[hmqb]

Just because he doesn't follow exactly what everyone else does dosn't make him bad...

[Use Of Weapons]

It's possible that ICE finished the story he wanted to tell -- it just so happens that this isn't the story that the OP focused on. It's a fairly common trope in modern fantasy to have lots of sub-plots and incidental detail spinning off from the main plot that can either be followed to its conclusion, or left to the reader's imagination/frustration in order to make the world more real.

Spoiler

For me, the main story of Stonewielder was the creation of the Stormguard and their eons-old sacrifice in the name of a false mission; the quest to resolve this mission and bring some closure to the Stormguard and their purpose; and the resolution of the Riders, what they are, what their purpose was, and what the Stormwall was for. All of these were resolved to some degree, mostly satisfactorily. The remaining issues were not central to the story of the Stormwall (though you could probably argue that they have at least some bearing on _why_ the Stormwall became important), and so could be left unresolved at the end of the novel.

[blackzoid]

1: No pov from the Stormriders? Why the hell not? I thought thats what the "Sea folk" people were going to be. Based on the ending of NoK, this novel was calling out for one.
2: No answer as for why the Stormriders attacked Malaz Isle in NoK. You know, the book that started off his series.
3: Why can't the Stormriders just go around the wall? No explanation.

Thats really my only problems with this novel. I enjoyed the pacifist Toblakai's story as well as Bakune. Didn't really care for the Kiska adventure, but it didn't detract from the novel.
Really impressed with the characterisation of the Stormguard/Iron Bars and Kyle.
I hated RoTCG, but I always thought that SW was going to be good, based on the fact that ICE was freed from having to continue directly on from SE storylines.

[Sinisdar Toste]

i thought it was pretty obvious that the Stormriders in NoK were after the same thing that kellenved and dancer were. the route into shadow and the power it would give them. isn't that pretty well spelled out when agayla, obo and tayschrenn meet on the coast?

[Aptorian]

I thought they were coming for the Jaghut Tyrant?

[Sinisdar Toste]

Jenisapt Rul, on 09 December 2010 - 09:02 AM, said:

I thought they were coming for the Jaghut Tyrant?

ah there is that part of it. a deal between jhenna and the Stormriders though wasn't it, like mutual assistance? unless jhenna could somehow call them, though i think that seems unlikely. the likelihood that they're related to the jaghut seems less to me after SW

[blackzoid]

But how would gaining the Shadow house's power have helped with their attack on the CG's fragments? Is that why the Stormrider at teh end of NoK was so confused? That people were trying to stop them saving the world from the CG?
The fisherman in Nok seemed like a "good guy" for defending Malaz Isle. Did he misunderstand the Storm Riders?
Why did the Stormriders hate the fragments of the CG so much? Maybe the Stormriders are all the drowned original people of Korel and its a personal vengence thing.(the guy in the first part of the prologue)
Will the Stormriders also be attacking Kolonse too?
Are they only confined to the sea of storms? Is that why they can't just go around the stormwall?
ARGH! So many questions about the Stormriders and SW answered none of them. And its very unlikely that we will see them answered in ICE's Darujistan and Assail books. The Jacuruku one is really the only book that may answer some of them as its a continent relatively close by to Korel.

This post has been edited by blackzoid: 09 December 2010 - 05:13 PM

[Sinisdar Toste]

i agree the lack of any sort of resolution regarding the Stormriders purpose is terribly annoying, especially when there's nothing even to make inferences with :S

regards the fisherman, i think he just didn't wan't his island to get ice-caked. aside from that, it seems everyone misunderstood when it came to the Stormriders.

gaining shadow might have been a tactic designed to get them around the wall... which somehow stymied the riders, again with no esplanation...

[tiam]

In a book named SW I expected alot more on Greymane. I liked the flippancy of the SR just gave him the sword but as far as im concerned it did not build up to him shattering the stormwall which came as quite a blunt reason for him pushing ppl aside. It felt badly done and as others have said rushed t meet a deadline.

