Malazan Empire: Now after the end of the series... Your favorite malazan book and why (ICE included) - Malazan Empire

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Now after the end of the series... Your favorite malazan book and why (ICE included) Which book in the malazan universe is your favorite (ICE included) Rate Topic: -----

#1 User is offline   Palamecia 

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Posted 01 September 2013 - 10:06 PM

About a month ago I finished reading The Crippled God and one thing I always wanted to discuss with a fellow Malazan reader was: what was your favorite book and why?

So:
  • Which malazan book/novella is your favorite and why?
  • Who is your favorite character in said book/novella?
  • What is your favorite scene in said book/novella?
The questions are not that important, just your favorite book and why, you can add anything by your own accord.

Personally I will gather my thoughts and probably post later.

/Palamecia
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#2 User is offline   Spoilsport Stonny 

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Posted 01 September 2013 - 11:25 PM

1. Toll the Hounds. Its beautifully written, the character arcs among the leads are well developed and make sense within the confines of what we already knew of them. I can relate to the themes without much struggle. And its got the best convergence/climax of all the books.

2. Karsa's got the best scenes. Hood has the best lines. Rake has the best hair. Kallor chews the best scenery. But I like Nimander the most. His development is the most rewarding. I also tend to think of Darujhistan as a character. I also like Chaur, Scilarra, Samar Dev and Blend. Spindle has some great parts too.

Oh wait. I forgot about Torvald Nom. Yeah he's my favorite.

3. TRAVELLER WASHING UP ON THE BEACH FROM HOOD-KNOWS-WHERE AND HAVING TO IMMEDIATELY KILL A GIANT BEAR AND DRINK IT'S HEART'S BLOOD.
Theorizing that one could poop within his own lifetime, Doctor Poopet led an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top secret project, known as QUANTUM POOP. Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Doctor Poopet, prematurely stepped into the Poop Accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that was not his own. Fortunately, contact with his own bowels was made through brainwave transmissions, with Al the Poop Observer, who appeared in the form of a hologram that only Doctor Poopet could see and hear. Trapped in the past, Doctor Poopet finds himself pooping from life to life, pooping things right, that once went wrong and hoping each time, that his next poop will be the poop home.
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#3 User is offline   Studlock 

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Posted 02 September 2013 - 09:21 AM

1. Cripple God actually, it was everything I wanted from the final, it made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me cheer.

2. This hard because it has a lot of my favourites from other books. Hood and the hand maid are pretty awesome. Paran, Fiddler and Bottle are again all awesome. I also really like the leader of the Grey Helms. Really I can't say I disliked a character (except maybe the FA but they were more devices than characters).

3. The whole snake storyline hits in the heart, the toy scene had me weeping like a baby. The entire ending, with all the battles was pretty awesome.
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#4 User is offline   Grimjazz 

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Posted 03 September 2013 - 11:22 AM

For me it would have to be the Bonehunters. Characters such as Bottle, Koryk, Smiles, Cuttle, Sergeant Strings and Corporal Tarr are just awesome, they all go so well together. Deadsmell, Throatslitter and Balm are also awesome not too mention Hellian is one of the best Sergeant's in the entire Malazan army.

There are so many good scenes in this book, with Icarium and Drift Avali. But the scene for me was at Malaz city when the Bonehunters have to defend themselves against a crazed horde of Wickan hating morons while Kalam fights off more Claw's with his second Hood-bound flight through that blasted city.

And any scenes with Edgewalker in them are always great.
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#5 User is offline   Daeg 

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Posted 10 October 2013 - 05:29 AM

I wish I could differentiate between the books. I read one after another and have a hard time remembering which were which.

