[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

Since Surlyfan vanished into the ether only a few chapters into GotM, I decided I might as well fill the "new guy posts his inner monologue as he reads each book for the first time" void. I'm finished with the first two books, and feel no need to rehash my thoughts, so I'll start with Memories of Ice.

This is the only thread I will be looking at in the Memories of Ice section until I have completed the book. So please keep this thread spoiler-free, if you don't mind.

Once upon a time I had two coworkers who began chatting about The Sixth Sense. Not having seen it yet, and having heard there was some sort of surprise plot twist, I ran from the room screaming like a little girl. The moral of that story is that I don't like to know about things ahead of time. I want to see (or read) it with my own two eyes.

I doubt I will be as entertaining as Surlyfan, but feel free to snicker at all my inevitable misperceptions. I will enjoy coming back to this thread and laughing at myself once I have completed the series.

(These first chapters are jumbled in my head, so bear with me. I'll have to peek through the book as I go.)

Prologue:

From the descriptions of the T'lan Imass in the flaskback scenes, they seem to be more human looking than the "unwrapped mummy" creatures that I've been picturing them to be. Long hair and breastfeeding boobs on whatsherface. And I bet T'ool was a real ladykiller. I guess 300,000 years (or whatever) without moisturizing will start to take its toll. Also noticing that Pran Chole is apparently the same guy who appeared in Kruppe's dream in GotM.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Lorn/T'ool scenes in GotM. And the T'lan Imass were in one of the best scenes in DG, as well. That freaky ship inside the warren, being sailed by headless Tiste Andii. And then the Bonecasters show up to plug the leaky warren hole. I don't recall if any of them were named, but these two scenes are very reminiscent of each other, in any case. The female Bonecaster in MoI unkowingly dooms the two Jaghut tikes to some sort of hell dimension, if you'll allow me the use of Buffyverse lingo. (Apparently, damaged warrens can only be sealed by souls, but it is an eternally painful solution to the problem.) Resultingly, the prior soul is freed. In DG, one of the Bonecasters jumped into the rift, taking a Tiste Andi head along for the ride. Does that mean that if the head enters a split second later, it becomes the sealant, while the Bonecaster is freed? Clever and sneaky, if so.

Will these Jaghut toddlers turn up later, or is this the first/last/only time we see them? It'd be funny if one of them got loose and turned into a Tyrant, because it was so angry about it's eternity of pain. (Don't tell me if I'm right. I see conspiracies everywhere. You should have read my Lost theories. I had some doozies.)

Now we get to K'rul. One of the cool characters from GotM that I didn't get enough of. When I first got to K'rul in GotM, I wondered briefly if he might turn out to be the Crippled God. (I was aware of the other book titles, having quickly wishlisted them shortly after starting GotM.) But nope.

K'rul and the other two Elder gods confront Kallor, who has apparently laid waste to his entire kingdom. Angry at their judgment against him, Kallor makes his own predictions, one of which is that Draconus will have his own creation turned against him. We learn that he is forging a sword. This is apparently the same sword that Anomander Rake now carries, so did Rake stick it to Draconus? I can't remember if this is explicitly mentioned in GotM or maybe Erikson is just so good at sprinkling clues around that I just feel confident about my interpretation.

Who is the one-eyed beast? An Aptorian?

Chapter 1:

Hooray! Bauchelain and Korbal finally show up to the party. I'm chomping at the bit to read those short novels. I predict they both will end up on my favorite characters list, along with Icarium, Sorry/Apsalar, and the entire T'lan Imass species. Anyway, they show up to investigate the remnants of the Jaghut Tyrant prison from GotM...for whatever reason.

I'm picturing Korbal as Uncle Fester.

When the one-eyed creature stumbled across a human whose face "mirrored" it's own, I immediately thought of Apt's rider from DG. But no, this creature is apparently not an Aptorian, and the one-eyed human is Toc.

