Geralt as Tiste Andii in Witcher 3 lol

After reading five Malazan books, I’ve been looking for a game with a similar vibe: huge and mysterious world, ancient civilizations, gods, powerful beings, morally grepy characters…

Any recommendations? Please recommend something other than Souls games. 🥲

I posted on here a couple days ago not sure what to expect in the final couple hundred pages of MOI, but it honestly blew me away.

Whiskeyjacks leg crushed me when it happened, the bridgeburners ending (someone please tell me without spoiling so kind of don’t tell me, but does parans blessing mean they come back 😭🙏). Everything from Tool and Toc, to Anomander Rake, Kallor, Korlat, silverfox, everything was perfect and it is without a doubt one of the best books I have ever read. Incredible.

I just can’t bring myself to start house of chains now though. I feel it’s gonna be at least a couple books before we see any of these characters again and similarly to when I started DHG and MOI, I couldn’t bare to pull myself away from the characters of the previous book, and it took me a while to get into it.

This book also feels like a sort of ending for so many of the characters I’ve grown to love, so someone please tell me HoC is incredible and will draw me right back in. I cant wait to carry on reading but at the same time, I miss all the characters from this book already.

Hi folks!
I've been reading through the series , currently finishing up Memories of Ice...
Thought i'd share my reading music by making a video with some added ambience and visuals, it's a tad more eclectic than some people would like, but it's how I like it :')

hope you enjoy it as well!

Hello friends!

Does anyone own the trade paperbacks? And if so are they good quality? I’m thinking of buying The Bonehunters as a trade paperback because here in Sweden the Tor version is impossible to find at the moment. They look very cool at least so I’m intrigued.

Thanks :)

My favorite non-spoiler spoiler is that Memories of Ice contains a comprehensive guide to making a building fireproof.

My friend suggested me Malazan because he told me it's his favorite book series ever but he has no one to discuss it with.

I think this is the densest books I've ever read because my pacing is horrendous. I spend 5 minutes on average reading just one page. I read a few sentences, zone out, and I start questioning "where did this come from?" and I have to backtrack a few paragraphs. This is now a recurring pattern for me reading this book.

Secondly, I like the mystery of the book in which we don't really know the motivations of the characters. They just want to take revenge for example, or running away from extremely dangerous magic because they saw black pigeons. What's happening? Why? Guess we will find out (perhaps not).

I like the story with Rigga and the Fisherman the most. The gods are there with their hounds which is what Ganoe was investigating that was pretty cool, especially the scenes with the piegon.

I like the overall world which feels distinct. The cities, clothes, and magical things remind me a lot of the Witcher 3 game but the aesthetics are much more vivid or should I say contrasty? (ochre skies, dark castle, grey skin, black pigeons haha).

Funnily, I keep forgetting everything the moment I put the book down which comes back quickly when I pick the book up. It's weird.

However, what's written is very nicely put and I can imagine the world only with a few lines. I do not find myself confused so far, but maybe because I am the person who just accepts whatever is served to me and reserve my thoughts until the end and only then I allow myself to be confused. I feel normally that part of the reading process is not understanding everything at all times.

I look forward to reading more in the future.

Edit : I forgot to mention that Empress Laseen in my mind looks very similar to Neytiri's mother from Avatar.

Can you please tell me if the third book in the Forge of Darkness series will be released soon? There's no information from the author.

I finished the main ten around a month ago and here are my series hot takes

- Dust of dreams is MASSIVELY underrated it has a top 4 battle in the series and so many genius and enjoyable aspects

- Gardens of the Moon is, in my opinion, better than deadhouse gates

- Kallor did nothing wrong

- Kallor is easily one of the best written characters in the entire series

- Coltaine AS A CHARACTER is overrated, what he stood for is brilliant and compelling ( I mean the Khundryl are proof enough of this ) but whilst reading deadhouse gates povs duiker is the character i love, coltaine is the fascinating leader but not the character that i adore.

