[Khellendros]

First off, it's good to hear someone who really enjoyed Reaper's Gale. I did too, I thought it was fantastic. Many people seem to not enjoy the Redmask storyline, but I had no problem with it personally.

RE Quick Ben and the dragon(s) fight: The original poster might sleep easier with this bit knowing that another partial reason for QB being able to beat them is given in the first chapter of the Crippled God, in particular regarding Menandore. But it is also down to what others have said already:

- Obsolescence is one of the great big themes of the Malazan series. Ancient powerful deities chronically underestimating the powers of the present world they find themselves in. Times have moved on. What was once considered insanely powerful is not anymore. Dejim Nebrahl in the Bonehunters being the perfect example - in the end, they didn't need the Deragoth to take care of him, as Paran mused afterwards. And you see this in several other instances throughout the series, including QB's fight with the sisters.

- Intelligence and trickery: If you notice, QB doesn't take them head on straight away, wave of magical power vs. wave of magical power. He uses the environment and the sisters themselves against each other. In the end, they beat each other - QB doesn't kill any of them himself.

Some of your other questions:

- Brys' resurrection: As another poster pointed out, Hood's influence is not present on Lether, so everyone lingers after death. Blood and flesh also seemt ot be very much part of resurrection magic, thus the fingers and body. When the Guardian said he would have a companion and took up Brys' body at the end of MT, I don't think he meant he'd just have a silent rag-doll body to talk to!

- Toc: My favourite character...so it's good to know that dead doesn't necessarily mean dead and gone in SE's world, eh?

- Jaghut on the Ice Throne: I don't think you have to read on and find out, I think enough hints are given during that sequence itself for you to jump to the (correct) conclusion that that is indeed Hood's body sitting on the throne. Which finally confirmed the suspicion throughout the earlier novels (green hands, Jaghut ghost faces before character dies), that Hood was a Jaghut.

- Tool's return to mortality: This is easily skipped, because it's never directly said in MoI, but from asides by Silverfox and Tool's throwing down of his sword symbolism, the interpretation is that Silverfox really does have the power to return true life to the T'lan Imass...but most of them, after hundreds of thousands of years, would choose oblivion, methinks.

- Rautos Hivanar and Taxilian: Both fried/crushed during that bit at the end with Icarium's machine going wonky. But dead doesn't necessarily mean.......

[worry]

They are merely "hints" for a reason. And the board has a no spoilers policy for a reason: so users at a certain point in the series can postulate and theorize without the air of mystery getting punctured by readers who are further along.

[Primateus]

Tattersail, on 08 February 2011 - 08:52 AM, said:

The point with QB is why we think he is so awesome, he took on three dragons and won. He is a legend. He also took on the bridgeburners and won, albeit he did have Kalam on his side and superior intellect QB is one of the strongest Magus' on Wu, his "new" magic compared to their "older" magic was stronger. Maybe because they haven't used it for a while, maybe because they were all going to betray each other. My point is who cares? QB is awesome and I love his character!

The red part, I must have missed that, when did that happen?

Oh, and I just finished Reaper's Gale yesterday and I'm beginning to think that, after Ruin recreates the Azath in the warren and QB and Hedge talks about it having gates to everywhere, that all of this, the entire series and everything that takes place is just Shadowthrone and Dancer screwing over the entire universe and everyone in it. It sorta goes hand in hand with how they manipulate everyone and everything and Stormy's rant about how it's all going to end up with a big pile of dead gods, ascendants and whatnots with ST and Dancer on top laughing.

But then again, I still need to read Return of the Crimson Guard, Toll the Hounds, Dust of Dreams, Stonewielder and The Crippled God. So I might be wrong.

This post has been edited by Primateus: 20 March 2011 - 11:16 PM

[Tattersail_]

Primateus, on 20 March 2011 - 09:20 PM, said:

Tattersail, on 08 February 2011 - 08:52 AM, said:

The point with QB is why we think he is so awesome, he took on three dragons and won. He is a legend. He also took on the bridgeburners and won, albeit he did have Kalam on his side and superior intellect QB is one of the strongest Magus' on Wu, his "new" magic compared to their "older" magic was stronger. Maybe because they haven't used it for a while, maybe because they were all going to betray each other. My point is who cares? QB is awesome and I love his character!

The red part, I must have missed that, when did that happen?

Oh, and I just finished Reaper's Gale yesterday and I'm beginning to think that, after Ruin recreates the Azath in the warren and QB and Hedge talks about it having gates to everywhere, that all of this, the entire series and everything that takes place is just Shadowthrone and Dancer screwing over the entire universe and everyone in it. It sorta goes hand in hand with how they manipulate everyone and everything and Stormy's rant about how it's all going to end up with a big pile of dead gods, ascendants and whatnots with ST and Dancer on top laughing.