Aha, here's where we find out about Dragnipur. It's funny how SE is so good about sprinkling tidbits around, to the point where it's hard to remember where you learned about such and such...even if you read that part only a few days ago...

Chapter 2:

The Quick Ben / CG / giant scene definitely qualifies as a WTH moment. I never tire of those. In other books they would just be silly, but SE makes you believe.

What does CG need with a deck of cards? Just bored? Gonna play him some solitaire?

Chapter 3:

Ok, so Silverfox is Tattersail. I was confused at first about who the second soul was...but duh...Sister of Cold Nights = Nightchill. Whiskeyjack (or someone, I forget) raises an obvious question. What happened to Bellurdan's soul?

Kallor is an a-hole. Why does Brood keep him around?

I'm guessing by the time Paran shows up, Silverfox will have aged enough that the sexual tension will be more appropriate.

[JPK]

Kruppe, on 14 February 2012 - 09:43 PM, said:

I'm picturing Korbal as Uncle Fester.

You too huh? I really want to see him pull off the lightbulb trick.

[worry]

Well this is a disappointment. I thought you were going to actually do some impressions of the characters. Like sure, KB looks like Fester, but does he sound like him too??

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

Isn't KB supposed to be mute? How can I do an impression of what a mute sounds like? Talk about hazing the newbie with impossible tasks... Shall I draw you a square circle, as well?

If you'd like more Korbal vs. Fester analysis:

Korbal seems grouchy...

 Beauchelain and Korbal Broach.jpg (30.47K)
Number of downloads: 2

While Fester seems happy...

 fester.jpg (60.8K)
Number of downloads: 0

Maybe he's delighted that TIK remembers his lightbulb trick...

Or maybe he's just thinking about murder. It's hard to say.

[Sinisdar Toste]

I don't believe broach is mute, he just rarely speaks. Bauchelain is the "smooth" talker

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

Sinisdar Toste, on 15 February 2012 - 05:31 PM, said:

I don't believe broach is mute, he just rarely speaks. Bauchelain is the "smooth" talker

Oh, ok. Haven't read far enough, then... One of the other characters said something about how he didn't talk...and there I went, jumping to conclusions...

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

Chapters 4-5:

Good grief...so much information packed into these 2 chapters. So much I could talk about. So much I can't talk about, because I lack understanding. No wonder these books require multiple re-reads. Anyway, some of the more notable moments:

Spindle's use of his warren has a side effect - conjuring up stray animals from...who knows where. How funny is that? The comic relief alone makes these novels worthy of some type of Game-of-thrones-style TV series. Somebody get on that.

There is an image of a card underneath the Bridgeburners table. From the dog-head image, I suspected at once it referred to Paran. *Pats self on back.* I thought maybe he was being added to House Shadow, as a result of his freeing two hounds from the Dragnipur warren. But glancing back at that paragraph, Spindle calls it "unaligned" and we find out later that Paran will apparently be the head honcho of this new House.

Well, one prediction turning out wrong already. Paran meets Silverfox again, and she's apparently still in an 11-ish year old sized body. Awwwwwkwaaaard. No hand holding just yet.

Silverfox and Paran discuss his dreams about a child. When this subject first came up in an earlier chapter, I thought maybe the child would be Silverfox, or perhaps Felisin (granted, she is in her teens, but still Paran's kid sister and definitely is in harm's way at the equivalent point in the Deadhouse Gates story). But given the talk of a soul trapped in a wound, is this going to be one of the Jaghut children?

The Seguleh can hold their own against the likes of Tool and Anomander Rake. Impressive to say the least...

So is Bellurdan's soul in Silverfox, or not? I guess the answer to this will play a role somehow, or they wouldn't keep bringing it up.

