Malazan Book of the Fallen

[Tyler Glembo]

Sometimes, I wish, that just once one character would wake up and say, "Life is what we make of it and therefore I ascribe the meaning of life through my actions.  Therefore, life is meaningful unto itself."  Or something like that.  It would be a nice counter point to every other character in the book who *knows* how meaningless life is. 

 

Even characters who find love immediately think "Goddammit, I'm so mad that I'm feeling love because life is completely pointless and it is just going to get ruined and lost anyways making it all the more stupid and horrible.  Everything is bad and terrible and means nothing."

[thom_merrilin]

Only just got into this series. It's always been on the burner to read. I am about 60% of the way through book four. I like Fiddler/Strings. Adjunct Tavore. Ugh. Loathe her.

Hebeoric "Light Touch" "Ghost Hands" is rather an intriguing character. Still, a long way to go. I know he kills characters off, so liking them too much can be bad for your health.

[Tyler Glembo]

Only just got into this series. It's always been on the burner to read. I am about 60% of the way through book four. I like Fiddler/Strings. Adjunct Tavore. Ugh. Loathe her.

Hebeoric "Light Touch" "Ghost Hands" is rather an intriguing character. Still, a long way to go. I know he kills characters off, so liking them too much can be bad for your health.

 

Yeah, I've had a few characters who I really like get killed off.  Makes me feel like the author is doing his job...but still saddened by it.

[csarmi]

Kinda fell asleep on book two. Abandoned.

 

Will try again now.

[Verbal32]

I had the same thing happen, but I had a chance to dig into book 2 and I'm hooked now.

[TonyMacaroniGlenholmes]

Book two is the best of the series.

 

What Erikson does is he introduces a sequence or a scene and it gets explained three books later. He does that a lot. And he is often ambiguous with it.

 

Unfortunately, this extends until The Crippled God. When I finished it, I had a similar feeling to when I finished Crossroads of Twilight...errr is that it? Fortunately, with CoT it was a feeder to all the great plotlines that finished in aMoL. There isn't that with Erikson and it is very frustrating. I get that he plays with convention and tropes but what I don't get is that when one has a ten book series, it isn't too much to have some sort of big reveal!!!

 

In some ways, you use his co-author Ian Cameron Esslemont as the person to explain plots, ideas, magical systems etc. He explains in one paragraph how Warrens/Holds work. But he doesn't have the talent of Erikson.

[Tyler Glembo]

HOLY $#!%!

 

Book 8 is finished...

 

 

Anomander Rake is now dead. Mother Dark is just a regular person? Dassem Ultor is wrecked. Hood is dead. Here are my thoughts...

 

Why didn't Anomander give his buddy Caladan Brood a call and say, "Hey, I need to get cut by Dragnipur so I can fall into it and save Darkness. Can you come over and destroy the sword after I fall on it?" I get that SE likes to discuss convergences so maybe it wouldn't have worked anyway because people like Kallor and the HoL's would have shown up, but it seems very contrived that Anomander had to have Dassem fight him in order to intentionally lose and have the convergence happen in the middle of Darujhistan.

 

Also, not a fan of Hood "dying." I'm not sure how that will play out since Dragnipur is now broken so Hood will just pop back up, but it is very clear that there is no such thing as a supreme being that can't be killed in this series, only really strong characters who can all be killed nomatter what. I wonder if Mother Dark and Father Light can be killed..still though, the god of death shouldn't die.

 

 

 

It's a long and lonesome road, but I am now 25% of the way through book 9. Starting slowly again, but I can finally pick up the threads to the great climax of the series. There will be a huge amount of storylines to bring back in, and I have no idea how most of the characters will play a role, but I'm looking forward to it!

 

Also, I've noticed the writing has changed. In the early books the characters conversations were genuine, and you didn't understand because you had no idea about the world you were in. Now, it seems the character's conversations are purposely vague and obfuscating in order to make it all a bit more mysterious.

[NeverTame]

I never noticed that thing about the dialogue. Will have to try and pay attention to it when I get around to rereading the books again...

[The_Wanderer]

I finished the Malazan series late in 2013.  I read all of the books back to back, it's a lot different from your typical fantasy book, and they're pretty challenging.  I liked the first half of the series a lot better than the second half, I was hoping for a stronger ending.  But to this day Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice, and Midnight Tides are still 3 of my favorite books from a fantasy series.