However, I found the first person narrative by kruppe in the 8th book (I think) to be quite different than the other books and not as enjoyable
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#6 User is offline   The Farmer 

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Posted 25 October 2013 - 12:19 PM

Memories of Ice.
So many shocking scenes and images.
The highlight of the series for me.
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#7 User is offline   Kanubis 

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Posted 25 October 2013 - 01:34 PM

1. It changes every read-through. Last time it was Reaper's Gale. It's got the just about every character I love in it.

2. Hedge, always. His scenes on the way to the Refugium are some of my absolute favorites.

3. Probably Beak's sacrifice.

Bonus answer: No matter which book is my current favorite, my most loved part of the series will ALWAYS be the one at the end of Bonehunters from when they arrive at the island and through to the end of the book
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#8 User is offline   Studious Lock 

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Posted 25 October 2013 - 01:43 PM

Favourite book is either toll the hounds or midnight tides, with reapers gale coming very close behind. All of my favourite characters are in those books.

Favourite character is easy for me, definitely Skintick. I just love the way he approaches everything with humour. I couldn't even begin to pick a top 5 though, because there would be a dozen characters joint second. :rant:

Favourite scene is a toss up between Rake vs Dassem, Hood eating face or Fid shooting Ruin with a cusser 'fucking dragon...'.
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#9 User is offline   D'rek 

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Posted 25 October 2013 - 03:08 PM

1. Still HoC. The intensity of the raw emotion layered with intrigue and so many echoes of the past that ring true enthralls me every time.

2. Even limiting it to within HoC as the OP suggests, this is hard. I'll go with Tavore and Felisin together, being both mirror images and opposites to each other by being themselves in some ways and rejecting themselves in others.

3. In said book, favourite scene would probably be a toss up between Pearl & Lostara discovering the Otataral dragon then going through Kurald Thyrllan - a very imaginative scene and I can still remember how the revelations and worldbuilding there rocked my understanding of Wu - and the of course extremely emotional final confrontation between Felisin and Tavore.

Going with favourite scene from *any* book though, I'd go with the appearance of the Nah'ruk and their fight against the Bonehunters in DoD. The whole thing is fantastic and gut-wrenching, but in particular the two PoV sections from Bottle have always left a very, very strong emotional impression on me. When I first read it, and for the year afterwards until TCG came out, I absolutely believed Bottle had died and the way those two sections are written are a fantastic but painful send off. Even re-reading those pieces now can make me an emotional wreck, in large part just from the memory of emotion from reading it the first time.

Then it turns out he lived through it... still doesn't change anything for me when I re-read those sections.

View Postworrywort, on 14 September 2012 - 08:07 PM, said:

I kinda love it when D'rek unleashes her nerd wrath, as I knew she would here. Sorry innocent bystanders, but someone's gotta be the kindling.
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#10 User is offline   TheRetiredBridgeburner 

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Posted 25 November 2013 - 03:24 PM

Still reading ICE at the moment, and yet to branch into any of the novellas (they remain on the to-do list, however.)

1. Difficult. It's a toss up between Deadhouse Gates, Reaper's Gale and The Crippled God. I think for the sake of brevity I'll have to pick TCG of the three.

2. This isn't so difficult, as the two characters who are my favourites pretty much throughout shine here too - Fiddler and Tavore.

3. Most of the major deaths are beautifully handled, and as such are soul destroying. Gesler and Stormy never stops hurting even when re-reading, and Gruntle hit pretty hard too (if that's DoD instead then apologies, I do get them a little muddled). However I have to say the last thirty pages or so make me sob continually, but the bit that always starts me off is when the Bridgeburners return and speak to Fiddler. "You were always the best of us" just tears me apart. Really I didn't feel that I could ask for anything more from an ending to a great series. Magical.

Favourite scene from any book is far tricker. The Fall is magnificent, the flight from Mock's Hold had me sitting on the edge of my seat virtually yelling "Just a little bit further!" at the pages, and HoC, tBH and RG have some wonderfully understated scenes too. I think if I had to pick one though I have to go with Beak's sacrifice. It's a stunningly written scene in itself, but the story leading up to it just makes it perfect. For a couple of weeks after first reading that I only had to think of the phrase "There are no more candles" to well up.
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#11 User is offline   koryk 

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Posted 04 December 2013 - 12:23 AM

It is a pity that responses to some of these messages are so few and far between now - sign of the times perhaps? New favourites arise, especially with the slower rate of publishing from Erikson and ICE.

