[Aptorian]

2020 MALAZAN RE-READ: STONEWIELDER

Book description for Stonewielder:

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Greymane believed he'd outrun his past. With his school for swordsmanship in Falar, he was looking forward to a quiet life, although his colleague Kyle wasn't as enamoured with life outside the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard. However, it seems it is not so easy for an ex-Fist of the Malazan Empire to disappear, especially one under sentence of death from that same Empire.

For there is a new Emperor on the throne of Malaz, and he is dwelling on the ignominy that is the Empire's failed invasion of the Korel subcontinent. In the vaults beneath Unta, the Imperial capital, lie the answers to that disaster. And out of this buried history surfaces the name Stonewielder.

In Korel, Lord Protector Hiam, commander of the Stormguard, faces the potential annihilation of all that he holds dear. With few remaining men and a crumbling stone wall that has seen better days, he confronts an ancient enemy: the sea-borne Stormriders have returned.

Religious war also threatens these lands. The cult of the Blessed Lady, which had stood firm against the Riders for millennia, now seeks to eradicate its rivals. And as chaos looms, a local magistrate investigating a series of murders suddenly finds himself at the heart of a far more ancient and terrifying crime - one that has tainted an entire land....

January 1st 2020 we began the re-read of the main series of the Malazan books. The plan being to read one book a month. We've now added additional Erikson and Esslemont publications to the schedule, to be read roughly according to the publication order.

Quote

2020
January: Gardens of the Moon
February: Deadhouse Gates
March: Memories of Ice
April: House of Chains
May: Midnight Tides
June Night of Knives & The Bonehunters
July: Return of the Crimson Guard
August: Reaper's Gale
September: Stonewielder
October: Toll the Hounds
November: Orb Sceptre Throne
December: Dust of Dreams

2021
January: The Crippled God
February: Blood and Bone
March: Assail
April: Forge of Darkness
May: Fall of Light

You can read our thoughts from earlier months in these threads:

2020 Malazan Re-read: Gardens of the Moon

2020 Malazan Re-read: Deadhouse Gates

2020 Malazan Re-read: Memories of Ice

2020 Malazan Re-read: House of Chains

2020 Malazan Re-read: Midnight Tides

2020 Malazan Re-read: Night of Knives

2020 Malazan Re-read: Bonehunters

2020 Malazan Re-read: Return of the Crimson Guard

2020 Malazan Re-read: Reaper's Gale

September 1st we begin the re-read of Stonewielder, the 2nd book of the Empire series.

There will be spoilers for all published books. So beware. Spoiler blocks are not mandatory but if people want to use boxes for the latest Kharkanas books or the Path to Ascendance books for example, I'd personally appreciate it.

Are you ready? What do you remember about Stonewielder?

I remember next to nothing about this one.

There was this wall.

And some kind of Crippled Goddess thing with some crippled chunks doing bad stuff.

Oh and Ipshank and Manask! I loved those two. I want Esslemont to write a series of books just like the Bauchelain and Korbald Broach stories. MANASK! THE STEALTHIEST OF THIEVES!

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 01 September 2020 - 12:16 PM

[Aptorian]

THE DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Quote

Of the Malazan Expeditionary Force
Greymane / Orjin Samarr – High Fist, Commander of the Expeditionary Force
Kyle, Adjunct to the High Fist
Nok, Admiral, Commander of Naval forces
Swirl, Admiral of Moranth Blue forces
Rillish Jal Keth, Divisional Fist of the Fourth Army
Khemet Shul, Divisional Fist of the Eighth Army
Devaleth, Cadre mage

Malazan 17th Squad, 4th Company, 2nd Division, Fourth Army
Betteries, Company Captain
Goss, Sergeant
Pyke, Heavy infantry
Yana, Heavy infantry
Suth, Heavy infantry
Lard, Heavy infantry
Dim, Heavy infantry
Wess, Heavy infantry
Len, Saboteur
Keri, Saboteur
Faro, Scout