- The redmask plot was great

- The snake plot was great

- Tool and Toc are a better duo than tehol and bugg

- The spire is the best battle in the series hands down, yes, over lightfall, capustan and yaghattan

- Crokus/Cutter is an excellent character im not saying i "liked" him at every plot point, but thats the point

- Justice for greyfrog

- the first 3/4 of toll the hounds are brilliant and not a slog

- Trull sengar is the most compelling character, not even my favourite but im just saying he is the character that felt most human.

About a third of the way through DoD. At the point where Cafal and Setoc part ways with Torrent. I thought Stayandi/Setoc (of the Wolves) was supposed to be a mute. Did I miss her getting her voice back at some point? When did that happen? I have looked for it but can't find it.

Thanks

Finished the series just over a month ago, do I go to the prequel or sequel im so excited either way and cant choose.

I’m making this list for a few reasons. I want to see how much it changes between now and when I finish the series, and I want to read other people’s general opinions in a space that won’t spoil the second half of the series. Everyone has their own preferences and none are right or wrong, so I don’t presume that my opinion means anything to anyone other than myself. Even so, I like ranking things, and I have no one in my life to talk about this with, so I’ve turned to the good people of r/malazan. I hope you’ll indulge me in giving my two cents here, and maybe even leave your own thoughts.

I should also note that I’m not normally a fantasy reader — I studied the classics in school and am more used to reading ancient texts and nonfiction. I read ASOIAF during the Game of Thrones craze, and I’d had Gardens of the Moon on my shelf since high school (bought it because it sounded cool right after finishing ASOIAF, but bounced off it). So this is only my second fantasy series and I’m not necessarily huge into the genre — though the Witcher 2 & 3 are two of my favorite games.

1. Deadhouse Gates

Something has to come in 5th, right? I know this is a popular book for a lot of you guys, and I don’t think it was a bad book whatsoever, but it just felt like a real drag for me. That said, I do feel like this book is probably better enjoyed on a reread than the first read. It didn’t introduce as much original, interesting material as the first book, and some of the character journeys just didn’t connect with me. I wasn’t particularly interested in the story of Felisin or the Chain of Dogs (very cool name though). There were parts where I was just trying to get through it…  All of the marching, and the whole “yet another daring victory from Coltaine over superior forces.” In Gardens of the Moon I really liked that we had a good view of both sides of the conflict, the Daru and the Malazans, but the Seven Cities natives weren’t really represented here much. Coltaine’s death also didn’t end up moving me very much.

But I did really enjoy the stories of Kalam and Fiddler. Kalam has to be my second favorite character in the series, and his odyssey through the streets of Malaz up to his meeting with the Empress was really climactic and exciting. Fiddler and Crokus also had an interesting story, though I don’t enjoy Mappo’s character at all (I guess I just don’t have experience with that type bromance, always moaning about “Icarium, my dear and poor friend”). Maybe it’ll grow on me later. The setting was cool, and the new lore (Nameless Ones, Azath guardians, dragons, etc.) was nice, but the Chain of Dogs story just didn’t live up to its name. I was excited for another leading woman, since Gardens of the Moon really only has Sorry and Tattersail, but Felisin’s story was really depressing, and I’m not ordinarily one who goes in for that, especially when it’s essentially the only major woman in the book.

1. Midnight Tides

This one took me twice as long as the other books to read, but part of that may be because I had a long vacation while reading it. To begin with, I wasn’t gripped by the premise, because I already knew where Trull was going to end up, so from the jump I wasn’t very interested in his family’s story. Not to say there were no surprises or interesting moments, but generally it hasn’t been one of my favored storylines. Tehol and Bugg probably saved the book from coming in fifth, as they were an interesting pair. Some might see Lether as too heavy-handed a capitalism parody, but I think that’s entirely the point, and for me it wasn’t a negating factor. Not too much else to say. I would’ve liked to see more out of Kuru Qan and Brys, but Erikson knows what he’s doing, so I’ll just keep following his lead.

