Guys i can’t stop thinking about this, i felt it while re reading stormlight archive, i don’t specifically remember what it was in those books but I had this taste in my mouth he was renting some of the Erikson ideas, especially in the later ones.

In his latest book the city where the narration develops is whole built around a fallen titan which is apparently dead (or sleeping), the blood of the titan creates rivers that move all through this town, and apparently this blood can be used as a portal or can even give Magic power… i mean am I crazy or this sound waaaay too familiar???

Is there any Brandon Sanderson and Steven Erikson here that felt the same?

Love you all

So confused about the “gray helms,” that just show up out of nowhere. At first k thought these are just the gray swords with a new name. Toc and the gang. Quick Ben says he recognizes them and one of them acknowledges him which further confirmed it for me. But then they said they’ve been here preparing this ritual for years which is weird because the gray swords couldn’t have been on this continent for years. So who are these guys and what’s their deal? How does Quick Ben know them? Or is it just that he recognizes them as being a carbon copy of the gray swords?

Hi everyone! On my first read-through here. Read GotM-HoC in high school/early college (10-12 years ago) and picked up MT several months ago. Finished BH yesterday after about three months and realized I had far too many "Wait, what happened the last time I saw this character?" moments. I decided that going into RG I was going to start taking notes and thought one way I might do it would be to tag pages with small sticky tags labeled with the character whose POV that scene was from, but I feel that might get chaotic kind of quickly. Does anyone have any suggestions for note-taking to keep up with the complex plots?

Also was curious about a potential RAFO in Bonehunters. I don't know if I read it too slowly but was hoping for a little more exposition about the state of the moon and the falling jade/meteors closer to the end of Bonehunters. Peeking ahead at RG's Dramatis Personae, it looked like Cutter, Scillara, Mappo, and companions aren't even in book 7. I'm not sure if I missed a cue earlier on in the book (or series) in Heboric's plot-line that would put some context into what happened with these enormous suns raining down on Otataral Island and the seeming dissolution of the Moon--I did connect it with Ardata's healing of Mappo but wasn't sure how this weighed in overall since it had been several hundred pages before people noticed something was off about the moon. I wouldn't consider it a spoiler to find out a surprise appearance from Cutter et al. happens in RG but with the length of time it took me to read the book, I thought I would check to see if I completely missed an important detail or not!

Thanks for any help in either question!

Some time ago, there was a post asking if there were Hindu influences in Malazan. One of the comments talked about a sequence in "The Bonehunters" and (I think) it's about the burning of Y'Ghatan. There were no answers/follow up to that commment so it kind of stayed in my mind. I started reading Mahabharat (translated by Bibek Debroy, one of the best if not the best translation of the epic) some days ago, and today and it mentioned the burning of the lac house, where Duryodhana and his allies attempted to assassinate the Pandavas and their mother, Kunti (Lakshagriha). So this is (might be) one of the Hindu influences that Steven Erikson must have taken from Mahabharat.

Well, just speculation, I suppose. But it's interesting and quite cool!

I'm about to start the Crippled God and wanted to share my series experience and book rankings.

Letherii has been by far my favorite setting and I feel in general the books improve as the series goes. The exploration of empire and colonialism on Letherii has been my favorite theme of the series, and Dust of Dreams has been my favorite book so far. I found the Perish/Bolkando/Barghast storylines so engaging that I re-read those sections after finishing 3/4 of the book. Considering it's often a lower-ranked book here, I'm curious if others found things to like about it.

I took a years-long break after Bonehunters, and had ambitions to re-read Deadhouse Gates through Bonehunters before the finale but ultimately I don't think that's going to happen. I've been listening to the Esslemont books as I go as well, skipping Night of Knives and going in roughly publication order.

My rankings:

1. Dust of Dreams
2. Reapers Gale
3. Midnight Tides
4. Bonehunters
5. Deadhouse Gates (second read)
6. Return of the Crimson Guard
7. House of Chains
8. Memories of Ice
9. Orb Sceptre Throne
10. Deadhouse Gates (first read)
11. Stonewielder
12. Toll the Hounds
13. Gardens of the moon
14. (Night of Knives not pictured)

Overall

Oh my god where do I even begin... What a glorious finale... Holy shit... Multiple sprawling final sequences over 150 pages... This was a very intense read... I love it, just brutal, unforgiving, but so funny and so so satisfying. I cried like 4-5 different times at the end of this book... So many times I would stop and just think to myself "this is just phenomenally well written.". There is too much content in these books, I need to read them a few more times.

