[PhantomLord]

Hey all,

Brand new here, although I've been a longtime viewer and dedicated reader of the Malazan books.

I just picked up Dust of Dreams today and am running into the same problem I tend to run into with long series - it's hard to remember where the story is currently at and what has happened.

I know if I just start reading, I'll remember names and situations and some things, but I'm curious if anybody (the wiki sucks for this purpose, from what I've seen) has put together book summaries or kind of a "story arc update" heading into this book?

Some fans did something similar for Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" series before the most recent book came out, and it was a great refresher. I've re-read each of the Malazan books at least 2 or 3 times, but it's been years on some of them so any kind of update would be great.

Let me know if you know of anything!

[Sinisdar Toste]

well i was gonna link the wiki, but it seems you've already been there...

caladanbrood was summarizing chapters at one point, i think. don't know how far he's got, but they aren't on the wiki so *shrugs* just read em again, thats what i always do

[Kanubis]

Hmm, some relevant stuff I guess:

Spoiler

On Lether, The Bonehunters successfully took Lether in conquest and Karsa had killed Rulad before buggering off abruptly. Most of the Edur had buggered off back home anyway. Mael/Bugg had rescued Tehol and Janath and thanks in part to the efforts of the Rat Catcher's Guild the general populace regarded Tehol as their saviour from the crisis and the tyranny of the of the current rulership.

There had been rumours of the border kingdoms (Bolkando etc.) stirring, which had added to the feeling of unrest.

The allies that had come over the ocean with the Bonehunters (Perish and Burned Tears) hadn't been seen but Tavore had alluded to them being sent on their own tasks.

As the battle of Lether occured, Icarium had appeared to activate the ancient mechanisms he'd previously built in the city long ago, and dissappeared. The resulting collapse of buildings had claimed the lives of a few, including Taralak Veed, Taxillion and Senior Assessor.

Twilight and her half-brother The Watch had returned to the Shake. It was a bit tricky because the shake were effectively ruled by all the annoying old slightly-demon witches who weren't playing ball with her return. Oh, and they had a bunch of prisoners living with them. The Tiste Andii from Drift Avalii had left with Clip, although Withal and his Andii wife remained with the Shake.

At the end of Reaper's Gale, we saw that the Barghast from Genebackis had come back to the Letherii continent. They were now led by Tool with Hetan as his wife/mate/whatever the tradition is with Barghast. Tragically they arrived just as Toc the Younger, first prisoner then ally of the Awl, was slain. He died to give the last surviving adult Awl, Torrent, time to escape with the Awl children. Although the Barghast had turned up to slay the Awl in response to the Awl's betrayal of Grey Swords (who had won the respect of the Barghast during the campaign against the Pannion Seer) they respected Toc's final wish that the children be saved.

Bizzarely, the Awl's leader, Redmask, had been allied with two K'Chain Che'Malle who appeared to champion him. As the final battle turned against the Awl, they turned on Redmask and slaughtered him. Nobody had any clue as to the nature of this alliance or the reason for the K'Chain Che'Malle terminating it so suddenly.

The big news elsewhere was the convergence in Genebackis that led to Rake dying and reastablishing the link between the Andii and Mother Dark. As a consequence Draconis seemed to be free from Dragnipur. We also learned that Whiskeyjack (going under his old name of Iskar Jarak (I think!)) and his Bridgeburners was present in Hood's Army of the Dead.

Also present at the battle within Dragnipur was Toc the Younger, who was given a new task by Hood, one that would not return him to the realm of the living yet again.

Finally, at the battle a Trygalle Trade Guild wagon was taken to Dragnipur by one of Hood's minions, Cartographer. Among the shareholders were Mappo Runt, still searching for way to get to Icarium, and Gruntle.

Ok, that's all I can think of for now....

This post has been edited by Kanubis: 20 January 2010 - 09:24 AM

[EsotericForest]

Sinisdar Toste, on 19 January 2010 - 11:51 PM, said:

just read em again, thats what i always do

Except that's no easy task, there isn't a short book in the bunch

[Sinisdar Toste]

EsotericForest, on 20 January 2010 - 04:51 PM, said:

Sinisdar Toste, on 19 January 2010 - 11:51 PM, said:

just read em again, thats what i always do

Except that's no easy task, there isn't a short book in the bunch

well, buckling down is required and if you're already buckled down with something else than you need to unbuckle it, or ya know, try to double-buckle-down.

