[Imperial Historian]

So after burning through this book at some pace, I'll give my initial impressions.

This book definitely delivers, really building on all the hints that have been layered through the previous books as to the true history of darujhistan, hints dropped as far back as GotM reappear and are expanded on to give a largely satisfying answer to the mysterys of Darujhistan. For those worried that ICE wouldn't be able to pull off the finale to eriksons set-up, be at ease, it isn't the book Erikson would have written, but it's malazan to the core.

The book feels more like a malazan book than any of the other ICE books we have seen, many of the characters we love from SE's books return, and ICE handles them all pretty well (even kruppe, an achievement in itself), and brings new depths to some of the characters we know but haven't had a pov from before. There isn't so much of the philosophising we see in the later SE books, but I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. ICE manages to capture eriksons ability to layer the story with cameos for the observant reader, and does a much better job of showing, rather than telling of the characters prowess (eg in RotCG the old guard and the avowed really suffered from this).

ICE has really stepped up as a writer here, most of the issues I had with ICE's writing have almost entirely gone, the POVs switching too rapidly, clunky sentence structure and difficulty following some plotlines have all been much improved. ICE has also largely abandoned the Kyle/Ghesel style character finding there way in the world another plus. A few issues slip through at times, but for the most part this is some excellent writing.

The book did have a few issues, the disappearance of certain characters from events with little to no explaination was surprising, the opportunity was certainly there to address a few interesting threads Erikson had left dangling which weren't taken which I was a little disappointed with. I'd rate this book as a whole as in the top half of malazan books I've read, certainly not as good as the top erikson books like MOI, but I'd rank it above tBH and RG for example.

I'll leave off the details of the events themselves, but we do get answers to a lot of the questions we had (which of course raised just as many) and also provides lots of ammunition for the what would happen if x fought y debates.

[Fist Gamet]

Roughly one third of the way through and thought I would note my growing despair. Have to say I disagree with IH, the PoV jumps are far too frequent for my liking and driving me bonkers. Give me a chance to get into the story! Give the characters some love man! The real problem with ICE's style in OST is that the chunks of background prose are frequent and unengaging and inevitably followed by all-too-short sections of dialogue. The over-use of intentionally with-holding names and having characters inspired by some inner revelation not to be revealed until much later is tedious. I am all for experimenting with styles but this has been tried before and it just doesn't engage the reader. There is an over-reliance on (hopefully) previously held love and affection for the characters from previous stories and I feel the opportunity has really been missed to developed real depth, rather than rehashing old personalities.

Gods below, I hope I am wrong and the rest of the story turns on its head and becomes brilliant...

There, no spoilers, just a rambling worry.

[Use Of Weapons]

I just finished it, and it was a breathtaking race to the finish in the grand Malazan tradition. If ICE has demonstrated one thing with OST, it's that he has fully learned how to deliver a satisfying convergence. I was almost entirely satisfied by the various denouments. I'll agree with Gamet above that the POV shifts were perhaps a tad too frequent as the tension built in the final part of the book, but on the whole I enjoyed it because, unlike on other occasions, I was entirely engaged with each storyline. Characters which in previous ICE books had never held my attention actually became more real and fully-fleshed (Kiska for one).

There were a few incidental characters that I feel were slightly off, the most obvious (for me) being Envy. I don't think this distracted from the story, though, and I am now really looking forward to ICE's Assail novel. Damn good job.

[Use Of Weapons]

And one final thought -- ICE nailed the humour in this book. Several laugh-out-loud moments.

[tiam]

To ICE

Its Jhag not Jag and if one more character says hunh im gonna burn this book Seguleh or no Seguleh

This post has been edited by tiam: 21 January 2012 - 12:55 AM

[Khellendros]

tiam, on 21 January 2012 - 12:55 AM, said:

To ICE

Its Jhag not Jag and if one more character says hunh im gonna burn this book Seguleh or no Seguleh

Actually, Jhag refers to half-Jaghut only, so Jag is actually ok (though I would have preferred it if he had just stuck to calling them Jaghut, it's only three extra letters!)

