[Demtrogoth]

I just finished MoI last night after (of course) getting to the final battle and staying up for hours to get to the end. Great book.

Only one real thing bothered me, and it revolves around the payoff of having all of these Ascendents and power players around and none of them being at the right place at the right time to flex their muscles. After the first book, I was more intrigued with Rake and Brood than anyone else and I waded through the 2nd book knowing I wouldn't get to see them for awhile (although it was worth it!). In book 3, I found myself displeased/disappointed that a) they are now almost unquestionably 'good' instead of 'bad', they are now basically friends instead of scheming against each other c) Both - but Brood, especially, is pretty underutilized when they would be needed most, in terms of personal power.

I guess it is Rake's 'M.O.' to disappear like Gandalf for the meat of the narrative, but I still like his mystery. Granted, Rake was all ready to descend and take the Seer down, but he was denied the opportunity. I can still hope he gets Kallor someday...

Brood had plenty of reasons to distrust Kallor and basically let him play his part in the game. But Brood - sigh - I guess he's got a hammer he can never use and he is a good healer, a good tactician, if not strategist and a horrible judge of character.

Now I know we go back to 7 cities for book 4 and I know seeing these 2 being really involved in things, are what- 3 more books away or something, if at all?
I suppose I should be patient - because to blow your proverbial wad on the 3rd book of a 10 book series, would be shortsighted. hmmm.

I like the rest of the characters, as well as the Malazan world, well enough, but for some reason I want to know much more about these two, their character, history and motivation and the relationship between them. So somewhere in 7 books I hope they get their due.

On to book 4!

This post has been edited by Demtrogoth: 08 August 2012 - 07:15 PM

[Kanese S's]

I never got the impression in GOTM that either Rake or Brood were bad... just incredibly intimidating. They're not so simple as "good" and "bad," I don't think. And their relationship is similarly complex.

Is Brood a terrible judge of character? He had Kallor as one of his subordinates for the latter's expertise at the craft of warfare. And to be fair, Kallor is pretty sharp. So it wasn't so much that Brood didn't know that Kallor was a douchebag, it's just that the warlord found the high king useful enough to put up with his douchebaggery.

They'll both be back, eventually, just FYI.

[End of Disc One]

Demtrogoth, on 08 August 2012 - 07:10 PM, said:

because to blow your proverbial wad on the 3rd book of a 10 book series, would be shortsighted. hmmm.

I hate to say but a lot of peoples' problem with this series is that they DO blow their wad on the third book.

[worry]

Lot of people watch Two and a Half Men too.

[Dolmen 2.0]

The hardest part to reading MBotF is wrapping around the idea of the characters always being second to the story, no matter how incredible and outstanding they prove to be they are only parts of a much greater machine. Erkison is not precious about his greatest characters and you will see that infact sometimes its quite the opposite.

I'd say since you're all about rake and brood you will be well rewarded in future books but dont get too attached to individuals. There is no black and white, every character has a positive and negative set of qualities.

[Salt-Man Z]

As much as the readers love Rake and Brood and a lot of the other "heavy-hitters" in the series, the MBotF is not their story. (Though admittedly, Rake gets to do some fairly important stuff later on.) Besides which, by this point in the story, a lot of these millenia-old Ascendants have learned to keep themselves on the periphery intentionally; power draws power, as they say, and to make a big splash is to invite other, antagonistic forces.

[Macros]

very much what Salt man Z said.

My take on malazan was always that it was showing what the little man could do to combat the super powers of the world. Seeing the massive power plays and their fallouts formt he ground level so to speak.