Malazan Empire: QuickTidal - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

PG's thread is a full spoiler one for those who have read it all, and Abyss's normal "reading" thread that you can avoid spoilers starts at wherever he was when the post went up at like chapter 40...so there isn't a thread to just chime in as you go along with spoiler notations for chapters. So I made one!

Please note my comments in this first post are from Chapter 1-Chapter 12.



I'm loving this book so far. It's quieter than the last few Files, but I think that was required...and the focus on mental health and rebuilding in the face of adversity is topical on many fronts, not the least of which are society today. I realize he wrote this before the ICE shit kicked off in the states, but the focus on the local immigrants finding a protective place under Dresdens eye is not lost on me even if he didn't intend the comparison.

So Sando has finally agreed to to a deal with a studio (Apple) to make Cosmere stuff....reportedly feature length MISTBORN movies and an SLA TV series.

He said that he has full creative control, more than Rowling or GRRM got over their adaptations. As someone who knows this industry, I'm WILDLY skeptical of this. On paper I'm sure it's fine, in action it's going to look different.

Anyways, I have a few comments.

1. Mistborn as movies is fine. He is allegedly writing the screenplay...which....I'm wary of...in his WOT show roundup videos that he did while that show aired, his instincts for what he felt was wrong were that of a prose writer, not a screenwriter used to that medium...every time. So I don't see him nailing any script unless he's got help AND he's willing to compromise on his prose-author vision VS what will work for a movie. Time will tell.

2. SLA is not adaptable as a live action show. It's not only filled with WAY too much stuff that requires SFX, magic, creatures, Mo-Cap characters, and such...but it takes place on a world that does not exist as ours does and does not operate as ours does, so even the basic backdrop of settings and scenes would need to be "created". The cost of something like that would be IMMENSE. We are talking probably more than Amazon spends on RoP, just to achieve a viable look...and then that cost needs to be upped as the story goes on and things get more intense, and more weird and contain more mo-cap characters and magic and settings...the only way I see SLA being even remotely adaptable is VIA animation. And I've heard whispers that Sanderson had been talking to the crew who made ARCANE (which he truly liked), so that may be the avenue they are looking to take here...but yeah, an SLA live action show feels like a pipe dream, even in Apple's deep pockets.

3. I feel like the best adaptations are often the ones that take some liberties, and keep other things sacrosanct. They find the middle ground that makes the most sense for a TV/movie viewer and move on that. People often hold up LOTR as "adaptation done right"....but lots of Tolkien purists are annoyed by things they left out (Bombadil), or things they changed (Faramir)...but PJ and his wife and fellow writer I think found the best path through it to find the meat of LOTR while changing medium from a books from the 1950's to a movie in the 21st century. The same needs to be true here, but to accomplish that Sanderson is going to need to loosen his grip on the reigns and let Cosmere adapted media be its own thing. I dunno that he has that in him.

So since the last time I checked in on these threads, Tiste had finished the Sun Sword and was glad to be done and it swore him off the rest of the books, and Abyss had bailed out around book 4 I think for similar reasons (west’s verbosity, her Japanese penchant for repeating notions over and over to hammer them home, lack of action, dragging narrative etc.).

I have since finished Sun Sword and I found it as lacking as the rest of you. Mostly because when I first encountered The Dominion in the first 3 House War books, I found them insufferable and the culture there annoying. I cared SO much more for what happened in the North and the Empire VS the demons…but the fist two books in Sun Sword gave me people to root for and some interesting events…but what it devolves into is a whole ass book about the Voyani (yawn), a whole ass book about the lead up to the war from the Dominion/Voyani perspective, and then a whole ass book that continues to lead up to the war within out from Northern characters…if I’m honest, it’s 6 books with barely 3 books of progression…and the best stuff is the initial betrayal of Tor Leone (book 1), and the contest where the Heir (Valadan) survives (book 2), and after that its just a lead up to a war where the demons split their forces anyways, some internal strife and then the war where things don’t really happen as you expect…it was a deeply unsatisfying ending to that story…but again I was never as invested in Sun Sword as I was in House War 1-3….i don’t care about the south, the Annagarians in Averalaan are treated as backwards anti-woman weirdos and I’m glad they are as that’s the culture they offer and I don’t like it.

