Planet Sillicon

No more Malazan

By blog on Jun. 3, 2010.

No more Malazan for me!

I’ve been toying with putting down Dust of Dreams and taking up another series for a while. Another book might make me appreciate the characters of Malazan again, or something like that. However some aspects of the story were picking up and I was looking forward to seeing where it ended up, so I kept reading.

I’ve put up with a lot from this series and this author. Of the top ten most horrific things I’ve ever read in fantasy, this series would have to have eight places on that list, and the other two actually had merit in the series in which they appear. Erikson has a talent for being a sadistic ass that is often seen in overdrive in these books. But I stuck with it for eight and a half books, and at about half way through book nine, and the ‘Hobbling’ of Hetan, I’ve quit the damn series.

That’s right, Erikson, I was really enjoying the books. That’s right, I did feel that the story was worth the horrible crap you seemed to take pleasure at putting in there. The gratuitous and vile acts, especially towards women and children, that have gone on through this series have been beyond what I’d put up with in a film or television series, but I kept reading because I liked a lot of what was going on. I really enjoyed the immense scale, the inclusion of so many Gods, and the army themselves, the Bridgeburners and the Bonehunters were awesome, well, save the psychos included for no apparent reason.

But yeah, at that one scene, I hated Erikson with a vast and deep passion. I felt violated by the horror of what I read, and thanks to Erikson I’ve read some horrific stuff. So, that’s it. I’ve tried to find a good synopsis of what happens through the book, and I’ve figured out much of what happens, though many of the story lines could use further filling out. I’m not going to buy or read the final book, either, though I will again read a synopsis of it online.

However…

By blog on May. 9, 2010.

There’s always a however when it comes to Malazan, isn’t there?

So, I’m still enjoying the book, and I’m still finding motivation to stick with it, but there’s one little group of characters which is extremely depressing, and one character specifically that’s rather irritating.

Remember when I was talking about Alan Wake, and how I didn’t like that a fair portion of the storyline was told through Wake’s internal monologuing? Well, there’s a character who does that a lot in Dust of Dreams, too, Badalle. If her internal dialogue wasn’t the mean depressing diatribe that it is, this probably wouldn’t bother me so much, but really, she’s just such a depressing point of view to read.

The Snake, which she’s a part of, is a very interesting and odd little group, and where I’m up to I’ve no idea where it’s going. We know they’re all children, and what Erikson’s putting them through is absolutely horrid, but that’s really about all we know. They’re on some mass exodus from a city, and they’re headed ’somewhere’ and were being pursued at some some point but probably not any longer.

Badalle seems to be the religious leader of the group in a way, delivering poems to the children as if they were services. It’s all very sad and surreal to read, and that can become quite grating. I really do enjoy a bit of surreality in a book, but more like a scene of it, not an entire recurring point of view of it, and this group/PoV isn’t the only one that’s pretty much entirely surreal and… odd.

The group currently running around in the abandoned K’Chain Che’Malle city fortress thing is also a very surreal group to read about. There’s a ghost running around with them, but I honestly have to wonder if it’s just one of the group who thinks he’s a ghost. They’ve all seemed to lose themselves, to be taken over by some sort of force. They absolutely don’t seem the same as they were in previous books, so I really don’t know what’s going on there.

That’s the thing about these books. A lot of it you read on faith that all will be made clear at some later point, and that is exactly what happens, but occasionally you have to slog through it to get to that point. Still, I am enjoying the read overall and do look forward to the next, and final, book in the series.

A brand new book!

By blog on Apr. 7, 2009.

I am about to finish, about to finish, HA! I have around one hundred pages left to read in my current book, Reaper’s Gale by Steven Erikson. There are two reasons why this is a really good thing. One, this book is damn awesome and I am looking forward to seeing how certain things pan out, and two, I already have a brand new copy of Toll the Hounds that I picked up today!

I love a new book, I really do. It is all pristine, the spine is un-creased, the pages are yet to be opened, the book sits perfectly flat. There is also, with an unread book, a sense that you are an explorer. You are the very first person to watch this story unfold, share its triumphant victories and harrowing defeats. Perhaps that is just me, and the fact that it is really late is making me somewhat poetic in nature. I’m not sure, and I don’t really care, as I really am looking forward to this next book. And, thanks to the well paced writing of Erikson, I don’t have to wait a couple of years before the next book, either, as it is scheduled for August 27th!

Great authors inspire this Christmas like joy in me, waiting for years to finally see the end to the saga that is the Wheel of Time, or reading those final chapters in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, hoping that George R R Martin lives up to his bloody promise of delivering another book… sometime… soonish… maybe… FINISH THE DAMN BOOK ALREADY, GEORGE!!!

Yeah, I have been waiting for Dance of Dragons for a few years now, since 2005 when he released A Feast for Crows. See, the thing with that book was, that only half, HALF, the character list even made a damn appearance in the book. Why, I hear you ask? Because ol’ Georgie boy had written the bloody thing so long that he had to separate it into two books. Right. Now. Okay. The thing is, when this happened, it was really frustrating for me because you miss out on some of the best characters, in my opinion. But there was hope! That hope came in the form of George saying he was almost done with A Dance of Dragons, so it wouldn’t be long before we got the rest of the point of view characters. So. Four years later. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zip. WHERE’S THE BOOK, GEORGE?

For the loyal fans, he is really being a git. I mean, he is working on completely different projects, completely different books that he co-wrote with other authors; this angers me no end. His story is just good enough that I will pick up the next book in the series, but seriously, his piss-farting around has seriously diminished what was a great set of books.

And I was feeling so upbeat until I remembered I was waiting for that book. Bah! By the time George finishes the bloody book, I will have read the next two installments of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series! Maybe three, and will have finished the whole lot! Now that’s a thought that makes me a little happier and a little less angry.