However, I still appreciate these topics. Without any need for rational thought, 1) Memories of Ice. 2) Toc and Tool. Does anyone else out there think that these two are the real centre of Erikson's masterpiece?

3) is a bit more different. If I make an effort outside MOI, then in recent memory, the Shake keeping the Tiste Liosan at bay (I still wonder why?). But in more distant memory, the development of what would become the Bonehunters in HOC, tBH and RG, so that we started to care about them as much as the old guard.

RotCG felt like a part of the shared universe, SW to a lesser extent. OST was appalling by comparison. I have yet to go farther in fear of what I may find,
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#12 User is offline   Felisin Fatter 

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Posted 09 December 2013 - 11:46 AM

1. Toll the hounds. I just love the poetry, the language, Kruppe's voice.
2. Kruppe, Murrillio. Not in this book (I think?), but my other favorite is Kilava. Just, so tragic and fascinating, the glimpses we get.
3. Hmm.. hard. Actually I rather like everything with the ox, and the zoom-out views of Darujhistan. And every single time a Jaghut (Hood, Raest) speaks is just brilliant.
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#13 User is offline   Paran 

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Posted 16 December 2013 - 11:42 AM

1. Memories of Ice. I think Midnight Tides is probably the best overall book, but MoI just put the whole series on a pedestal. "Compassion is priceless", Itkovian and his noble sacrifice, Gruntle and the journey he goes through being used by the gods, Quick Ben coming to the forefront, Paran's acceptance of his role and growth in the novel, Whiskeyjack and the Bridgeburners..., O'nos and Toc, and simply the closure of the "introduction trilogy" where nothing ended up as expected and the losses were still unimaginable. I was in awe with what SE accomplished with those first 3 books. While the rest of the books were on a similar level, the expectations existed from after MoI.
2. Paran. From the get go he just resonated with me. He never raised his sword, but ended up the General he always wanted to be.. eventually, when he never wanted it. His growth throughout the series, his self-reflection and his restrained use of power were something I admired.
3. So many... probably the compassion is priceless discussion... others? Korlat crying under Moons Spawn's tears, Paran blessing the corpses of the BB's, WJ's death scene and Tayschrenn's return volley, Tool balsting his way through the keep, QB and his array of magics from the top of the hill, QB's meeting with Bauchalain and Korbal Broach, Gruntle and the Child Standard, Kruppe facing down Brood, Moon's Spawn rising from the ocean, the BB's dying off one by one in that keep, Coll and Murilio's compassion for the Mhybe, the whole capustan siege... too many
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#14 User is offline   Spoilsport Stonny 

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Posted 16 December 2013 - 04:13 PM

View PostParan, on 16 December 2013 - 11:42 AM, said:

...Gruntle and the Child Standard...


At this part of the book, even after DG and Coltaine's fall and Duiker's crucifixion, this was one of the toughest, most brutal moments I had ever read, even if the details of the scene remained elusive to me. I really think my jaw dropped.
Theorizing that one could poop within his own lifetime, Doctor Poopet led an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top secret project, known as QUANTUM POOP. Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Doctor Poopet, prematurely stepped into the Poop Accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that was not his own. Fortunately, contact with his own bowels was made through brainwave transmissions, with Al the Poop Observer, who appeared in the form of a hologram that only Doctor Poopet could see and hear. Trapped in the past, Doctor Poopet finds himself pooping from life to life, pooping things right, that once went wrong and hoping each time, that his next poop will be the poop home.
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#15 User is offline   Abyss 

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Posted 16 December 2013 - 04:24 PM

View PostSpoilsport Stonny, on 16 December 2013 - 04:13 PM, said:

View PostParan, on 16 December 2013 - 11:42 AM, said:

...Gruntle and the Child Standard...


At this part of the book, even after DG and Coltaine's fall and Duiker's crucifixion, this was one of the toughest, most brutal moments I had ever read, even if the details of the scene remained elusive to me. I really think my jaw dropped.


All the more impressive because it's told second hand to Brukhalian by a Grey Sword who witnessed it, not even pov.
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#16 User is offline   Abyss 

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Posted 16 December 2013 - 04:40 PM

View PostPalamecia, on 01 September 2013 - 10:06 PM, said:

...
  • Which malazan book/novella is your favorite and why?
  • Who is your favorite character in said book/novella?
  • What is your favorite scene in said book/novella?
...


1. While i will forever waver between DG and MoI, i tend, slightly, to favor MoI, because it nails and subverts and raises virtually everything i have ever loved about fantasy lit, repeatedly. DG may be the more impressive human story/stories, but MoI hits me where my epic massive armies and dragons and demons and mages and gods and swords and HOLY FUCKING FUCK DID I JUST READ THAT? inner self lives.

2. Off topic, but in the series as a whole, Fiddler. In a series with gods and ascendants and mages who can incinerate armies and master swordfighters who can carve multitudes into cole slaw and assassins who can kill with a whisper, Fiddler stands out b cause he's a human protagonist who pushes through so much crazy, gets no power ups, no massive important destiny, just a minor talent for good guesses, some hard earned skill at blowing shit up and a deep desire to keep his friends and soldiers alive.

In MoI... Whiskeyjack, for most of the same reasons.


3. The finale... SPOILERS
SPOILERS FOR MOI
SERIOUS
SPOILERS FOR MOI
SERIOUSLY IF YOU HAVENT READ
THE BOOK STOP NOW
SPOILERS


...everything is going to crap, the BBs and Dujek's force are cut off in Coral, Kallor has struck, WJ is down, Silverfox is cut off from the Imass, the Imass are paralyzed by Itkovian, the K'ell are massacring the Malazans and Gruntle's Legion, Tayshrenn is out of play, Korlat is injured, Orfantal being overpowered by the demon-condors, the Bhargast / Andii forces are too late, Mok is killing Tool, Kruppe is unconscious, ...Brood hefts his hammer to essentially destroy everything and everyone...

...AND THEN MOONS SPAWN RISES UP FROM UNDER A FROZEN WATERFALL!!!

...AND THEN THINGS GET EVEN MORE FUCKED UP CRAZY.

I mean SE owned me after DG, but that sequence... that sequence is when he went from talented to My Favorite Author Ever.
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#17 User is offline   Avernite 

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Posted 16 December 2013 - 06:34 PM

View PostPalamecia, on 01 September 2013 - 10:06 PM, said:

...
  • Which malazan book/novella is your favorite and why?
  • Who is your favorite character in said book/novella?
  • What is your favorite scene in said book/novella?
...


1. DG and TCG are probably the top 2, but going by what Abyss said MoI is also up there... but well, I'll go with TCG.
2. in that book, Tavore Paran. DoD and the books before had set her up a bit too much, TCG made her a believable 'hero' to me, rather than just a vague collection of random genius (Ganoes' discussions help, there)
3. This is a tough one, because my overall favourite scenes aren't really in it. The collapse of the FA plan from everyone chipping away at it was brilliant, but not really one scene. In the end, I'll go with Fiddler the fisher, though the Ganoes-Shadowthrone discussions were some of the better 'genius plot' scenes to me (Tehol and especially Kruppe are sometimes too vague in their plotting; Shadowthrone is, too, but in these scenes he's actually slightly explained)
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#18 User is offline   GanoesSavesTheWorld 

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Posted 14 January 2014 - 05:05 PM

View PostPalamecia, on 01 September 2013 - 10:06 PM, said:

About a month ago I finished reading The Crippled God and one thing I always wanted to discuss with a fellow Malazan reader was: what was your favorite book and why?

So:
  • Which malazan book/novella is your favorite and why?
  • Who is your favorite character in said book/novella?
  • What is your favorite scene in said book/novella?
The questions are not that important, just your favorite book and why, you can add anything by your own accord.

Personally I will gather my thoughts and probably post later.