Kalam is now the Assassin of Shadow? What does that mean? What about Cotillion? All this talk of the Deck makes me want to peek ahead to the glossaries in subsequent books. (I have books 4 + 5 on the way from Amazon right now, so I can pick up HoC immediately upon finishing MoI.) Anyone know if there is spoilerish information in the glossaries of future books? Presumably. I will desperately try to resist. Speaking of Decks, with all the multitude of role-playing games out there, how is it possible that there's not a Magic-The-Gathering-ish style card game based on this series. You people need to do your jobs and preach the message, so this series becomes popular enough for capitalism to make us some collectible goodies. This I decree.

Much respect to Brood, given all we learn about him here...

Yet more comic relief, courtesy of Kruppe.

The Jaghut Tyrant from GotM is now the Guardian of the Azath that consumed him. Nice! And he's witty. "I weep a river of tears for your plight, mortal." I'm going to use that.

Characters added to my favorites list: Caladan Brood and Spindle.

[worry]

Some glossaries DO have spoilers, and some don't, even for the books they are in. If you read future books' Decks, you will DEFINITELY be spoiled though, so avoid it.

I don't think it's a spoiler though to tell you that some positions within the Deck are held temporarily to the point of days, or even moments, while others are held indefinitely (especially by those powerful enough to dominate them). The Deck isn't exactly merely tarot cards, but they aren't a hard and fast list of "special" people either. Suffice to say that they, like many other aspects of the supernatural, are pliable. And none of what I just said is spoilery regarding Kalam in particular, in either direction, but hopefully it helps abate your anxiousness.

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

I got sick soon after my last entry, and my brain is foggy from cold medicine, so the insights may be sparse.

Chapter 6:

Not much that I can think to comment on in this chapter, except to express my difficulty in picturing K'Chain Che'Malle. I see them as maybe like an erect-walking velociraptor type thing. But with "blades" for arms? Whaaa? So they literally have blades, as in metal sword thingies for arms, or maybe it's just some type of sharp bony limb. Or it may be part of their armor. I think one of the descriptions said something about a helmet. Anyway, I am a bit confused on exactly what these things look like.

And, although they are an Elder "race" which suggests sentience...they seem like unthinking beasts, but maybe that's just because they seem the most alien of the races we've seen so far.

Also, are they all undead by nature, or is it just these particular "Hunters"?


Chapter 7:

A minor point of criticism. The dramatis personae nearly doubles in this book, as compared to DG...and Erikson seems to be getting bored with making up physical descriptions for everyone. The Capustan characters in particular have been hard to cast in my "head movie"...Jelarkan being the only exception. "Twenty-two years old, his lined, drawn face could have belonged to a man of forty. His shaved pate revealed the scatter of moles that marked his royal line, as if he had been sprayed in blood that had since dried and grown dark." That's the kind of vivid description I like to see...

This Mask Council seems intriguing. This chapter introduces us to the priests for both Fener and Treach. Treach is an ascendant hero who is apparently a Soletaken tiger "of summer." Fener is the boar god referenced in DG. I'm loving how Erikson will introduce something only very briefly in one book...to the point where it almost looks like a loose end...but then nope, to be continued... Anyway, Fener is the boar "of summer." I don't really understand what "of summer" refers to, but these two characters are apparently connected. And Fener is in Hood's crosshairs. What does one do to piss off the god of death? Not kill enough people?

Yikes! It takes an army of T'lan to kill 4 K'Chain. But then Kilava kills some by her lonesome. Okay, so she is "extra powerful" as is presumably her brother Tool, who was once "First Sword," whatever that is. But Envy is worried that Mok could take out Tool. So are the Seguleh at the top of the badass food chain? It's hard to gauge the strength of the various races...

We learn that "Pannion" is a Jaghut name and Toc needs to "release" the Pannion Seer's suffering children. So...I'm taking this to refer to the 2 Jaghut children from the prologue...

Love love love the conversation between K'rul and Envy. This is the type of scene that whets my appetite for more.

Gethol... Now this is perhaps the most interesting part of this chapter. I'm thinking Gethol was the laughing apparition Duiker saw as he died in DG. We are told he is the brother of Gothos, Icarium's father. So Icarium is Death's secretary's nephew. Interesting.