Others
Urfa, Lieutenant of the 4th Company saboteurs
Twofoot, Sergeant of the 6th
Coral, Sergeant of the 20th
Tolat, A Barghast scout of the 4th Company

Of the Malazan Sixth Army
Yeull 'ul Taith, Overlord
Ussü, High Mage and Advisor
Borun, Commander of Black Moranth
Enesh-jer, Envoy of the Overlord

On the Stormwall
Hiam, Lord Protector of the Stormwall, Commander of all Korelri
Quint, Senior officer (Wall Marshall) of the Stormwall
Shool, Aide to Hiam
Toral Stimins, Master Engineer
Iron Bars, Champion of the Stormwall, and Crimson Guard Avowed
Corlo, A prisoner and Crimson Guardsman
Jemain, A prisoner and a member of Bars' crew
Hagen, Ex-Champion of the Stormwall
Tollen, A Malazan prisoner

In the Kingdom of Rool
Bakune, Chief Assessor of Banith
Karien'el, Lieutenant, later Captain, of the City Watch
Hyuke, A city watchman
Puller, A city watchman
Starvann Arl, Abbot of Our Lady the Saviour Cloister and Hospice
Ipshank, An ex-priest of Fener
Manask, A thief

Of the Jourilan Army of Reform
Beneth, Spiritual leader
Hegil Lesour 'an 'al, Commander of the cavalry
Martal, Commander of the army, the 'Black Queen'
Ivanr, Ex-Grand Champion of the Jourilan Imperial Games
Carr, A lieutenant of the army

Of the Crimson Guard
Blues
Fingers
Lazar
Shell
The Synod of Stygg

Totsin Jurth the Third
Brother Carfin
Sister Gosh
Sister Esa
Sister Nebras
Brother Jool Eye-open

In the Shadow Realm
Kiska, One-time bodyguard to Tayschrenn, High Mage of the Empire
Jheval, An agent of the Queen of Dreams

Of the Sea-Folk
Orzu, Patriarch of his clan
Ena, A young mother of the clan

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 01 September 2020 - 12:14 PM

[Cyphon]

Started reading this at the weekend. That opening bit in the prologue with the chained god falling and the tidal surge hit me harder, thinking about BK's situation right now.

Also no clue on timeliness again...

[JPK]

Starting this one now. I've only read this one once before, so I don't remember all that much about it. Obviously Greymane focused. Is this the one where ICE tried to fix Kyle's stupid name?

[Cyphon]

Not so far.

Malling Rel is starting to look competent... its sickening.

Some nice stuff about the flaws of being an occupying force.

This post has been edited by Cyphon: 03 September 2020 - 05:13 PM

[ArchieVist]

The whole Kyle is short for Kylarral-ten comes up in Assail.


I enjoy this book overall, but is it ever explained why the Stormriders don't just go around the Stormwall?

[Macros]

about 100 pages in.

I had it in my head that I disliked this book (less than RotCG but still) and thats probably colouring my lack of interest.

A lot of the ICE books always read to me like him taking cool shit they had thrown together for a campaign and trying to hash a story out of it, then loosely, very loosely, threaded the whole lot together

[Keysi]

Ok I'm asking this here because I think this is where is best and will get the fastest reply - I am miles behind on the series reread. About 80% of the way through House of Chains to be exact. However I cannot bring myself to stop nor can I begin any other non malazan books at this stage.

If I were to post my random musings, and I have a fookin ton of them already saved to my kindle, in the appropriate book's reread thread here in the general forum, would there be much point and would anyone be interested in discussing them there? Or better to just post them in the appropriate book's forum? I think some of my musings may be a bit too random to warrant an entire thread.

Any thoughts? Anyone care?

[Aptorian]

I think any of the two works. People will reply if they have anything to add.

[Macros]

A quick search on the dedicated forums will usually pull up a thread on what your musings are. Or a thread in each book forum

[Abyss]

 ArchieVist, on 04 September 2020 - 03:28 PM, said:

The whole Kyle is short for Kylarral-ten comes up in Assail.


