[BellaGrace]

Tru, on 21 May 2015 - 11:54 PM, said:

What I do to offset the whole comparision things between the two authors, which is natural to want to do so, is I read other books from other series intermixed, often between a SE and ICE novel. This way there is less jarring for me to transition because I've just read something completely different. Not sure this works for everyone, since it is natural to want to continue a series that you become emotionally invested in, but for me I enjoy ICE's work thus far.

Also, for me to read SE's series without ICE's series (in hindsight) sprinkled in, would be hard to fathom because some of the characters and journeys, and their intentions (Traveller is a very good example here) would be far less meaningful. I expect that after the finale of SE's series, it would be hard to then go back and read ICE's series and pretend you did not already know of major events in the world. I can easily see how ICE's series could fall flat by reading it all after SE's series, but that's just my opinion.

I always read a book or two between each of SE's books. I usually needed a week or two just to process the book I just read. I can't read a lot of "heavy" books in a row. It gets to be too much - and that isn't a criticism of Erikson.

I do agree that Traveler is more fleshed out if you read ICE's books. I think that's really the only character that can be applied to (I still have the last three ICE books to go - which I'll get to eventually). I thought NoK was decent, and RoTCG was important to the overall Malazan story, but (as I said earlier in this thread) SW did not contribute anything important to SE's story and I'm really glad I didn't break up the last of his books to read it!

worry, on 24 May 2015 - 03:17 AM, said:

I dunno, he doesn't have the skill (or desire?) to make it universal like SE does, but he does have his high points in certain characters. They're just much fewer and farther between. He doesn't "go there" often enough for my taste either, frankly, but when he does it can be pretty effective. Chief example up to this point would be Hiam, who's one of the best drawn characters, start to finish, in any of the books. To a lesser extent there's Rillish, Bakune, and Corlo who all get a nice array of emotional moments. RotCG had Possum, Ullen, and Jumpy (and to some degree, Storo). ICE definitely has way more missed opportunities for this kind of stuff though, that's for sure.

I have bawled my eyes out in all of SE's books except GotM. There were times I felt like a real life friend died. With ICE's books, I never even shed a tear. I came close when Ereko died, but there's just something about how ICE writes - he just can't bring it home. He ruined GreyMane in SW. He had the potential to be my favorite character that he had written, but he made him whiny and unlikable for the 2nd half of the book and when the end came, I just didn't care.

PS - I didn't think SW was a terrible book - just really slow in parts and several storylines that went no where. I don't hate ICE, I just didn't like him enough to put aside Erikson for him.

This post has been edited by BellaGrace: 25 May 2015 - 03:15 PM

[worry]

Is crying at books one of your favorite things? What's the first book that made you cry? What's the best book that made you cry?

[Tru]

SE has a way of introducing you to a character in one novel, sometimes briefly, sometimes not even enough for you to form an opinion, and then 2500 pages later your crying over that characters misfortune/death/etc. He did this twice in ThH with two characters whom we had not even heard from in awhile, one iconic to the series, another a popular character who never left Darijistan..and then if that were not enough, he wraps it up with the reunion with a boy and his anguished guilt ridden mother at the end. SE knows how to set the table, set the stage, and then wipe it clean with our emotions. ICE cannot do that. This doesn't make him a bad writer, it just makes me glean something different from his books than I do SE's books. SE drives me nuts with other aspects of his writing that ICE does not, so it goes both ways really. I can tell you this...upon the departure of one of the most iconic characters in the whole series, I felt SE irrevocably disabled the series. That's how strongly I felt about it then, and to some extent now. Luckily there are many beloved characters to still follow, but I honestly had to ask myself, "am I still interested in reading this now that he's gone?" As if, no matter where in the world the rest of the novels took us, there was a void that cannot be filled, and therefore the world is now incomplete, bereft of meaning...I don't care what happens to anyone anymore...SE ruined his own series, it cannot be redeemed. Perhaps a bit melodramatic but for a day or two those were the thoughts running through my head. I guess that means he did a good job.

[Andorion]

I am rereading RotCG and now I am remembering how stilted and strange the prsoe was in some parts of the book. Some storylines, like Naits were awesome but others, especially Kyle were very generic....