[SSOCB]

I've noticed 'bout the two camps thing and I know where I land, but I can understand that that it bothers some poeple. If timelines are your private paradice the descrepancies most be like a dripping tap. You know it is not significant, but if still irretates you to hell and gone. So for the sake of the timeline fanatics I really hope the discrepancies do get fixed in later edditions. It looks like it would make a lot of people very happy.

[Danyah]

SSOCB;325168 said:

I've noticed 'bout the two camps thing and I know where I land, but I can understand that that it bothers some poeple. If timelines are your private paradice the descrepancies most be like a dripping tap. You know it is not significant, but if still irretates you to hell and gone. So for the sake of the timeline fanatics I really hope the discrepancies do get fixed in later edditions. It looks like it would make a lot of people very happy.

Maybe, but I think that would be too complicated a matter. I don't know any fantasy writers who have created such a complex world like SE did. To combine the creation and the history of a multi-planar world, and almost all it's factions and interest groups with the small stories of individual characters with the coherence he already has achieved is an immense task IMO.

If you know any, feel free to mention them...

[Jorram]

To me it's not a question of fanatism, but rather something indispensable..

If the events don't fall into place neatly, I have troubles imagining the whole story and feeling it true. The suspension of disbelief stops to work. And i'm not talking about not-so-important issues like the Empire founders being 100 years old or such. I'm talking about events that are supposed to happen at the same time but due to their relation to other events they actually can't happen at the same time.

At one point, when you realize this and get hold of all the storylines, instead of the nice 'click' you should feel when everything is finally understood, clear and satisfying, you get a bunch of 'wtf' and nothing is clear and satisfying.

[Quick~]

Xander;325038 said:

Even though he doesn't seem to care, I wonder if he'll end up going back and fixing these issues after all is said and done. Like when a batch of new editions of each book is released. Doesn't bother me really.

Doesn't really bother me either, what might be nice would be to include some kind of revised timeline in the encyclopedia malazica if he and cam do release it once the series is over.

[eekwibble]

It's not 'indispensible' but it's certainly annoying if that's your focus.
My feeling is that if SE wasn't going to put too much stock in his own timelines then he probably shouldn't have put the dates in, but f**k it, he did, knowing it would grate on some people yet still having the 'nads to do it. Fair play to him!
Personally though, I'm in the 'couldn't give a flying f**k' category. There's just so much more to get involved with and focus on (and DISCUSS!!!).

Sorry, Pedantic Bear and Skeptical Cougar do still make me laugh!

http://www.malazanempire.com/forums/showth...314878#poststop

[dktorode]

And the mysterious third person at the fire was?....

Fisher?

[Zanth13]

dktorode;371566 said:

And the mysterious third person at the fire was?....

Fisher?

Thats what I thought,

pretty sure it is...

looks like Fisher is a bad ass

[Gem Windcaster]

About that, didn't SE say at some point that we never would see fisher in the books? Man, I'm gonna take everything SE says on those questions as he's saying the opposite of the truth from now on.

[Danyah]

He did. We also wouldn't see Whiskeyjack again...

This is a gathering place for rabid fans. Don't worry. We probably know and remember everything better than SE does.

This post has been edited by Danyah: 13 October 2008 - 10:07 PM

[mountainkit]

Hey Steve

thanks for all the great writings.

i have written an albums worth of songs from your poems at the beginnings of chapters. i posted a couple on youtube, most recently caged bird.
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=ip-yyGN_fQ8
I want to make sure your okay with all this, and if you would be interested in hearing an album made...

cheers
Kit

Hetan, on Mar 12 2008, 11:51 PM, said:

Steve has asked for this to be posted :-

Quote

Hello everyone,

Normally I don't step in, especially this early in the game with Toll the Hounds still a few months from being released, but it occurs to me you might find it useful if I toss in a few comments to assist you in your discussions. This is all pretty random, but here goes:

The two dead characters in the prologue are not related to anyone seen in the books; in fact, they are generic and won't be seen again -- no need to speculate on their identities. At the end of that sequence, when she says: 'oh here comes my carriage,' this is simply the product of being exceptionally brainless on her part, and highborn to boot. Trust me when I say that what's on its way ain't her carriage. That section, with the two corpses, needs to be read through to a deeper level than what's on the surface.

You've not yet met the third member in Kruppe's little gathering. By the novel's end you will know precisely who the man is.

The line regarding 'two women' in the daughters section missed my editing eye -- I will correct before publication.

Sundry other comments: Timeline. Well, yes, I can see how this fascinates everyone. I recall speaking with Malaclypse over the phone a few months back and numbing his ear with a run-through of how the events fit in my head, the key being to disregard all noted years (which is where I consistently screw up -- while things remain in the form of a blurred cause and effect sequence in my head, it all makes sense. To me, at least.). He mulled on it for a while and then said 'yeah, that almost fits.' Friends, 'almost' is good enough for me. I used to be scared of inconsistencies. Not any more. Well, make of that what you will. With respect to the Nascent and time going strange there, and to those who have noted that detail: yes, some basics laws are very much awry in the Nascent. The reasons will come clear.