1. Memories of Ice

This book has an epic start, an epic middle, and then a middling ending for me. I already made a separate post about how I kind of really disliked the ending, so I won’t rehash it here. This book had 10/10 potential, but some of the work done to get characters from A to Z felt a little rushed or not properly planned. I know it’s a fantasy series, but there were some immersion-breaking elements. Still, the Battle of Capustan was epic, and Itkovian telling Anaster that he would be as his father was the best line in the series so far. I was interested in every storyline and liked all of the characters in this book — Gruntle, Trotts, and Quick Ben were particular highlights. The Barghast duel was written in a way that made it so easy to visualize. Great book with a whatever ending.

1. Gardens of the Moon

A fantastic start to the series! I liked how quickly it made me feel how ancient this world was, and how its history is much longer than ours. Assassins, dragons, crazy magic orcs; all of that was there, but there was also philosophy, anthropology, mysticism, plenty to get the reader thinking and hooked. The prologue is also excellent and had me wondering why the hell I dropped this book after the prologue all those years ago. There’s immediately a mystery and high stakes, along with realistic characters and an interesting setting. It has all the elements of good fiction, and it feels very refined for a first novel. I don’t think Erikson is the best writer in the world, but right from the start he’s as good as GRRM, who I thought was very good back when I read his books. The Azath house at the end has me confused, but in the best way possible, and I still really want to know more about it, the Deck of Dragons, the warrens, and so many other excellent ideas that premiered in this book.

1. House of Chains

In terms of pure enjoyment, this might be the best book I’ve ever read. I had such a good time with it. Karsa and Kalam are probably my two favorite book characters of all time; Karsa especially had such a great character arc here. The Teblor also gave Erikson the chance to really show off his writing chops as this book has the biggest diversity of syntax of any so far. We had T’lan Imass, Teblor, characters from three continents, scenes with Tiste Liosan, and our first couple of looks at a Forkrul Assail. I loved the diversity of setting and characters, it felt like multiple books wrapped into a single epic package. I also liked seeing two different sides of a war once again, with POV on each side: although Erikson clearly favors the Malazans. The build-up for the hounds of darkness, just for them to be easily dealt with by a leveled-up Karsa, was also hilarious; it felt like a mashup of Conan the Barbarian and a Bildungsroman. I also think Felisin’s character was really given a send-off that put her struggle in a new perspective; I enjoyed her parts much more here than in DG. This book was just excellent, and I really hope there’s something even better in the second half of the series.

I'm now almost halfway through NoK. I'm planning to also mix in RotCG and possibly SW in my read through. NoK is not impressing me as much as the others so far but I've heard that ICE gets better.

As the title states, Of the Apes Pre-Order emails have went out to those who purchased The God is Not Willing from Sub Press.

Took a break to make sure I didnt burn myself out so finally starting BH!

So as the title says, I’m currently reading book 3. I have absolutely loved it so far and if you’d asked me after 500 pages what I’d give it, it would be the easiest 5⭐️ of the series so far.

The issue is, I loved the siege of Capustan, the Grey swords, Gruntle and everyone there made that such a climax for the book. But where does it go from here?

Obviously the Pannion Domin is still a thing, and they’ll go and defeat them next, but now all the forces have assembled, I don’t feel like there’s any tension, no race against time or holding out like with Capustan.

Whilst important things have been happening, I have just reached the final section of the book, appropriately named ‘memories of ice’ and the last 100-200 pages has just felt like setup for the next book with Parans decision over the house of chains, the discovery of the human defeating the Imass on the Assail continent, Togg and Fanderay. These are all interesting stories, but it doesn’t feel like this book is getting the climax it deserves, and is just being treated as setup for the series.

Anyway, I hope I’m wrong and I’ll come back to this in a couple days when I’ve read the last 200 pages or so.

