[Davian Rhodrhm]

Personally the Snake infuriated me. But! Not, for the reasons you would think.
Initially, I presumed that the Snake was exactly what it said it was, a thousand upon a thousand children trudging across a vast wasteland, starving to death and suffering untold pains and trials. As a studdent of psychology, I really enjoyed reading this arc because it looked at the world through fresh eyes. Innocent eyes. All the while I kept hoping for some miracle to come along and save them, that they would run into Taxilian's group, or Toc would happen along or somethin. Again all the while knowing that it was unlikely. I recall remarking to a friend that if something good didn't happen to those kids, I was going to find SE and punch him in the face (And empty threat, relaxe Steve, I love you too much!).
I say the Snake infuriated me, and it did, because I railed against the injustices of the world systematically destrying these innocent children, and I knew deep inside that nothing was going to magically pop up and save them. And I was further infuriated that for the most part the arc was confusing as hell for me to read, even if it was poetic and darkly beautiful. There was a point when Badalle is thinking about priests and religion that I thought SE had pulled a Karsa Orlong and was refering to the snake as "Children" figuratively, as in Children of the Faith, just as Karsa's Toblakai saw humans as children. And so I kept warring with myself over wether it was real or not. And of course, then I had a period where I thought the were some sort of metaphore, or Icarium related hallucination. hahahah.

Overall having finished DoD, I really enjoyed the scenes with the Snake, even if the were frustrating, confusing and oft depressing. Bravo SE. Bravo.

[Maetrix]

I must be honest and say that I didn't clue in to the fact that Snake was in Kolanse, but that's mostly due to myself struggling with visualizing the geography of the novel.

Both Davian Rhodrhm and QuickTidal nicely allude to similar thoughts I've had regarding the whole story line. I found it riveting the first time through, because it IS such a dark storyline. Survival sometimes is just a numbers game and what's remarkable is that any these kids survived at all.

Perhaps my view was tainted by Steven's blog post on the storyline which I read around the same time I read the book ( http://lifeasahuman....the-next-novel/ ) . Perhaps it's because I work in the 3rd world and have a bit of understanding as to their way of life out here (Currently working in Ethiopia).

It's never easy coming up with new ways to represent fantastical elements and usually it's the harshest of circumstances that lead to the most fantastical of results. For instance (from the blog:)

Quote

...Badalle’s language has power — magical if you will — and in this section she invokes a kind of sorcery, one capable of transporting all the children farther down the trail.

But we don't truly understand Badelle's powers (and to be fair, neither does she) until the stand off with the FA she has at the end of the book.

I will admit the snake storyline is a hard set of passages to read, but it's a hard subject matter. To make it any easier will, in my view, cheapen the struggles of that particular group of characters. I suspect this may be why it gets better with each re-read.

What I'm hoping to see now with the next book is what the kids look like to the Bonehunters or other familiar 3rd-party character.

-M-

[Feathersmith]

I can't say I enjoyed reading the Snake storyline, but that is because it was so freaking brutal, and those poor kids just keep dying and dying, and they have no good end in sight, they're just . . . heading out into a hostile environment, because they've been abandoned by people who should be caring for them, and they're trying to survive and make some kind of sense of a world that has done them so terribly wrong.

I guess there was one part of it that I enjoyed, which was trying to puzzle out what was going on based on how Badalle saw the world. What are "ribbers?" Are "fathers" really the male parents of the kids, or does it refer to all adult men? Etc.

There are many storylines in the series that are hard to read because of the suffering the characters are going through, but I found the Snake to be the most mind-numbingly appalling.

[Rhand]

Boring is too kind a word to describe The Snake-parts. Read about half a dozen "parts" of them by now and not one word struck me as useful to the story in general. And those poems, wow, no words. I dislike poetry but when used in stories I tend to read them anyway, in case there are useful insights to the story in it. Suffice to say I haven't read any poem but the first.

But to be honest, a lot of the book so far has been dissapointing. Ever since TTH Erikson seems to cram so much philosophical reflection about everything into every chapter it has become a real chore to read many of the chapters. Perhaps it's because I read the books so fast after one another (10th Malazan book in less than two months) the "annoying crap" is starting to pile up without having the chance to reset itself, or it's because of what Erikson experienced while writing TTH (I understand his father passed away then) but I feel Malazan Book [...] is starting to decline in quality.

Never had any problems during the first 7 books (except with the Mhybe obviously) but now I can't get attracted to anything but the Malazans, Karsa and the occasional other pov. The Snake doesn't attract me, neither does Yan Tovis, Taxilian (I still don't know how the hell he suddenly got in the damn Wastelands, perhaps I skimmed it but it's annoying), Kalyth, Grub & Sinn and Torrent. Tehol and Bugg are starting to lose their magic too. I've gotten the impression Erikson tries too hard to be funny (not only with them) and it often scares me how bad it is.

Am I the only one who feels like this? Am I an abomination, a brainless oaf, an addle-brained lummox, a bull-goose fool, a wooden-headed buffoon, a wool-brained idiot or are there a few kindred spirits floating around this website?

[Sinisdar Toste]

Rhand, on 17 June 2011 - 06:21 PM, said:

Boring is too kind a word to describe The Snake-parts. Read about half a dozen "parts" of them by now and not one word struck me as useful to the story in general. And those poems, wow, no words. I dislike poetry but when used in stories I tend to read them anyway, in case there are useful insights to the story in it. Suffice to say I haven't read any poem but the first.

But to be honest, a lot of the book so far has been dissapointing. Ever since TTH Erikson seems to cram so much philosophical reflection about everything into every chapter it has become a real chore to read many of the chapters. Perhaps it's because I read the books so fast after one another (10th Malazan book in less than two months) the "annoying crap" is starting to pile up without having the chance to reset itself, or it's because of what Erikson experienced while writing TTH (I understand his father passed away then) but I feel Malazan Book [...] is starting to decline in quality.