[Garak]

Am I the only person not bothered by frequent POV shifts?

[End of Disc One]

Garak, on 21 January 2012 - 01:57 PM, said:

Am I the only person not bothered by frequent POV shifts?

I'm not very far in the book but it doesn't bother me either. GotM was the biggest "offender" of frequent POV shifts but I don't mind at all. RotCG had a lot of it but I loved that book. Makes things feel more chaotic which I like.

[Use Of Weapons]

I'm not saying it bothered me. I just noticed it. I got used to it.

[champ]

For me, this was ICE's best book so far, it felt like a "Malazan" novel. The POV switching didn't bother me too much, my main gripe was the lack of a couple of names!

And he down right teases us with one characters appearance...

[Werthead]

Orb Sceptre Throne

Quote

With the Pannion Seer defeated, the Jaghut Tyrant Raest imprisoned and peace declared with the Malazans, the beleaguered citizens of Darujhistan are finally hoping for a time of peace and prosperity. Of course, this is the perfect time for an ancient force of unspeakable evil to escape from the barrows outside the city and unleash a new age of chaos and war across most of Genabackis. This war will draw in the Moranth and the Seguleh, the Rhivi and the remnants of the Malazan armies still stationed on the continent. Far to the south, treasure hunters are looting the crashed ruins of Moon's Spawn, searching for the storied Throne of Night, whilst in another realm hunters are searching for the missing High Mage Tayschrenn at the very Shores of Creation. But the fate of Darujhistan, Genabackis and maybe the world will rest in the hands of one fat thief and a bunch of Malazan deserters who want nothing more than to run their pub in peace.

Orb Sceptre Throne is Ian Cameron Esslemont's fourth entry into the Malazan world, expanding on the novels written by his friend and collaborator Steven Erikson. It's an interesting book in that, unlike Esslemont's previous novels which largely focused on new characters, this novel extensively features characters Erikson has used and developed in several previous books, most notably the curiously-dictioned Kruppe. This poses challenges for Esslemont, but thankfully he overcomes them with aplomb. Kruppe occasionally feels a bit off, but most of the other shared characters (Caladan Brood, Duiker, the ex-Bridgeburners, Torvald and Rallick Nom and more) come across very well.

The narrative is, as is typical with Malazan, somewhat disjointed, with several apparently unconnected storylines unfolding before converging at the end. This disconnect seems more pronounced than is normal for Esslemont and is briefly worrying, since he has far less page-time to play around with than Erikson (despite being almost exactly 600 pages long in hardcover, this is the one of the shortest books in the series). However, as the storylines move together and things start making sense, the book picks up a tremendous momentum. The second half of the novel is stuffed full of battles, plot revelations and character moments that are satisfyingly epic. By using elements familiar to readers from other books, Esslemont is able to imbue events with more meaning than would otherwise be the case. When four hundred Seguleh (the sword-wielding taciturn badasses of the Malazan world) show up, the reader knows that some serious carnage is about to go down, for example.

For this reason, Orb Sceptre Throne works much better for established Malazan fans than newcomers, particularly those who have already read Gardens of the Moon, Memories of Ice and Toll the Hounds. A number of plot elements stretching all the way back to Gardens of the Moon are expanded upon and backstory is (finally!) given for the Seguleh, the Moranth and indeed Genabackis as a whole. It's also nice to see some established characters given more depth and bigger roles than previously, such as Antsy, who becomes a major player in events at the crashed Moon's Spawn.

On the negative side, there's a number of story elements that are somewhat obtuse, either referring to storylines still to be detailed or referring very obliquely to events in other novels. Some characters fare better than others, and notably after the initial ferocious power and abilities shown by the antagonists, they seem to be caught a bit flat-footed by the forces arrayed against them at the end of the book. Also, it's confusing why Esslemont alludes to the fact that a fan-favourite character is still in the environs of Darujhistan when that character plays no role in the book (despite events being more than epic enough to attract his attention).

Despite these minor niggles, Orb Sceptre Throne (****½) is a well-written, thoroughly enjoyable addition to the Malazan canon. It is available now in the UK and on 22 May in the USA.