[Defiance]

Just wondering what everyone's favorite is. I thought about asking everyone to list them in order, but I'm sure many people would find that difficult. I'm almost half of the way through the series in my reread, and it's changed how I view all of the books (for the better).

Anyway:

1) Toll the Hounds. This was insane. I can't wait to reread this one, as most people say it's way better the second time. I really enjoyed the first few hundred pages, and I stayed up all night to read the last 400. I did know that Rake died (by fucking Google search auto-complete, no less), but it was still the best ending to any book I've ever read.

2) Reaper's Gale. I really enjoyed this one. RG is currently my favorite book in the series, I'll have to see how it stands up after a reread. Loved Karsa vs. Rhulad (I shall kill you...once). Plus, we got the awesomeness of "Fuck dragons." It also scared the shit out me, when Mael was trapped and Tehol was getting fucked up by Karos. I'll be honest, I thought Tehol was a goner. Shame on me for my lack of faith.

3) The Bonehunters. Loved the stuff in Malaz City, and the Tavore-Laseen split really took the series in a different direction. Icarium vs. Trull was awesome.

4) Midnight Tides. All book long we hear that Brys is an amazing swordsmen, but we don't really realize it until the end as we don't see him in action. Ceda Kuru Qan (think I spelled that right...maybe) was also awesome.

5) Memories of Ice. Great, heartbreaking ending, however action-wise I think I enjoyed Capustan a little more.

6) Deadhouse Gates. *raises flame shields* Yes, Coltaine's Fall was heartbreaking. Kalam's night in Malaz City was awesome, but in my opinion it's topped by Bonehunters.

7) Gardens of the Moon. The conversation between Rake and K'rul is one of my favorite in the series. Then, we get to see Rake go all badass. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the Fete too.

8) House of Chains. I'm almost done with my reread of this book, and I'm enjoying it even more this time around (to be clear, I loved it the first time). There were some epic moments (Cotillion and Kalam fighting side by side, Karsa vs. Deragoth), but nothing really sticks out besides that.

9) Dust of Dreams. NOT to say this was a bad book. I loved it. However, the convergence at the end, while insane and very depressing, wasn't quite as long as any of the others.

[Cable]

Defiance, on 26 August 2010 - 01:32 AM, said:

9) Dust of Dreams. NOT to say this was a bad book. I loved it. However, the convergence at the end, while insane and very depressing, wasn't quite as long as any of the others.

True enough, it was shorter than others (think TtH). But it was just too damn epic for me not to vote in DoD's favour. Was close between this one, TtH, and The Bonehunters IMO though. Loved all three (hell all of the end convergences are great).

[Siergiej]

Damn, I was just thinking about starting exactly the same thread - nice timing

Defiance, I am not sure, but I think You may be mistaking convergence with finale. In terms of clashing forces, the Malaz convergece was quite little. Eres'al, Apsalar (she may not be an ascendant, but let's face it - she is godlike when it comes to killing ), Oponn and a little intervention of Shadowthrone. The most of the things happening, however, were in the hands of mere mortals. I think the fight between Icarium and First Throne defenders (Trull, Quick Ben, Onrack, Monok Ochem) was more convergence-like. Also, in Deadhouse Gates, the convergence happened near the Tremorlor. Coltaine's fall was just an effect of Pormqual's idiocy, not power drawing another power Kalam on a killing spree in Malaz didn't have anything to do with convergence as well.