NO Stormriders,explanation of the lady and the supposed resolution of the Ivanr plotline with them winning and him returning to his farm without and real closure are all bad points.

People here seem to be saying that while cut above other fantasy it was probably the worst Malaz title so far which is a shame.

[Deragoth]

this is by far the most disappointing book in the entire series (B&K shorties included). i am still formulating my review... but... ugh...

[Goaswerfraiejen]

I just finished it a day ago. I have to say that although the unfinished plot lines don't bother me so much (aside from the fact that the Kiska line went nowhere fast, and the Jheval bit still doesn't quite make sense to me), what REALLY bothered me was the SHODDY WRITING.

The sentence structures were so far off that it was a real distraction (descriptive passages just didn't work), and I found myself fixing them in my head as I read. The same can be said of the tenses, which were used inconsistently even in the same sentences. Lastly, there was too much of characters standing around telling each other the plot for my taste. To be honest, this read like a draft manuscript--not the first, but also not the polished final draft that it should have been. These are problems should have been picked up by a copy editor (I say this having worked as one myself). That they weren't indicates that someone somewhere was not doing his or her job--since NOK and ROTCG didn't have this problem (at least, nowhere near to the same extent), my suspicion is that the book was slightly rushed. I'm glad I read it, and I still enjoyed it, but these are not errors that I should be finding in published material. I hope it's rewritten for later editions, because it's really distracting.

[Pig Iron]

I liked it a lot. Maybe my tastes are too simple. I like SE, Cook, Wolfe, Kay etc. Cf. thread "Why Star Wars fans hate Star Wars".

[Skywalker]

If the Stormriders gave Greymane the sword, why didn't they, you know, swing it themselves eons ago?

[Sarkaukar]

Skywalker, on 31 December 2010 - 02:30 AM, said:

If the Stormriders gave Greymane the sword, why didn't they, you know, swing it themselves eons ago?

They didn't have the ability to release the power within the sword. The sword became a part of Greymane, an extension, tis likely why it would disappear when he did not need it.

And it was mentioned SR had the facial appearance of Tisti.

[drinksinbars]

it was a rather unsatisfying ending in some ways as so much was left unsaid. But there were just hints toward something else that made it worthwhile. Iron bars alone made the book tremendous. end of

[ansible]

Sarkaukar, on 31 December 2010 - 03:59 AM, said:

Skywalker, on 31 December 2010 - 02:30 AM, said:

If the Stormriders gave Greymane the sword, why didn't they, you know, swing it themselves eons ago?

They didn't have the ability to release the power within the sword. The sword became a part of Greymane, an extension, tis likely why it would disappear when he did not need it.

And it was mentioned SR had the facial appearance of Tisti.

I had some crazy thoughts about the Stormriders while reading SW. There's that one Rider at the end of RotCG (I think) that the old fisherman "kills" who looks semi-human; they have blond hair, I think?; and they resemble Tiste facial structure.

So, is it possible that the Stormriders are some corrupted remnant of Tiste Liosan? Perhaps corrupted by the CG's fall...and so for some reason they need to reclaim or destroy those fragments.... This would dovetail nicely with ICE bringing in the Liosan near the Chaos Whorl and give the Stormriders/Liosan a part to play in tCG perhaps....

But perhaps not.

Also, where did the Stormriders get the Earth-aspected sword they give to Greymane? I've seen this question here somewhere but it's a good one. My theory is perhaps they found it on the bottom of the ocean somewhere and then looked for a champion to wield it in their favor (destruction of the Wall). It seems too contrived to me for the sword to be explicitly constructed either by or for the Stormriders for the purpose of destroying the Wall. It's telling that they cannot touch it, I think.