[Gorro]

I'm finding this book a lot easier than the previous two. I like the bit with the Bridgeburners stealing the DOD Table out of Brood's tent. Apparently Fiddler used its magical qualities to cheat at cards and the Bridgeburners figure in Fiddlers absence they can half-inch it and use it to get rich - truly homerian FAIL!!! Ha Ha!
And rather nippy Ben's response to Kallor when Kallor threatens him - "a lot easier to make a hole in the ground" or something like that was classic. Reminded me of when he escapes Shadowthrone right after he tells him who he is. Ben's got to be my favourite so far.

This post has been edited by Gorro: 12 March 2012 - 08:06 AM

[Eloq]

Okay, so I've just finished chapter 6 so this seems like a good place to throw in my initial feeling on the K'chain Che'malle. I too pictured them as basically giant raptors with swords for arms. For me this is probably just over the line between awesome and ridiculous. There are definitely awesome elements going on but also something really silly about them.

My major question about them though is where the hell they got their armor from. It seems like armor would be difficult to make for someone with swords for hands. Is the armor provided by the Pannion Domin or whatever? Does that mean that armor is basically new to this ancient race? Also, since these things are supposedly an intelligent race, how much would it suck to see all the awesome things the other intelligent races were able to do with the benefit of hands that they couldn't? I'd be fucking pissed. Basically, I'm kind of hung up on the whole swords for arms thing. Maybe I'll learn more about that later, but right now it's not really working for me.

[worry]

You'll definitely learn more about them and how their anatomy actually makes sense (it does, I promise!). Just a RAFO thing.

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

Chapters 8 - 21

Sorry, I caught Surlyfan's disease and just wanted to keep reading... I don't remember which thoughts go with which chapters, so anyone who isn't past chapter 21 will want to stop reading now.

Rake is making preparations to deal with Kallor, if he tries anything. How powerful is Kallor, that Rake worries it might take the full force of the Tiste Andii to stop him, when it only took 40 of them to originally deal with CG?

Just when you think it can't get any weirder, enter the Pannion temple and see the dead devotees hanging from hooks.

"I know you now . . . who—what—you are. Delicious irony, the mirror of your face." When he gets "fired" Gethol apparently sees Hood...and recognizes him??? Does this mean that even the god of death is just an ascendant who was once mortal? If his identity is revealed at some point in the series, will it be someone we've met by that time, I wonder?

"A poison that seemed born of familial memories...a child betrayed perhaps. A child led by the hand into terror and pain..." So is the Seer the male Jaghut child who was sealed in that broken warren at the beginning of the book? For some reason, I thought it would turn out to be the father of the children. But maybe the Seer's "children" is a reference to the Tenescowri.

As with the very-sudden-and-with-no-advance-hint-or-warning-whatsover Tattersail/Paran romance in GoTM...I just don't buy the Whiskeyjack/Korlat pairing. Erikson's character hookups come out of nowhere.

One more minor criticism... Erikson tells us, rather than shows us, why we should care about Prince Jelarkan's death. Granted, he is a very minor character, but...as with Coltaine's death in DG, I feel nothing.

The Nightchill portion of Silverfox wants Paran to free Draconus from Dragnipur. Now we're cooking with gas. This is the type of intriguing setup I love to read.

Love the Kruppe vs. Brood and Quick Ben vs. Bauchelain interactions.

Speaking of Kruppe...favorite quote, so far: "Tempers grow short. But not as short as Kruppe, for whom all nasty words whiz impactless over his head, and are thus lost in the ether. And those darts aimed lower, ah, they but bounce from Kruppe's ample equanimity--"
"Fat, you mean," Dujek said...

Dense reader moment: Baudin is the Knight of Death. I totally missed that until I read the Tor re-read blog on that particular chapter. But I love that Erikson is making me work for it (or at least, read the thoughts of people with smarter brains).