[gandrin]

I've finished all 10 of the SE books and now moved on to ICE. I liked the story, but the Crimson Guard themselves were a big disappointment to me.

I was REALLY interested in finally meeting the CG. We got little glimpses--that awesome scene in GotM, a crazy man screaming"SKINNER!!!" across warrens , the brief Iron Bars time in Lether. Iron Bars was a cool character! After the camaraderie and humor of the Bonehunters and Bridgeburners I was expecting CG to be, maybe, even better.

But no. They were actually pretty boring. Cowl? Just a mean assassin with no personality at all. Skinner? Just a brute, and a boring brute at that. Even his fighting was uninspired. I had imagined him to be this unbelievable fighter. Now all I picture is a big strong guy with overpowered armor. The dynamics among the Avowed were depressing. In all, the CG were a big let down for me. I think I laughed or cheered once or twice the whole book at most.

[Overactive Imagination]

Yeah I agree the Crimson Guard sucked in RotCG. Erikson did a way better job with Iron Bars and other references to the CG.

BUT... I'm getting near the end of Stonewielder and Esslemont has been doing a better job with a few of the CG members that show up in that book.

[worry]

I would say it was a mixed bag. Iron Bars is the highlight CG in even this book, and Blues and Fingers were decent. Smoky and Stoop and the folks Kyle interacted with all had personality. Shimmer had a stick up her butt and Skinner & Cowl were underwhelming, while anyone else who became Disavowed were just names and actions, not much personality at all. I would have liked to have seen one chapter during the battle that just had tons of CG POV shifts, even if they were one-offs, like with legendary figures like Lazar and Halfdan and whoever else.

[Lousy]

Overactive Imagination, on 19 December 2012 - 11:18 PM, said:

Yeah I agree the Crimson Guard sucked in RotCG. Erikson did a way better job with Iron Bars and other references to the CG.

BUT... I'm getting near the end of Stonewielder and Esslemont has been doing a better job with a few of the CG members that show up in that book.

That is great news. I'm getting to the end of this book and felt it was a bit of an ICE let down for a while, at least after his initial offering of NOK, which I really enjoyed.

However, one thing I noticed was that, I got sidetracked into something else and got away from the book for a spell (into some other book, which is a really bad habit of mine), then came back to it and had the hardest time re-engaging w/ it, but took it on a trip w/ me and read extensively during the flights and was at last able to re-engage and the book has greatly improved since then and as I get to the latter 1/4 of it, I think it is terrific.

Curious, huh?

[Seiko]

I agree. They become more interesting in Stonewielder and BaB. Sorta.

[NefaraisBredd]

I agree, the CG (smoky in particular) were pretty lame-all that hype for nothing. The good news is, it gets better. Too bad it wasn't SE writing them in, it woulda been.better I think. I have hated Skinner.from the.moment.I.first read of.him.

*For the record: Tayschrenn would 'smoke' that fool (Smoky) in a heartbeat. Blues, Bars and K'azz are the only CG's that are as tough as they look.

This post has been edited by NefaraisBredd: 30 August 2013 - 08:38 AM

[IskarJar93]

The most annoying CG in all the book is by far Kyle, what with his emo style and run-of-the-mill farmer boy attitude

[Stormcat]

I don't know what the deal is but I am having a difficult time staying focused on this book. According to my kindle I am 93% done. I devoured the books before this within days. It's not that I dislike it, I am just not compelled to read it every spare moment like the others.

This post has been edited by Stormcat: 20 December 2013 - 04:59 AM

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

worry, on 19 December 2012 - 11:48 PM, said:

I would say it was a mixed bag. Iron Bars is the highlight CG in even this book, and Blues and Fingers were decent. Smoky and Stoop and the folks Kyle interacted with all had personality. Shimmer had a stick up her butt and Skinner & Cowl were underwhelming, while anyone else who became Disavowed were just names and actions, not much personality at all. I would have liked to have seen one chapter during the battle that just had tons of CG POV shifts, even if they were one-offs, like with legendary figures like Lazar and Halfdan and whoever else.

I've just finished the book and the point about Skinner and Cowl was where I felt let down... they're built up by other characters to an underwhelming end.

However, I enjoyed the book. Kyle's not my favourite of the Malazan cast, but he didn't irritate me too much either. I read a discussion on here about the way Laseen was handled (I can't find it now) and I'm firmly in the camp with those who liked the portrayal - I think it would have detracted from her to give her a POV, but that's just me.

Stonewielder ahoy!

[Tarthenal Theloman Toblakai]

i think a big difficulty that ICE has to get over is he has to hit the ground sprinting pretty much as almost everybody has read the main 10 books before reading ICE's so he has to try to fight the fact that people have grown to love characters and Erikson's writing style, then they have to get used to a different writing style in ICE and also get to love new characters that have little to no history prior to reading the book the character is introduced in. I think he does a good job of getting characters likeable and deep in a short time without slowing the momentum of the books down.