But then again, I still need to read Return of the Crimson Guard, Toll the Hounds, Dust of Dreams, Stonewielder and The Crippled God. So I might be wrong.

Before QB became a Bridgeburner they went after him and 11 other mages across Raruku, all the mages died and QB survived, he was leading the Bridgeburners a merry chase, although they did not know Kalam and QB where in cahoots

As to the rest of your points, definately RAFO, you cannot guess where this is going, people have tried but we all failed, even right up until tCG people guessed but SE just had a way of keeping us guessing and those guesses usually being wrong

[HoosierDaddy]

Tattersail, on 21 March 2011 - 07:38 AM, said:

Primateus, on 20 March 2011 - 09:20 PM, said:

Tattersail, on 08 February 2011 - 08:52 AM, said:

The point with QB is why we think he is so awesome, he took on three dragons and won. He is a legend. He also took on the bridgeburners and won, albeit he did have Kalam on his side and superior intellect QB is one of the strongest Magus' on Wu, his "new" magic compared to their "older" magic was stronger. Maybe because they haven't used it for a while, maybe because they were all going to betray each other. My point is who cares? QB is awesome and I love his character!

The red part, I must have missed that, when did that happen?

Oh, and I just finished Reaper's Gale yesterday and I'm beginning to think that, after Ruin recreates the Azath in the warren and QB and Hedge talks about it having gates to everywhere, that all of this, the entire series and everything that takes place is just Shadowthrone and Dancer screwing over the entire universe and everyone in it. It sorta goes hand in hand with how they manipulate everyone and everything and Stormy's rant about how it's all going to end up with a big pile of dead gods, ascendants and whatnots with ST and Dancer on top laughing.

But then again, I still need to read Return of the Crimson Guard, Toll the Hounds, Dust of Dreams, Stonewielder and The Crippled God. So I might be wrong.

Before QB became a Bridgeburner they went after him and 11 other mages across Raruku, all the mages died and QB survived, he was leading the Bridgeburners a merry chase, although they did not know Kalam and QB where in cahoots

As to the rest of your points, definately RAFO, you cannot guess where this is going, people have tried but we all failed, even right up until tCG people guessed but SE just had a way of keeping us guessing and those guesses usually being wrong

That's just incorrect. The Bridgeburners knew exactly what was going on, they just played along to see what the endgame was with QB and Kalam. After having done so, they won QB and Kalam's loyalty because of that fact.

[Tattersail_]

they realised towards the end, but they didn't know at first..

[Sinisdar Toste]

we could argue all day when exactly they finally figured it out. fact is, WJ himself says that they could have ended the chase days earlier, but they were curious

[Tattersail_]

yeah sure it is interpretation, how I read it was they were after all 12 mages, and when it got down to the last few days and most of the mages dead, he decided to play it out further, there is nothing to suggest QB was a bridgeburner at this point though, and wasn't Kalam their guide? I don't think he was a Bridgeburner at that point either, only after they showed cunning and skill did they get recruited IMO.

[Tattersail_]

Quote the whole passage

This post has been edited by Tattersail: 21 March 2011 - 06:14 PM

[MTS]

Thar ye go:

Quote

And now but one remained, ever ahead, elusive, his presence revealed only by the light footprints he left behind.
The hunters were embraced in silence, now. Raraku's silence. Tempered, honed, annealed under the sun. The horses beneath them were their match, lean and defiant, tireless and wild-eyed.
Whiskeyjack was slow to understand what he saw in Kalam's face when the assassin looked upon him and his soldiers, slow to grasp that the killer's narrowed eyes held disbelief, awe, and more than a little fear. Yet Kalam himself had changed. He'd not travelled far from the land he called home, yet an entire world had passed beneath him. Raraku had taken them all.
Up a steep, rocky channel, through an eroded fissure, the limestone walls stained and pitted, and out into a natural amphitheatre, and there, seated cross-legged on a boulder on the clearing's opposite side, waited the last mage.
He wore little more than rags, was emaciated, his dark skin cracked and peeling, his eyes glittering hard and brittle as obsidian.
Kalam's reining in looked to be a tortured effort. He managed to turn his horse round, met Whiskeyjack's eyes. 'Adaephon Delat, a mage of Meanas,' he said in a bone-dry rasp, his split lips twisting into a grin. 'He was never much, sir. I doubt he'll be able to muster a defence.'
Whiskeyjack said nothing. He angled his mount past the assassin, approached the wizard.
'One question,' the wizard asked, his voice barely a whisper yet carrying clearly across the amphitheatre.
'What?'
'Who in Hood's name are you?'
Whiskeyjack raised a brow. 'Does it matter?'
'We have crossed Raraku entire,' the wizard said. 'Other side of these cliffs is the trail leading down to G'danisban. You chased me across the Holy Desert… gods, no man is worth that. Not even me!'
'There were eleven others in your company, wizard.'
Adaephon Delat shrugged. 'I was the youngest - the healthiest - by far. Yet now, finally, even my body has given up. I can go no further.' His dark eyes reached past Whiskeyjack. 'Commander, your soldiers.'
'What of them?'
'They are more...and less. No longer what they once were. Raraku, sir, has burned the bridges of their pasts, one and all - it's all gone.' He met Whiskeyjack's eyes in wonder. 'And they are yours. Heart and soul. They are yours.'
'More than you realize,' Whiskeyjack said. He raised his voice. 'Hedge, Fiddler, are we in place?'
'Aye!' two voices chorused.
Whiskeyjack saw the wizard's sudden tension. After a moment, the commander twisted in his saddle. Kalam sat stiffly on his horse a dozen paces back, sweat streaming down his brow. Flanking him and slightly behind were Fiddler and Hedge, both with their crossbows trained on the assassin. Smiling, Whiskeyjack faced Adaephon Delat once again.
'You two have played an extraordinary game. Fiddler sniffed out the secret communications - the scuffed stone-faces, the postures of the bodies, the curled fingers - one, three, two, whatever was needed to complete the cipher—we could have cut this to a close a week past, but by then I'd grown...curious. Eleven mages. Once the first one revealed her arcane knowledge to you - knowledge she was unable to use - it was just a matter of bargaining. What choice did the others possess? Death by Raraku's hand, or mine. Or...a kind of salvation. But was it, after all? Do their souls clamour within you, now, Adaephon Delat? Screaming to escape their new prison? But I am left wondering, none the less. This game - you and Kalam - to what end?'
The illusion of deprivation slowly faded from the wizard, revealing a fit, hale young man. He managed a strained smile. 'The clamour has… subsided somewhat. Even the ghost of a life is better than Hood's embrace, Commander. We've achieved a...balance, you could say.'
'And you a host of powers unimagined.'
'Formidable, granted, but I've no desire to use them now. The game we played, Whiskeyjack? Only one of survival. At first. We didn't think you'd make it, to be perfectly honest. We thought Raraku would come to claim you - I suppose she did, in a way, though not in a way I would have anticipated. What you and your soldiers have become...' He shook his head.
'What we have become,' Whiskeyjack said, 'you have shared. You and Kalam.'
The wizard slowly nodded. 'Hence this fateful meeting. Sir, Kalam and I, we'll follow you, now. If you would have us.'
Whiskeyjack grunted. 'The Emperor will take you from me.'
'Only if you tell him, Commander.'
'And Kalam?' Whiskeyjack glanced back at the assassin.
'The Claw will be...displeased,' the man rumbled. Then he smiled. 'Too bad for Surly.'
Grimacing, Whiskeyjack twisted further to survey his soldiers. The array of faces could have been carved from stone. A company, culled from the army's cast-offs, now a bright, hard core. 'Gods,' he whispered under his breath, 'what have we made here?'
The first blood-letting engagement of the Bridgeburners was the retaking of G'danisban - a mage, an assassin, and seventy soldiers who swept into a rebel stronghold of four hundred desert warriors and crushed them in a single night.

This post has been edited by MTS: 21 March 2011 - 07:20 PM

[Bulwyf]

Tattersail, on 21 March 2011 - 06:12 PM, said:

yeah sure it is interpretation, how I read it was they were after all 12 mages, and when it got down to the last few days and most of the mages dead, he decided to play it out further, there is nothing to suggest QB was a bridgeburner at this point though, and wasn't Kalam their guide? I don't think he was a Bridgeburner at that point either, only after they showed cunning and skill did they get recruited IMO.

Heh, when he said leading the BB on a merry chase, he didn't mean as a Bridgeburner. He ment leading by means of "being chased." He wasn't a BB then, neither was Kalam. Yes Kalam was the BB's guide, but was working with QB. ...after that whole fiasco they all bonded and became bestest buddies forever.

[Tattersail_]

that scene was the making of the Bridgeburners reading up again, there is so much I have forgotten. Still, they where in the desert a while but Fiddler worked out they were communicating didn't he, up until then Kalam and QB were playing Whiskeyjack and co not the other way round, and the whole reason Whiskeyjack and co where there in the first place was to track down the last of the mages weren't they?

I was wrong up thread, but in a way I was right, he never defeated the Bridgeburners, he outsmarted the army with Kalam's help at the beginning and then the Bridgeburners were made.

Just reading up on that gave me tingles, I would love to read how QB and Kalam met for the first time, they were working together here, and Kalam was in the claw...

[Abstruse]

Many of these have already been answered I'm sure.. but I JUST finished reading this morning so I'd like to see if I have even somewhat descent answers LOL

serotonin, on 07 February 2011 - 08:44 AM, said:

Not to mention that it marks the second time I've openly wept when reading (Beak's death... first time was Itkovian's death).
Oh, my friend.. me too.. me too..
HOWEVER, some things about what happened in the book left me confused.