[EsotericForest]

Haha, but I'm sure most of us have lives, and rereading the entire series would take 6+ months at best.

[Sinisdar Toste]

well, there`s 7 or 8 months till the last book comes out, should be enough time dontcha think?
(as you can see i'm not very sympathetic. summarizing the last 8 books would be a herculean task if you wanted to do it right and most people, like you said, have lives)

[EsotericForest]

Well I personally usually can't even stick with one series for that long before I need some kind of change up...it's a testament to Erikson that I've read Memories of Ice through Bonehunters without setting the series down for awhile...don't know if I can keep it up though haha

[maro]

I've only just come to Malazan but read the entire series 1-9.

Re-reading is ok but even now, having read them over the last 3 months, I've started to forget the beginning.

[Sinisdar Toste]

i mean, i would be willing to attempt to summarize one of the books, but it would have to wait till at least april cuz it would be like researching and writing a 4 or 5 page paper. the chapter summaries were a good idea, but i don't really know where they got to

[EsotericForest]

maro, on 20 January 2010 - 10:52 PM, said:

I've only just come to Malazan but read the entire series 1-9.

Re-reading is ok but even now, having read them over the last 3 months, I've started to forget the beginning.

I'm past book 6 now, and feel like I almost need to go back and reread the books I'm already done with...there's a lot of times I'm sitting there reading, and some random character pops out of nowhere. I see the name, and realize, this name has come up before, but have absolutely no idea who it is. There are many times I think Erikson has too many key players in his books...which is what makes them difficult for me to keep up with at times. So when I saw a topic about chapter summaries, I got excited .

[maro]

Indeed - I got confused when the Errant appeared in Midnight Tides - I thought he was one of the Oponn Twins

[Hetan]

I did 10 chapter summaries of Midnight Tides (which are on the wiki) before I almost lost the will to live....it's no easy task to summarise entire books so anyone who does has my heartfelt sympathy.

[Obdigore]

Summaries:

Stuff happens. You should re-read. Many times.

Summary complete.

No, seriously, major story lines that I can think of...

Ganoes Paran Has an Army. He is master of the deck.
Tavore also has an army, and has invaded and 'freed' the Lether Empire.
Karsa is in Darujhistan, with Traveller.
Brood Has shattered Dragnipur.
The Grey Swords are 'with' Tavore.
The Barghast have landed on the same continent that Lether is on.
The Shake (a conqured people on the Letherri Continent) have risen up and come together under their queen, Twilight.
Tehol is the Emperor of Lether, Bryss is back, Bugg is Mael in disguise.
Mappo and Gruntle are riding with the Trygalle Trade Guild to try and catch Icarium
Icaruim was last seen in Lether before Karse ended Rhulad.
the Errant is all pissy and wants to 'fight' with the current Master of the Deck.
Hedge is back, alive and all.
Fid is still witht he Bridgeburners, who are with Tavore in Lether.

And one last thing - Remember that TTH happens at about the same time as DoD, just in different places. Dod goes a couple days/weeks further than TTH, but that is it. So the events that happen in TTH may not have happened yet at the beginning of DoD.

I think that is the 'main' ones you need to worry about for DoD.

[PhantomLord]

Thank you for your replies, guys, especially the two who gave updates on some storylines.

I simply don't have time to re-read everything again. I'm about 150 pages into Dust of Dreams, and while several sequences left me fairly confused, most of the "major players" jogged my memory when I came across them again.

I can't seem to recall the murder of Trull Sengar or what exactly happened to Anomander or even Karsa and Icarium, but that's OK.

Love this series and will absolutely re-read everything before the final book comes out.

[Epiph]

Obdigore, on 21 January 2010 - 03:11 PM, said:

Fid is still with the Bridgeburners Bonehunters, who are with Tavore in Lether.

Corrected.

[D'rek]

Obdigore, on 21 January 2010 - 03:11 PM, said:

The Grey Swords are 'with' Tavore dead except for Toc, who is also dead. They are, in fact, all dead. Except that wolves ate their hearts. And who knows, Brukhalian might've emerged from Dragnipur, too.

The Grey Helms are 'with' Tavore.

Also corrected.