[blackzoid]

But munitions never seem to run out. They are always there as the plot demands.
In finishing up my reread of The Crippled God, Im reminded of Paran's host at the ass end of the Letheras continent having their munitions with them. Or Dead Hedge inventing new ones for Tavores army.
I wanted the campaign of disinformation to be true in this book. I thought that that SE was basically telling us that the Marines could no longer rely on them to solve their issues. But no, not to be.

Either take the munitions away from the Malazans or give everyone else munitions. Thats what I would like to see. Cos right now, its somewhat boring for me and predictable.
"Seguleh/Teblor/Jaghut/Dragon/whatever attack? Nah its ok, we got munitions"

[champ]

blackzoid, on 04 August 2021 - 02:06 PM, said:

Either take the munitions away from the Malazans or give everyone else munitions. Thats what I would like to see. Cos right now, its somewhat boring for me and predictable.
"Seguleh/Teblor/Jaghut/Dragon/whatever attack? Nah its ok, we got munitions"

I think that is part of the problem though, with those you have listed there, their power levels are off the charts... whilst the Malazans are, well, Malazan and they tend to win through at the end of the day, they still need their shaved knuckle against such powerful beings and the munitions are pretty much the answer to that. That and being sneaky fuckers...


Without the munitions they are at a severe disadvantage. Take the siege of Coral as an example, when the Malazans are faced against the K'Chain, the first few waves of K'Chain get decimated by the munitions but then they run out and it is slaughter by the K'Chain.


I am not sure how SE could address that power gap if munitions were not a thing.


You could say that other mortals should have munitions and developed their own munitions but how? It was the Edur/Moranth who developed them originally, they don't exactly give out the recipe and magic/sorcery has stunted the growth of science elsewhere.


I'm not saying you're wrong as I do agree that the munitions are an easy get out, it's just how to answer the full loss of them.


Though I guess that was kinda answered by upping the mages within the marine squads by Rel...


One thing I do wonder with the next two books is which direction they will be heading, who will emerge as the big bad?! K'Chain?


I thought it would be Teblor/Karsa vs the Malazans... doesn't seem it now though...

This post has been edited by champ: 04 August 2021 - 03:11 PM

[tiam]

champ, on 04 August 2021 - 03:11 PM, said:

blackzoid, on 04 August 2021 - 02:06 PM, said:

Either take the munitions away from the Malazans or give everyone else munitions. Thats what I would like to see. Cos right now, its somewhat boring for me and predictable.
"Seguleh/Teblor/Jaghut/Dragon/whatever attack? Nah its ok, we got munitions"

I think that is part of the problem though, with those you have listed there, their power levels are off the charts... whilst the Malazans are, well, Malazan and they tend to win through at the end of the day, they still need their shaved knuckle against such powerful beings and the munitions are pretty much the answer to that. That and being sneaky fuckers...


Without the munitions they are at a severe disadvantage. Take the siege of Coral as an example, when the Malazans are faced against the K'Chain, the first few waves of K'Chain get decimated by the munitions but then they run out and it is slaughter by the K'Chain.


I am not sure how SE could address that power gap if munitions were not a thing.


You could say that other mortals should have munitions and developed their own munitions but how? It was the Edur/Moranth who developed them originally, they don't exactly give out the recipe and magic/sorcery has stunted the growth of science elsewhere.


I'm not saying you're wrong as I do agree that the munitions are an easy get out, it's just how to answer the full loss of them.


Though I guess that was kinda answered by upping the mages within the marine squads by Rel...


One thing I do wonder with the next two books is which direction they will be heading, who will emerge as the big bad?! K'Chain?


I thought it would be Teblor/Karsa vs the Malazans... doesn't seem it now though...

I see it from both sides abyss and blackzoid.

What abyss says is true. There is precedent for this so its not quite out of the blue. But I think it is a convenient balancer though I appreciate sometimes it necessary.

I think champ raises the good point that there has also been a change with stepping up the mages and a dozen or so marines killed boat loads of imass who had no magic to defend themselves. It would have been nice to see the effectiveness of that but had them caught out by the otateral of the teblor. I would have liked the siege train be arbalests or more traditional artillery.

The outcome could have been the same. Sorcery doesn't work, there's a clash between the teblor who died and battalions who didn't make it in a bit of a stalemate and they are both caught out by the wave and the marines save the children. Not sure how it would have worked with the sunyd but they are the weakest bloodline so could have been affected by the sorcery.

In terms of the big bad or even where the trilogy goes from here I'm not sure. Rant and the jheck seeking a homeland with the mercs is a good plot point, karsa will eventually turn up to some effect but other than that I'm.not sure. The kccm seem to have been wiped out.

