Malazan Empire: Cause - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

felt Surreal. I actually wondered if a dying spiderman was having a dream sequence or if Jean was maybe trying to give him an ideal vision as he died. The punisher gets to a dying spiderman who its established was a mile away, gets him to a hospital, and strolls in without a care. He doesnt wear a mask, is presumably a highly wanted and dangerous fugitive. Then a period of time that's hard to establish passes, enough time for a crowd to gather and for spideys room to get filled with flowers and cards. Punisher apparently made sure no one snuck a look at Spideys secret identity and he is snoozing on the couch next to spideys bed in the hospital. So do they not know he is the punisher or is the whole Hopsital agreeing to not just call the cops?


Also how did the punisher shoot into a secure room without windows?

The concept of a school for female furies that is grim dark has strong parallels to red sister. I can’t help but make the connection and comparisons. When the book states the furies don’t practice stealth I couldn’t help but wonder if that was a choice made to specifically give more distance from the sisters of discretion which are so prominent in the other books. It feels like this shouldn’t matter or effect the work but I can’t escape these meta thoughts and they ‘interrupt’ the book so speak.

Similarly I was curious if a clue would finally reveal if this world is somehow connected to the world of red sister air Jorge too. Did Mark Lawrence study geology before physics. There’s another lesson in how ice sheets shape stone. The great ships which don’t rot which crossed the ‘ocean’ from a land that seemingly doesn’t exist in the world or which no one on Magog can reach anyway. I finally asked ChatGPT, and apparently The Lawrence is on record as saying this is wholly separate. Again these meta thoughts intrude and I can imagine the boats really did just cross the ocean, space or maybe it will be a third option.


The one matter that is wholly inside the book is that I’m never a fan of narratives that hide things from the reader simply as a narrative choice. The story is Rues and yet there are some early red herrings as to which sister she may be, and we keep getting her past in small drips. She isn’t confused herself this is just how the narrative is structured.

Despite these criticisms I am enjoying the story and have faith in The Lawrence to deliver.

Im not sure why I find it so upsetting, except maybe in how it seems to make new trek bigger, more prominent, more foundational to the federation than original trek.

Finding out that the enterprises latest time travel shenanigans let to humanities existence being possible by nuking a planet hitherto unknown in the sol system and causing the exctingction of the dinosaurs at the same time just felt unnecessary. They could have had the same episode but written in a wat that didn't make the writers single handedly responsible for humanity, starfleet and the federation existing.

it feels like a fanfiction writer making his ideas and characters eclipse cannon.