Malazan Empire: The Collected Steven Erikson Questions & Answers thread - Malazan Empire

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The Collected Steven Erikson Questions & Answers thread see note in first post for explanation Rate Topic: -----

#341 User is offline   Leanoric 

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Posted 10 July 2008 - 11:24 AM

Not sure where to post this exactly, but this seems like a good spot... Be warned that there may be minor spoilers below if you haven't read very far in the series.

This is my first post with any substance, although I have lurked for years. :p

Here are some questions and anwers from SE's book signing at Milton Keynes on 9th July 2008, as well as some other bits of information he gave us. I am paraphrasing, of course, but hopefully it is fairly accurate.

Q: Will we see Whiskeyjack again in the books?
SE: Not in any mortal form.

Note that this does leave open the possibility of seeing his ghost or some other form/version of Whiskeyjack. Or it may just have been SE not wanting to give too direct an answer. He seemed to be being quite careful about how he phrased his answer, though.

Q: In an earlier book there was a scene with an otataral dragon. I thought this was going to be really important but there has been no mention of it since.
SE: It is important. Read and find out.

Q: Since Erikson is not your real last name, did you pick it so that your books would be stored on the shelves right next to Ian Cameron Esslemont's?
SE: No, but it is cool that they are. He went on to explain how he had never intended to use a pen name. The story goes that he had a previous, contemporary fiction, book publishes previous to the Malazan series, with a different publisher. When he then got a publishing deal for GotM, the first publisher said that he couldn't use the name Steven Lundin, since it would confuse people who knew him as a contemporary fiction writer. So, he chose Erikson, which was his mother's maiden name. Interestingly, when he got his fairly well publicised 9 book deal for the Malazan series, the first publisher was suddenly quite happy for him to publish using Steven Lundin (for the interest it might raise in his first novel). By then, of course, with GotM already out, it was too late.

Q: there is talk on the internet about there being a film in the works, based on the chain of dogs section of DG. Is this just a rumour?
SE: not entirely. He said there is a 300 page manuscript floating around, but he doesn't have time to even think about it properly until he has finished writing the 10 books.

Some questions about his writing habits:

Q: Do you often write all night, or anything like that?
SE: No, I write 4 hours a day, in the afternoon
Q: Do you have to do lots of rewrites once your book is done
SE: Not really. The first part of the 4 hours I spend reading and editing what I wrote the day before, so I edit and rewrite as I go along
Q: Do you ever go back and add/remove/rearrange sections earlier in the book you are writing?
SE: Not really. My writing is fairly linear. Sometimes I might go back and change a description or some detail if I later realise I got it wrong, but that's about it.

Q: SE had mentioned that he and Cam created the Malazan world in gaming sessions for years, and so knew all about the history etc. Questions were asked about if any of the gaming characters had made it into the books, what the other players thought about their characters in the books and so on.
SE: Yes, lots and lots of the gaming characters are in the books. He pointed out that he and Cam (and it was pretty much just the two of them) would game in a very different way to what people might think of as gaming. It was much more narrative driven, all about the plot - not monsters, treasure etc. Apparently some of his friends (most of whom are advance readers) took part in some gaming session with them a while ago, where they played Fiddler's squad. SE said they all seemed happy with the books.

Q: In RG Shadowthrone seems to be losing his marbles a bit.
SE: (seemingly surprised) Shadowthrone has always been like that. He went on to explain that Cam had played the character of Shadowthrone in the games, with Dancer as an NPC. Cam had played Shadowthrone's madness "to the hilt", and Dancer was there to reign him back a lot of the time.

Q: Will we see more of the Stormriders and Korelri?
SE: They will be in Cam's third book I think... called Stonewielder? which is set on Korelri I think.

I asked a fairly rambling pseudo question about the Crippled God. I talked about how most fantasy series have some 'Dark Lord' character that the heroes are fighting against, who is very central to the plot, and unmistakably evil. In contrast, the CG is in it relatively little, and there is even debate about whether he is really evil or not. Yet, the series seems like it is building towards its climax as a confrontation with the CG. SE agreed this was the case. I pointed out the the final book being called 'The Crippled God' was something of a clue to that. SE agreed again. I asked if he was worried that people might feel let down if, after reading 10 massive books, the climax turned out to be a somewhat anti-climatic confrontation with the CG who turned out not to be evil after all. SE said that he was confident that the ending would deliver a payoff that would make everyone happy. He also commented that Book 9 would be the only book with a cliffhanger ending. His reasoning for this was as follows: in his previous books you get about 700 pages of setup, then 200 pages of climax as the payoff. For the end of the entire series he needs more than just 200 pages for the payoff - the whole of Book 10 is the payoff, with Book 9 being the setup. He said that he has had the last 4 scenes in his head for years, and is looking forward to being able to actually write them.

He said that he has a deal in place for 2 further trilogies - one which would take place previous to the current series (perhaps the Anomander Rake trilogy previously mentioned?), and one which would follow a thread that he would leave unresolved at the end of book 10.