I'd be interested in the moranth making a play but we may have seen that in OST and they don't seem the type. It would be a good balance given what we have said about the munitions though.

I'd like to see more of the moranth and I have a pet theory that cloud forest is a shard of emurlahn with a lineage of edur, moranth/former barghast with kccm there helping explain the gene splicing of the quorls who don't occur anywhere else. Maybe as a last bastion of the human first empire similar to the nascent.

This post has been edited by tiam: 04 August 2021 - 05:33 PM

[Abyss]

blackzoid, on 04 August 2021 - 02:06 PM, said:

But munitions never seem to run out. They are always there as the plot demands.
In finishing up my reread of The Crippled God, Im reminded of Paran's host at the ass end of the Letheras continent having their munitions with them. Or Dead Hedge inventing new ones for Tavores army.
I wanted the campaign of disinformation to be true in this book. I thought that that SE was basically telling us that the Marines could no longer rely on them to solve their issues. But no, not to be.

Either take the munitions away from the Malazans or give everyone else munitions. Thats what I would like to see. Cos right now, its somewhat boring for me and predictable.
"Seguleh/Teblor/Jaghut/Dragon/whatever attack? Nah its ok, we got munitions"

Remember how Hedge died?

[champ]

Abyss, on 04 August 2021 - 06:03 PM, said:

blackzoid, on 04 August 2021 - 02:06 PM, said:

But munitions never seem to run out. They are always there as the plot demands.
In finishing up my reread of The Crippled God, Im reminded of Paran's host at the ass end of the Letheras continent having their munitions with them. Or Dead Hedge inventing new ones for Tavores army.
I wanted the campaign of disinformation to be true in this book. I thought that that SE was basically telling us that the Marines could no longer rely on them to solve their issues. But no, not to be.

Either take the munitions away from the Malazans or give everyone else munitions. Thats what I would like to see. Cos right now, its somewhat boring for me and predictable.
"Seguleh/Teblor/Jaghut/Dragon/whatever attack? Nah its ok, we got munitions"

Remember how Hedge died?

Still too soon...

[polishgenius]

On the 'take the munitions away to stop them solving problems for the Malazans' thing- I feel like that's kinda overlooking part of the point of how they were used in this particular book - which is a bit similarly to the magic war in Midnight Tides. It isn't really a badass, fuck yeah moment, it's more 'woah, what the FUCK' horrors of war type stuff. They've been used in a fuck-yeah way before, but not here, for me.

But yes, the other side is that they wouldn't be able to play with the powers of the world without munitions.

[Fid]

It’s good to be back and falling for the Malazan Marines all over again. Reminds me of those exciting days waiting for every new instalment of MBOTF - all it needs now is a BBQ hosted by Hetan and Malaclypse. Thanks Steve - the highlight of the summer!

[chavez]

Excuse my imperfect English. I'm italian.I don't understand what exactly "Runts" are ... can you help me understand?The translations I found don't help me.Are they coins?Thank you!

[worry]

They are coins. They are the equivalent of the Deck of Dragons, but cover the new warrens created by Icarium.

[Aptorian]

I really need to get around to reading The God is Not willing and stop clicking on these posts!

[champ]

worry, on 12 August 2021 - 11:37 AM, said:

They are coins. They are the equivalent of the Deck of Dragons, but cover the new warrens created by Icarium.

Presumably named after Mappo Runt too...

Aptorian, on 12 August 2021 - 12:09 PM, said:

I really need to get around to reading The God is Not willing and stop clicking on these posts!

What's stopping you? You are missing out.

This post has been edited by champ: 15 August 2021 - 02:15 PM

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Is "fulminating" the new "potsherds"?

[Cougar]

Yeah, I liked too. The chat amongst the marines was as good as I can remember it being - and I'm just in the midst of a main series re-read, so it's fresh - and I was really impressed with the pacing.

[Abyss]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 16 August 2021 - 01:24 AM, said:

Is "fulminating" the new "potsherds"?

There was a LOT of electrocutions in one chapter.

[Mentalist]

SE takes the futility up to 11 in this one--and it works, dammit.

Stillwater is fun, but feels too close to Smiles. Though her exchange with Cottillion (who's been my favourite since his "eating an apple while hanging off a KCNR Sky Fortress" was precious. I'd love to see Pallid step in and protect Stillwater against another hound.

I probably liked Anyx Fro the most. Because impractical inventions. And Creature.


