[Mob]

Serious question here re: the writing in OST. What is Esslemont seeking to accomplish by depicting his characters in this way?

His internal monologues in this book, the POV inside the characters' heads, are frequently very poor. Maybe 'poor' doesn't convey it. 'Painful to read' is, at times, an appropriate description.

A large number of Esselmont's characters REPEATEDLY and CONSTANTLY come off in the internal monologues as immature, stupid and throwing hissy-fits (frequently at themselves for their own, well, stupidity). Examples throughout the book and in virtually every section in which they appear include Torvald Nom (continually telling himself at great length that he is stupid), Antsy (the same, in every other paragraph), Kiska (ditto), Fist K'ess and Captain Fal-ej (stumbling through their mutual attraction), Bendan, the Malazan trooper (who thinks that everyone else is stupid and ruminates on this 24/7), and Yusek (who thinks that both she and everyone else is stupid 25/8).

I do wonder whether this is supposed to be comedic - given that the same traits manifest in the guards, Leff and Scorch, and to a lesser degree in Blend, Spindle and Picker. All these are supposed to be humorous, but,to me, rarely were. Does anyone have any insights?

Frustratingly, all the characters above do this while speaking with the same voice and traits - so much so that it's clearly Esslemont 'speaking', rather than distinctive, believable characters. Moreover, the prose style through which this immaturity and hissy-fitting is conveyed is at a level that children would understand - lots of exclamation marks and the kind of language that youths speak. I can't have been the only person to notice this.

It's a real shame, because when it comes to the core plot, and, importantly, the dialogue that drives it, he rarely puts a foot wrong. It's the internal characterisation where Esslemont stumbles in this book. If he had reduced the endless juvenile bleating, 200 pages could have been reduced off the length of OST and some sections/stories that were actually interesting wouldn't have dragged.

So is he trying to write OST as a borderline comedy - and just doesn't nail it?

[Andorion]

I had some of the same reactions you did.

The writing was very uneven. The Traveller areas were quite nicely written. Frankly the Tyran thing flopped. The writing just seemed to bog down. If you trawl the OST forum you will find lots of similar observations.

My pet beef is Brood. After spending the entire book doing some ineffectual negotiating, he walks in, punches a stone and walks out. boom, no more barrier, Moranth win. Really?? Thats it? Then why didnt he just walk in, punch the Tyrant, walk out, in the beginning?