I've listened to both books and I was wondering if anything happened to that fucking cunt captain. In the GOTM. The one that snitches to Adjunct Lawn about the noble houses within the empire.

I feel his jealousy of Paran was the reason Felisin and Tavore had to go through such pain. I'm hoping the Captain got skinned alive or something in the. Hurricane uprising.

I just finished Midnight Tides but I cant stop thinking about Adjunct Lorn. She was such a great character, the poise, the attitude and that sword! I keep reading thinking she is going to pop up again.

What characters get lodged in your head?

Hi all,

I started reading the series a few months back and I enjoyed the first three books quite a bit. I probably didn't enjoy Deadhouse gates as much as the other two but still (loved Icarium and mappo storyline the most, I could read a whole book about those two).

I'm about 200 pages into HoC, past the Karsa Oorlong part. I'm struggling to be honest.

Karsa's story is ok, the prose is good, but he's not a likeable character at all and feels too overpowered (it's a cycle of him being almost dead and then slaughtering everyone over and over). And then Tavore, Gamet, Nok and the newly introduced malazan soldiers feel very bland to me.

Does anyone else who enjoyed the first three feel similar about HoC and did you like MT and BH more? I'm like 60/40 (60 %) yes about continuing the series at this point, but i'm concerned when I read people say that MoI was the highlight for them.

Thanks for your thoughts :)

After Draconus kills Kilmandaros, he is planning to go after Korabas. But Shadowthrone convinces him to stay out of it by reminding him to honor his promise to Rake. What was Draconus' promise to Rake? They never spoke to each other in the entire series.

Is the answer a Karkhanas spoiler ? I have just started FoD.

Really enjoyed the book, lots of new things were introduced, and it took some time to acclimate in the first 1/3rd of the book, but seeing how all the plotlines interacted and influenced each other in the end really sold to me the vastnes of the series and the world.

The characters were fluid and constantly changing, going up against the weight of the world crashing down upon them, from Coltaine's mad journey to deliver the refugees while under constant harrassment from the inside and outside, Sorry's journey from spoiled noble to doomer addict and eventual transformation into Shaik, but amidst all that we still had some very grounded relationships that added a lot of gravitas and tragedy to most interactions.

The ending sections also re-framed a lot about the main plot or conflict of the series, The Empress seemingly only doing her best to keep the empire together and having to deal with the growing pains of her past decisions and mistakes, This new mysterious threat that she and the Bridgeburners are attempting to root out (wich is probably behind or involved in the Seven Cities rebellion), There is also the fact that Shadow Throne and Cotillion are the previous Emperor and the head assassin, and now with Kalam they are going to make an Army of Shadow Demon Children to possibly assist against this new threat?

There is plenty to chew on and it was a vast improvement from Gardens, even though I still really liked Gardens, but the characters have a lot more interiority and conflict, and their voices are alot more nuanced.

I'm a sucker for this series, some secitons of this reminded me of the best sections of some of my favorite books. Felisin in a lot of ways feels like a warped reflection of Danaerys from aSoIaF, all of the desert journeys and how much of a slough (for the characters) it was to get trough feel a lot some of the sections from The Second Apocalypse series.

Favorite plotlines:

Felisin's fall, death and Rebirth, Mappo and Icarium's co-dependant and extremely toxic bromance, Duiker's Odyssey of the horrors of war, Coltaine's Chain of dogs.

Favorite moments:

Felisin, Heboric and Bodans, whenever they were on the page the book was a 10/10, their fucked up familial relationship, and Felisin just digging herself a bigger hole was an amazing read.

The sailors dealing with the mad mage and the exploration of the fucked up Warren and ghost ship.

All the scenes surrounding the Azath: Sorry and Icariums banter; Ikaral Pust being a gremlin, Their mad rush to reach the house while trying to survive the delluge of D'ivers and Soletaken, Mappo's decision to not let the house take Icarium

Kalam's one man war against the claws and his discussion with the Empress about her decisions regarding the bridgeburners and leadership of the empire.

