[Salt-Man Z]

I enjoyed OST for the most part, but it's not a great book. What bothered me the most I think was that besides Tayschrenn's unexplained (standard ICE) transformation, nothing of particular consequence happens. I can't think of another Malazan book that hit the "reset" button so hard at the end. Seriously, the Seguleh go back to Cant. The Moranth go back to their mountains. The Malazans go back to Pale and Darujhistan. Karsa stays put. The surviving BBs survive again and go back to hanging out at their bar with Duiker and Fisher, except for Spindle, who heads back south a la TtH. I thought for a moment K'rul's Bar might pick up a couple more patrons (I guess the Heels do stick around) but Topper heads back to Unta, and even freaking Kiska goes back to the Vitr with Leoman. The only characters who die were introduced in the book!

Torvald's a councillor now, though, so hey I guess that's something.

[Sinisdar Toste]

well, i think with the t'renn transformation, ICE gives us just as much as we need to make it frustrating, lol. but consider this: we know t'renn has been to chaos and survived. walked out of chaos, of course, like k'rul is said to have done. he then does some behind doors things, and i agree this is frustrating. kiska is such a useless viewpoint in this instance. i would trade her for anything - whatever strange format or style he wants to deliver it in - anything at all inside the room with tayshrenn and d'rek/k'rul (and is it coincidence that after meeting with these two gods, he changes his name to one in the same naming convention? doubt it, but we just don't know what any of that means!)

there is a lot of resetting going on here, but that's just par for the course in genebackis. short periods of peace puncuated by furious bursts of warfare. OST was a skirmish really, but in the flowing time there will be a toblakai trilogy, and i doubt the moranth or seguleh will remain uninvolved if karsa leads a horde of toblakai out of the north.

[Migol]

Yeah I hate to say it, but this book felt like some kind of weird sit-com scenario where everything is the same at the end, and just for fun we get a lot of famous cameos that aren't necessary to the story.

Also...why was K'rul (who has -clearly- been referred to as male, called "brother" etc many times) suddenly made into a female? I mean, if it had served some purpose sure. But it didn't? It just seemed like a total editing botch or something.

This post has been edited by Migol: 03 July 2012 - 11:58 PM

[Sinisdar Toste]

 Migol, on 03 July 2012 - 11:02 PM, said:

Also...why was K'rul (who has -clearly- been referred to as male, called "brother" etc many times) suddenly made into a female? I mean, if it had served some purpose sure. But it didn't? It just seemed like a total editing botch or something.

well if it was then it was so bad that antsy caught it from in book. elder gods can appear any way they want to, so i didn't really mind. what i minded was not hearing a single friggin word that s/he and tays said to each other.

[Abyss]

Dassem goes through a pretty big game changer

[tiam]

 Abyss, on 09 July 2012 - 03:15 AM, said:

Dassem goes through a pretty big game changer

True but he was out of action after TTH living in a monastery of fighting monks. He now lives on an island with a isolationist people not dissimilar to fighting monks.

Im glad someone posted this. Now that I think about it nothing really did happen. It reminds of the Perish plotline with a big betrayal built up but then they simply end up on the side they started on, so I felt like that was a waste of time aswell.

[hadoken13]

 Salt-Man Z, on 02 July 2012 - 03:48 PM, said:

I enjoyed OST for the most part, but it's not a great book. What bothered me the most I think was that besides Tayschrenn's unexplained (standard ICE) transformation, nothing of particular consequence happens. I can't think of another Malazan book that hit the "reset" button so hard at the end. Seriously, the Seguleh go back to Cant. The Moranth go back to their mountains. The Malazans go back to Pale and Darujhistan. Karsa stays put. The surviving BBs survive again and go back to hanging out at their bar with Duiker and Fisher, except for Spindle, who heads back south a la TtH. I thought for a moment K'rul's Bar might pick up a couple more patrons (I guess the Heels do stick around) but Topper heads back to Unta, and even freaking Kiska goes back to the Vitr with Leoman. The only characters who die were introduced in the book!

Torvald's a councillor now, though, so hey I guess that's something.

I'm glad there are so many here that are of the same opinion as me (new to the forum - long time reader). The above quote sums up my thoughts on the book too.

Spoiler

It was building up so much with all the big characters gathering and then finished as if they all just walked away peacefully. And the killing of the tyrant was just plain silly - an awful lot of building up to end in such a way - I expected a bit more.

 Migol, on 03 July 2012 - 11:02 PM, said:

Yeah I hate to say it, but this book felt like some kind of weird sit-com scenario where everything is the same at the end, and just for fun we get a lot of famous cameos that aren't necessary to the story.

Also...why was K'rul (who has -clearly- been referred to as male, called "brother" etc many times) suddenly made into a female? I mean, if it had served some purpose sure. But it didn't? It just seemed like a total editing botch or something.

So true, the cameos felt like they were added to bulk up the story but were not carried through.

This post has been edited by hadoken13: 24 September 2012 - 12:59 AM