[Urb]

It (kind of) ends with ICE I think. SE will wrap up the Crippled God story. As long as it's a good story I don't really care though.

[Optimus Prime]

Urb;370746 said:

It (kind of) ends with ICE I think. SE will wrap up the Crippled God story. As long as it's a good story I don't really care though.

Agreed.

I mean, did any of us expect this story to be wrapped up nicely with a pretty pink bow.

[Mentalist]

no
I was the one saying that we'll be arguing about who REALLY won for years after the last book has been released.
But still....

[Optimus Prime]

So my older brother, who I got hooked on Malaz a few years ago, just finished the book and started texting me when I was @ work.

First Text: "Holy Fuck! Everybody is in Darujhistan!"

Second Text: "Hood just FUCKING DIED!"

Third Text: "What the hell is Travelers Problem?!?"

Fourth Text: "Crazy. Rake dead. Karsa and Cutter standing over Rake's body"

Fifth Text: "Kallor is a bad ass."

Sixth Text: "MOTHER FUCKING DARK!?!?!?"

Seventh Text: "HOLY SHIT WHISKEYJACK!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!? HOLY SHIT!!!"

Last Text: "Rake dead? Do you think so? What's up w/ the eye thing?"

[eekwibble]

It took him how long to figure out who Iskar Jarack was?

[Mentalist]

aww, cut him some slack. I don't think he frequents the forum...

*recalls the time when he didn't believe "Iskar jarack=Whiskeyjack" also*

[Optimus Prime]

Heh, he doesn't do many re-reads.

He just keeps asking me if I really think Rake is dead,

[HoosierDaddy]

Yes. Dragnipur in your forehead tends to dramatically decrease the life expectancy of everyone, including Mother Dark's Eldest.

By the way:

Rake's the best around
Nothing's ever gonna keep him down.

[Optimus Prime]

Rake, too awesome for one planet to hold!

[Abyss]

In other news, i'm mid HoC on the reread, and just after the Gral rescue Karsa and Leoman, Torvald Nom tells Karsa to drop by and look him up in Darujhistan in a few years. I love rereads.

Also Cotillion foreshadows Cutter changing his name back to Crokus... but it's heavy in irony because he speculates Cutter will want Crokus to be remembered as he was before he left, but in the end it's Cutter who beats Rallick, and avenges Murillio, then changes his name back to Crokus in the fight v the HoL, and then it's as Crokus that he leaves. That made a lot more sense in my head.

- Abyss, clearly needs to recharge the thinkymeatz.....

[crokus younghand]

i just finished Toll the hounds and i loved every page of it.

[Aptorian]

I still maintain that Boatfinders part in BH did in no way explain that it was WJ!!!

Iskar Jarak = Bird that steals = Whiskeyjack

No way

Also Erikson, you lying bastard, you said WJ was gone... I still love you

[Sinisdar Toste]

i always thought maybe it was dassem he was talking about... but it made even less sense than whiskeyjack, so i went with that

[Abyss]

..and all this time i thought it was Corporal Limp....

- Abyss, stumped

[Urb]

Traveller is Dassem Ultor :eek:

[Abyss]

Urb, on Aug 28 2008, 09:38 AM, said:

Traveller is Dassem Ultor :eek:

Yeah, who saw THAT coming.

This entirely gratuitous post was in order to christen the new board so YAY!

- Abyss, big sap.

[lord of tragedy]

Abyss, on Jul 18 2008, 05:44 PM, said:

There are many many threads in the TtH forum i have yet to get caught up on, but here's my initial reactions post first read-thru of TtH....


BEST NEW CHARACTER: I have to give it to Spinnock Durav. There was just something innately cool about Rake's all purpose go to guy. He survived Assail. He stopped Kallor for hours. How can we not like this character? Seerdomin was close - he built on the hints in MoI and really wound very nicely into the wider Dying God/Redeemer/Black Coral plot. His motivations were interesting, from just visiting the Redeemer's grave because he though the guy might like the company to stopping the plot against the Andii because humans should clean up their own mess, this character was solid.

BEST EXISTING CHARACTER(s) IT WAS A KICK TO SEE AGAIN: hands down, from the poetic chapter opener to Quell and Gruntle's initial visit, the Whiskeyjack/Bruckhalian/Toc trinity was jaw-droppingly awesome. I got shivers. Real shivers. And now we know why Hood sent Gethol to try and recruit the Grey Swords in Capustan.

BEST CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Gruntle joining the TTG - perfect. So perfecT?

WHAT THE FUCK?

