The Malazan Book of the Fallen: Too many wor'ds.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The Malazan Book of the Fallen: Too many wor'ds.

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

Masonity posted:

Given that Quick has (early series spoiler, I guess?) 6 other souls in him. it's entirely possible one of those was Andii.

That said, my understanding wasn't that he was (early TCG spoiler)Andii as such. He referred to Mother Dark as Mother, and spoke of Father. I can only assume that she was his mother in the same way she was Rake's. As for his father, who is "doing his own thing" or something (from memory here. I know it's made clear he's active) it seems likely that Draconus is the man. After all, he's active, was cozy with MD for a while, and has powerful mage kids already.

So my reasoning is that one of Quick's souls is actually the son of MD and Draconus. He may be Tiste, or may not. After all, with MD as mummy and an elder god as daddy, who knows WHAT the offspring would "naturally" look like?

I obviously haven't read tCG, but I don't feel like if one of his souls was Andii, and in fact the son of a Draconus/MD coupling, that he would have agreed to join Quick Ben's "body." That kind of mage would be incredibly powerful, and it'd be logical that they would all join HIM, and not vice versa. I also can't see how the bridgeburners could possibly chase down and kill members of that 'cabal' in the desert prior to the series if one of them was essentially a god ling. So what I guess I am saying is that I disagree with your theory. Though with the wording 'mother' and such that you cite from tCG, I feel like while I still disagree with your theory, it is obviously touching close enough to the issue to make me super curious to know

# ¿ Mar 2, 2011 21:22

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 07:27

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

Juaguocio posted:

I think you're right. In DoD Feather Witch casts her tiles while Icarium's "ghosts" are trying to figure out how to use Kalse Rooted. One of the new tiles she comes up with is two-sided: Fury/Starwheel. Fury is what its name suggests, but Feather Witch says that Starwheel is "time unraveled," or something to that extent. This new tile is obviously Icarium, who has a pivotal role in the emerging pantheon. If we combine this little tidbit with what Calm says to Mappo about the true purpose of Icarium in the plans of the Nameless Ones, it seems like Icarium is more like a force of nature than anything else.

Elsewhere in TCG someone describes his power as coming directly from Chaos; apparently when his self "shatters" he becomes a conduit of some sort. Since Kilmandaros is now dead I wonder if Icarium is going to now completely take her place as the God of rage and blind destruction. Or maybe he already had?

In any case, he's very close to Icarias, which Mappo realized was what he had been seeking their entire time together. It's going to be very interesting if he does indeed find it in a future volume, especially since Badalle saw that the heart of Icarias was shattered in DoD.

I just read your spoiler because you started it with "in DoD" and there were tCG spoilers in there

# ¿ Mar 8, 2011 03:19

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

Steven Erikson: His fans no longer expect nor desire a happy ending

# ¿ Mar 8, 2011 20:46

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

I'm thinking about finally picking up this series for plane flight reading. Two questions: is it available on kindle, and, after looking at that graphic at the start of the thread, is there a "best accepted" reading order? Just go by the numbers?

I can't see in what life you'll finish this series if it's for "plane reading," just sayin.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2011 13:47

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

I've got two 30 hour plane flights coming up to New Zealand and back, and I read ~1000+ pages a day when I'm reading pulp fiction. So I need something with enough bulk to keep me occupied :P

Good luck. Malazan doesn't read as quickly as your typical pulp fiction.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2011 16:48

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

qbert posted:

I just finished Reaper's Gale last night. Really fantastic throughout, probably one of my favorite of the series.

Some of the stuff that happened at the end just wrecked me.

I don't think I've ever rooted as hard for a character to survive as I did for Trull Sengar during that confrontation with Silchas and Clip. After that scene I decided that Trull is my favorite character of the series. Erikson is such a bastard. As soon as he survived that, I actually thought "Hey, maybe two characters in this series will actually get a happy ending!" Then when he told Seren he had to leave I thought "Oh poo poo. There's only 15 pages left in the book. Surely he can survive that long!"

Welp. Now I want to kill myself.

