[champ]

Aptorian, on 23 August 2021 - 04:51 PM, said:

P. 172.

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

That scene was holy shit epic and such a tease, we needed more there than what it gave us ha.

[Aptorian]

Just finished chapter 11 after Monkrat's talk with Spindle.

First of all, all these new powers and alignments are very cool. It's a great shake up and refresh of a fantasy world that had become too familiar.

Second of all, I don't know if this is intended but so, the way Erikson has told the story and presented the characters and history - I think this book could be a new Gardens of the Moon. It's filled with stories you're supposed to know but the reading doesn't suffer from lack of knowledge of the older books I think.

[Abyss]

Aptorian, on 23 August 2021 - 06:03 PM, said:

Just finished chapter 11 after Monkrat's talk with Spindle.

First of all, all these new powers and alignments are very cool. It's a great shake up and refresh of a fantasy world that had become too familiar.

Second of all, I don't know if this is intended but so, the way Erikson has told the story and presented the characters and history - I think this book could be a new Gardens of the Moon. It's filled with stories you're supposed to know but the reading doesn't suffer from lack of knowledge of the older books I think.

That chapter.
Was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FNIKG GREAT.

[Aptorian]

Finished chapter 19. P. 378.

Well that went to shit in a hurry. First a harsh lesson about land mines, then a super Tsunami.

First of all I'm annoyed that Erikson took the route of just making the Teblor ignorant of the Malazans tactics. I get that they were isolationist and stupid in their arrogance. But you'd think some rumors of Malazan tactics would disseminate through the tribes. Stories like how the Seguleh got fucked up a decade earlier.

We always speculated what a Teblor army led by Karsa would have been able to do against the Malazans and city states of Genebackis. I was hoping that was what we'd get, savage brutality and spirit magic versus the armies of civilization.

This was predictable and therefore more pointless than tragic.

Second of all. If the tidal wave was this close to the Teblor and Wilder migration, there should have been much more urgency and desperation. The Warlocks would have known what time table they were working with.

Third, where the hell is that water actually coming from? Like, is the entire North of Genebackis situated deep below sea level? How is that much water able to move that far inland that fast?

Fourth I would have loved some more ascendant/divine cameos surrounding an event as big as this. Gods love chaos. Surely there's some Jaghut Mael could berate about faulty rituals. How Omtose Phellack just isn't what it used to be.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 29 August 2021 - 06:42 PM

[Cyphon]

Aptorian, on 29 August 2021 - 06:40 PM, said:

Finished chapter 19. P. 378.

Fourth I would have loved some more ascendant/divine cameos surrounding an event as big as this. Gods love chaos. Surely there's some Jaghut Mael could berate about faulty rituals. How Omtose Phellack just isn't what it used to be.

You sure thats not just your "get off my lawn" inclinations shining through?

[Aptorian]

Just finished the God is not Willing and I'm sort of unhappy about most things in this book.

I loved the new marines. I loved the evolution of tactics. What little we heard of a new magic system. But that sort drowns in a terrible manuscript. It starts out really strong, full of promise and then just sinks.

I mentioned above a long passage in the beginning, where Damisk does a left wing rant about environmentalism and stupid people. I didn't like it. It felt preachy and lacked subtlety. And having now finished the book I think the whole story is just an ugly, clumsy metaphor for Climate Change with Rant Thunberg saving the day with his childlike purity.

The tiny concerns of warring tribes is swept away when the environment collapses. The catastrophe makes the civilized and the savages see each other in a new light and put down their arms and together they begin to build a new tomorrow.

Hell, there's even a pretty unnerving scene with a woman killing a friend, who would question the new agenda.

Seriously? What a load of masturbatory bullshit.

This is why I came to dislike the later books in the main Malazan series. Erikson's agenda comes in the way of a good story. Again. A-fucking-gain him and Esslemont take a story that has been built up since House of Chains, Karsa and the Teblor, and just smashes the readers hype against a rock.

Bah!

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 30 August 2021 - 08:06 PM

[worry]

Talk about 'Rant's, am I right folks? Disagreements aside, though, gotta give you credit for resisting the urge to say "virtue signaling" somewhere in there.

[Aptorian]

I did go a bit fox news there.

But Erikson went full Rachel Maddow in this book.

What's the next book going to be about? The Malazan Empire putting Teblor children in cages at the border? And the good guy marines being sad about it.Or maybe race riots by the Saemdhi in Darujistan because a soldier choked out an Imass who was selling illegal trinkets? An Orange headed City Councillor declaring that these savages should return to their shit hole warrens. Maybe something about defunding the marines because they're apparently all mages now and the cost of military training is too damn high.