At the end, while getting my books signed (the whole series!) I asked him about Grallin:

Me: Is Grallin actually real, or just a myth?
SE: Sorry, who? K'rul?
Me: Grallin. The guy who tends the Gardens on the Moon.
SE: (looking a bit blank) That sounds like just a myth to me.
Me: Ok. It's just that there has been all sorts of speculation and discussion on the internet about him
SE: Really??

So, I think that probably kills all the 'Grallin is the CG' theories and the like.

There was probably much more if I think about it, but that seems more than enough for now.

Anyone at any of the other signing sessions have any good information?
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#342 User is offline   caladanbrood 

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Posted 10 July 2008 - 11:47 AM

Wow, good work Leanoric :p

There's a thread about this here, too, by the way, where there's lots of info about other signings :p
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#343 User is offline   Skywalker 

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Posted 10 July 2008 - 05:34 PM

@ Imperial Historian: Did you get a chance to ask any of these questions to SE? Leanoric did answer one of them... the others are open.
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#344 User is offline   frookenhauer 

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Posted 11 July 2008 - 07:31 PM

Dear Mr Erikson,

I have been a fan of your Malazan series since halfway through the gardens of the moon (Very hard going to begin with, something to do with being devilishly complex). The wit, the depth and the multi-layered brilliance you showed in your debut book was pretty much the best read I've had since the gap series by Stephen Donaldson. By the end of Deadhouse Gates you had become, beyond any shadow of a doubt the best writer I had ever read. Needless to say I told everyone I knew that there was a new boss in town, better than Donaldson, better than Martin and he's young enough to actually finish his series before dying or going senile. The king is dead! Long live the king!

There are many moments in the series that I will probably remember forever, but Coltaines last stand in sight of Aren was simply the finest, most dramatic scene I have ever been a part of - I was at his side during the battle and also on the walls of Aren, watching helplessly as the dogslayers decimated the defenders. It was some time before I remembered to breathe again.

Fast forward to Reapers Gale and Toll the hounds, although Bonehunters was probably similar. Something was different about your writing, and I figured it out by the time I was a few pages into Toll the Hounds. Each sequence of the story had become really short, very rarely did any of these parts go above a few pages. This lead to a stilted kind of writing and has i believe affected the flow of the novel.

I would not mind reading a novel 1500 pages long as long as it was you writing it.

BTW I'm glad you didn't use G R R Martins route of splitting the story up completely and making it a shallow waste of time a la 'Feast for Crows'
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#345 User is offline   Cold Iron 

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Posted 12 July 2008 - 12:48 AM

mmm... decent point. I'm confident that it'll all come together again before the end though.
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#346 User is offline   frookenhauer 

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Posted 13 July 2008 - 02:26 AM

Cheers cold iron, I'm pretty confident too on that particular score. Maybe i'm just being an angry fanboy forever destined to be let down by those i revere?!? Whatever - There is something different in the writing style of his last three books.
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#347 User is offline   Dolorous Menhir 

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Posted 13 July 2008 - 01:26 PM

I didn't enjoy BH and RG as much as the earlier books, I don't have any deep reasons why though.

TTH is pretty good so far though. I don't see the short passage structure as a problem, except for the times when you're reading about a character and it switches, and you know you're not getting back to them for a while and you want to.
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#348 User is offline   End of Disc One 

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Posted 13 July 2008 - 04:46 PM

Haven't read those books yet, but GotM is a huge offender of the short passage thing. Not that I particularly mind but I can see how some would
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#349 User is offline   Imperial Historian 

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Posted 14 July 2008 - 10:29 AM

I didn't get a chance to ask all of them I'm afraid, but I did glean something, the major ressurection still to come was draconus, though it took him a while to work that out, he also mentioned in a general sense that he doesn't have a specific idea of who will win in a fight between two people, he likes to leave a lot of leeway so he can surprise people, and push the story in the direction he wishes to send it.

Regarding themes thats a question I really wanted to ask but completely forgot, and I also didn't ask him about who the story was about, but the one time he talked about who the books were about, in an interview he did long ago, he did mention the paran siblings so probably them.
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#350 User is offline   Skywalker 

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Posted 14 July 2008 - 05:38 PM

Thanks mate!

I wish I coulda attended... but you taking the time to ask him what you could is the next best thing!
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#351 User is offline   Dolorous Menhir 

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Posted 14 July 2008 - 05:56 PM

I asked him if the story had a central or most important character. He said no.
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#352 User is offline   blackzoid 

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Posted 15 July 2008 - 11:15 AM

Sorry frookenhauer, but there is a huge mistakeon your part in linking the issue to the Bonehunters as well as the later books.
The attack on Y'Ghatan goes on for a long time without any breaks away from it, only to other characters involved in it.
Perhaps its the exception that proves the new rule?
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#353 User is offline   frookenhauer 

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Posted 16 July 2008 - 10:51 PM

hi dolores, Maybe its just me wanting more time spent on some sections, like you say. Come to think of it I may be pointing to one thing in particular, whereas there is probably a few other, less obvious reasons why the last three books haven't been as good. That may be partly due to expectation.

funnily enough creffett, I have only a broad outline of what happened in GoTM, its been such a long time ago and I've been studying a lot of new stuff recently so i guess the old stuff gets pushed out or compressed...I am meaning to re-read them, just as soon as my thieving cousin gives me back the 1st three books of the set.

