Malazan Empire: The series in general - Malazan Empire

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The series in general Rate Topic: -----

#41 User is offline   Flyswatter 

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Posted 15 November 2008 - 11:22 PM

I started at GofTM and was sucked right in. I had read an ass load of fantasy up to that point, and thought i knew what quality was. I experienced a moment of clarity if you will while reading Gardens, "Holy shit this book is sick!!!" (that was my moment of clarity). Ha. Since then if I pick up a new fantasy author they are all compared to SE.
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#42 User is offline   Use Of Weapons 

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 03:09 PM

View Postlorddarkflare, on Jun 11 2008, 04:57 AM, said:

Well yeah, the Only books Feist wrote that were actually good and Original was Magician and Daughter of the empire. Everything else belongs in a garbage heap.


Hey -- haven't you read 'Faerie Tale'? Probably his best book ever, atmospheric and chilling, and much more graphic than you may be used to from his fantasy.
It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about nowadays saying things against one, behind one's back, that are absolutely and entirely true.
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#43 User is offline   Use Of Weapons 

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 03:27 PM

Oh, and, re: the topic :)

You can't blame publishers for sellling what they are selling. Do you think they wouldn't snap up an author in a second if they thought there was a market? There are, obviously, some things they will miss (Harry Potter, IIRC, was hawked round various publishers before Scholastic took a chance on an unproven, unknown writer). But in general, publishers are very aware of what will sell well, what will sell tolerably, and what will barely make back its advance. The sad truth is that the market for intelligent, demanding fantasy is much smaller than that for cookie-cutter EFP (extruded fantasy product). Which is not to say that the latter cannot be good -- I love a bit of Lackey, myself. But it does mean that the Eriksons, Bakkers, and Miévilles get crowded out somewhat.

Personally, I started with GotM, and loved the confusion. 'What the hell is a warren?' 'Who _are_ these people?' 'Man, this undead guy rocks!' 'Tayschrenn, you bastard!' These were typical reactions during my first read :-) And I now own a first edition GotM! w00t!
It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about nowadays saying things against one, behind one's back, that are absolutely and entirely true.
-- Oscar Wilde
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#44 User is offline   Sarkaukar 

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Posted 20 November 2008 - 08:39 PM

Greetings,

I usually do not read fantasy novels, more into scifi, with the exception of Wheel of Time series (was drunk at a party, everyone else passed out, picked up vol 2 that was on the table. Book was never returned to table) and way back with Conan series. With Malazan series, it was actually the cover of Deadhouse Gates with the hound impressions in the sand storm following the riders. Looked at a couple of the other covers and what struck me was the grim and ominous nature of the covers.

Picked up Deadhouse, sat down and started reading then 45 minutes later (time passes) walked out with the first 3 that was on the bookshelf. Unfortunately, some of the covers on the US published books, if I had seen them first, would likely not have picked it up at first glance. Thank you Steve Stone, as I would have missed out on an excellent series. Though Todd Lockwood did ok on a few of the newer ones but so far he does not come close to Stone's covers. This also means some of the books I had to order from Britian, as the US covers bite.

At my job there are a few people who are in fantasy/roleplaying, D&D, etc and gave one of them an extra copy of Moon of the Gardens. He had some difficulty (something was bugging him) at first til he got through a few passages of some conversations, and it hit him why he had difficulty at first, likely due to unexpectation that the conversations reflected the give/take of the conversations he and his RPG friends have each weekend.

He kindly handed GotM back to me, letting me know he ordered the all the books currently available and did not want to finish GotM then have to wait on the delivery before getting back into the series.
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#45 User is offline   PewPewlazarz 

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Posted 20 November 2008 - 09:53 PM

I have literally tried to get at the very least 10 people to read this book series, and only two of which ended up doing so. It is completely true people are lazy and its a total disappointment, I will not lie every so often I have to put down the book and look up more than one word a page, or just reread a page till it makes sense. Love the book series either way MoI is my favorite book at the moment...yaPosted Image(oh this is also my first post on the website)
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#46 User is offline   Jude 

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Posted 21 November 2008 - 07:06 PM

welcome to the forum then!

it actually hasn't been that hard for me to turn people i know onto the series. Ive shown about ten people too and only one of them rejected it. He wasn't a smart guy to geing with though so none of us expected him to stick with it. Everyone else loved it right away though
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#47 User is offline   Salt-Man Z 

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Posted 19 December 2008 - 06:43 PM

I don't have a whole lot of opportunity to introduce others to the MBotF. I got one of my friends into the series by giving him GotM and DG for Christmas last year. (Then a giftcard for MoI and HoC for his birthday.) He's on RG now, and I'm getting him NoK for Christmas. I don't know what possessed me to introduce him to the series, but it worked out.

I've gotten my brother the first 3 books for Christmas; we generally share similar tastes in books, so I'm hoping to hook him. I'd like to try getting my father-in-law into them, but they might be too non-traditional. And I'm afraid my wife just wouldn't like them.

View Postalt146, on Nov 10 2008, 03:14 AM, said:

I think the thing to remember about this series, and GOTM specifically, is that it starts halfway through the story. All the characters are already 'developed', we just dont know anything about them. Which makes it much more like real life. 90% of the time you have no idea why people say and do things when you meet them. Then you get to know them better, find out more about them and their pasts and gain a better understanding of who they are. The same thing happens in these books.

