[Pearls]

I just started Forge of Darkness, and man, I forgot how much I loved Erikson's prose.

Sometimes, and I fear it might be the case here, it goes way over my head.

Very early, page 21 in the hardback, the Borderswords are having a commentary about nobles and stuff, making presumably a metaphor about Tiste society and nature. Then, 2/3rds of the way down the page, the phrase "So she took a lover" is said by Galak. This line feels like it...doesn't follow nicely? It's not in response to anything previously said directly. And even presuming all the previous stuff is a metaphor, it *still* feels a of a non sequitur. Can someone help me learn to English? How did the rest of you read this passage? Are the Borderswords really really good at speaking in code, and I'm just an idiot?

I realize this is a pretty petty question.

-Pearls the Dumb

[Ribald]

They are speaking about war and how it can appear suddenly.
The 'She' is Mother Dark, Draconus the lover. So they move the discussion from a generalised, abstract sense of war to the specifics of the trouble brewing around them.

[Andorion]

Pearls, on 10 January 2016 - 08:28 PM, said:

I just started Forge of Darkness, and man, I forgot how much I loved Erikson's prose.

Sometimes, and I fear it might be the case here, it goes way over my head.

Very early, page 21 in the hardback, the Borderswords are having a commentary about nobles and stuff, making presumably a metaphor about Tiste society and nature. Then, 2/3rds of the way down the page, the phrase "So she took a lover" is said by Galak. This line feels like it...doesn't follow nicely? It's not in response to anything previously said directly. And even presuming all the previous stuff is a metaphor, it *still* feels a of a non sequitur. Can someone help me learn to English? How did the rest of you read this passage? Are the Borderswords really really good at speaking in code, and I'm just an idiot?

I realize this is a pretty petty question.

-Pearls the Dumb

Forge of Darkness is written differently from other Malazan books. Its one poet telling a story to another poet. So expect the language and narrative style to be different.

This entire area you pointed out seems to be an extended rumination on actions and consequences. This is pretty early so I won't say too much, but Mother Dark has taken Draconus for a lover. And now she is shrouded in darkness.

[Pearls]

Nah, I absolutely know what it's talking about. That's not the part that feels weird to me. It's more how that conversation flows in this little part. It's really jarring. The "So she took a lover" just comes out of nowhere. I mean, even if I know what it's talking about, it's just a really...weird...I dunno. That passage doesn't read bizarrely to anyone else?

This post has been edited by Pearls: 11 January 2016 - 04:10 AM

[Egwene]

I know what you mean. It does not seem to connect with what's been said beforehand. I am assuming that the conversation prior to us 'tuning in' might have given the connection. Galak, who is the one throwing in that sentence does talk about a boar trying to smell out his mate and about there not being a mate for a tereth he had seen just before it, so this could be the continuation of several other strands of conversation...

[Puck]

It's the point they've been working up to this entire conversation. As Ribald has pointed out, they go from the general to the specific, but it feels jarring because while they want to talk about it, nobody is happy to be the first to break the subject, so they dance around it in metaphors. Eventually, Galak bites the lemon and states it as plainly as he can while still not saying stuff outright. It's supposed to feel jarring. We do that kind of thing in our everyday conversations quite a lot when it comes to topics we're reluctant to breach but have to for some reason, we just rarely notice that. At least, I've noticed people doing that so the scene didn't feel strange, but I guess it can.