I noted some curiosity as to the music I listen to while writing. Some people have suggested that it's all personal and private and I'd never tell. Nah, sure I'll tell. You are welcome to know what music I listen to and even argue with each other over it. What remains personal, as with each and every one of us, is how that music affects us. Not only is that personal, it's probably ineffable. What stirs my imagination in a song can sometimes being as little as a single phrase (a lone line about 'hyenas' in Roger Waters' Amused to Death that set most of the Chain of Dogs afire in my brain); or a spectacularly evocative guitar lick with stunning lyrics (Bruce Cockburn's last song on the Charity of Night album -- Strange Waters? that spoke to me about the price of displacement).

Over the past couple years I have been listening to, in no particular order:

Bob Dylan (and covers by other artists)
Bonnie Rait
Leonard Cohen (and covers by other artists)
Bruce Cockburn
Roger Waters & Floyd
Ferron
Talking Heads
David Byrne

and for the most ecelctic collection imaginable, try this:

lyle lovett, sinatra, crowded house, led zepplin, neil halsted, joni mitchell, hootie and the blowfish, planet p, chris rea, van morrison, neil young, nick cave and the bad seeds, annie lennox, etc.

Betrays my generation? Maybe. Uncool? Probably. Whatever I listen to while writing, it needs lyrics, and generally good lyrics (the exception to the latter being led zepplin, which flaunts terrible lyrics, but the sound!). Stunned and appalled by 'sinatra'? Ah, you younglings -- want the best the-world-is-fucked-and-we're-all-going-to-die song? Try old blue eyes and 'Let's face the music and dance.' See what I mean about private head-space? It's a mystery, all right, but one with a big wide grin.

Anyway, thanks for your patience on the prologue; I hope the wait was worth it.

Cheers
Steven Erikson

discuss....

[pde]

I realize this may not be the right place to bring this up but... I would like to know if or when your books will become available on the kindle?

[Aptorian]

Erikson doesn't reply to the threads on this forum. In any case this would not be a question he could answer, you'd have more luck trying to contact his publishers.

[Ljos]

I fint the timeline issues quite problematic. As someone previously said, it makes the whole series a bit harder to believe, and it just doesn't 'click' properly in place.

And with all respect, it wouldnt have cost much to have it all in place before the books were published either. Or... perhaps if he makes up a lot as he goes, it does at that... But anyway, even thought the timelise is a bit messed up, the books are wery good. All creds to the writer :-)

[Thelomen Toblerone]

As has been stressed often before:

THE TIMELINE IS NOT IMPORTANT.

It's easy to criticise, but how often have you made a mistake then a minute later gone "oh yeah" and gone back to change it? When something's published, you dont have that luxury. You just have to try and fit it all in with your idea, if it works it does, otherwise you ignore and move on. I cant say I ever read (or remember) the dates listed, and all the rest makes sense, so it's not exactly necessary for the plot.

[Ljos]

Well, your correct when you say its not necessary for the plot, but the point It wouldnt hurt either. When I read books where maps and dates are given, I allways try to read them in order to get a better feal of the timeline and distances and such things. They make it all seem more 'probable' (of course it's not probable in a scientific scense, but never mind). Therefor I find it a bit problametic that the timeline is a bit messed up. But it isnt strictly necessary. I still read and enjoy the books immennsly.

[redJAKO]

I don't find the timeline problematic, rather how much of the time between times are NOT noted properly, so I have to figure it out myself..."Huh? Its been three years? Oh, no wonder the Grey Swords are half a world away now and trained" etc.

[Salt-Man Z]

I've always thought this "THE TIMELINE IS NOT IMPORTANT" nonsense to be a cop-out. It's a gaping flaw in an otherwise masterful series. I love the books to death, so I'm able to look the other way; but I can definitely see how it would be a deal-breaker to someone else.

[Hinter]

I've never had a problem with the timeline. In fact, until joining this forum I'd never really taken much notice of it. It certainly doesn't detract at all from my enjoyment of the series.

[D'rek]

Salt-Man Z, on Aug 6 2009, 12:58 PM, said:

I've always thought this "THE TIMELINE IS NOT IMPORTANT" nonsense to be a cop-out. It's a gaping flaw in an otherwise masterful series. I love the books to death, so I'm able to look the other way; but I can definitely see how it would be a deal-breaker to someone else.

Nah, the timeline is just a minor inconvenience, not a deal breaker in any sense. But CHANGING BALGRID'S WARREN???!!! THAT IS UNEXCUSABLE!!!