[chaosek]

The fact that the stormriders look like liosan got me thinking on a rather far stretched theory. The stormriders are attacking the shore, guarded by the stormwall. It is said somewhere that the stormwall blocks something they want to get to. These could be the CG fragments, but these could also need to be destroyed so the stormriders can pass. In the whorl in shadow there is this black hole that leads to the first shore (shores of creaton), in the bay near Ring there is also a big hole leading 'somewhere'.

This all got me thinking, are the stormriders the liosan who we're attacking the first shore? Then the CG falls, blocks off a gateway to the first shore and the whole stormrider mess starts. Now the stormwall has fallen and as we can make out from the blurbs we've been hearing about tGC that the attacks on the first shore start again. It then would also make sense that ICE won't tell us a lot about the stormriders as SE will handle them in relation to the first shore and the fall of the CG.

Just a crazy theory though. Don't think, back on topic, that SE and ICE are bad writers. Do think that ICE feels the pressure from SE and that the expectations for the disclosure in SW we're way to high. ICE isn't nobel price winning material, but he writes enjoyable stories.

btw ^^ it is said in the beginning of the book that the stormriders díd find the sword on the bottom of the ocean and gave it to greymane as a gift.

This post has been edited by chaosek: 07 January 2011 - 10:41 AM

[tiam]

That sounds plausible though SW made out the lady was their ancient enemy. While that could be because a portion of the CG blocked the First Shore but it sounds more personal than that.

I hope your right though and TCG has information on the Storm Riders otherwise I cant see when were going to get any information

[Kanubis]

Random map-induced thoughts of likely little substance, that entered my head after reading chaosek's post...

Looking at the best speculative world maps we have... The Sea of Storms is basically encircled by Quon Tali to the Northwest, Korelri to the South (and Malaz isle between them of course.) The Assail etc. are to the East.

If the Stormriders were somehow bound to that sea because of the CG relics protected from them by the Storm Wall, and they seem to have an inclination to strike west... if they could carry on west, they'd get to Kolanse.

I'm sure this is irrelevant, just with the imminent showdown over there and the release of SW so soon before TCG, there's this irresistible urge to try and join dots...

[Epiph]

I dunno, Apt. I thought that there were a LOT of unresolved things going on in the first few books of Erikson's. I wanted to scream when I picked up the next book and it was another set of characters on another continent who WERE NOT going to answer my effing questions. So, as far as that goes, I think ICE is par for the course. I did think that the pickled Segulah/Tyrant storyline in DoD was particularly egregious. It bothers me that he was setting up a story he was intentionally not going to finish. Would he have written it that way if ICE was still not getting published? Probably not, and so I think it was a mistake to do it because ICE was getting published. I'm all for them supplementing each other's work, but I thought that went a bit far. Other than that, I haven't really had a huge problem with the endings in the later books. Since RG, the books have been clearly building to the end of the series, and so it makes sense that they couldn't be quite as self contained. The ending of RotCG felt forced, and any problems I have with it I chalk up to spotty writing, but I didn't feel like it left any huge questions unanswered. And I AM being driven crazy by all the non-answers from SW that you mentioned, but it is the second book in a series, so I'm willing to wait it out (I mean, nothing could be worse that the last few WoT books before Sanderson started writing). Talk to me in a few years.

I didn't particularly mind the Kiska/Leoman ending, although I would have really loved for ICE to tie their storyline into the main one somehow...otherwise...why include it in this book (unless is another case of one of them setting up a story for the other, and SE picks them up in CG with the First Shore crew...in which case...see above)? Of course, that's largely how I felt about Ereko and Traveller in RotCG, except for the intersection with Kyle & Co, which I sort of thought was inexplicably convenient and seemed way too fated.

~edit~
Oh also, I totally agree with whoever said that about ICE's tenses. It made me cringe and rage everytime. He also switched POV mid section a couple times, which also made me cringe...I mean, he used enough section breaks even within the same POV and timeline, he couldn't add a break when he was actually changing POV?

This post has been edited by Epiph: 10 January 2011 - 09:58 AM