Ahira's Hangar

Spoilers and spoiler containing reviews for Reaper's Gale are starting to pop up everywhere on the internet like the spring violets in my back yard!

At least I know now that I will not have to order the book from Britain or make a trip over the River to Canada to get it! It just doesn't sound that interesting to me:

[mild spoilers] (run your cursor over them to read them)If what the "reviewers" is saying is true, pretty much nothing happens in the first half of a book pushing 1000 pages in hardcover. It is set in Lethar, which is the setting I most disliked in all of these books. The first half only has characters from Midnight Tides, a book which which bored me to tears. I do not want to spend a single word or second more on a rickety rooftop with Tehol and Bugg, both of whom I thought were boring and annoying! Sorry - even though the second half supposedly kicks ass, I can wait awhile before getting this one! It's called a used copy on Amazon a few months from now when the hype dies down and the prices go down, too!

In a series of this length, everyone will find things and characters they especially like and especially dislike. For me the especial dislike is everything and everyone in Midnight Tides. I realize that might be other peoples' favorite, though, and hope that I have not offended anyone with my criticism. It is all personal opinion!

You can all jump over Karsa and his story line, and the Chain of Dogs, which are my favorite parts if you like!!! [/spoilers]

Personally there is no contest for me - Earthsea wins hands down.

Short, quick reads - simple but very deep. Elegantly written by a master. I have problems with Tehanu, but that is only the one book out of the entire series I had problems with.

I thought the first Malazan book was fairly poorly written (that would be
Gardens of the Moon), but is is a first novel and was written many years before he continued the story. For me the highlight of the series was the second book, but I really liked everything up to Midnight Tides.

That is when the padding started. Half of that book could have easily been cut with no loss. And when you are talking about a book that is pushing 1000 pages...

And while I liked The Bonehunters more than MT, there was this...how shall I put it? At that point the author's insistance on making everything and everyone more and more badass than everything and everyone else really started turning me off. I like badass characters, but The Bonehunters (especially the ending) just took that so far that it jarred me right of the book and made me laugh at something that was not intended to be funny.

Erikson can be great to read - but he desperately needs a good editor!! Someone to drastically cut out some of the padding in the later books - and to tell him "enough is enough. Tone this crap down!"

Malazan could have been an all time classic fantasy series with a great editor, but right now I view it as a mediocre series with some awesome high points and having hundreds of pages of boring useless drivel for its low points.

I greatly prefer R. Scott Bakker to Erikson at the moment...I would recommend his Prince of Nothing trilogy highly over Malazan.

But again, this is all personal preference. I know I would be flamed and killed at many boards were I to diss Erikson as I just did.

I, otoh, will not answer Menolly again.


Sorry to hear that Malazan goes downhill like that. No surprise, though, since it's so huge.

I agree that GotM is much less than at least the next two, which is all I've read.

You might enjoy the whole thing, Fist. A lot of people over at the Martin board cite Midnight Tides as their favorite book in the series. I think the varying reaction all lies in how well you like or dislike two certain main characters of that book. If you think that they are funny, you will love the book. I found them to be boring and tedious, so I did not like the book.

I have really mixed feeling about Erikson - when he is on top of his game he is really really really good! Like the Chain of Dogs. And then at other times I literally fall asleep everytime I try to read some of his later books (esp. MT). I could not read more than twenty pages at a time of that book without dozing right off.

And then I get really frustrated because I know he has it in him to be one the greatest ever, and I see the story getting lost in later books under a lot of padding and self-indulgence.

I want to spank him!

And by the way - my second favorite, after Deadhouse would be House of Chains, which really gets into the background of my favorite character, Karsa Orlong. And most Erikson fans hate that book and hate that character.

So my tastes apparently really run in the opposite direction as that of a lot of Erikson fans (or at least the voacal majority of them over at the Martin board).

Fist, one of thse days you should try Bakker as well. The main character, Kelhus, is a manipulative bad guy - but what he is trying to protect the world from is even worse. Kelhus uses religion (among other things) to gain his way and to get power over others. Fascinating world, fascinating anti-hero as the main character - I really enjoy the two main secondary characters as well (Aka rules!).

See, now I really can't understand your dislike of Tehol and Bugg. Of all the comedy characters in the series, these two are the ones I like most. I can't really argue with your opinion of them, though. but I must disagree with your statments that they--and related Letherii storylines--are only there for padding--they serve an important purpose thematically, stylistically, and plotwise.
Spoilers:

First of all, Tehol is a Beddict brother, in a book about brothers. The book contrasts Binadas, Trull and Fear with Hull, Tehol and Brys. Stylistically, this contrast was necessary--the book is two-sided, with the comedic Letherii side intended to balance the incredibly bleak Tiste Edur side of the book. I admit, the comedy was a little much for the purpose, but personally I found the book hilarious first time round. If he'd stuck most of the story with Trull and left out a lot of the Letherii, it might have been perceived as a very dark and downbeat volume in the series.
Then there is the most tangible purpose--the economic sabotage. No-one who took themselves--or Letherii society--seriously could pull off something so incredibly audacious. The full extent to which Tehol and Bugg's actions matter is not made clear in MT, but will be very clear later.
The other Letherii plot threads serve the thematic mirroring of characters (Diskanar/Rhulad, Hannan Mosag/Triban Gnol, etc), and to introduce characters that are important now and in RG.

[spoiler]

It might have been important thematically, but the Lethari segments bored the living sh*t out of me. To the point where I do not even know if I will continue with the series now that I know I have to read more of that crap with those characters.

Tastes differ, and I am glad that you enjoyed it, and found those characters funny.

Sadly, I did not.

And I think I would have enjoyed a dark, unbalanced book a lot more than one filled with what I found to be very forced and unfunny humor

And do not even get me started on those three chicks who nearly killed their male employee with sex. Change it to three guys who nearly kill their female employee with sex, and maybe you will start to see how truly offensive I found that "comedic" storyline to be. Add on that the employee was a jailbird who might not have been able to find other honest and gainful employment, and you will additionally understand why that subplot made me want to puke.

Gods, I hate the city of Lethar, and the only thing that might help me pick up Reaper's Gale would be a spoiler telling me that yet another character gets a huge superhuman powerup out of literally nowhere for no logical reason and destroys the city in a nuclear fireblast spell along with every tedious and boring soul in it.


[/spoiler]

For an interesting encounter between a fan and Steven Erikson:

For some more Erikson news, including possible plans for after Malazan, plus some spoilers for Toll the Hounds: