[Ribald]

http://www.jonathans...d-ian-mcdonald/

the Coode Street Podcasts are usually excellent interviews and their backlist might be of additional interest to some.

This was recorded at the ICFA conference in Orlando, Florida, and he theme of the conference had been 'Fantastic Empires'.

[Aptorian]

Listening to this now.

Never considered the Edur vs Lether conflict as an analogue for a "What if" scenario where the Sioux Indians marched upon Washington DC and won their war.

[Studlock]

I always thought Lether was analogous to the USA (as did others) but never thought the Edur as the Sioux tribes (the lack of horses and the iron swords through me through a loop but I guess neither are directly analogous). I always love hearing SE speak about his books because it highlights the opposite of what some people tend to think on this board and aboard (ha ha) that MBotF is simply a series of awesome events with little to no meat.

[Aptorian]

Studlock, on 21 April 2014 - 12:21 PM, said:

I always thought Lether was analogous to the USA (as did others) but never thought the Edur as the Sioux tribes (the lack of horses and the iron swords through me through a loop but I guess neither are directly analogous). I always love hearing SE speak about his books because it highlights the opposite of what some people tend to think on this board and aboard (ha ha) that MBotF is simply a series of awesome events with little to no meat.

Who are these people on this board who think there is no "meat" in Eriksons writing?

I would rather think that most of us are simply sitting in awe of the strange multisyllable words that pierce our hearts and souls with the shards of som many cast away philosophical potsherds.

Personally, over time I have come to enjoy Eriksons writing more for his mussings on the nature of mankind and civilization than the actual convergences taking place.

I suspect that mostly comes from me agreeing with a lot of the criticism in his observations.

This post has been edited by Apt Hoc: 21 April 2014 - 12:38 PM

[Studlock]

I feel like a lot of people, to borrow a term from hip-hop, felt SE 'fell off' over time in terms of writing. And I've seen multiply fans (I've been cruising the fantasy subreddit lately and that may be colour my few) who have said that they enjoy the spectacle more so than the meditation, and sometimes state outright that MBotF doesn't deal with difficult themes. For my two cents I think SE is one of the better sentence to sentence fantasy writers today and I enjoy his humanistic approach to theme, I find it's a good balance between the cynicism represented by JA and ilk and the naivete of 80s fantasy.

[Defiance]

Lovely to listen to, as always.

If Malazan doesn't deal with complex themes, then what exactly constitutes "difficult" in that regard? While we can boil it all down to a matter of perspective - what one person sees as deep, another might see as boring - I think the series does a great job of presenting new themes to ponder over in every book. Thematically, I think one of the most powerful parts of the series comes from how something can be explored deeply and yet no concrete answers are given. Some of the "intelligent" (not my word) literature I've read will slap you around with an obvious answer, or what the author thinks is supposed to be obvious. I don't get that feeling reading Malazan.

For example, compassion versus justice is a huge theme of the series, especially as it progresses. Both of these concepts are explored in all sorts of forms. We can definitely point a finger to examples when each of these does not work, but I think there are also times when the themes resonate yet still don't provide a definitive answer. Overall, I think that's the one thing the series says, thematically: keep asking questions, keep exploring. You can view things a certain way, but it's far more important to seek than to find.

[Overactive Imagination]

Good interview. Seems like Erikson focuses perhaps a bit too much on negative reviews. He mentioned Crack'd Pot Trail and Forge of Darkness criticisms, but I know there are lots of people who loved both those books, and I got the impression that Forge of Darkness received very high reviews from most readers on this site.

I believe he said some people say FOD just isn't "the same" as the main series, but I disagree. I thought it was just as good and had the same Malazan feel I love, but in a different world which was impressive.