I enjoy this book overall, but is it ever explained why the Stormriders don't just go around the Stormwall?

Not clearly. I think it's implied that whatever the LadyCGChunk was doing drew them.

[Cyphon]

Just came to the trainspotting bit with the baby head on the monstrosity... never gets old.

Not loving or having this book. Ipshank and Manask have the best bits but I think the glamour might fade by the end of the book.

You get the feel of the reach of the book but it just doesn't quite get the depth needed for all the component bits.

[Abyss]

^{My big complaint about the book has always been the disconnect between the plots.
Magistrate/ Ipshank /Manask and Ivanr's army are wholly aside to each other and to the Greymane's invasion/Stormwall plots. So why are they there at all? Sure, they're fun stories, but with no particular impact on the larger world or the Stormwall. Separate plots are a staple of Malazan books, but we can usually rely on some crossover, even briefly. Not here.}

[Macros]

Yeah, 250ish pages in.

Too many stories, to many diverse plots that I know will not connect. And the rapid pov switch irritates me

[Traveller]

 Macros, on 09 September 2020 - 07:05 AM, said:

Yeah, 250ish pages in.

Too many stories, to many diverse plots that I know will not connect. And the rapid pov switch irritates me

Keep at it, you can read it so I dont have to!

[Macros]

No no, I read it so you weaklings are all guilted into reading it as well.

[Cyphon]

Macros, JPK and I are clearly the hardcore of the forum.

[Stalker]

I read it all over the weekend. Nothing like an extended holiday weekend at a place without Internet. Overall, I enjoyed it.

While the plots didn’t necessarily converge in the same way that you see with Erikson, there was still some tangential association. For instance, Ipshank and Manask had a part to play at the end related to Greymane’s campaign.

That said, the Ivanr and the Accessor could be cut without too much impact. Having the Crimson Guard at the Stormwall didn’t have too much impact either. It does feel like part of this is just expanding the lore and introducing a new continent and some of it’s key features (Stormwall) and practices (in the form of religion).

I would have liked more on the stormriders. The NoK prologue was great with its feeling of horror on the waves. More of that would have been great.

[JPK]

I finished last night. This is one of the very few Malazan novels that I haven't read more than once, and there was a ton in here that I had pretty much completely forgotten about.

Ivanr, the conclusion of Rillish's arc, everything involving Bakune, and the loss of Corlo's leg.

There were overall 3 highlights for this book for me though.
1- the transformation of Kyle into a proper Adjunct to Greymane through the eyes of Suth.
2- this has been said in this thread already, but Ipshank and Manask are fantastic. I really want more of them.
3- Greymane's conclusion. He was one of the few old guard that I feel actually managed to have an ending that lives up to his legend.

One thing in this book that I still don't care for is the (sorta) redemption of Leoman. I also feel unsatisfied with how it doesn't really address the separation of him and Dunsparrow.

Really looking forward to Toll the Hounds, but I've 3 books to finish before I tackle that particular beast.

[Keysi]

 Stalker, on 09 September 2020 - 09:15 PM, said:

I read it all over the weekend. Nothing like an extended holiday weekend at a place without Internet. Overall, I enjoyed it.

While the plots didn’t necessarily converge in the same way that you see with Erikson, there was still some tangential association. For instance, Ipshank and Manask had a part to play at the end related to Greymane’s campaign.

That said, the Ivanr and the Accessor could be cut without too much impact. Having the Crimson Guard at the Stormwall didn’t have too much impact either. It does feel like part of this is just expanding the lore and introducing a new continent and some of it’s key features (Stormwall) and practices (in the form of religion).

I would have liked more on the stormriders. The NoK prologue was great with its feeling of horror on the waves. More of that would have been great.

I saw an Ipshank and Manask reference somewhere else recently. I think they were authors of a piece of history used as a chapter epigraph. Most likely in House of Chains since that's what I've read most recently.