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Just finished the first book last month, good stuff. I got kind of annoyed with how prevalent magic is in the world, because most edgy fantasy these days (like A Song of Ice and Fire, The First Law, or the manga Berserk) has magic as a thing not many people believe is real or really know about. In Malazan it's just everywhere and some of the lore behind in all just seems excessive. I also felt the first book suffered from too much explanations of magic and history and not enough of making the characters seem three dimensional. I hardly felt anything for Paran even though he's basically the main character. And the ending with that magic tree thing that weakens the Jaghut tyrant and then turns into a house? What the hell was that about? Despite all those complaints I enjoyed the book, and I'll probably read the second and third over the summer. It's nice that an epic fantasy series is finally done, too. I know I'll be waiting for years for ASoIaF and Berserk to get anywhere.
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Mar 2, 2011 07:26
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A Nice Boy posted:One thing newcomers don't realize is that the first book in this series was written quite a bit before the rest of the series, as they spent a long time shopping it around and trying to get the series made. As a result, the first book is generally considered to be the weakest, and has slight inconsistencies as far as style and content go. Still, you'll be blown away how many things in the first novel come into play later, and how deeply layered the series is. That's good to hear. I'll definitely be checking out the next book. As for my other point, I like magic here and there, but it's better when it's something used at crucial times and isn't just everywhere. It should be used sparingly (kinda like lightsabers in Star Wars).
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Mar 3, 2011 03:32
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Okay so I'm almost finished with book 3 of the series, and while it's been fairly exciting and set up a lot of places for the plot to go I just have a hard time caring about any of the characters. Paran didn't seem very interesting to me when he first showed up. And now that he's changed so much I still don't feel like he's a full fledged person. In fact all of the characters strike me this way. Whiskeyjack is cool, Quick Ben is cool, Kalam is cool, but they don't actually seem like real people. And then there's guys like Rake and Icarium which I don't care even a little bit about. Then you have your token wacky/funny characters like Kruppe or that Shadow priest from the second book who add a little flair but still seem sort of empty as characters. Maybe it's because all these guys are adults and experienced in ways that your typical fantasy protagonist who is still growing up isn't. But I just find it really hard to identify with any of these "people." In fact my favorite character might be Tool. Just because he doesn't really pretend to have a character. Except the one time in book 3 he got all weepy. That seemed forced. Anyone else get this problem?
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Jul 3, 2011 20:27
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Yeah, all the soldiers definitely seem to speak with the same voice. I mean, Stonny's tone is basically the same as Picker which is the same as the two female marines with Silverfox. They all just sound the same. And yeah, I didn't feel much for Whiskeyjack's death because I don't really know him. Erikson is kinda cool in that he's not afraid to kill off characters, but when a character dies if I don't care about them that's a problem. In, say, A Song of Ice and Fire if a really important character of equal importance as Whiskeyjack (*cough*) dies then it's a huge "WTF" moment because you've come to care about that character. In Malazan it's all "well...uh...that sucks I guess." The series was entertaining to sustain me on plot for 3 books and I'd sort of like to see where the plot is going but I think without characters I care about this might be the end of Malazan for me. Ho hum.
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Jul 5, 2011 03:48
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So The Crippled God ending isn't satisfying? drat. I was hoping there would be at least one epic fantasy series that really pays off.
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Sep 6, 2014 18:15
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That's true. I can deal with the stuff I don't like about the series just because I know there's actually an ending. Meanwhile, GRRM is releasing some "extended history of the The Song of Ice and Fire" instead of working on Winds of Winter.
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Sep 9, 2014 00:45
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I'm working my way through Toll The Hounds right now. It's okay. Sorta cool to see Darujhistan again. But there's so many characters I don't really care about, and the Tiste Andii are such sadsacks. Everyone weeping all the time for a reason I don't fully understand. They just live too long.
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Sep 23, 2014 04:46
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Cardiac posted:I kinda liked Bloodsong, at least along the lines as a enjoyable read. It is not like I will reread it like I have done with other series. Sanderson either has a less nuanced view of the world or that's just his style of writing. I don't think his characters are that much more shallow than Erikson's, though Erikson definitely goes deeper into the history of his world than Sanderson does.
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Jan 7, 2015 01:56
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Karsa has more personality than all the boring elf-creatures put together so I'm looking forward to more of him. He was one of the only characters that felt lively in Erikson's books. Most of his characters seem weighed down by the momentous events in his intricate world. Whereas Karsa was like "gently caress this imma change things."
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Nov 7, 2017 03:22
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Does he still want to destroy civilization at the end? I forget.
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Jun 11, 2018 23:48
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I can’t imagine Malazan as a mainstream movie. It’s the most impenetrable of the popular epic fantasy series and so weighed down with lore. I’m sure the vfx would look cool but it would take a master director to make it comprehensible. Like the stuff with warrens and azath houses and ancient trapped races and dragon descendants of abstract concepts...yeesh
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Aug 24, 2018 17:43
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