/Palamecia


1. Deadhouse Gates is my favorite. I've read through the series twice (minus the last two books, just once, on the second read-through) and both times I felt that way. The Chain of Dogs is just such an incredible story, I MUCH prefer it to the BH's desert journey in TCG. In that one they just marched along dropping people left and right, no hope until Blood for Water, it actually really frustrated me. In the CoD, the running battles, strategy, unexpected allies, etc., was just fascinating to read, and the tragic/heroic end for so many along the way, and especially Coltaine at the end.

2. Despite the above, Coltaine was not my favorite character. Through the whole series, Fiddler was my overall favorite. I loved the concept of him playing the sad music on the fiddle, to remember fallen friends, etc, and I wish there was more about that particular talent of his. I do need to give special mention of one character who is right up there with Fiddler, that's Trull Sengar. In fact, one thing I LOVED about this series, was all the incredible, ironclad friendships. You had Trull-Onrack, Toc-Tool, Fiddler-Hedge, Fiddler-Whiskeyjack, QB-Kalam, Gesler-Stormy, Tehol-Bugg, Mappo-Icarium, ST-Cotilion, just to name a few. I've appreciated that concept of love, loyalty and friendship ever since reading LOTR when I was a kid, with Frodo and Sam. That really affected me when I was young, and made me always strive to be a good friend. It's things/people like that, that shine through all the nastiness and redeem some of the tragic and awful things that happen, which is exactly the intent, I'm sure.

3. This is a tough one. IIRC there were three or four main battles along the CoD, and I was always fascinated to see what Coltaine would come up with next, especially the first read-through, obviously. One of the most heart-wrenching scenes in all the books, though, is when Squint has to shoot Coltaine to release him from life when he's put on the cross. I remember really liking Blistig after his reaction to it, and later I hated what Blistig became in the last few books of the series. But that's why a series like this is so great. Not everything is perfect and goes how you want or expect.
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#19 User is offline   18scsc 

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Posted 21 January 2014 - 07:13 AM

1. Toll the Hounds. Rake's sacrifice. Karsa, Hood, Traveler.

Quote

And in the city on all sides, the howling of the Hounds rose in an ear-shattering, soul-flailing crescendo. The Lord of Death had arrived, to walk the streets in the City of Blue Fire.


I mean. It's epic, tragic, funny. Perhaps the simple unassuming nature of the book itself (I have a hardcover that I got from HPB, sans cover) might have created a bit of a subconscious juxtaposition that made me love it even more.

2. Hmm. Either Fiddler, because he's so human. I mean, there's gods and dragons and mages and assassins. Then there's Fiddler, just a laconic, down to earth, veteran who cares for his comrades, and later those under his command. Or Cotillion, the juxtaposition between the fact that he's the god of assassins, and the fact that he seems like a fundamentally good dude, who cares about those under him.

3. When the Bonehunters, broken and battered, encounter the Snake. Even as such they give up their food and water to the young children, so close to death.

Quote

"Saddic - these things - they're toys"
He looked up at her, the color leaving his face. Showing her bared and raw, wretched astonishment. Then that shattered, and she could see he was about to cry.

Wide eyed stupid.
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#20 User is offline   Egwene 

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Posted 22 January 2014 - 03:13 PM

1) Dare I say it... GotM. I love all the books, but this was the one that got me hooked and I still read it and think 'wow'! The way the reader hits the ground running - even at the end wondering whose side some characters are on - the amazing opening up of a whole new world - never getting answers spoon fed... Basically, this book re-wrote how to write fantasy.

2) Fiddler, Quick Ben et all. Some of my favourite scenes in all of the books are those involving the rank and file. As 'Ganoes saves the World' said "all the incredible, ironclad friendships". Telling how absorbed one get in the story is that anytime the sappers get their heads together I get an itch... :smoke:

3) Too many scenes to mention - in each and everyone of the books. Some of my favourite scenes only comprise a few sentences (Roach using Hoods leg to negotiate an obstacle for example had me in stiches) others like the escape from the firestorm go on for page after page.
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