I haven't read Dust of Dreams yet (and I really hope the polish publisher won't push its debut any more), so my opinion may still change, but for the moment, the convergence at the end of Toll the Hounds totally beats the shit out of everything in terms of the "power draws power" rule. It's not as emotional as Memories of Ice, and TtH itself is my 4th favourite MBotF novel, but hell... all of this in, or very close to Darujhistan: Kallor, Brood, Rake, Orfantal, Korlat, Hood, Hounds of Shadow, Hounds of Light, Vorcan, Baruk, Lady Envy, Sister Spite, Traveler, Karsa Orlong, long forgotten god of war, Iskaral Pust, Kruppe, and last but not least... Torvald fucking Nom Oh man, that was awesome. I am still unsure, how come they didn't wipe half of Genabackis out from the face of the earth. Well, at least they managed to destroy the moon It's a pity that Raest and Silanah were busy feeding the cat and grindind a newborn cult to dust, because I'd like to see a rematch between these two

The second most-awesome and powerful convergence is at Coral, at the end of Memories of Ice. Kallor, Rake and his Tiste Andii, Lady Envy and Brood are always there, if it comes to kicking ass. Aided by Onos T'oolan - the First Sword of T'lan Imass, freshly chosen mortal sword of Trake, Quick Ben, Master of the Deck K'Chain Che'Malle matron, insane Jaghut child drawing power from the Crippled God himself and finally, a shitload of undead warriors on both sides. And on top of that, all the fighting in Coral. Wow. SImply wow.

These two lead the way. The ones I liked a bit less (but most were still awesome):
- Deadhouse Gates - it was really, really tense. Despite not being familiar with the most of the fighting powers (who would care about thousands of nameless d'ivers and soletaken?), I could still feel the atmosphere of a really badass event. Poor Azath, almost got torn to pieces.
- Reaper's Gale - I liked the idea of double convergence becoming one, with Silchas Ruin, Trull, Quick Ben and newborn Hedge heading of to Lether, to keep the action at insane level of awesome after kicking the asses of Menandore, Sukhul and Sheltata. And Karsa Orlong vs Rhulad was pretty cool too. However, I expected a little more grim shit from Icarium.
- Gardens of the Moon - oh man, to read for the first time about events like this. Raest fighting dragons, Rake and Quick Ben getting pretty serious about "The Most Badass Character" contest, Kruppe not doing anything special but still being around and eating cookies. Simply great.
- House of Chains - that one I didn't like all that much. Of course, when You have the Deragoth facing Karsa Orlong, Quick Ben doing his usual badass shit, and Cotillion coming from his shady hideout to fight back to back with his old assasin mate, the action has to go wild, but for me everything happened a bit too fast and without the proper climate. Poof!, it's the end. It should have been way better.
- The Bonehunters, The Midnight Tides - loved the first, didn't really enjoy the latter, but neither had any really powerful convergence. TBH - Malaz actions were mostly mortal bussiness, Icarium vs First Throne defenders was tense, but not written all that good. MT - nothing to see here, except for a great magic duel between Kuru Qan and Hanan Mosag. Oh, and of course Mael going crazy about his friend being curbstomped

[Ulrik]

Siergiej, on 26 August 2010 - 11:51 AM, said:

Defiance, I am not sure, but I think You may be mistaking convergence with finale.

Yep, I agree IMHO (really humbly humbly) in DG convergence wasnt Coltaine´s Fall, but Path of Hands story arc. Here clashed many great players. DoD looks to me like preludium to one big mothafuka CONVERGENCE, so far main forces didnt get together. 

[End of Disc One]

I thought the three books on Genabackis had the best convergences. I ended up voting for GotM because it was about as crazy as you can get on a small scale (ie. no armies).

[Defiance]

My mistake on this one, the poll question should have read favorite ending/convergence.

This post has been edited by Defiance: 26 August 2010 - 05:12 PM

[champ]

MoI - just heart breaking every time I read it with TtH a very close 2nd and BH 3rd...

To be fair though every single ending keeps me hooked, when your into the final 200 pages of an SE book, just try and put it down! impossible!

[Abyss]

Y'know, the G'danisban Deragoth/Hounds/Poliel/Soliel/Paran/QB/Apsalar one on in TB was pretty awesome, and not only for Telorast and Curdle scaring the shit out of the Hounds and Apsalar kicking one in the face.

