[Stylo]

Hey... I dunno how active this subforum is, and I'm not usually one to post these things, usually just diving right in, but this seems like a cool place so I thought I'd say hi.

I've just started Gardens of the Moon, having had no little trepidation, not so much over the supposed difficulty of the thing but over the commitment required to follow a long, big-booked series like this. I'm not really a person who binges series, or authors; I can hardly ever stand to read two books by the same author in a row, even the best of them. Variety, spice&c. It does happen, but maybe rarely. So I thought of other series I'd read where I'd taken a long break between books and completely forgotten characters, places, motivations, and thus the reading was a slog and any impact dulled... weirdly, though, as I'm digging Gardens quite a bit, that worry has sort of crawled away somewhere. If a book is good I have no problem rereading it: I read the Wheel of Time once, and while I'll mostly spare my extraordinarily mixed feelings on that series, I think the reason it took me so goddam long wasn't because I read such an insane number of large books, but rather because I didn't really reread any of them.

Anyway, like I said, cool place. I said the alleged challenge of the books wasn't on my mind, though it was, to an extent, probably tied in with the length thing: I feel comforted knowing I can read that TOR series featuring a new reader, grab some summaries while I'm at it, and maybe this forum will be helpful too, if either my mind or reading habits stray. It's hard to say this without coming off like a prick but maybe I am one; I feel like maybe the difficulty of the series comes from fantasy readers who kinda don't read anything but fantasy, and within "Epic Fantasy" ("how is that somehow a distinct subgenre" critics are saying), where the bar is perhaps maybe not so high. I was piqued by Erikson's mention of DeLillo in the preface, and others not considered capital-F Fantasy Writers... I figured I'd approach it somewhat like a Gene Wolfe puzzlebox, with a little dash of Pynchon? Maybe not the best comparison, the latter offering either no answers whatsoever or a million possible ones... and regardless of the outcome I'd have to say I'm perfectly OK with the "more questions than answers" approach, in any kind of fiction, and the kind of fantasy which eventually just explains away all the mystery leaves me a bit cold. That's why we read this stuff right? The mystery?

Nobody asked but I'm just gonna go ahead and give some impressions. Dark, Light, Shadow in between but not necessarily Evil... that's some T.S. Eliot shit, isn't it? I may be mistaken. That's what it reminded me of, whoever said it. That "falls the shadow" thing.

I absolutely loved that dream zone Paran was taken to. I'm a real sucker for dream logic, metaphysical shit, the way it seems to affect the real world here. All those allusions to ropes, hoods, shadows, be they in the poems or elsewhere... the coin thing, maybe, coming together.

Tattersail I feel must be an obvious character to like at first. I'm sure I'll be thrown by who I end up liking, hating, etc, but c'mon: "Tell them it's from the fat woman who does spells."

That's another thing, the humour. I was at first afraid the series might just be unrelentingly dark, but I'm seeing cracks of hope, optimism, mixed in, as well as the funny bits... this seems to come up, but I genuinely do see a few parallels to Terry Pratchett, one of the greats in my estimation. Not just the humour, maybe not that element at all. The glimpses of sympathy, of righteous anger, how Whiskyjack is kinda like "Serious Vimes"...

Oh yeah, and anything involving the hounds? I'm in. It might have been the cover of Toll the Hounds in some bookshop that said "you're gonna read this series someday". I'm a dog person. Good old Gear... good old Crone the illusory Good Boy at the fire... good ol', well perhaps less good at the start what with the massacre and all.

Christ that wasn't supposed to be so long or probably incoherent.

To sum up: hi!!!!

[Light]

Hi. My name is Uhzna Twfu. I'm new here, and I am here to assert my superiority ... or something. I suffer from delusions of grandeur. I will do lurking and stalking My first target is Abyss.

[Chaeden]

Hello All! I'm new (currently making my way through book 5), but a big fan of fantasy and sci fi. I look forward to discussing topics with you all.

[BlindSapper]

Hey guys! I'm at book 6 with my first read and can't stop thinking about the series when I'm not reading it. It's kind of taking over my free time and am loving every minute of it!

[SporadicSmiles]

Oof, it must have been the best part of a decade since I was active on these forums. I am in the middle of my first audiobook reread, and it felt like a good time to come and remember all the random things I have previously forgotten!

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Welcome, all!

SporadicSmiles, on 25 February 2020 - 08:39 PM, said:

Oof, it must have been the best part of a decade since I was active on these forums. I am in the middle of my first audiobook reread, and it felt like a good time to come and remember all the random things I have previously forgotten!

You should join us in the General Books subforum. We're doing a full reread of the entire series during 2020. In March, we'll be covering Memories of Ice.

[Shalmanat]

Hi everyone,Finished the 10 MBotF books years ago....now starting my first reread.Doing it differently this time....and nice to have a forum to share with ! :-)
...Shalmanat...