This book was so unsubtle it disappointed me. I'm actually all on board with Erikson's political beliefs but I don't recall him writing something this overt. Maybe he's just feeling the same desperation the rest of us feel when we see the news about climate and the politicians aren't doing shit.

[Cyphon]

Well Apt just canned the next six books plotlines with those reveals.

I think one issue with the book is that it's written to be fairly self contained due presumably to being unsure of the reception. I think it makes a tighter story which is good but I wonder if it means that some of that wider narrative arc had to curtailed. That might have made it more on the nose for you Apt as Erikson didnt know whether he had more than one shot on this.

I suspect when/if all three are published we might look differently on this book, even if most of the response has been positive.

[Mythodikal]

Apt,

I think it is in Midnight Tides that we first start to really hear about the dying of the Jaghut rituals of ice and how that will effect the world. It may have been brought up in MoI, but I think MT is where it really sinks in with the flooding of the Meckros cities.

It has been over a month since I finished reading, and I admit I did plow through the book with excitement so my memory is hazy at best. I don't remember the Damisk rant. That being said, I do remember there were some "messages" included that seemed current.

When it comes down to it though, I have actually been looking forward to giving this book a second read. Like I said, the first read was pretty quick.

I have been someone that has been extremely critical about the tone and message delivery in SE's later novels. See thread about didactic messaging in FoL forum. Also lack of interest in this novel.

Anyway, I guess I am very poorly trying to say that I was super happy with this novel. The messages were there, but for me, they didn't consume the story. Maybe that is a conditioning of expecting way more and be thankful it wasn't. Maybe I just thought the story was super fun and kicked ass...

I'm sure the 2nd read will shed more light.

[Siergiej]

I just finished reading the book and am checking out what the forum thinks. I need time to process my own thoughts but I'm a bit surprised at this criticism of The God is not Willing:

Quote

But Erikson went full Rachel Maddow in this book.<br style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">What's the next book going to be about? The Malazan Empire putting Teblor children in cages at the border? And the good guy marines being sad about it.Or maybe race riots by the Saemdhi in Darujistan because a soldier choked out an Imass who was selling illegal trinkets? An Orange headed City Councillor declaring that these savages should return to their shit hole warrens. Maybe something about defunding the marines because they're apparently all mages now and the cost of military training is too damn high.<br style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><br style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">
This book was so unsubtle it disappointed me. I'm actually all on board with Erikson's political beliefs but I don't recall him writing something this overt. Maybe he's just feeling the same desperation the rest of us feel when we see the news about climate and the politicians aren't doing shit.

Erikson has never been subtle about his politics. Or at least not since Midnight Tides, which was going CAPITALISM BAD in every description of Letherii society. And I agree with SE so maybe that's why it was never a problem for me but he's always been very in your face with the political message. I didn't see a shift in tone in The God is not Willing at all - only a thematic change, with taking on the climate crisis and refugee crisis.

[Mentalist]

Damisk is an old man who's done a lot of bad shit, and then he had his "American Beauty" revelation moment seeing the caribou in flight and THEN he got a naive Teblor ward who'd hang onto his every word. OF COURSE he'd rant about the world and humanity's failures and get off his forest clearing, y'damned city kids.

The underlying message coming from the book is the utter dumb, shitty futility of the conflict. The Teblor Warleader was a moron, driven by the need to surpass Karsa; Karsa himself mellowed out on the whole "burn down civilization" crusade as of the ending of Reaper's Gale (All that nagging from Samar Dev must've rubbed off on him). The wild forest tribes were all planning to make one glorious rush to the southlands and maybe settle some scores int he process, because they could not imagine that the lowlanders would treat them with any empathy; the way the White Jheck chief broke down in front of Spindle was pretty telling- "we didn't even know the world was this big, but when our own world was destroyed, we had to flee, and you'd kill us for our pelts, cuz we're unsophisticated savages". Everything about this was a war that was not needed

So really, it all comes down to Rant and what his destiny's gonna be. Obviously he's gonna have to confront Karsa. what shape will that confrontation take is the real question.

[Aptorian]

I can't wait for Rant to tearfully admonish Karsa at a Darujistan summit: "How dare you!".

[Mentalist]

Aptorian, on 20 October 2021 - 05:24 AM, said:

I can't wait for Rant to tearfully admonish Karsa at a Darujistan summit: "How dare you!".

Nah, I think he's gonna pass the War Bitch's words to him- being worshipped carries obligations.

The issue is, will that message get through, or are we gonna see some Shigall-assisted fratricide in the classic SE "Greek Tragedy born of misunderstanding/cruel fates intervening" style.