Honestly this hit harder than the Bonehunters (here's my previous review https://www.reddit.com/r/Malazan/comments/1vwh04u/new_readers_thoughs_on_the_bonehunters/)

The Marines

Finally we see the marines in full ACTION. It was full Vietnam war over there, swamps, explosives, granados, quarrels, the sheer brutality of it. 10/10 vibes, peak military fantasy. Also Beak.. My hears b(r)eaks for Beak. He had barely any page time, but such a beautiful swan song... So the Marines war criminals or liberators? Who knows, but I love em all!

The Awl

Redmask's journey was so well written, starting off as the biggest badass, whipping the tribes into a fighting force, only to fail and be suddenly dismembered out of nowhere. Such a cool mystery. But was it him under the mask? Was he a stolen lethery baby? Did a letheri take his mask in the battle (an imposter)? Who know, it was awesome.

Toc's presence there felt find of random though, I was more confused when he died then invested. I also quite enjoyed the Letheri side of this. Quality military stuff!

The Quest for the Finnest

I really liked this ragtag group. It has one the funniest scenes - the Tiste Edur monastery with it's squabbling monks with dissonant chanting. Also the resentment seething between then, while they carried themselves forth. So much tension in those pages, I really enjoyed their journey.

However, it didn't make too much sense from a logical perspective why they stayed together. Why didn't Silchas and Clip just dump the rest, take Kettle and do their thing? Maybe they wanted them as fodder in case thing went wrong? Also Kettle deserved more page time before her death! That was shocking!

Quick Ben

Quick shout out to my favourite character, blasting out elder dragon beings like it's nothing. The High mage with the burnout, gotta love him.

Karsa

My boy, non-alleged rapist, war criminal, reforming himself. Resuing the sword, a powerful moment. His clever scheme to kill Rhulad and end his missery. Phonomenal final scenes. Very cleverly written.

The Bros

So many good bro duets here! Fiddler and Hedge got reunited!!! Quick Ben and Hedge are the second best arguing married couple, Trull and Onrack being as emotional as ever. The whole sequence when Onrack got his flesh back, hunting and being happy again. I loved reading that so so much! They deserved a proper goodbye! But maybe Rafo, things are in motion.

Trull

Him dying caught me completely unprepared... I did the whole 5 stages of grief. And what was most masterful is that at first you don't believe it, because it happens so suddenly. But then in the final part of the prologue when Seren is burying the sword. That's where it got me... Also a mason shows up? I remember a few masons!!! (no spoilers pls)

The Letheri

This is the part of the book that I did not connected to. The Patrotists and the Rotary club were interesting in princple, but they did not move the plot much. They added flavour, but were very one-dimensional. Yes, I get it, these are definitely bad guys, hateable, time to enjoy them dying (which granted I did).

Also it pains me so much so say this, because I loved Tehol and Bugg so so much in Midnight Tides, but the jokes were a little played out here. I love seeing them on page, so many good lines and funny jokes. But there are only so many times I can laugh at them eating something unedible. Also the whole plotline with Janath being a torture victim, to end up on Tehol's roof, who kind of hits on her after that, her being his previous teacher, to then her being tortured again, then becoming queen. That just felts weird. Also Tehol's whole emperor arc felt cringy. I'm sorry! I get why it happens, but it just did not land for me.

So Many Subversions. Sooo many.

Silchas getting completely demolished by the bridgeburners, Redmark getting shredded to bits, The big invasion of the Malazans is of a ruined city, not able to fight back much. The best thing about it, is that now my brain is trained that nothing is certain, every scene can be tense for any character. Love it! It's almost satire, but actually worked for me. I'm so impressed!

Random Digressions

I simply love those. The scene where Nimander tears the knife from his sister is one my favourite in this book. The whole lore of the Shake, seeing the little stories of the people on the wrong side of the war get killed. Beautiful. So much flavour.

Way too Horny

This book was way too horny at places, that did not always work for me. The whole thing about everyone staring at Gilani's ass was too much. Actually, on second though, I maybe would do the same, who am I too judge. But Invictad dying with his intestines looking like a penis? Feather Which using Bryss's finger like a tampon (okay that was actually freaking hillarious). Sometimes these land, but sometimes not. Are some of these ironic? Meta ironic? Does it even matter?

I just hate that there's more rapes in the books then genunine sex scenes. You could have give us Seren and Trull, Erickson! Sex is not only violent!

The Postmodernism

I've heard many times that this fantasy series has some postmodern writing elements. It's only that I start seeing them. The loony toones humor, the meta commentary on the "hero's journey", and heroes then failing. I'm sure if I'm into this yet, especially if it get more overt and meta, I have to see how it plays out and develops as a bigger theme across the following books. I am sceptical so far.

P.S Why doesn't anyone just kill the crippled god? Mael? Karsa? He's just sitting there helpless???