Gruff is so utterly unperturbed by anything.... I half expected those "f"s to turn into "b"s at some point, and if that still happens, I called it first.

[Spoilsport Stonny]

Hi everyone! Been a while. Happy to still be lurking. TGinW took me about 20 minutes to read cover to cover and it was just pure joy all the way through. Some highlights:

1. Anyx Fro's gun.
2. Cpt. Gruff. I expected a damn fop, got one, and he was probably the best captain we've seen in all the books. How he just fucking slammed Stilgar Younger's head into the wall and killed him was great.
3. Stillwater. The greatest. My heart doth wilt. Folibore's love for her was poetic and joyful.
4. Rant's mother. Just so much respect for a fictional character. Benger's healing of her was a great example of how SE describes certain magic at work.
5. The reveal of the munitions, the flood and then the deaths and then taking us back a few hours to get everything synced up to where it needed was awesome.
6. Stillwater saving everyone and then me realizing that Clay Plate was a healer, then realizing every damn marine is a mage or has enough magic trinkets and coins to make magic happen was brilliant.
7. Mallick Rel is the best Malazan Emperor, hands down. Yeah I know...
8. Damisk
9. Damisk!
10. DAMISK!!!!!!

11. Oh yeah, Nilghan was funny as fuck.

Some confusing thoughts:
1. I wish I had a handbook on how Teblor develop into adulthood and the different benchmarks of their life span.
2. Still not sure about the whole overarching plot. They kinda threw a meted tundra on top of everything so not too much idea where everything is going next.
3. Bliss Rolly and Spindle banged, right? Not sure I wanna know.
4. Oames is a Talon? I think that's right. Who is his protector? Between Three, Oames Ghost and Tangle Witch, these spirit protectors got a little mixed up at times as I was reading.


Guess its time to wait for the completion of TWO series now. Sigh. guess I can go back to reading The Age of Madness, but its just nowhere near as fun.

[worry]

20 minutes is too fast! Are you sure you caught everything?

[Spoilsport Stonny]

worry, on 02 November 2021 - 12:41 AM, said:

20 minutes is too fast! Are you sure you caught everything?

Nope just the parts I mentioned. I'm such a phony.

[Abyss]

Spoilsport Stonny, on 01 November 2021 - 10:48 PM, said:

Hi everyone! Been a while. Happy to still be lurking. TGinW took me about 20 minutes to read cover to cover and it was just pure joy all the way through. Some highlights:

1. Anyx Fro's gun.

I loved that so so much.
The misfire were as good as the success.

Quote

2. Cpt. Gruff. I expected a damn fop, got one, and he was probably the best captain we've seen in all the books. How he just fucking slammed Stilgar Younger's head into the wall and killed him was great.

Agreed. Best. Captain. Yet.

He didn't kill Silgar tho', just battered him unconscious and shipped him out with the other refugees ahead of the invasion.

Quote

3. Stillwater. The greatest. My heart doth wilt. Folibore's love for her was poetic and joyful.
4. Rant's mother. Just so much respect for a fictional character. Benger's healing of her was a great example of how SE describes certain magic at work.
5. The reveal of the munitions, the flood and then the deaths and then taking us back a few hours to get everything synced up to where it needed was awesome.
6. Stillwater saving everyone and then me realizing that Clay Plate was a healer, then realizing every damn marine is a mage or has enough magic trinkets and coins to make magic happen was brilliant.
7. Mallick Rel is the best Malazan Emperor, hands down. Yeah I know... .

AGreed on all points.

Quote

Some confusing thoughts:
...2. Still not sure about the whole overarching plot. They kinda threw a meted tundra on top of everything so not too much idea where everything is going next.

Trust in SE. SE is good. SE is great. SE has a plan.

Quote

3. Bliss Rolly and Spindle banged, right? Not sure I wanna know.

Hairshirt and all.

Quote

4. Oames is a Talon? I think that's right. Who is his protector? Between Three, Oames Ghost and Tangle Witch, these spirit protectors got a little mixed up at times as I was reading.

Yes Oames is a Talon.

His ghost was Tanglewitch but we only tied that name to her towards the end.
Three was Rant's knife spirit Che'malle assassin.

[Spoilsport Stonny]

I thought Tangle Witch was the old witch lady who lived in the funeral shroud Stillwater wore around her neck...

Also I trust. I trust. I've gotten to this point, have I not? Wish it was WiS, but its a great book nonetheless.

As for Lil Silgar, IDK that was a lot of blood. I guess I was just was HOPING he died.

This post has been edited by Spoilsport Stonny: 02 November 2021 - 04:58 PM