Malazan Empire: Morgoth - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

Jump to content

User Rating: ***--

Morgoth's Photo
Reputation: 1206 Has Done Shameful Things for Rep
Group:
High House Mafia
Active Posts:
13,401 (1.55 per day)
Most Active In:
Play-by-Forum (4255 posts)
Joined:
24-January 03
Profile Views:
96,944
Last Active:
User is offline Yesterday, 07:49 AM
Currently:
Offline

My Information

Member Title:
executor emeritus
Age:
40 years old
Birthday:
July 5, 1986
Location:
the void

Contact Information

E-mail:
Click here to e-mail me
AIM:
AIM  OftenMartin
Website URL:
Website URL  http://

Icon Latest Reputation

1206

Current Reputation


Latest Visitors

  1. Recent Status Updates
  2. About Me
  3. Topics
  4. Posts
  5. Gallery

Posts I've Made

  1. In Topic: The Russia Politics and War in Ukraine Thread

    Yesterday, 07:51 AM

    Well, if Trump somehow manages to fully realize an American cessation of their trade restrictions against Russia, the world will become an even more interesting place for sure. Not to mention that the war will last for a much longer time.

  2. In Topic: The Book I bought today is...

    19 October 2026 - 10:43 AM

    View PostQuickTidal, on 17 October 2026 - 11:27 AM, said:

    View Postpolishgenius, on 16 October 2026 - 09:22 PM, said:

    The Raven Scholar is (imo) really good and a book I suspect a lot of members here would like, tbh. Like, it's not one I'd guarantee a double stamp on if QT read it, but I think it's got a pretty good shot.


    It's also not romantasy, mind you. Sure, there is a romance in it, but it's a fantasy murder mystery with a heavy dose of politics and some fantasy-tournament shenanigans, and also the lead has a romance thing going on.


    I have it, I just haven't gotten to it yet. So at some point we will know if it has the double stamp.


    The thing with the Raven Scholar, apart from how little the plot makes sense, how utterly embarrassing the murder mystery is and how the politics is hair pulingly dumb, is that the main characters are supposed to be in their late twenties early thirties, but all act like they're 17. I assume this was originally written as a YA story and aged up to fit better with the whole tiktok thing.

    Without spoiling anything I can point to an early interaction as an example. The main character is by all accounts the closest and most trusted advisor to the emperor (this is explained at the onset of the main story, so no spoiler). That has been her role for the last seven years. She has unprecedented access to the emperor, both professionally and socially. An emperor that distains politics and the court and keeps himself distant. In other words, she is incredibly powerful. At least in any system that makes even an ounce of sense. When the emperor needs something done, fixed, or otherwise solved in an efficient manner, he send her to deal with it. However here she is an angsty teenager that is kept isolated from the social circles of the court. Which makes no sense what so ever. They might look down upon her for being common, but her ear is the emperors ear, she acts out the emperor's will. Well, you get it. Any courtier with ambition would kill to get on her good side.


    But obviously a thirty year old grand vizier with seven years of incredible power and influence doesn't fit with the YA story the author wants to tell. In the story she is insecure, has no self esteem, and bows and scrapes to all she meets. How else could you tell the story of a brilliant teenager coming into her confidence and her abilities step by step? Finally standing up to her bullies that always treated her as lesser because of her birth? Except for, you know, she's not a teenager at all.


    In the setting, the whole blackmail plot in the opening makes no sense at all. It is so fundamentally infuriating that the plot is to be shaped by that nonsense. And it really only get worse from there.


    The Raven was cool though.


  3. In Topic: Reading at t'moment?

    19 October 2026 - 10:25 AM

    View Postpolishgenius, on 16 October 2026 - 09:52 PM, said:

    View PostMorgoth, on 15 October 2026 - 10:21 AM, said:

    The Tainted Cup series by Jackson Bennet has been fantastic, and I am happily starting on China Mievilles latest, The Rouse. I do struggle to find new authors in the current market however. Romantasy - though undoubtedly a boon for the publishing industry - has not been at all convincing despite several attempts. And outside of that genre I can't seem to find a lot of new names.



    There's loads of new non-romantasy stuff*, but to some extent you have to be willing to take a chance on algo recs via goodreads and (for me) Kobo, I've discovered. Started doing that a little while ago and it got me a bunch of good reads outside of the hype machine.

    Also just regularly comb upcoming lists and reviews from outside the tik-tok-ish crowd. I got a bunch of good recs from a HelloFutureMe vid that'd never have crossed my path otherwise.




    *well, there's loads of non-romantasy stuff that is also hyped and all over the bookstores, but it's mostly cozy fantasy, which I assume isn't what you mean.



    Because I'm me, I'm just gonna throw in a few that I've caught in the last few years that may have gone under the radar around here:




    Kalyna the Soothsayer: a terrific rogue of a main character who gets caught by her own desparate half-con and dragged into a big, dangerous, political situation. I've seen nobody mention it or the sequel, and even though they both stand alone as stories, I really do want them to get enough traction to get the rest.


    The Warden, by Daniel M. Ford: there is both a romance and cozyness in it, but what it really is is a feel-good but old-school swords-and-sorcery adventure set around a frontier village.


    The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan: to be fair, this got a massive publisher push, but since it hasn't broken through here and it's so good it deserves to, I'mma mention it here. It bears a little resemblance to The Devils, kinda, but in my opinion is quite a lot better. Genuinely brilliant.



    A Song of Legends Lost by MH Ayinde. If you want really truly epic fantasy, African and African-diaspora writers and settings are a good place to look right now. Rogba Payne's Song of Godhunters series is my favourite, but this one is really good too, and has a few hints of Malazan about the scale and the way it unveils things. Definitely the most traditional-fantasy among this list (aside from maybe Kalina) in its style if not setting. eta: that's not true, The Warden definitely is. But aside from that.


    The Girl With A Thousand Faces, by Sunyi Dean. Something completely different, as it's about a ghosthunter in Kowloon Walled City. This one did also get some amount of hype this year, but I discovered it via 'like this' on Kobo, so... I'm putting it here. It's bonkers, but really good.


    The Secret Market of the Dead by Giovanni M. Feo. It's... um, mad? It's a kind of Italian-flavoured fairytale magic type book, but that doesn't do it justice.



    I could go forever lol, but I felt the need to chuck a few out there just coz it makes me sad when people miss out on great fantasy and think the genre's dying just coz of the balkanisation of recommendation sources. It is harder to find stuff, but it is there.


    You made me by a bunch of books, shame on you! And also thank you, my to read pile is embarrassingly puny as of late.

  4. In Topic: The Book I bought today is...

    16 October 2026 - 07:39 AM

    I have tried some of the recommended titles of the romantasy genre, and it was spectacularly terrible. The most recent attempt, the Raven Scholar was so laughably bad in so many ways I don't even understand how it could become popular at all.

    If one enjoys well written romance in ones fantasy, I would much rather recommend Kingfishers paladin books

  5. In Topic: Reading at t'moment?

    16 October 2026 - 07:35 AM

    View PostMacros, on 15 October 2026 - 11:53 AM, said:

    did you ever read the low town trilogy by Daniel Polanski?

    Its not new, but I think you'd like i
    but yes, upon reading that statement I am trying to wrack my brain to think of new authors and stuff I've read recently. Maybe a few recos from here and anything Adrian Tchaovski or Seb De Castel write


    I haven't tried that, I don't think. De Castel and Tchaovski I know well, and to be fair they've been writing for more than a decade at least at this point.