THE AWARD FOR ALMOST TURNING INTO THE MHYBE BUT NOT GOES TO: Endest Silann walked a fine line with this one. His overall contribution to the history of the Andii kept him in the game even when his existential internal monologues stretched, but i have to give the award to Nimander - up until Bastion, he was whiny, he was doubtful, his kin were almost as 'bad', and then Nenanda dropped the hint that Clip didn't understand why they lived while everyone else on Avalii died, and then in Bastion the gear came out and they started killing and it was like 'nicely done again SE, i get it - they don't LIKE what they became to survive Avalii.'. Throwing Kallor into the mix was a nice touch.

BEST MOMENT THAT MESSED WITH THE FANS: Hounds of Light. Hands down, i read that first passing comment by Cotillion re Pallid and Lock and just thought 'Steve, you're fucking with us.', and then in the finale it ALL went down and it worked HUGE.

BEST SUMMARY OF CUTTER'S PLOT LINE: Holy fuck i just beat Rellick in a fight - waaaaaahhhhh - die Gorlas die - waaaahhhh - are those Hounds? - waaaaaah. I have to admit, Cutter started STRONG. The scene when he took out Rallick was beyond anything i was expecting but it totally worked. His moral and existential whining for most of the rest of the book very nearly soured me on the character, but taking out Gorlas and then standing with Karsa against the HoLs saved him.

BEST HOLY FUCK MOMENT - pretty much every page of the last 150 pages or so, altho i got an extra kick out of Hood's Armies showing up in Dragnipur, answering the question of where the BBs and those others have been marching since HoC.

BEST LINE: While nothing on the level of "Fucking dragon!", i have to give equal props to Hood re the wagon: "...turn it around!" and Rake to Dassem: "...come and get him!".

BEST OTHER LINE: "I shall call him Tufty." BBBWWWWWAAAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAAAAHAHA
HAHHAHAHAAAHHAHAHAHAHeeeewheeeEEeeee....

BEST BIT THE FANS ARE GOING TO CALL A MISTAKE FOR NO GOOD REASON: Look, it's Hood's House. He can do whatever he wants with it. If he wants to switch Baudin to Soldier and make the Second into Knight and make Toc into Herald and make Tormsy a temporary Mason he bloody well can and no one is going to argue with him. Just accept it.

BEST SE GIVETH AND SE TAKETH AWAY: Confirming Dessembelackis was split into/inside the last seven Deragoth but then having Tulas Shorn tell us the Hounds of Shadow were WAY older than we ever knew.

BEST FIGHT WE NEVER GOT TO SEE: Karsa and Traveller - it just worked out so perfectly that i was totally happy this Ho'd Win never played out. Samar Dev's perspective on these two was priceless.

BEST I'M STILL CONFUSED ABOUT THAT BIT: How many undead dragons escaped Hood's warren? Because the undead dragon Kallor chatted with really didn't seem to be Tulas Shorn based on Shorn's subsequent chats with ST/Cots and others...

OVERALL, i loved what SE did with this book. Historically, he's typically given us a few major points throughout a book - battles, sorcery moments, etc, to break up the development pace. This was all steady build. Even the odd action bits, Nimander & co at Bastion, Cutter and Rellick, the attack on KRul's Bar, it was all just buildup to the big finish and omg, that finish was BIG. HUGE. THE BIGGEST. Like in a 'did i actually just READ that' sort of way big.

Kruppe's narrative voice came and went but overall it worked for me.

With TtH, SE closed a few long running major plots, opened a few new ones, moved the story beautifully along and gave us a solid installment in the series. Different from what we'd come to expect, but in a good way.

I'm totally looking fwd to the forum chatter on this, and to RCG in a short while.


- Abyss, satisfied customer.

This post has been edited by lord of tragedy: 29 September 2008 - 01:05 AM

[fortyseven]

OMG OMG OMG

*takes deep breaths*

Although there a lot of slow parts and too much internal monologue, TTH is in my Top 3.

I'll post more after looking over the other threads.

I loved the DNA reference.

[Dancer+]

I'm going to begin a reread soon, I'm really pysched up for this (although after a 13-14 hour day (including travelling) sometimes reading isn't the most appealing option.)

I'm also planning a reread of RotCG.

[Urb]

Some stuff I didn't catch the first time I read TtH:

• The moon cracked open as a result of the Jade statues crashing into it.
  
• Calladan Brood scared Envy and Spite away just by looking at them.
  
• Hood is getting married (or Toc was trying to be funny...).
  
• Draconus used Brood's hammer to forge Dragnipur.
  
• Karsa has to stay in Darujistan so he can kill some god, in order to fulfill a vow he made (now, which vow might that be I wonder?).
  
• Raest can talk to the T'lan Imass newly entombed in his garden, as soon as it calms down a little.
  
• Iskaral Pust made himself Magus of High House Shadow when he wrote the Book of Shadow.
  
• Spinnock Durav is not dead (how the hell did I miss that?).
  
• Anomander Rake has cut down cyborg robot(s) with Dragnipur.

...and a lot more very obvious stuff as well. This book is infuriating.