Malazan Empire: Memories of Ice - Reread Critique - Malazan Empire

While a bit long, that was a pretty damned good book.

It's been a couple of years since I read MoI, and I don't know why I pretty much seemed to forget about the second half of the story (post-Capustan). Maybe I was mad at Lady Envy's inclusion (she wasn't as bad this time around)or the ridiculous Mhybe parts (oh Christ, she was just as bad as before). Was it due to the annoyance that Silverfox generates (which was twice as bad this time!), the sheer carnage that was the siege of Capustan (not nearly as bad this time around), or was I just ticked off at how (what was left of) the Bridgeburners were jobbed out (eh, they had to go sometime)? Who knows, but that's neither here nor there.

Hey, in the "Nice Change" department, this time Erikson decided not to Bait 'n Switch his readers, nor throw them a bone over anything major that he swerved on. MoI contained payoffs for just about everything in the story. Mok finally beat up Tool, Quick Ben successfully helped out Burn to survive longer, the Pannion Domin was thoroughly trounced, etc. etc. Well, one could make a case that Silverfox's plans for the T'lan Imass hordes was torpedo'd.

Unfortunately, minor errors slipped through the editing cracks of this book as well. One example is a discussion between... uhh... someone and someone else over Nightchill's role in the sorcerous enfilade at Pale - it's said that Tayschrenn went after her after Nightchill took out A'Karonys. That should have been Hairlock (who was hit from behind), as everyone's favourite staff-weilding flame-throwing High Mage was taken out by Anomander Rake, not Nightchill.

Did anyone else notice the subtle differences in the Prologue and the preview Prologue for MoI at the back of DG?

So after reading through the blurry details of poor old Heboric Ghost-Hands' trials and tribulations in DG, we finally get some kind of explanation for what happens to Fener. Oh, along the same lines, the scene in GotM where Paran chews on Raest's Finnest like a dog makes a bit more sense now (see: Paran & Quick Ben vs. Kilava).

Oh, speaking of everyone's favourite flesh 'n blood Bonecaster (without multiple personalities that is), her reasoning for wanting to personally take out the Pannion Seer was pretty thin. What was it - because he tortured Toc the Younger, Tool's friend? Bah. Sure, she needed to be there in those final scenes with Pannion & his sister and such, to provide some closure on the events in the Prologue, but I thought it could have been done better.

Speaking of beginnings and endings, I thought it was particularly poignant (say that 10x fast!) to open and close the book with that old artist that painted those new cards for the Crippled God. Cool way to end the story.

Now, up to this point, we've seen pretty much nothing out of the Crimson Blades. Everyone seems to feel they're pretty tough, and the Task Force in Darujistan was certainly superior to anything the Malazans (and the Tiste Andii it seems) have, but I'm surprised that Erikson didn't include them in this story. It was a golden opportunity. (Shrug)

Mercenary company names:
- Crimson Blades
- Red Swords
- Grey Swords
- It's getting lame real fast SE!

Moving along to other events - now, I don't claim to be the commander of a mercenary company, but it seems pretty silly that the policy of the Grey Swords would be to sacrifice veteran soldiers in order to save recruits during on-the-job training. Seems like a good way to thin your ranks. Of course, if the recruit was killed by the K'Chain Che'Malle right off the bat, there goes the plans for the new Destriant eh?

Oh, and I only mention that SE forgot about Lorn's Otataral sword out of course. Everyone knows he forgot about it. Ah, that baby sure would have been handy wouldn't it?

One thing that gets me in this series is how difficult long-distance communication is, and it seems that it's always been difficult. Case in point, when we learn the history of the Barghast peoples, we discover that they were coming to the First Gathering, but had to fight the Tiste Edur every paddle of the way across the ocean, and ended up being too late. With the fantastic magical powers that they possessed, wouldn't it have been easy to contact their brethren and say "we're going to be late, please wait for us", or "hey, how about some help here?".

Same goes for the message that Lanos Tog (sp?) is bringing to the Second Gathering. Both Clans she represented no doubt had lots of Bonecasters - they can't manage a single message to the Kron or Logros Clans? When they're in the most devastating battle (I assume) in the 300,000+ year history of the T'lan Imass? Even a simple "help?". Ridiculous. We see how Whiskeyjack and Dujek comminicate in GotM over long distances via the use of that magic bone thing - how hard can it be (don't forget Kalam and Laseen's discussion in DG - that was long-distance too)?

Of course, these communication problems serve a purpose for Erikson - they allow for his plot to unfold the way he wants. To me, it seems a cheap and heavy-handed way to go about things - I would have assumed for a people like the Imass, they would have established communication methods hundreds of millenia ago to allow them to co-ordinate efforts against the Jaghut.

Moving along, what can I say about Whiskeyjack? I liked him as a character, and emphasized with him certainly, but the injured leg thing is, I dunno. The first time through the book, that injured leg stood out like a sore thumb and you just knew it was going to be significant for something. This time around, it didn't seem that bad - his bigger mistake was trusting Kallor.

I mean, for 900 pages Kallor's this big jackass (I love Kallor - he's awesome) who ticks off everyone and threatens to kill Silverfox and anyone who protects her. Then he apologizes before the attack on Coral, causing Whiskeyjack, Korlat, Tayscrenn, etc. to drop their guard? If his arrival (to Silverfox's location no less), alone (as in, without the mediating influence of Brood!), didn't cause alarm bells to go off, I don't know what should! Actually, I really don't have that much of a problem with how the scene went down, I just want to point out that it seems to be out of character for Whiskeyjack & co. to let Kallor get the drop on 'em, and for Brood to let Kallor get out of his sight in such important circumstances.

Personally, I think they all should have listened to the man! He's got millenia of experience and expertise you know! That being said, it's a little disappointing to realize that while he's probably a pretty tough fighter, someone like Whiskeyjack could take him out in a duel within seconds. No disrespect to 'jack and all, but with 100,000 or so years of experience as a warrior, I expected better! I was even kinda holding out hope that Kallor could secretly be the First or Second amoung the Segulah - that'd be a neat plot twist. But, as Brood says, Kallor's undefeated because of a careful choice of opponents - which to me means Kallor's at least smart enough to know when to back down.

One last thing about Kallor - when offered the chance to join the House of Chains, he seems to say he wants to be the King. But the appendices show him to be the Reaver, and that's backed up by... um, is it K'rul who makes the statement to... Silverfox about an 'ancient warrior becoming Reaver'. I don't know why this King/Reaver discrepancy's in there - editing blunder I guess.

Not many books cause me to laugh out loud, but the scene where Hedge is ripping on Detoran about the bhederin bull following them was really funny. As were his comments during Detoran's pummeling of him.

I'm still rolling something around in my head - the decision to send Paran and the BB's ahead to scout/weaken the defenses around Coral. I mean, we already know from the conversation between Kimloc and Fiddler in DG that the BB's are pretty much guaranteed to ascend upon their deaths. Does the suicide mission that the BB's embarck upon just provide a means for their deaths, or was it really 'worth it'? There's no way the 'good guys' could know about Lady Envy & co., but we the readers know, and we're all that counts. The first time through the book I thought the final destruction of the BB's was cheap and wasted. Now, I'm not so sure. Seemed like the way they all should have gone out.

Hmm... it's late, and I'm tired. I have more things I'd like to say, but they'll have to wait for another post, if I do one. Overall, Memories of Ice is the best book in the entire series, and a damn fine epic fantasy novel.