[Tyler Glembo]

Slllllooooooowwwwwwww progress.  Finally reading book 10.  The ending of book 9 was jaw dropping though.  Epic...truly epic.

[Tyler Glembo]

Also

 

 

Quick Ben, struck by the biggest bolt of lightning ever to bolt from the sky...or something like that.  Suddenly, in book 10, he is still alive and not human.  What?  What???  HWHWHWAT???  I can't wait to figure out what the hell he is.

 

[Tyler Glembo]

So, just started book 10, about 60-70 pages into it...and I just wanted to post a few predictions for my own amusement.  Spoilered because it contains a lot of stuff...

 

 

 

First, the big one.  The fallen/crippled god is actually Father Light.  Mother Dark has returned but somehow Father light has failed to do so.  The books pointedly said that FL and MD were complementary and they mirrored each other so if MD is back but FL isn't the only explanation I can think of is that FL is unable to return.  There, crippled god who is chained by humans.

 

Second, Icarium, who is currently being held by Calm, rises up and becomes the Forkrul god.  He is the embodiment of final judgement which the assail love.  How is he stopped?  I dunno, but I feel like Karsa needs to show up and whoop some sense into him.

 

Third, Tavore will succeed in freeing the crippled god who will then return to the Liosan, ending the war at the Shore and saving Kharkanas.  However, she will need the help of the ototaral dragon to do so since her sword will not be close to enough and the voice power of Badalle to counter the Assail.  The Jade figures  will be dealt with somehow.  Maybe the redeemer embraces them all, maybe their souls are used to heal the breaches between warrens. 

 

Fourth, the undead Jaghut will make amends with the T'lan Imass by saving Onos' children from Olar Ethil, calming Onos and giving him and the Imass peace.  Silverfox will show up somewhere in all this too. 

 

Fifth, chaos and the chaining of the worlds done by Draconus will be undone and the universe will flow properly again.  Whatever that means.

 

Sixth, Quick Ben is actually a Forkrul Assail.  They are the only non-god creatures I can think of that are able to contort themselves to appear human, like Bradayal (or whatever her name was) with the ribby snake of children.  Or he is the son of Sechul Lath, which is why he was able to go "off the cliff" and face chaos just as lath did. 

 

Seventh, Setoc will be the new destriant of the Perish Gray Helms and teach them that what they really should be creating war over is freedom, and therefore winning them back to fighting the assail.

 

Eight, Badalle will join the Malazan army and they will take in all the kids feeding them.  They will all cross the desert safely only to immediately have to fight the watered.  Half way through the battle the Che Malle show up and wreck the Assail, saving the malazans. 

 

Ninth, K'rul and Kruppe will somehow show up and be useful in some way.  They will coordinate with Ganoes Paran and the other malazan army to also get them to the big battle.

 

Tenth, Kallor is redeemed in the giant battle of all the forces converging the glass desert is somehow cleansed and he creates a new empire there.  Or he goes and kills Laseen and becomes the new emporer of the malazans and rules justly, using Tehol as a guide.

 

Eleventh, the forkrul assail are easily dealt with.  However, the last battle is joined by the likes of the Errant and Olar Ethil and other baddies vying for power and then suddenly all the dragons come back and join the battle, making it a major free for all.

 

Twelfth, Silchas and Rud Ellale end up somehow winning the dragon battle by whooping lots of dragon ass.  Or something like that.

 

Okay, there are a million random characters I haven't touched on.  LIke the cult in Raraku headed by felisin younger, or what happens with Gruntle, or stuff like that.  And of course, the big thing I haven't mentioned is Cotillion and Shadowthrone.  I think that whatever it is they are really after (restoring the world to peace and order?) they accomplish.  And Tavore helps them do it, which is why she had the falling out with laseen because laseen still hated kellenved. 

 

Too much to keep straight in my head at this point....

 

[Tyler Glembo]

So...just finished and I want to revisit my predictions...see how they turned out.

 

 

So, just started book 10, about 60-70 pages into it...and I just wanted to post a few predictions for my own amusement.  Spoilered because it contains a lot of stuff...