Never had any problems during the first 7 books (except with the Mhybe obviously) but now I can't get attracted to anything but the Malazans, Karsa and the occasional other pov. The Snake doesn't attract me, neither does Yan Tovis, Taxilian (I still don't know how the hell he suddenly got in the damn Wastelands, perhaps I skimmed it but it's annoying), Kalyth, Grub & Sinn and Torrent. Tehol and Bugg are starting to lose their magic too. I've gotten the impression Erikson tries too hard to be funny (not only with them) and it often scares me how bad it is.

Am I the only one who feels like this? Am I an abomination, a brainless oaf, an addle-brained lummox, a bull-goose fool, a wooden-headed buffoon, a wool-brained idiot or are there a few kindred spirits floating around this website?

there are a few, but i'm not one of them. i wouldn't call you an abomination though, that would be mean

though you are, as abyss is wont to say, cold and dead inside

[koryk]

I find it hard to believe that such a high percentage of readers find the Snake scenes boring. If find them the most ineffably sad and also strangely intoxicating. For me, there are major questions as to why the Snake exists. Where exactly do they come from (connected with Kolanse to be sure)? Why are there no adults. Natural catasrophe is not going to single out adults and leave the children alive, so we must presume that some man- (or god-) made disaster has befallen this culture. Was it perhaps a mirror-image Pied piper story, with the parents deliberately sending the children off as the alternative is too horrible to contemplate? In comparison to the mystifying internecine squabbles of the Barghast, all for naught as by the end of the book they have all but been annihilated, or the petty concerns of an ever-increasing cast of Malazans, or of the long-overdue return of the Shake to their native lands, the scenes amongst the Snake are beguiling, poetic and stirring.

[Mcflury]

koryk, on 18 June 2011 - 03:48 PM, said:

I find it hard to believe that such a high percentage of readers find the Snake scenes boring. If find them the most ineffably sad and also strangely intoxicating. For me, there are major questions as to why the Snake exists. Where exactly do they come from (connected with Kolanse to be sure)? Why are there no adults. Natural catasrophe is not going to single out adults and leave the children alive, so we must presume that some man- (or god-) made disaster has befallen this culture. Was it perhaps a mirror-image Pied piper story, with the parents deliberately sending the children off as the alternative is too horrible to contemplate? In comparison to the mystifying internecine squabbles of the Barghast, all for naught as by the end of the book they have all but been annihilated, or the petty concerns of an ever-increasing cast of Malazans, or of the long-overdue return of the Shake to their native lands, the scenes amongst the Snake are beguiling, poetic and stirring.

I agree with you in that one paragraph about the Snake holds more intrigue, poetry and questions than any of the other story lines. However, I must admit that I myself (simply because of this reason) found it harder to read through the Snake parts.

Because they are so deep and almost completely philosophical all the time, they do sort of come across as boring to me. I prefer the paragraphs where people actually converse with eachother, instead of just thinking stuff, talking to themselves all the time.

Don't get me wrong, I love SE's writing in both cases. It's just that I have to focus harder on the Snake parts than on others, and I can easily imagine why people would refer to the Snake bits as being 'boring'

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

I was pretty much the same - the first time I read through I couldn't really get on with the Snake scenes. I think it was a bit too abstract for me and I didn't quite twig what was happening.

I'm in The Crippled God re-reading for the first time now, and it's now one of the most ineffably sad and affecting of the story lines. For whatever reason (although I don't know what's different) it twigged with me instantly this time.

EDIT: Removed, wrong forum.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 29 March 2013 - 08:38 PM

[worry]

That's a question that should be reserved for TCG forum.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Edited, apologies.

[worry]

No prob. I do think it's a good question, worth asking.

[Infyra]

I generally liked this storyline, but I didn't have much trouble "placing" this march. I understood it was a march of the children moving westwards from the direction of Kolanse towards the Wastelands. I was particular interested in the mysterious city they find at last, it seemed somewhat of a mirror to Kharkanas (spelling?) at first, being all shiny, white and filled with light in a crystal sparky desert. In the end though the kid who travels the underground section hinted strongly to me that this was a city that Icarium has made in the past, where Jaghut lived together in peace and harmy for many ages, and it was somehow aspected to his memories, or maybe created especially as a reminder for him if he already had memory trouble back then.

[koehkont]

I get the impression that most of the readers didn't like the snake at the first read. I don't know why this is, because I loved it first time round. There is a deep tragic about a 'snake' of children around the age of 10 or so who run from
something and have to cope with terrible deceases, animals who feed on them and of course hunger, thirst and exhaustion. Although it makes me sad on one side it also excites a lot of admiration for these children.
Also the poems are really beautifull. Especially in the beginning when there wasn't a lot of context yet, the poems were already amazing.

"All day Rutt holds Held
And keeps her
Wrapped
In his shadow.
It's hard
Not to love Rutt
But Held doesn't
And no-one loves Held
But Rutt"

[Rictus]

It is a story arc both fascinating and heart-breaking - I dunno how better to put it. I loved it the first time and the second time even more. There's something breath-taking about the way the children refuse to surrender, no matter what. Defiant to the end - also, I love Badalle.

[Overactive Imagination]

I liked the snake storyline.

[Aertheron]

"The Snake" for me, at first it was just pure boredom, because nothing about them, or the "Quitters" was explained.
However at the end of the book, when more things are clear, and you start to get hints of what "The Snake" actually is, it becomes extremely interesting.

This post has been edited by Aertheron: 17 July 2014 - 01:38 PM