- Why does Wither suddenly attempt to kill Udinaas at the end?
I was also TOTALLY confused by this.. but the explaination that Udinaas would try to stop them from killing Kettle makes sense


- The nameless dead Jaghut on the throne of ice that Hedge and Emroth come across.
I equated this more with the realm of Jaghut dead that Hedge had freed the hounds from..

- The Seguleh champion.
I agree with the answer that I read of stepping down to Karsa and by the time she leaves Lether is practically upside down

- This is actually more of lingering question regarding Memory of Ice, but it rears its head for me again in Reaper's Gale with the return of the character in question, so I'll ask it here...
How exactly did Tool (Onos, whatever) regain life?
(my boyfriend who has read all the books.. so if this is a spoiler I appologize) when I asked him about the realm he referred to it as Kilava's..

- The way certain characters are getting resurrected from death seems a little... cheap.

WHY exactly does that plane with the finnest (and now the new Azath house) bring ghosts and undead back to life (and they stay that way even after they leave)?
Okay.. so.. I think, these three or four realms are all kindof mixed together or outskirts or somehow connected to the realm of Hood.. There's the orriginal dead place where the hounds are.. then Hedge walks (I think he starts walking there) He ends up in Hoods realm.. (between realms/warrens is Chaos) so between realms is where whatsher name joins him (he slams her with a cusser b/c she's dragging chains).. then there's teh dying realm of ice.. and then this place that (i think) Kilava created.. (perhaps inadvertantly) when she sunderred herself from the ritual.. I think that realm (now containing an Azath) is a place that is without the ritual.. and so offers life..


HOW exactly does Brys get to come back to life just because people have his severed fingers and that guardian of forgotten gods dude took away his corpse? Dead is dead, and that poison definitely killed him.
He certainly WAS dead.. however, I disagree with your statement... in reading so far (this is my first time with these books just finished RG this morning).. Dead has NEVER been dead.. <3


- Quick Ben suddenly having enough brute magical strength to beat up not one, not two, but THREE legendary, 600 millennia old (or older) soletaken eleint daughters of Tiam who were basically demi-gods or something felt a lot like cheap narrative convenience. Yes, he's got access to 12 warrens / souls and all that mysterious jazz, but his whole deal in the past has been his trickery, adaptability, and uncanny foresight that's made him so formidable... not brute sorcerous might.

I know he briefly mentions that since the encounter with Icarium, he's gotten "nastier"... is this gonna be explained, or are we just supposed to not really think about how this makes any sense and just go with the flow, as readers? Quick Ben, Steve Erikson's pet character that can do whatever he wants.
When he says he has gotten "nastier" he tells Hedge that he pushed himself farther than ever before.. for someone who has a skill (I'm a seamstress/tailor/costume designer).. when you really PUSH to do something you dont think you can.. even to the point of almost kiling yourself (I believe in the encounter with Icarium QB ends up bleeding from his skin or some insanity).. the body/skill becomes stronger.. (and yes.. QB can do anything he wants, aparently)

- What happened to Rautos Hivanar? He takes a walk during the rioting at the end and we never hear from him again. I was never able to really figure him out, as a character. For being the Liberty Consign leader, he didn't seem all that bad beneath it all.
I agree.. I liked him.. If I remember correctly when the hinged part of Icarium's machine falls and traps his legs it says his memories are erased.. and then it says that he dies I think it's worded somethign like "just before he died"

- Was the Taxilian supposed to be somebody important? Someone we know? I just felt with the way he was written about and the way he conducted himself as a character, there was supposed to be more to him than just his anonymous, nameless ancillary role in the narrative... something unrevealed.

But then he abruptly gets vaporized at the end RG, so now I don't know what the ****.
I wasnt that drawn to him really.. though I did see someone say that we have to read to find out more about him.. so i guess i missed it

- So Erikson cruelly kills off poor Toc AGAIN, and so again we still don't know what the deal is with him, his weirdly powerful stone arrows, his premonitions having something do with his one-eyedness, and Onos calling him "Aral Fayle" and he and Kilava acting like that is some sort of big deal.

I expected the whole "Aral Fayle" thing to finally get explained in RG, but then it didn't, so now I'm wondering if I missed it in MoI. Did I?
Toc was a soldier.. then he was Tool's friend (I think there was some sort of blessing to do with the stone between Tool and Toc with the name, and teaching him to make the arrowheads).. the missing eye is tied to the wolves of war (I believe) and so he has visions and connection with them

Spoiler

I think he is on the (american) cover of DoD

[Sinisdar Toste]

i can't help smirking when i read about ppl wondering wtf happened to taxillian, toc, and rautos hivanar. three books left!