When I read GoTM, I though most of the characters were cool, but didnt really care much about them. After reading about stuff like the formation of the bridgeburners, they meant a lot more to me. And it wouldnt have had nearly the same impact if the book started with 'This is WhiskeyJack. He's badass and his troops love him because of this trip through the desert they once made.' Instead we slowly learn who the bridgeburners are by spending time with them, then we learn what made them the way they are and go 'wow'. This formula is applied to almost all the characters in the earlier novels, except maybe Karsa, since we only see him briefly before HoC.

For character development to have happened in the traditional sense would have been damn near impossible, as the series would have started at pretty much the beginning of time, since a couple of the characters have been around since then. And to be honest, it would have been incredibly long and boring fantasy/history. I think the characters are much richer for having to be discovered, rather than dumped into our laps.

I agree that the first book can be hard going and confusing, but so much incredibly cool stuff happens. So many of the characters and places are interesting for what they are, rather than who. And there's this tangible mystery surrounding everything that I finished it for that and the love of the world and it's people came after.

This is about the best explanation/description/defense of why SE's method works that I've read yet. Kudos, good sir.
"Here is light. You will say that it is not a living entity, but you miss the point that it is more, not less. Without occupying space, it fills the universe. It nourishes everything, yet itself feeds upon destruction. We claim to control it, but does it not perhaps cultivate us as a source of food? May it not be that all wood grows so that it can be set ablaze, and that men and women are born to kindle fires?"
―Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch
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#48 User is offline   sappers to the breach 

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Posted 07 January 2009 - 01:28 PM

1. i can completely agree that the character development it done just the right way. mimicking real life. i have learned the hard way to not try and read when i am too tired cause i miss too much story.
2. agreeing with saukaukar, the British cover rock. i am currently living in poland and i was drawn to the series as well by the covers. very dramatic.
3. does anyone know if SE has any military experience, because as a former sapper, his insight into how units function and actually interact in very good. many times i find my self laughing at exchanges that others might miss. and yes real life sappers are just as crazy and love to blow s!@# up.
4. i have read several other fantasy series over the last several years and this is by far one of my favorites. i think it is because there is no defining line between who is good and who is evil. just like real life it all depends on what side of the line your on.
thanks for listening.
Sappers in the breach.
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#49 User is offline   gambler 

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Posted 13 January 2009 - 04:25 PM

I'll admit that I almost didn't stick with this series. It helped a LOT that I picked up "Memories of Ice" first, thinking each book was a stand alone within the world, and read the prologue which was some of the best writing, and had one of the most interesting hooks that I'd seen. If I hadn't read that prologue, I never would have finished Gardens of the Moon.

The problem for me is that SE's writing style is just a bit leaner than I like when it comes to explanation of people, races, etc. Some characters I didn't realize were completely non-human races until well after they were introduced because it's not always clear if a term describes a race, a nationality or even an occupation. This style of writing, combined with the huge numbers of characters, nationalities, etc thrown at the reader over the first few chapters, really is overwhelming. The payoff was worth it though. And then I started reading "Deadhouse Gates" and had a whole new host of characters and places to fit into my mind. Once again, the payoff was worth it.

The thing about Erikson's novels (at least the first three - I've taken a break until the main arc novels are finished as I think I need to go back and re-read from the start) is that they really do end with amazing climaxes. I have a hard time seeing things in my Mind's Eye, but each of the first three books ends with scenes which I have no problem seeing in my own private movie theatre.

I am greatly looking forward to reading the whole thing when it's finished, and in the meantime will try "A Night of Knives", possibly starting this weekend. It's a fascinating world, but again, requires a lot of energy and focus to read.
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#50 User is offline   Old Magic 

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Posted 04 February 2009 - 09:37 PM

I hope after 10 books, maybe 7-8,000 pages, that there will be some character development, at least with characters that matter.. no need to water down what works, whats potent. Somehow each books seems to keep a main plot-line which is most remarkable, everything seems to have a point (redmask?). I started with HoC and just finished RG and have had little confusion with characters and plot.. It's the shear size and scope that scares potential readers.. I also have trouble seeing women enjoying the series, maybe its just me but I think it caters to men, violence/more description of womens 'attributes'..
"Relax. What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind!"
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#51 User is offline   A zen-like chill 

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Posted 09 February 2009 - 02:26 AM

I saw Gardens of the Moon in a bookstore, just after it had been released in the U.S.. When I finished reading it the next day I did a search online to find out when the second book would come out. It already was, as long as the 3rd, 4th, and I think the 5th....in the UK. I blame Mr. Erikson for my present addiction to ordering most new fantasy from AmazonUK. The first book had just been released here, and I think the fourth was going into paperback in Europe. I'm starting to think that someone should toilet paper American publishing houses to the ground in protest. Dust of Dreams? A Dance of Dragons (if it ever comes out)? Yeah, I'll be paying a hefty shipping fee for those.

Anyway, I've been lurking on the site for a few months (gorgeously done, by the way, to whomever it may concern). Finally decided I'd join today and start throwing my two cents in occasionally (what can you buy with two cents? not a damned thing).
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