Hi blackzoid, maybe it is the exception. I dunno, maybe I was being a little obtuse and self righteous and at the end of the day its only a story, the best one ever put to paper, but when alls said and done, 'tis but a tale'.
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#354 User is offline   DemonForest 

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Posted 17 July 2008 - 09:04 PM

Man this guy is brilliant as an author.
Besides the Q i asked above about how he goes about writing this stuff (aside from the bit about it starting out at the gaming table);
I want to ask if he has thought about after this series and the one mentioned about Rake, would he ever stop and write a book about the Bridgeburners. We know from the books some of the 'how', and a few of the 'who's but i'd love to see it pulled all together. [Kinda like Eddings "Belgrath the Sorcerer" book did after his Malorian series]
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#355 User is offline   DemonForest 

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Posted 17 July 2008 - 09:16 PM

No, i noticed it too. It didn't happen as often in RG or Bone.. but i'm really noticing it alot in Toll. The major reason i think i noticed some of the differences is while waiting for Toll to arrive i re-read Gardens and Deadhouse. Parts of Toll seems to be striking me as if they were more conversational or more like the musings of ones mind in some of his discriptiosn, especially the chapters not dealing directly with the Tiste Andi characters.. the ones in Darujistan. I'm not even 1/3 of the way through yet. It will probably reveal itself more when i get further in.. and then again it all may be paving the way for the next.
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#356 User is offline   anothevilbadguy 

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Posted 17 July 2008 - 10:06 PM

Toll is supposed to be more conversational, as it is supposed to be Kruppe telling a tale to K'rul and another; at least as far as the Darujhistan storyline goes. Erikson decided to alter the style for this book, and as far as we know just for this book. I think using this style helped in someways in achieving its thematic goals.
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#357 User is offline   caladanbrood 

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Posted 18 July 2008 - 12:40 AM

DemonForest;353648 said:

No, i noticed it too. It didn't happen as often in RG or Bone.. but i'm really noticing it alot in Toll. The major reason i think i noticed some of the differences is while waiting for Toll to arrive i re-read Gardens and Deadhouse. Parts of Toll seems to be striking me as if they were more conversational or more like the musings of ones mind in some of his discriptiosn, especially the chapters not dealing directly with the Tiste Andi characters.. the ones in Darujistan. I'm not even 1/3 of the way through yet. It will probably reveal itself more when i get further in.. and then again it all may be paving the way for the next.

Yeah, Toll is written as Kruppe telling the story to K'rul and... someone else;) There's the bit in the prologue where he set it up - Witness and suchlike.
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#358 User is offline   Raymond Luxury Yacht 

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Posted 18 July 2008 - 09:55 AM

I'm getting deeper into TtH, and not sure how I feel about this method. It's interesting, and different, but I don't think I like it as much as I should. It's so different from the rest of the books, it's strange to change the whole voice after so many books written differently. It's not so much that it is bad as it is distracting. I'm also starting to think that is there is such a thing as too much Kruppe.

To be honest, I hope it's only for this one book. When going back and ranking all the books of the series, this style is something that will be considered, and I'm afraid that it will not be helpful to the ranking of the book. Not that it's ruining the book or anything, I'm really enjoying it, but when stacking the books against each other, the criteria for ranking each one higher or lower must come from somewhere.
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#359 User is offline   frookenhauer 

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Posted 18 July 2008 - 10:55 PM

I too hope that kruppe doesn't perform another narrative of an entire tale - he is the most annoying character ever invented. If I ever want to annoy anyone i'll talk about myself in the third person, talk in circles while simultaneously scoffing my face with honeyed tarts.

Just who is kruppe? in GoTM he sojourned to an inn to meet his "mirrors/twins", he parted caladan broods massive crack, please pardon the pun, is he an elder god? pre elder, maker? a warren unto himself? Can't wait till his back story is revealed...

he's still bloody annoying and for the love of erikson, let it not be so again. Sorry, I digress.

anothevilbadguy;353714 said:

I think using this style helped in someways in achieving its thematic goals.


Frookenhauer is in some way offended by this remark, sorry. The primary reason is that you may well be wrong in some way, or even all the way, wrong that is. the secondary reason is the use of 'thematic goals', Frookenhauer truly believes that torture should be applied immediately, if not sooner, to any person(s) for the use of the afore mentioned phrase, in fact he requires that even the merest thought or inkling of usage should have repercussions...BTW prior to that you made a good call. :-)

Still, Kruppe might well be blamed for the stilted style of TtH, so what about the RG and BH. Is memories of ice his greatest achievement? Is it the standard by which all the others should be compared against?
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#360 User is offline   Warlock King56 

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Posted 31 July 2008 - 09:52 PM

Sorry if i messed title up im new.

I was wondering if SE based the Malazan Empire off the Roman Empire, or last take a few ideas. Kinda like how the heavies are always mentioned to have short swords (aka gladius)
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