[Aptorian]

I'm going to start my own reading thread since I'm late to the party and I'm weary of spoilers.

No spoiler discussion in this thread beyond my current page number. OR I WILL CURSE YOUR ENTIRE BLOODLINE WITH ATHLETE'S FOOT!

So, the prologue.

It's not that long ago that I read HOC and I don't recall any gold farming tribe Karsa and co. come upon. I wonder if Warleader Elade's story is entirely true. What ever the case it's interesting how his path kind of mirrors Karsa's initial quest, I wonder if he too will come to learn some hard lessons. From the outset I'd enjoy the dark humour of Elade challenging Karsa and seeing him chopped in two.

Besides the climate change parallel, I wonder at the breaking down of the ice wall/mountains in the Loaderon plateau. Maybe it's just happen stance but I wonder if there's a Jaghut or god's hand involved in the timing.

[James Hutton]

Enjoy!

[Dutch]

I must admit that the prologue totally didn't get me, it wasn't until the next chapter that I got hooked.

Was like, just another blabbering Teblor blabbering of greatness.

[Aptorian]

Yeah, I opened the book a couple times the past few weeks but another story with a group of savages didn't really catch my interest.

Into chapter 1 now. Not sure I like this Oam character saying fuck so much, the Malazan curses had more charm.

[Aptorian]

P. 20 Kindle edition

I love these little character presentations Erikson does.

"Should I get Blanket for this? He’s in the latrine.’
Stillwater pulled a face. Blanket made her nervous. ‘Well, how long has he been in there?’
Shrugging, Folibore said, ‘No telling how long it’ll take.’
‘Why, what’s wrong with him?’
‘Nothing. I told you. He’s in the latrine.’ He paused. ‘In the latrine. Dropped that amulet his grandmother gave him.’
‘The amulet with the inscription? The one that says kill this boy before he grows up? What kind of keepsake is that? Blanket’s not right in the head, you know.’
Looking uncomfortable, Folibore shrugged again."

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 15 August 2021 - 05:38 PM

[Aptorian]

Finished chapter 1. Good, if somewhat typical, start. New company, new characters. All variations of types we've known before but with different backgrounds.

This Captain Gruff is probably who I'm looking forward to learning more about the most. Slit a few throats in his day has he?

[Abyss]

Aptorian, on 15 August 2021 - 05:37 PM, said:

P. 20 Kindle edition

I love these little character presentations Erikson does.

"Should I get Blanket for this? He's in the latrine.'
Stillwater pulled a face. Blanket made her nervous. 'Well, how long has he been in there?'
Shrugging, Folibore said, 'No telling how long it'll take.'
'Why, what's wrong with him?'
'Nothing. I told you. He's in the latrine.' He paused. 'In the latrine. Dropped that amulet his grandmother gave him.'
'The amulet with the inscription? The one that says kill this boy before he grows up? What kind of keepsake is that? Blanket's not right in the head, you know.'
Looking uncomfortable, Folibore shrugged again."

Those are a treat. Everything you need to know to intro a character in one fast exchange.

Aptorian, on 15 August 2021 - 06:36 PM, said:

Finished chapter 1. Good, if somewhat typical, start. New company, new characters. All variations of types we've known before but with different backgrounds.

This Captain Gruff is probably who I'm looking forward to learning more about the most. Slit a few throats in his day has he?

Best. Malazan Captain. EVER.
The earbook narrator was so brilliant with him.

[Aptorian]

Been to tired to read much today but I'm also fascinated by Stillwater. She's got the mind of a heavy but wants to be an assassin mage She kind of reminds me of Iskarial Pust.

[Aptorian]

Chapter 3.
Karsa got that woman he raped in Silver Lake pregnant.
And she went insane.
And they sired a half-blood kid named Rant.
And Rants mother raped him.
Wow, this is fucked up and probably will only get worse if people figure out who the kids father is.
Wonder if the kid will have inherited some of his father's strength, even if he wasn't ascended at that point.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 16 August 2021 - 06:28 PM

[Aptorian]

Damisk. Recognized the name but I had to look him up. I'm surprised he survived the uprising on 7C. And I'm even more surprised he'd decide to return to that backwater.

[Dutch]

Yep, captain Gruff is one of a kind.

Stillwater, one of my favorite chars.

[Aptorian]

Didn't get any progress done over the week but picking back up around page 66.

This passage is a bit much. It feels like your typical left wing circle jerk about how much smarter you are than those other jerks.