Agreed with upthread - there's a big difference between 'big frikkin fight scene' (the Fall, DG and TB Malaz City, various in RCG...) and an actual, power-draws-power convergence (most of NoK, GotM finale, Tremolor, MoI finale, Whirlwind camp, MT finale, G'danisban, RG finale (and it's 'Fucking dragon!' btw), etc).

The DoD finales are sort of both, tho arguably more the former than the latter.

And i go with the end of MoI as my favourite.

- Abyss, fan of the big finish.

[WhiskeyJackDaniels]

I'm going with the convergence in MoI that didn't actually end up happening as my favorite...if only for what could have been.

Rake, Kallor, Brood, Korlat, Crone, Silverfox, Quick Ben, Tayschrenn, Whiskeyjack, Kruppe, and the brand new Master of the Deck (who might not have known what he was doing, but probably woulda got pulled in and done something). What makes it different from most convergences (except for Tremorlor and TtH) is that all the principles were standing 20 feet away from each other and would have ended up fighting each other directly instead of taking out armies or lesser mages. Also the fact that the CG was messing with the warrens and anything those people did would have been laced with chaos just makes it that much more unpredictable.

[Abyss]

A convergence isn't just a drawing together of power. It's also a confluence (oo, big werd!) of events. The convergence in MoI is the culmination of arguably hundreds of thousands of years of different/disparate events, from the Jaghut/Imass war that led to the Ritual, Kilava picthing the Seer into the rift, the Seer's sister dislodging the K'Chain Matron, Envy's involvement in Rake's conflict with Draconus and Draconus advising Paran, Kallor's conflict with the EGs and his curse killing SisCoN so she ends up in Silverfox who is tied back to the Imass, Tayshrenn's role as Laseen's agent and Laseen/Dujek/WJ's plan to invert the chain of command so a Malazan army could link up with Brood's forces to stop the Domin, Krul's manipulations of Envy and the Seguleh, Toc getting pitched into chaos by Hairlock and accidentally hosting Togg, Fanderlay in Baaljaag who is with Envy, Silverfox's manipulations of the Mhybe re-awakening the Beast Hold, the Matron's undead K'ell killing Trake which leads to Gruntle and then there's the Bhargast and Brood and Burn's hammer and Fener and Itkovian and the Bridgeburners and and.... the thinkymeatz, they reel... and it all comes down to that last big finish and it's all linked and it's all crazy and THAT is why MoI will always be my fave MBF book (except for when DG is) because it's at that moment that the jaded fantasy fan's jaw drops through the floor and Steven Erikson owns your soul.

- Abyss, pwned.

[T'renn]

In a sense the battle of the crossroads in RotCG is a convergence too, and, as abyss put it so eloquently a confluence of events.
Think about it.

Spoiler

-Gods(Dessembrae in person and we see a sending of Draconus too.)
-Several High Mages (Tays,Cowl,Bala,Hava,Heuk)
-Insane D'ivers (the brothers and technically Rylandaras)
-Anointed champions (Greymane,Skinner,Temper (azath)
-And more

-IhM Tayschrenn

This post has been edited by Imperial High Mage Tayschrenn: 28 August 2010 - 09:25 AM

[Abyss]

Imperial High Mage Tayschrenn, on 28 August 2010 - 09:12 AM, said:

In a sense the battle of the crossroads in RotCG is a convergence too...

I go back and forth on this one whether it was a true convergence or just a huge military engagement where various forces bring some fairly heavy firepower to the party, some by accident.

RCG SPOILERS SPOILERS Given all the various conflicts that tie in there (Malaz vs Loyalists, Malaz vs Guard, Skinner's Guard vs. Shimmer/K'azz' Guard, Cowl vs Topper and Burn's champion Greymane and then Dassem vs Skinner in his soon to be King in Chains capacity) and the significant changes that follow (to the Guard, the Malazan Empire, Draconus' status) i suspect it meets the criteria.