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Welcome! Enjoy your re-read! Please post your thoughts as you progress.

Also, feel free to check in on the forum-wide series re-read in the General Books sub-forum too.

This post has been edited by Whisperzzzzzzz: 07 March 2020 - 04:33 PM

[Shalmanat]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 07 March 2020 - 04:32 PM, said:

Welcome! Enjoy your re-read! Please post your thoughts as you progress.

Also, feel free to check in on the forum-wide series re-read in the General Books sub-forum too.

Tnx...and I will definitely check out the re-read threads as I go ! There is so much content here, I don't even know where to begin, hehehe....

[Slow Ben]

Welcome new members. Damn glad to meet ya.

[Sapper Spannalot]

Aloha legends!
Self isolating requires some bingeing and Malazan Book of the Fallen is up to the task! I'm loving it so far - confused at times (as most first readers seem to be), shivering with anticipation and arms flailing on this emotional roller coaster! I'm especially a fan of SE writing concerning military tactics and strategy, his articulate (and strangely accurate) portrayal of Sappers and most importantly, his artful thoughts on humanity and empires layered throughout.
I still don't quite compute the magic and warrens yet - but I figure that's the point. As I'm just about to start BH I'm leaving all my deep dives on lore and structures until I finish the series. Thought it would be prudent to get into the community and get established. It seems most questions that appear simple, are actually minefields of spoilers which I'm not ready to breach so don't expect me to drop cussers anytime soon.
Well that's me. Stay safe wherever you are - Always an even trade.

This post has been edited by Sapper Spannalot: 24 March 2020 - 11:41 PM

[DerphunterOfLore]

Hello there all! Just making an account to shamelessly look at all of the fan art that I don't have permission for otherwise. Have read the main series twice, read all of ICE's Malazan Empire books, read Forge of Darkness and Fall of Light, and now I'm waiting for the next danged book to come out. I've been working as one of the various lore gurus in a discord chat room (Daniel Greene's) and I have nothing to do since my job is currently closed because of the world and everything going on.

Sooooo, yup. That's my current life story. Hiya.

[GreenDiamond]

Hello Everyone!

I am Alexander from Serbia,Belgrade

Am at half of Memories of Ice and I must say that this is my new fav fantasy series, I never want it to finish

Thanks for having me and let me know if there is any spoiler free gallery of characters

This post has been edited by GreenDiamond: 06 July 2020 - 08:00 PM

[mattyapa]

Hi all. Happy to have joined the forum (once i got past the really annoying captcha thing on the registration page, why they are always so hard to make out!)

I've just finished reapers gale, and am on my first read through the series, which i have found to be very enjoyable.

I found the ending of this book somewhat confusing, which i guess is what made me seek out some answers, which led me to this forum.

My favourite genre authors are Feist and Abercrombie, but i'm beginning to think more and more that i will add Erikson to that short list.

I often lose track of all the Malazan Marines. There are so many of them and i dont know who half of them are a lot of the time.

[Not-So-Great-Raven]

Hello everyone! Took me forever to realize these forums exist but now I'm here.

I stumbled upon MBotF by accident when I was visiting SF and needed a new book for my upcoming bus ride. A book store clerk then put Gardens of the Moon in my hand and gave me a 1-minute speech on why I should buy it and that's what I did.
This was all the way back in December 2017 and now I am reading book #8, Toll the Hounds (a slow reader, I know!). One of the, if not the one, best book series I have read so far.
Anyway I am glad I finally found these forums and I hope there are still active people here to talk with. Since I'm more of a forum-person rather than reddit-person.

This post has been edited by Not-So-Great-Raven: 18 August 2020 - 11:08 AM

[Slow Ben]

Welcome! Damn glad to meet ya.

[Aptorian]

Welcome

[ArcticFox]

Hello everyone! My name is Tina, or Arctic or Fox or whatever you want. Nice to meet you!

I had an account here ages ago, but cannot remember the logins so I made a new one. I read the books in highschool but a month ago went to listen to the audio books to remind myself of the world and my god am I obsessed again. Hopefully now I'll find the time to read the other books in the Malazan world as well as I never gotten to them before.

Is there a roleplay thread on the forum? I've been trying to find a roleplay in the universe, but none of my usual roleplaying sites had anyone familiar with Mr Erikson's work sadly.

Either way, glad to be here again!

[amphibian]

Welcome back. I know there's Mafia games that frequently veer into the Malazan world.

[ContrarianMalazanReader]

Greetings. New member here. I have chosen to create an account to discuss Malazan after spending last year reading the whole series (Novels of the Malazan Empire included) in one sitting, which took me about six months.

If my name didn't tip you off, I found the books to be merely OK, and nowhere near the masterpiece of modern literature everyone is making them out to be online. Now this doesn't mean I disliked the books, else I wouldn't have read the whole thing all the way through.