Other highlights:
- Everytime an ancient badass thought they could just wreck poo poo up, only to get swatted down before they started (Quick Ben holding back the three sisters, Fiddler and Hedge shooting Silchas out of the sky)
- Onrack and Kilava reunion
- Tool showing up a minute too late (does any character in this series suffer more than Toc?)
- Tehol becoming Emperor
- Beak's sacrifice (very reminiscent of Itkovian)
- Brys coming back

Yeah, pretty much the whole climax was awesome.

Now to read...sigh...Return of the Crimson Guard.

I enjoyed RotCG. It's not bad at all as nice boy said.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2011 21:16

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

Waddley Hasselhoff posted:

Yeah, you're right. His ending made me cry happy tears for the first time (for him.)

I think there are other characters who may have it worse, Hetan for example, but Toc is different. You get to know him better. You get to REALLY like him. And before he ever actually does anything, he starts getting hosed over. And over. And over. And over. In my opinion, he was simply the most tragic. (And the second I say that I start second guessing it... Coltaine, Dukier, hell, even Rake.) Whatever. I feel for Toc the most.

^^Yeah, her story is tragic, but we never get to know her, so I think it's easy to just shrug off and say "that sucks."

I feel like if Rhulad had books in his perspective during his countless times being killed he would be more tragic, but for the reason you listed that Toc is so fleshed out, we feel for him more.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2011 03:54

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

Wallet posted:

I can't remember exactly where but someone in TCG mentions that it was a willing sacrifice.

I wonder if they had a big roast...

# ¿ Mar 20, 2011 13:13

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

Decius posted:

Jaghut: far, far more slender than orcs, very pronounced tusks
T'lan Imass: Think Neanderthals (or maybe even Australopiticus?) that didn't die out but became undead
Tiste Andii: The nearest thing to elves i'd say. Their skin isn't dark, it is completly black, like charcoal. Very few can turn into dragons, but not because they are Tiste Andii, more despite of it. Anomander Rake is their leader, but "serving" is a bit much I think. Yeah, being 300k years old and having lost everything makes you a bit depressive.
Forkrul Assail: Another elder race (humanoid, white skin, crazy bone joints). More to come about them. Same with the K'Chain Che'Malle (lizards).

They are not like elves, christ.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2011 14:21

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

Vanilla Mint Ice posted:

Is there a website somewhere that summarizes all the plot stuff that happens in ICE's books? So the rest of us don't have to suffer reading through supposedly mediocre writing.

I hate stuff like this. "suffer through supposedly mediocre writing." Agh. ICE is better than or at least equal to almost every other fantasy author out there. He's no Erikson which is the main problem since they are the same universe, but honestly just read them (except NoK).

# ¿ Mar 31, 2011 14:24

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

the periodic fable posted:

a lot of us disagree with you. i think ICE is a bad author by any standard.

"JUST READ THEM" is honestly very weird advice and doesn't answer his question or mine at all. what if we don't.. want to?

Shrug. The point is that it's Malazan Universe. If I wanted to read something by a 'better' author, then I would...but it's not Malazan and therefore I care less at this point in time.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2011 16:18

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

Boogle posted:

Is there a hardcover set that I can purchase with the kickass UK covers, because I'm not paying cash money for the lovely TOR/US Publisher covers.

Do hard cover even exist for this series? I've literally never seen a single hard back malazan book

# ¿ Apr 27, 2011 16:54

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

Juaguocio posted:

I'm guessing they'll figure into ICE's Darujhistan novel at the very least. I don't imagine they'll have any part to play in Erikson's Kharkanas trilogy but maybe they'll eventually show up in his Toblakai books. They do appear in RotCG as well, if you haven't read that already.

That reminds me, do they ever discuss the pickled seguleh at any point other than....whichever book they happened to be in?

# ¿ May 2, 2011 14:47

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 07:27

Morbleu: Jun 13, 2006

the periodic fable posted:

only semi-related but there's a reference to the Black Company series by Glen Cook in the Witcher 2, a medic/surgeon called Croaker in the field hospital in the Kaedweni camp in chapter 2. gave me a chuckle.

Why are you spoilering something unrelated to malazan?

So I'm still on book 2 of my reread before I planned to tackle tCG...and I got stuck because the series is so drat long I don't have time to read 10,000 pages right now, but I don't want to start tCG until I finish.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2011 12:29

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