Woo, I just got Toll the Hounds!

[Terez]

1PS has already read it, the bastard. Has anyone else read/ordered it yet?

I also ordered Night of Knives.

[jason wolfbrother]

Ordered it from Amazon.co.uk a while ago but it hasn't shipped yet :( hopefully soon :)

[Terez]

Woo! I'm hoping Muttley ordered it too (he did ask where I ordered it from). Then we can discuss it. And then there's Taer and SBC and Cottillion....I'm sure I'm forgetting a few Malazan fans.

Camel I think is reading The Bonehunters right now, but I dunno if he's got Reaper's Gale or if he's planning on ordering Toll the Hounds. I tried to ask him but he's not talking to me, alas. But I think he liked the series a lot more once he got past Deadhouse Gates. :D

Terez, knows from experience how hard it is to get through that book...

[Terez]

Erikson's poetry is often thick, with the metaphors deeply veiled, and difficult to read. I like them though, and this one in particular from Chapter 1 of TtH:

This creature of words cuts
To the quick and gasp, dart away
The spray of red rain
Beneath a clear blue sky
Shock at all that is revealed
What use now this armour
When words so easy slant between?

This god of promises laughs
At the wrong things, wrongly timed
Unmaking all these sacrifices
In deliberate malice
Recoil like a soldier routed
Even as retreat is denied
Before corpses heaped high in walls

You knew this would come
At last and feign nothing, no surprise
To find this cup filled
With someone else's pain
It's never as bad as it seems
The taste sweeter than expected
When you squat in a fool's dream

So take this belligerence
Where you will, the dogged cur
Is the charge of my soul
To the centre of the street
Spinning round all fangs bared
Snapping at thirsty spears
Thrust cold and purged of your hands

Hunting Words
Brathos of Black Coral And Kruppe going all "witness" is awesome too. :D

[Frenzy]

i'm finally started Memory of Ice this week. It seems to be moving faster than the first two. Wonder if it's cuz i'm reading it on the train...

anyway, fav line so far is (paraphrased) "nothing scarier than a pragmatic soldier."

[Terez]

Nice pun, but it's probably moving faster because you're done with Deadhouse Gates. To me, that was by far the hardest book to get through, but the ending was so good that it helps propel you through Memories of Ice, which is set back on a familiar continent with familiar people.

It gets a little more difficult for some with House of Chains, because it starts off telling the story of an unfamiliar character that Erikson purposefully causes you to dislike from the beginning, and does pretty much nothing else for over a hundred pages, which is just ODD for Erikson.

And then, there's Midnight Tides, which is on a brand new continent with NONE of the characters you're familiar with...

[Frenzy]

Lots of people like his work, but i have to admit i have to work hard to like it. Then again, i just reread some of my old Anne McCafferey books, and honestly my brain needs a challenge before it starts to atrophy.

[Terez]

I know what you mean. There's some stuff that I think I'm going to permanently put away, including Eddings. Which is kinda sad, because I loved Eddings, but I don't think I'll ever re-read him again. :(

[JSUCamel]

Now that I know the characters, I feel that a re-read would be a lot easier to do than before. Erikson throws a hundred characters at you in the first quarter of the first two books and it's major information overload. Takes another half of the book just to sort it all out. But now that I know who everyone is... I think I might do a re-read once I finish the series.

I'm actually on Midnight Tides right now. I'm a little confused, since the character at the beginning of MT was heavily involved in the second half of House of Chains.. so I'm not entirely sure what's going on. Right now I'm working under the assumption that it's a backstory/flashback type thing, a la the character whose story you get at the beginning of House of Chains.

[Frenzy]

Eddings is the equivalent of comfort food for me. i read it when i want a nice, easy read with enjoyable characters. i mean, come on, who doesn't love Kheldar?

McCafferey's stuff is just the same character retold with different names. Hell, she can't even keep the names straight on the same bodies. And we used to complain about Harriet's editing. silly us.

i recently read a new book by Jack Whyte, and while i liked his early Cameloud books this Templar book sucked. Sucked bad. Now i don't even want to go back and finish the Cameloud series.

i liked Deadhouse Gates better than the first book, though i probably missed a lot of stuff because i was too busy going "wtf?!?" as i read. That and getting irritated at the emo 'life is unending torment and a worthless waste of time but i keep trying because i'm a masochistic idiot' bullshit. That vibe isn't as bad in MOI. Yet.

[Terez]

Camel - yeah, it's a flashback story, from the time before you met him in HoC, and yeah, it's similar to Karsa in that way, but extended.

[JSUCamel]

i recently read a new book by Jack Whyte, and while i liked his early Cameloud books this Templar book sucked. Sucked bad. Now i don't even want to go back and finish the Cameloud series.

