[Ozymandiac]

A simple question for all of you who have read Blood & Bone: is it worth buying?

My background is that I have read everything except this book and The Wurms of Blearmouth. Let's assume anyone else interested in this question has the same background.

There are already some reviews on this forum but most of them involve spoilers, and others are "hidden" as posts instead of separate topics. So, I thought I would combine your knowledge in this one. I would appreciate your vote. Later, I might copy some of your reviews over to this one to combine them for future readers.

This post has been edited by Ozymandiac: 02 July 2013 - 11:23 AM

[Salt-Man Z]

I voted "yes", but I'm not sure I was necessarily answering the question you asked... You say you've read everything to date (barring this and Wurms) but do you own everything?

B&B is certainly worth reading (especially if you've already read everything else) but whether or not you should buy it depends.

For what it's worth, my own ranking of ICE's books is as follows (best to worst): SW > B&B > RotCG > NoK > OST

[worry]

It might be the most divisive ICE book yet.

[amphibian]

Apart from a couple clumsy intros in the beginning, it's ICE's best written book and perhaps the most classically "Malazan" in the sense of exploring themes through vivid characters in unusual settings.

[Ozymandiac]

Salt-Man Z, on 02 July 2013 - 06:35 PM, said:

You say you've read everything to date (barring this and Wurms) but do you own everything?

Yes, I own all. For me there's no way of reading these books if I didn't own them, since there isn't a library in a 100 mile radius that has them in English...

[Edonidd]

I have bought the last 10-11 (I think) malazan books pretty much asap, often getting them shipped f4om England to the US because they came out sooner. I will buy the Fall 9f Light as soon as it comes out. I will never buy another ICE novel and wish I hadn't bought this one.

The characters share the same names as real Malazan characters, but none of them act the way those characters have acted in their appearances in the previous 16 or so books. Except Gothos. Who literally says like 3 lines and never moves at all for the duration of the book. It doesn't really give us any more backstory than we already had, except for Edgewalker who a couple of random cadre mages somehow know more than Shadowthrone and The Rope knew about him. There is n9 real convergence despite all sorts of powerful people all gathering in one place with the express purpose of atopping or opposing each other. There is no real conversations that are in any way interesting. All of the characters are extremely flat and one dimensional. The plot doesn't make any sense because it is just a bunch 9f people doing stuff for seemingly no reason.

in short it is a book about nothing told in a poor manner through uninteresting viewpoints.

[nacht]

You really have no choice :-) You will buy it sooner or later because you cant have that big of a hole in the malazan world that is embedded in your brain. If you dont buy it, it will be like the itch you cant scratch.
Ultimately, you have to make up your own mind about it and that means you have to read it.

In my opinion, Spite by herself is worth the price of admission.

[Ozymandiac]

nacht, on 02 July 2013 - 11:38 PM, said:

You really have no choice :-) You will buy it sooner or later

Absolutely right, at some point I will probably buy it. The poll confirms that despite the criticism it seems the book is worth reading.

But still... Dare I say it? [blasphemous] What I wouldn't give for SE writing all ICE books! [/blasphemous]

[Kanese S's]

worry, on 02 July 2013 - 07:00 PM, said:

It might be the most divisive ICE book yet.

Whether or not people like his writing, many agree that he's good at providing subjects for forum arguments.

[Khazduk]

Salt-Man Z, on 02 July 2013 - 06:35 PM, said:

B&B is certainly worth reading (especially if you've already read everything else) but whether or not you should buy it depends.

Agree. If buying it is your only way of getting your hands on it, and you've read everything else, you don't seem to have much choice.

Personally, I'm a bit compulsive about series that I've started to buy. Brain engages gottacatch'emall-mode, which can lead to extremely weird things (like owning 11 volumes of Badkind). *hides*

[Ozymandiac]

I happen to be in a very fortunate situation. I do not have to buy all books because a friend and roommate of mine got hooked on the series as well, and he also bought several books. This way neither of us have to buy everything but we can take each other's books whenever we want.

[tiam]

Edonidd, on 02 July 2013 - 08:28 PM, said:

I have bought the last 10-11 (I think) malazan books pretty much asap, often getting them shipped f4om England to the US because they came out sooner. I will buy the Fall 9f Light as soon as it comes out. I will never buy another ICE novel and wish I hadn't bought this one.

The characters share the same names as real Malazan characters, but none of them act the way those characters have acted in their appearances in the previous 16 or so books. Except Gothos. Who literally says like 3 lines and never moves at all for the duration of the book. It doesn't really give us any more backstory than we already had, except for Edgewalker who a couple of random cadre mages somehow know more than Shadowthrone and The Rope knew about him. There is n9 real convergence despite all sorts of powerful people all gathering in one place with the express purpose of atopping or opposing each other. There is no real conversations that are in any way interesting. All of the characters are extremely flat and one dimensional. The plot doesn't make any sense because it is just a bunch 9f people doing stuff for seemingly no reason.

in short it is a book about nothing told in a poor manner through uninteresting viewpoints.

This scathing review is a pretty good overview. I wouldnt go as far as this but I will say this

As a Malaz junkie who has bought every new book the day it has come out and who essentially shuts down his life until he has read it this is the ONLY Malazan book that I could not reread immediately after. I have finished the book and immediately started reading it again and that includes OST which I thought was, in terms of plot, significantly worse. I think OST had more meat to it, Seguleh information etc whereas BnB is simply a book where all the characters that are new are the ones doing the main plot points whereas the established ones esp the CGRD seem to do nothing and what they do do they do for no given reason except a vaguely hinted at sense of foreboding which was eeked out over the entire book.