 

 

 

First, the big one.  The fallen/crippled god is actually Father Light.  Mother Dark has returned but somehow Father light has failed to do so.  The books pointedly said that FL and MD were complementary and they mirrored each other so if MD is back but FL isn't the only explanation I can think of is that FL is unable to return.  There, crippled god who is chained by humans.  EPICLY WRONG

 

Second, Icarium, who is currently being held by Calm, rises up and becomes the Forkrul god.  He is the embodiment of final judgement which the assail love.  How is he stopped?  I dunno, but I feel like Karsa needs to show up and whoop some sense into him.  EPICLY WRONG AND EPICLY DISAPPOINTED BY THE ENDING OF THE ICARIUM ARC

 

Third, Tavore will succeed in freeing the crippled god who will then return to the Liosan, ending the war at the Shore and saving Kharkanas.  However, she will need the help of the ototaral dragon to do so since her sword will not be close to enough and the voice power of Badalle to counter the Assail.  The Jade figures  will be dealt with somehow.  Maybe the redeemer embraces them all, maybe their souls are used to heal the breaches between warrens.  ALMOST COMPLETELY RIGHT EXCEPT FOR THE PART ABOUT KHARKANAS

 

Fourth, the undead Jaghut will make amends with the T'lan Imass by saving Onos' children from Olar Ethil, calming Onos and giving him and the Imass peace.  Silverfox will show up somewhere in all this too. AMENDS WERE MADE AT LEAST.

 

Fifth, chaos and the chaining of the worlds done by Draconus will be undone and the universe will flow properly again.  Whatever that means. NEVER TOUCHED ON

 

Sixth, Quick Ben is actually a Forkrul Assail.  They are the only non-god creatures I can think of that are able to contort themselves to appear human, like Bradayal (or whatever her name was) with the ribby snake of children.  Or he is the son of Sechul Lath, which is why he was able to go "off the cliff" and face chaos just as lath did. NEVER REVEALED

 

Seventh, Setoc will be the new destriant of the Perish Gray Helms and teach them that what they really should be creating war over is freedom, and therefore winning them back to fighting the assail.  ALMOST CORRECT

 

Eight, Badalle will join the Malazan army and they will take in all the kids feeding them.  They will all cross the desert safely only to immediately have to fight the watered.  Half way through the battle the Che Malle show up and wreck the Assail, saving the malazans. ALMOST RIGHT.  BADALLE SAVED THEM BY CALLING DOWN LOCUSTS AND THE CHEMALLE SAVED THEM BY ASSAULTING THE SPIRE

 

Ninth, K'rul and Kruppe will somehow show up and be useful in some way.  They will coordinate with Ganoes Paran and the other malazan army to also get them to the big battle. SORTA BUT NOT ENTIRELY

 

Tenth, Kallor is redeemed in the giant battle of all the forces converging the glass desert is somehow cleansed and he creates a new empire there.  Or he goes and kills Laseen and becomes the new emporer of the malazans and rules justly, using Tehol as a guide.  KALLOR COMPLETELY DISAPPEARS AND IS NEVER HEARD FROM

 

Eleventh, the forkrul assail are easily dealt with.  However, the last battle is joined by the likes of the Errant and Olar Ethil and other baddies vying for power and then suddenly all the dragons come back and join the battle, making it a major free for all.  NO TO ASSAIL BEING EASILY DEALTH WITH AND YES TO DRAGONS AND OTHER BADDIES SORTA

 

Twelfth, Silchas and Rud Ellale end up somehow winning the dragon battle by whooping lots of dragon ass.  Or something like that. PRETTY DAMN CLOSE :-)  EXCEPT FOR RUD BEING A PART OF IT AS HE WAS REPLACED BY TULAS

 

Okay, there are a million random characters I haven't touched on.  LIke the cult in Raraku headed by felisin younger, or what happens with Gruntle, or stuff like that.  And of course, the big thing I haven't mentioned is Cotillion and Shadowthrone.  I think that whatever it is they are really after (restoring the world to peace and order?) they accomplish.  And Tavore helps them do it, which is why she had the falling out with laseen because laseen still hated kellenved. BASICALLY CORRECT

 

Too much to keep straight in my head at this point....

 

 

So, I'd say that out of my 18ish predictions (some were double predictions in my list of 13) I got 10 Right and 8 Wrong.  Not too bad I'd say :-)