Erikson has always been transparent in his world views as expressed through his characters but this is pretty heavy handed lecturing. Or maybe the Climate Crisis is just so urgent now that Erikson feels that subtlety is a waste of time.

Quote

The season for hopes, for renewed ambitions and enlivened resolve. The season for all the delusions to rise up once more, filling the fresh night air with their haunting promises.

Damisk’s mood soured. He’d seen too many of these seasons, felt all too often the hollowness at the core of renewal, the rot hiding within. In the course of his single lifetime as a hunter, he had seen the game disappear in an ever-widening circle, with the settlement of Silver Lake at the centre.

Too many believed the world was unchanging, eternal in its cycles. The roll-over of one season into the next, year after year, deceived them into believing this. To Damisk’s mind, that most comforting lie was among the foremost traits of stupidity.

Nor was change unpredictable. It was in fact the very opposite. With eyes open and thinking fully engaged, so much of what came was not only predictable, it was inevitable.

He thought to explain this to Rant, the giant child at his side, laying out his theory of how the world worked; that its most powerful constant wouldn’t be found in natural laws, in the needs of eating and sleeping and breeding. Wouldn’t be found in how places rose and then fell, either. Wouldn’t be found in seasons, or traditions, or all those borders animal and human scratched out on the ground. Lad, the most powerful constant is stupidity. Nothing else comes close. Stupidity kills all the animals, empties the sky of birds, poisons the rivers, burns the forests, wages the wars, feeds the lies, invents the world over and over again in ways only idiots could think real. Stupidity, lad, will defeat every god, crush every dream, topple every empire. Because, in the end, stupid people outnumber smart people. If that wasn’t true, we wouldn’t suffer over and over again, through generation after generation and on for ever.

But the lad was young, too fresh to the world for such grim lessons. He had enough horrors to deal with. Besides, it did nothing to tell someone such things. Stupidity needed no allies among the wise, because there was nothing out there that could challenge it.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 21 August 2021 - 04:21 PM

[Aptorian]

Hmm. A White Jheck hunting tribe called the Saemdhi, has come south and it scares Damisk shitless? What if it isn't the Saemdhi that came south but the Jheck instead? Climate refugee Jheck are probably very motivated.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 21 August 2021 - 04:33 PM

[Abyss]

Dutch, on 16 August 2021 - 07:11 PM, said:

Yep, captain Gruff is one of a kind.

Stillwater, one of my favorite chars.

^ these are the correct takes.
Seriously the earbook is worthwhile just for the narrator's voice for Gruff.

Aptorian, on 21 August 2021 - 04:32 PM, said:

Hmm. A White Jheck hunting tribe called the Saemdhi, has come south and it scares Damisk shitless? What if it isn't the Saemdhi that came south but the Jheck instead? Climate refugee Jheck are probably very motivated.

...what if indeed...

[Abyss]

I take your point, but this

Aptorian, on 21 August 2021 - 04:20 PM, said:

.... Lad, the most powerful constant is stupidity. Nothing else comes close. Stupidity kills all the animals, empties the sky of birds, poisons the rivers, burns the forests, wages the wars, feeds the lies, invents the world over and over again in ways only idiots could think real. Stupidity, lad, will defeat every god, crush every dream, topple every empire. Because, in the end, stupid people outnumber smart people. If that wasn't true, we wouldn't suffer over and over again, through generation after generation and on for ever.
...

...is brilliant.

[Aptorian]

Truth hurts.

Reading about the Malazans and the mercenaries on the march. Those three mercenary sergeants are nothing but trouble. I hope they get a good stabbing before the end of the story.

[Aptorian]

P. 110. Nathii Vs Jheck Vs Rant.

Either all Toblakai are a terror to fight, even their children, or Rant has definitely enherited some serious power from his father. That fight was brutal.

[Aptorian]

P. 117. Oohh, a Jheck Azath Hold. Fascinating. Guarded by somebody calling themselves War-Bitch. This has to be a Jaghut. I love their humor.

Edit. Not a Jaghut. Seems to be be a random Jheck Ascendant. And there's 10.000 Nathii on the move? The Malazans are going to have a hard time holding Silver Lake.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 22 August 2021 - 08:49 AM

[Aptorian]

Now Rant has made friends with what sounds to be a dragon soul, caught inside a proto-warren gate, that will live in his knife and guide him.

These Rant sections are great. At the beginning I was worried this par of the book would be miserable portraits of half breed life in a back waters town, instead we have a bona fide kid in a fairy tale adventure going on.

[Aptorian]

P. 172.

Damn. That stone god just took out four fully manned sky keeps full of Kchain Chemalle. I'm impressed..