[Mako2401]

Not sure if this is me, or a problem with Erikson's writing, but I'm almost at the end of the book, and I find that most of the characters are indistinguishable from each other. Whenever I see a character, let's say, Kalam, I need some time to think about him and say, oh , yeah , he's the assassin guy. But then there is another assassin guy . . Kulp for example, is "the mage that's not Tayschrenn, but is also working for the Empire" ,and the Shadow priest is "Kruppe light" to the point where he is basically Kruppe with another name. Did any of you have this same problem? how did you solve it? I found the characters in the first book and in Night of Knives much more fleshed out, and never had these problems there.

This post has been edited by Mako2401: 23 May 2018 - 06:26 PM

[Esa1996]

I don't remember having that problem with Malazan, but I did have it with certain characters in the latter half of Wheel of Time (Happily mixed Talene / Temaile / Toveine, and Falion / Faolain) due to it's insane character count (2782 to be precise). Malazan, while having more POVs, has less overall characters and thus didn't give me these problems IIRC. Anyway, with WOT I never bothered taking troubles to solve the problem (Apart from that one incident when Person A was imprisoned in a cell, and some time later Person B, whom I mixed with Person A, was running around a city on the other side of the continent. That time I did go back and check what the hell was going on ), I just read on. I know some people have taken notes when reading so you could try that if you want.

As for Iskaral vs Kruppe? I always though of Kruppe as a normal guy with some very strange mannerisms (Using 3rd person point of view when talking about himself, and doing it with more words than one should be allowed or able to do it with besides), whereas Iskaral is an absolute raving lunatic who happens to be pretty funny.

This post has been edited by Esa1996: 23 May 2018 - 07:40 PM

[Zetubal]

Nope, didn't have that problem, sir.
Also, I don't quite get why you could mistake Pearl and Kalam or Kulp and Tayschrenn based on the fact that they "kind of" share the same profession respectively. Especially considering that by your point into the series, Tayschrenn is a character with like a combined total of 10 pages dialogue(?), whereas Kulp is a major character in DG. And he uses a different warren. As for Kalam and Pearl... frankly, that's even harder for me to comprehend. Kalam is a huge, muscular guy, who's all about phyiscal combat, and who's on the tight-lipped side. Pearl is a flamboyant guy who indulges in sarcasm, hyperbole, trickery and melodrama. And he's an assassin-mage.
I don't mean any offence, but what I get from your post is that you confuse two characters that are totally, utterly, completely different types ... solely based on the fact that they are in the same line of work under the same employer.

[worry]

I'm afraid this is a symptom of early onset mental collapse.

[End of Disc One]

Sorry to say but this will only get worse starting in book 4, where you get introduced to tons of marines.

[Mako2401]

 Luv2B_Sassy, on 23 May 2018 - 08:21 PM, said:

I'm afraid this is a symptom of early onset mental collapse.

Could also be bad writing. Everything's possible. Funny how this has never happened to me with any other book series.

This post has been edited by Mako2401: 23 May 2018 - 08:46 PM

[Slow Ben]

 End of Disc One, on 23 May 2018 - 08:34 PM, said:

Sorry to say but this will only get awesome starting in book 4, where you get introduced to tons of marines.

Fixed.

[worry]

In all the time I've known you, you've never gotten this defensive and prickly. What gives?

[Mako2401]

 Luv2B_Sassy, on 23 May 2018 - 09:16 PM, said:

In all the time I've known you, you've never gotten this defensive and prickly. What gives?

Sorry didn't mean for it to sound that way, I think I made a mistake by reading Night of Knives before (though that's what TOR suggested) . For example, someone mentioned that Tayschrenn has only ten pages of dialog, but he is an important character in Night of Knives . Then there are all the assassins, I realized I was mixing Kalam with an assassin from Night of Knives, not this book. I'm about to finish it though, so we'll see. I notice this in the books so far, they start very slow, and then get much better by the end.

[worry]

My mistake, I thought you were a different boarder.

[Esa1996]

 Mako2401, on 24 May 2018 - 04:57 AM, said:

 Luv2B_Sassy, on 23 May 2018 - 09:16 PM, said:

In all the time I've known you, you've never gotten this defensive and prickly. What gives?

Sorry didn't mean for it to sound that way, I think I made a mistake by reading Night of Knives before (though that's what TOR suggested) . For example, someone mentioned that Tayschrenn has only ten pages of dialog, but he is an important character in Night of Knives . Then there are all the assassins, I realized I was mixing Kalam with an assassin from Night of Knives, not this book. I'm about to finish it though, so we'll see. I notice this in the books so far, they start very slow, and then get much better by the end.

Starting in a slow and confusing manner yet ending in a really epic way is a trademark of the Malazan series (Even the books written by Esslemont). As you learn more about the world and get to know the characters it tends to get less confusing though.

This post has been edited by Esa1996: 24 May 2018 - 11:58 AM

[Keysi]

I sorta got it with some Fists in later books.