's also one that requires a certain frame of mind. I wasn't aware of how vulnerable that frame of mind was until it got hammered. It may well turn out that after the first Karsa novel (working title: The God is not Willing), I'll head straight back to Walk in Shadow. Sometimes momentum is all one needs.
Edited that because it confirms a character survives the main series. If you’re not finished with the series, the spoiler says he is postponing the final Kharkanas Trilogy novel and starting a new trilogy featuring a known character
on book 5, FTR it did spoil it for me, but I had read on Wikipedia that that was going to be a future series so wiki spoiled it first
I thought Forge of Darkness was pretty slow. I'll probably start Fall of Light once I finish Oathbringer. I'm still firmly on team read anything the man writes.
Who has read Forge of Darkness? I’m almost done and need to talk to someone. Wanted to come here before I scheduled a trip to a therapist
Spoiler this is like a fucking Shakespearian tragedy. Just finished the chapter where Hunn fucking fuckface Raal poisoned the Hust Legion. Fuck this book
Spoiler Yeah, it's very different from the main series. Raal is a little bitch. I enjoyed it even though it disagrees with a lot from the main series. There's more of the same in the Fall of Light. Then you have the event that splits Rake and Andarist (not sure if it's before the Hust or not) which adds to the Shakespearian tragedy feel. I did like learning more about the Azanathai.
Spoiler the Andarist Anomader split has happened and was the real start of the tragedy feel. Don’t get me wrong I love this book, but it’s difficult to read sometimes and makes me angry
I want a Tor reread to go along with Forge of Darkness and Fall of Light so badly, there's just so much going on and so much connection to the main series. No other Tor reread stopped except for the Malazan one. The excuse given, that Tor was restructuring and handling these things differently is obvious bullshit. The just started an Oathbringer reread and a new Wheel of Time one. This is such fucking bullshit. I'm fucking pissed. The Malazan one was the best one around anyway. FUCK
Deconstruction of the Siege of Pale Aftermath - Gardens of the Moon Haven't read through all of this but this is a super-detailed annotation of that scene by Erikson. This is dense and more of an explanation of how/why it was written the way it was, but I'm sharing in case anyone is interested.
Has anyone read The Fiends of Nightmaria? It's a new Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novella that was released in 2016. I didn't even realize it had been released until just recently.
I haven’t, I did just finish The Fall if Light yesterday. Really upset the final Karkhanas book got delayed
Irush this thread is safe, all spoilers are in spoilers. You will inevitably have questions. Feel free to ask in here.
It almost feels like a book in a different series by the time it’s over. You think you have an idea about who are the good guys and who are the bad guys and what’s going on, but you have no fucking idea
The Blackfish have you reread any of the books? I feel like they would be faster reads the second time through
I was really close to picking up GotM as soon as I finished Deadhouse Landing. I ended up fighting off that urge since I had other things i wanted to read as well... but I will absolutely reread the entire fucking series again. Short stories, side novels and everything. Maybe after Kellanved's Reach but prior to The God is Not Willing, depending on its release date.
Also I think these are the top 10 characters for me: Kruppe Karsa Bottle Iskral Tehol Bugg Kalam Greyfrog Apsalar Tool/Kallor/Cotillion I’m sure in the next 4 books this list will change
I don't even think I can make a list. Too hard. Your are blatantly omitting Fiddler and Kellanved though and that is inexcusable.
I’m 100 pages into Gardens and I’m barely keeping my head above water here Literally had no idea what was happening during that battle with Moon’s Spawn
Yep, get used to that. He really does just drop you into the world and expect you to figure it out along the way