I want to read about the North, the empire, breodalan, jewel and her Den (all of whom I watched her slowly assemble with their individual personalities), the other Seers, the mages, flying cats (yes)…the last 3 SunSword books felt like slog worthy WOT books…and after all that I feel like I never should have stopped House War to read them….theres some pertinent overall info, but for the most part I feel like the summaries West released to catch ppl up to House War 4 (SKIRMISH) do a fine job.


In that vein, I leapt back into House War years after I left it, and I’m about 200pgs into SKIRMISH, and man what a joy to be back in the series that sold me on West…it’s worth remembering that Sun Sword began in the 90’s and finished in the early 2000’s…House War wasn’t written till 2007, Wests writing, while still verbose is not nearly as scatterbrained as it was in Sun Sword, the cast is tighter, there is a lot less nonsense with 47 similar titles and cultural actions for every character like in the south. Much more straightforward quasi medieval fantasy…flying cats…I dunno…Jewels Den feels earned in a way that the Sun sword books aren’t. I know some of those southern characters will appear going forward, but if I’m really honest I’m glad to be done with the Sun sword as a side trip from the world House War introduced me to.

Anyways, I’ll update this thread as I go. Not sure if anyone else will ever read the House War books who read and tired of the Sun Sword series…but if you don’t want to catch those up, West posted a 4 part summary of the events in Sun sword one her website for people who didn’t want to read it and only wanted House War.

I dunno if anyone is into baseball (I could not find a thread) but watching the Blue Jays come back from a 7th inning 3-1 score deficit against the Mariners with a 3-run homer was like the most magic you can get in a Game 7!

Blue Jays heading to the World Series for the first time since 1993 baby!

I have been working my way through D&D/Faerûn content either that I've already read and am re-reading, or reading for the first time. No point in clogging up the Reading thread with this nonsense, so here we are.

Oh, and most of the Forgotten Realms stuff is rebranded as just Dungeons and Dragons as "Forgotten Realms" technically stopped being a thing in the mid-2010's when WOTC stopped their publishing wing and farmed out the content to Penguin Random House and Harper Collins Voyager instead.

Stuff I'm reading for the thread:

The LEGEND OF DRIZZT books - I own about half of them in the old MMPB form; and have read up to about Book 13 I think? but that was a while ago so I needed a refresh to go forward so I jumped back to LEGACY (book 7)...Please note that also Penguin are currently re-releasing them as softcover trades with new cover art that matches (solving my biggest issue with them, the MMPB font is TINY and they were excruciating to read that way...the new trade paperbacks are glorious with almost hardcover size font for an old bastard like me) and have released 10 so far. They will be doing all 33 of those in the new covers (3-4 in each release window which seem to come every 2-3 months or so?) and are up to book 10 so far, and then after the Penguin 33, then Harper Voyager (who have the rights to the last 6) will be re-releasing those ones too in the same cover style. Salvatore is jazzed that all 39 Drizzt books will be in one cover style and format finally (as a well known cover snob, I agree). I realize that these are not high fantasy or particularly complex, but they are like warm fantasy/ D&D hugs to me.

BRIMSTONE ANGELS (Erin M. Evans) - I have all of these. Most of them are in and around Waterdeep and Neverwinter. And the 9 hells of course. They are about Tieflings and Cambions after all.

THE FALLBACKS (Jayleigh Johnson) - These are recent D&D books with a new team of adventurers, I own the first one (BOUND FOR RUIN), and there is a second on the way (DEALING WITH DRAGONS). I don't expect them to be groundbreaking, but they should be fun little romps. They seem to be sort of Critical-Role-ish in tone. Not sure where they take place yet.

D&D Movie tie-in for DRUID'S CALL....love the character in the movie and want to know more about her.

RAVENLOFT has also been revived. Deliah S. Dawson has penned a new novel in the setting called HEIR OF STRAHD, so that's on my list too.


Forthcoming also: R.A. Salvatore has penned a new novel coming out later in the year that seems to focus on Drizzt's and new companions of the Hall, so I'm very curious to see where that goes and I really can't wait for it. It's called THE FINEST EDGE OF TWILIGHT.


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