I hope Jack's neighbors having hearing problems, or else they might get upset when he boinks his wife.

Edit: Slight hijack, I discovered today that there's a tire manufacturer near my town called "Kumho Tires" hehe

[Crispin's Crispian]

I'm actually on Midnight Tides right now. I'm a little confused, since the character at the beginning of MT was heavily involved in the second half of House of Chains.. so I'm not entirely sure what's going on. Right now I'm working under the assumption that it's a backstory/flashback type thing, a la the character whose story you get at the beginning of House of Chains.
Pay no attention to the timelines given as dates in the books. Midnight Tides takes place before HoC, which is all you really need to know at this point.

As for buying Toll the Hounds, it's going to have to wait till I can use a gift card or am done with all this nasty house business. I have no money for anything other than driving to the library.

[SauceyBlueConfetti]

I am on a budget as I am unemployed right now and have to pay for our Paris trip before I can splurge on books. Sigh. BUT, a job offer (actually 3) are due in the next few days, so hopefully I can have the book(s) to take on the plane. Although the weight of the dang things could be annoying :D

[DahLliA]

it's actually out now? :O

*goes to order it*

[1Powerslave]

Yeah it's out alright. And it's great! So far it's I dare say better than most of the books before it. Maybe it has to do with that nearly all the characters are familiar faces this time. I'm halfway through right now. I made a pact to save half of it for vacation and the hammock. :)
Toll the Hounds is the first time for a very very long time I skipped ahead to read more of one plotline, I never do that!

[caladanbrood]

Toll the Hounds rumbles along for 650 pages, and depending on your particular tastes and opinions, it's either "snail's pace" or enjoyable and steady, and then explodes into action wonderfully. The ending is truly superb, it really is :D

[Isabel]

I have already read it :) :)
It's good, but Erikson can really not be my favourite writer, but i will continue reading his books.

[Ishara]

Paris? What's in Paris Saucy? Just cause?

[Frenzy]

Terez, is there an equivalent to Encyclopedia WoT for the Malazan series? i want a synopsis of each character. Specifically Kallor, and why nobody's skewered his ass yet.

[Terez]

Terez, is there an equivalent to Encyclopedia WoT for the Malazan series? i want a synopsis of each character. Specifically Kallor, and why nobody's skewered his ass yet.
heheh, and since you're reading MOI I assume you already read the curse from the prologue? So you should know why no one's killed him...but here's the Encyclopaedia Malazica's Dramatis Personae (http://encylopaediamalazica.pbwiki.com/Dramatis+Personae). :D

[JSUCamel]

********POSSIBLE SPOILERS FROM THE PROLOGUE OF MEMORIES OF ICE!*******


STOP HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OR
BE SPOILED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(like B)
















I was wondering the same thing, Frenzy. I'll have to reread the curse part. I thought he'd live forever, never to Ascend.. but I didn't think there was something about being unkillable or whatever.

Edit: Just checked.... here's the curse:

K'rul: 'Know this: you, Kallor Eiderann Tes’thesula, shall know mortal life unending. Mortal, in the ravages of age, in the pain of wounds and the anguish of despair. In dreams brought to ruin. In love withered. In the shadow of Death’s spectre, ever a threat to end what you will not relinquish.’

Draconus:'Kallor Eiderann Tes’thesula, you shall never ascend.’

Nightchill: 'Kallor Eiderann Tes’thesula, each time you rise, you shall then fall. All that you achieve shall turn to dust in your hands. As you have wilfully done here, so it shall be in turn visited upon all that you do.’

K'rul: '‘Three voices curse you...It is done.’

--

Okay, the way I see it.. he can never ascend. check. Every time he rises (to power, i assume), he'll fall. Check. So the relevant curse is K'rul's...He'll live a life unending.. does that mean he'll never die, period? or just that he won't die from old age? or that he can't be killed?

Hmm. I guess it wouldn't be interesting if Brood could've just lopped Kallor's head off his shoulders. Well.. interesting scene, but not long-term plot.

[Terez]

It's not really much of a spoiler...but when K'rul tells you that you're going to have "mortal life unending", that probably means you're unkillable. (This, on the other hand, is a spoiler for the end of MOI):

Which is probably why Whiskeyjack's leg gave out at exactly the wrong moment.

[caladanbrood]

Terez, is there an equivalent to Encyclopedia WoT for the Malazan series? i want a synopsis of each character. Specifically Kallor, and why nobody's skewered his ass yet.
I may not be Terez, but the Encyclopedia Malazica (http://encylopaediamalazica.pbwiki.com/) is what you're after. It's a wiki, and it's far from complete, so there may well be nothing that you're looking for there, but no harm in looking ;)


As for Kallor - the curses give him life unending, but this doesn't mean he can't be killed. He can recover from serious wounds and such, but if you cut his head off, he would die;) However, he is extremely good at making himself indispensible to various people, and a pretty fine swordsman/fighter too.

