[High Fist]

I seem to understand that most of the timeline issues stem from Harllo being 5/6. However, Darujhistan does not use the calendar based on Burn's Sleep.

Rather, its time is based on a special Icarium device. I believe that Crokus once commented on the mystery of that calender.




Knowing that the Daru calender is strange, and that Harllo lives in Darujhistan, his age can be explained as being 5/6 Daru years, which may or not be the same as normal years.

[Defiance]

Ehhh, no.

That would mean Harllo was actually 1-3 in not-Daru-years, which just makes everything more improbable.

Not to mention an even bigger timeline error occurs when it comes to seeing Karsa's daughters.

Erikson has said that the timeline has problems and he has no desire to fix them. It's the nature of a tale. He's not trying to construct a history. The narrator is fallible. The best stories don't always completely adhere to what we might call the laws of nature.

[worry]

All children in the Malazan world grow like Grub. There, I fixed it.

[D'rek]

Harllo is Soletaken Eleint and grows fast like Rud Elalle. Legit solved. After all, we know hardly anything about his father, who knows what genes could've been passed down.

[High Fist]

Defiance, on 21 September 2012 - 12:02 AM, said:

Ehhh, no.

That would mean Harllo was actually 1-3 in not-Daru-years, which just makes everything more improbable.

Not to mention an even bigger timeline error occurs when it comes to seeing Karsa's daughters.

Erikson has said that the timeline has problems and he has no desire to fix them. It's the nature of a tale. He's not trying to construct a history. The narrator is fallible. The best stories don't always completely adhere to what we might call the laws of nature.

Perhaps 4 (by stretching out HoC/tBH/RG/TtH/DoD). As for Karsa's daughters, do we know the actual rate at which Teblor mature? Maybe they traveled in a mysterious warren with a different flow of time?

Quote

All children in the Malazan world grow like Grub. There, I fixed it.

Spoiler

By embodying the Chain of Dogs and traveling through the Icarium Warrens with a fire elemental?

Fine, I give in. The timeline is not important. The timeline is not important. The timeline is not important. The timeline is not important. The timeline is not important...

This post has been edited by High Fist: 21 September 2012 - 01:24 PM

[Defiance]

Heh, exactly. Give in to the mantra!

Honestly, it's just one of those things that you have to accept about Erikson. For some people it greatly diminishes the greatness of his works, others it's just a bit of an irritation, and some people aren't bothered by it at all (such as myself).

Unless timeline issues result in some ridiculous DEM (for example, if Karsa's daughters had showed up at the end of Toll the Hounds as super buff warrior maidens and saved Karsa and everyone else from Father Light), I don't have a problem with it. If you listen to some Erikson podcasts/read some of his works, he actually points out that the Malazan Book of the Fallen isn't a history so much as a story. We see a great example of this in Toll the Hounds. Kruppe is an omniscient narrator - he's able to go inside each character's head to tell the story of what happened in the book to K'rul, despite the fact that this defies possibility. It's really a metafiction nod to all storytellers - it's one man reaching into the heads of several people to tell a story.

[Siergiej]

The best fix is to give a negative fuck.

[Gnaw]

High Fist, on 21 September 2012 - 06:16 AM, said:

The timeline is not important. ICE writes in an alternate Wuverse. The timeline is not important. ICE writes in an alternate Wuverse. The timeline is not important. ICE writes in an alternate Wuverse. The timeline is not important. ICE writes in an alternate Wuverse. The timeline is not important...

There. Fixed that minor error for you.

[Malaclypse]

Heh, it's funny how SE's fix for this, which I shared with the relevant experts at the time, served to alienate those people. Steve just doesn't understand how important immersion is, or in my case, was. He can do so many things outstandingly well but he cannot keep track of time as it relates to this series, he just can't. I come from a tradition of 'the author should know the answer to any question I might pose, should I have occasion to speak with him.' And Steve just doesn't remember - he's reaching for different goals. He may not be one of the best novelists of our generation, but he is trying to be and it is rubbish to pester him about who was in the window watching Kyle when he was deciding what he ought to do after Osserc's visit, for example. Just enjoy the things he does well, that's my advice

[Defiance]

I suppose a lot of it boils down to what we find important in a story. If I'm reading a mystery/crime-solving book, then the timeline is paramount. However, when it comes to sprawling epic fantasy, most of the time I really couldn't care less. If Erikson didn't have any timeline issues that'd be just peachy - I'm sure he'd get a few more readers - but overall it's just such a minor thing that it in no way infringes upon my enjoyment of the story. Some of the greatest literary works are rife with inconsistencies and yet most people don't find that these diminish their enjoyment. It seems that many people are more willing to turn a critical eye on modern work, preferring to ignore flaws in older/ancient literature.

At least as far as I'm concerned, no writer is perfect. We all like different things, and as a result different things matter to us. Some people absolutely need that organization and accuracy - the whole story falls apart for them without it. I'm much more interested in the characters, the overall plot, and the themes in the work, however, than the exact dates of when things happen. As I said earlier, if timeline inaccuracies result in DEM, I have a problem with it, but otherwise it's not something that personally bothers me. For me, at least, his minor timeline issues are nowhere near enough to diminish him from being one of the greatest writers of this generation.