Book description for FOD:
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It's a conflicted time in Kurald Galain, the realm of Darkness, where Mother Dark reigns. But this ancient land was once home to many a power… and even death is not quite eternal. The commoners' great hero, Vatha Urusander, is being promoted by his followers to take Mother Dark's hand in marriage, but her Consort, Lord Draconus, stands in the way of such ambitions. The impending clash sends fissures throughout the realm, and as the rumors of civil war burn through the masses, an ancient power emerges from the long dead seas. Caught in the middle of it all are the First Sons of Darkness, Anomander, Andarist, and Silchas Ruin of the Purake Hold.
January 1st 2020 we began the re-read of the main series of the Malazan books. The plan being to read one book a month. We've now added additional Erikson and Esslemont publications to the schedule, to be read roughly according to the publication order.
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January: Gardens of the Moon
February: Deadhouse Gates
March: Memories of Ice
April: House of Chains
May: Midnight Tides
June Night of Knives & The Bonehunters
July: Return of the Crimson Guard
August: Reaper's Gale
September: Stonewielder
October: Toll the Hounds
November: Orb Sceptre Throne
December: Dust of Dreams
2021
January: The Crippled God
February: Blood and Bone
March: Assail
April: Forge of Darkness
May: Fall of Light
You can read our thoughts from earlier months in these threads:
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2020 Malazan Re-read: Deadhouse Gates
2020 Malazan Re-read: Memories of Ice
2020 Malazan Re-read: House of Chains
2020 Malazan Re-read: Midnight Tides
2020 Malazan Re-read: Night of Knives
2020 Malazan Re-read: Bonehunters
2020 Malazan Re-read: Return of the Crimson Guard
2020 Malazan Re-read: Reaper's Gale
2020 Malazan Re-read: Stonewielder
2020 Malazan Re-read: Toll the Hounds
2020 Malazan Re-read: Orb, Sceptre, Throne
2020 Malazan Re-read: Dust of Dreams
2020 Malazan Re-read: The Crippled God
2020 Malazan Re-read: Blood and Bone
2020 Malazan Re-read: Assail
April 1st we begin the re-read of Forge of Darkness, the first book in the Kharkanas trilogy.
There will be spoilers for all published books. So beware. Spoiler blocks are not mandatory.
Are you ready? What do you remember about Forge of Darkness?
My memory is hazy. As far as I recall I didn't outright hate this book but I didn't enjoy it much either. It was a slow and ponderous book, continuing the trend of the later Malazan books. Lots of cool scenes where you learn new things about ancient characters but somehow still lacking in a greater sense.
I especially disliked the discovery that, rather than being this alien, extra dimensional, elementally attuned beings born out of Darkness and Light - The Tiste people are basically just another kind of human civilization, same kinds of culture, same kinds of politics, boring and mundane origins that ruin the mystique surrounding the Tiste races. On top of that, we learn that all these warrens and founding races were all just people on some kind of proto-Wu world, doing their thing, some here, some there - The books strips the reader of all these magical and amazing mental images and head canon we'd built up and replaces it with a reality that maybe fits Erikson's style of revisiting human history and human nature but fucking sucks as a fantasy setup. On top of that, not enough new mysteries are established to further the early wonder of getting into the series.
I did not like this book. And in turn I did not read Fall of Light. I may end up reading Forge of Darkness and Fall of Light if the third book finally gets published but I'm not exactly jumping up and down in anticipation.
This post has been edited by Aptorian: 25 March 2021 - 10:30 AM