[Terez]

I may not be Terez, but the Encyclopedia Malazica (http://encylopaediamalazica.pbwiki.com/) is what you're after. It's a wiki, and it's far from complete, so there may well be nothing that you're looking for there, but no harm in looking ;)
I already linked her to it, silly. :p Well, directly to the Dramatis Personae section, since that's specifically what she was looking for, but she IS smart enough to figure out what the "home" button is for. :p

[Zaela Sedai]

Ok so I started GotM for the 3rd time...and I've made it to ch. 4....I'm sorry but its tough to make myself read it..no connection to the characters at all....should I even bother? LOL

[Terez]

I think it's good stuff. Of course those of us that like it are going to tell you it's worth the effort to get into it, so I don't know why you asked. :p

[Isabel]

Zaela: If you have time left, do try to finish the book.
It's very hard to get into this series. If you absolutely hate it after book 1 and not willing to give book 2 a go, than quit.
Most people got into the series after reading book 2 ;)

[Terez]

Yeah...if you haven't given up by the end of book 2, then you probably won't need any encouragement to continue.

[caladanbrood]

Ok so I started GotM for the 3rd time...and I've made it to ch. 4....I'm sorry but its tough to make myself read it..no connection to the characters at all....should I even bother? LOL
Short answer is no. I could say what I always have before, that you should persevere and it will all be worth it, but bottom line is that if you can't make yourself read it, you're not gonna enjoy it properly anyway. Don't waste your time.

Which is a shame, because some of the later books, particularly Memories of Ice, are truly spectacular.

[Zaela Sedai]

Well I read on the bus for a total of 30 min a day. Books I like I will read every chance i get. This is not one of those. I will however finish this 1st book... if only to say I gave it a shot.... I just don't see why it should take like 800-1000 pages for a series to be enjoyable...

[caladanbrood]

He never claimed it was easy to get into - do you have the copy with the preface, it might explain a few things.

I found GotM very enjoyable, personally - but if you hate it, then there's no point forcing yourself to read it, that's silly:)

[Zaela Sedai]

i don't hate it, it just doesnt intrigue me right now is all

[Freya Sedai]

I've just finished Toll the Hounds for the second time! Rambles somewhat but I'm sure its all in there for a reason! Can't wait for Return of the Crimson Guard!!

It took me about three tries to get past the first 100 pages of Gardens of the Moon. Once I did it was well worth it!

[Zaela Sedai]

i just reached 104 I think...its readable at this point.

[Terez]

I've just finished Toll the Hounds for the second time!
I'm thinking I might read it twice as well. Maybe not....but there are a lot of details I could stand to go back and get. I'm only about 400 pages in now...

The first 70 or so pages were the hardest for me in Gardens of the Moon. It got easier after that.

[SauceyBlueConfetti]

Paris? What's in Paris Saucy? Just cause?

Sorry for the delayed response. I spilled lemonade in my laptop and it is KERPLAT upstairs. I hate the 'puter in the basement/bar, slow slow slow.

Anyway, to answer...delayed honeymoon. we went to Kentucky mountains back in October after the wedding, but planned on Paris...I was starting a new job and did not have the vacation time yet, so we picked a trip for September this year. It is coming up fast now, I cannot wait : )

My husband has been 4 times, so he knows his way around. He has a friend who owns a school there...so we get to stay for free a few days with a driver and do whatever we want, the rest of the time we signed up with a tour group.

This is the school, it is beautiful
http://www.euramcenter.com/

My main goals are to see:
Notre Dame
Normandy
Eat fabulous food and drink amazing wines at the various vineyards

: )

[Ishara]

Sounds like a plan! I'd recommend the Eyewitness Paris guidebook, even if you're with someone who knows their way around. It's a great resource, and especially helpful when you come home, since you can take it with you to augment pictures when words don't do things justice.

I spent an entire day at Notre Dame and felt like I ran out of time...didn't even get to see the crypts, but man oh man, the gargoyles were something else. It was really, really moving.

Have so much fun!!!!

[Terez]

I finished Toll the Hounds, by the way. And though I already tortured JWB with talking about how great it was....it was awesome. :D :D

And for Frenzy...we learn a bit more about Kallor in Toll the Hounds (though it seems it might be a while before you get there, if you make it that far).

Huge step up for Erikson in literary quality in this volume. Not that it was lacking before...but the amount of cleverness squeezed into even the mundane details of this book is amazing.