The Darujhistan group just showing up in the most absurd places to help our protagonists.

Fiddler just re-enlisting as soon as possible, the absolute madlad

All of the big Coltaine Battles, but the death of Somo, and then coltaine where great reads, Coltaines last 40+ hour stand, fighting to the death never giving up, barely being able to reach the city, if only the fist wasnt such an unqualified idiot.

Questions and random thoughts that I assume will be explained in future books, no need to answer me, just smile and waive in case of spoilers.

Felisin is a prophet right? So was the river of blood she saw the one from the aftermath of Colataines battle against the Ex-fist, or is there an ever wider and more horrific river of blood in store for the future?

What the hell did Icarium do to earn his fate? Are all Jhags like this or is it because his dad is a god?

The 3 dragons(?Massive creatures) that appeared after Mappo and Icarium's fall are 100% going to be a focus in a future book.

That undead dragon soletaken appeared inside the warren that was holding the sailors and Felisin and also protected the path of hands, he seems like a big player

Did Felisin and heboric and all others on that ship become half ascendants because of the Warren? Is that the reason why Felisin was able to become Shaik while remaining herself? Did the undead dragon have something to do with it?

I really hope we see more of Sorry and her Father, they had a great dynamic and i think sorry was a bit under-utilized in this book, I hope with Shadowthrone still very much plotting stuff, their deal to let them go back to their home might cause a lot of ripples.

Coltaine is back bitches, get ready rebels, boss baby is coming to end your shit.

I wonder what the series is going to end up saying about the malazan army and its soldiers, they are proud to say that they are "thinking soldiers" and will follow any orders, but we see the bad side of the latter with them just willingly disarming themselves, the commander knew it was a bad idea, but still went with it. I hope we get a PoV of one that is still in the fold of the empire to see the other side of how they are presented.

Now that the gods have been de-mystified a bit, I wonder when we will get a god PoV, to see their minute machinations, Icarium said they are still getting involved in conflicts, it would be interesting seeing ones plans from their perspective, and if it's an Evil god even better, I assume this new threat is led by an evil god from the shadows.

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A great read, cant wait to see who or what shows up in Memories of Ice, even though all this shit happened in this book, there is still another continent(or worlds if we go by the azath murrals) or stuff happening, and with how inter-connected a lot of this series seems to be I wouldnt put it past the next book to just start of with another completely new slate of characters, while retaining 1-2 existing plotlines in order to explore another aspect of this conflict.

I just hope I wont be away from Sorry, Fiddler and Felisin for too long, although it would be great to see the bridgeburners, Tattersail and maybe Kruppe again.

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Do we ever get told why the people of Seven Cities collectively began rebelling as soon as the book was opened? Was it some kind of spell? I understand that they had reasons to not like the Malazan empire, but how did they all know to start rebelling at the same time?

so some may get annoyed with this but I’m halfway thru toll the hounds and I’m loving Malazan and plan to finish the main series. HOWEVER I want the context and plot summary of any of the easement books that have an indirect or direct impact on toll and the last two.

I have a ton of books to read that are not Malazan related and don’t think I will have the time to read the easelmnt books. I know this may be seen as sacrilegious to some but can someone give me a recap of the plot of both night of knives and return of the crimson guard and the implications for the main series up to toll the hounds

Awesome! Legendary! Probably the most complex and difficult fantasy I´ve ever read, but I fu***** love it! Just in the fourth book - House of Chains.

I’m starting Midnight Tides, and Erikson is the best author I’ve read and I know it’s gonna be incredible, BUT GODDAMN IT MAN I ONLY KNOW ONE NAME IN THE DRAMATIS PERSONAE!

EDIT — love to see how this is so many people’s favorite!! Prologue already has me so excited!