Spoiler

Just finished reading Reaper's Gale. Oh god the death of Trull and Beak got me right in the feels. Right when I thought Trull was gonna be safe too More than Coltaine and Whiskeyjack.

Fuck the Errant to hell

Some thoughts about the book.

Trull defeating Clip after he faced Silichas was fucking satisfying to read and that too after he was limping. Can't wait to see Andromadus fucking Clip up.

Quick Ben against Menandore,Sheltana and Sukul :awesome

Also Quick Ben,Fiddler and Hedge against Silicha Ruin in Lether.

Who the fuck was Redmask? Why is he a Letheri?

Who was the old man that met Seren Padac in the end. Was it Mael. Tehlo Beddict as Emperor with an Elder God at his side. That will be fun to read. Brys fucking Beddict has returned <3

Also there was a scene in Bonehunter I guess. When a woman who was pregnant was haunting Bottle under Y'ghatan. Apparently her child would be the only one who can be rule the Throne of Shadows. Will we get more info about this?

Anyway the book was fucking awesome. Tbe ending was epic and satisfying and now the read the next book.

Anaster will arrive soon.

 

Answer:

Spoiler

The Awl kidnapped Letherii children from time to time. The Clan Leader adopted a kidnapped Letherii girl into his own family. That girl had a brother. The Factor in Drene wanted the Awl herds, so he kidnapped the daughter, made her indebted, and agreed to trade her back to the Awl clan leader for herds. She mysteriously dies right before the exchange, Letherii slaughter all the Awl but the one who escapes. The girl's brother who becomes Redmask.

The Elders knew he wasn't truly Awl, despite his attempt to make himself the most Awl of them all with the mastery of the ancient weapons. He hates the Letherii for the death of his sister.

Spoiler

It was Mael, yes.

Spoiler

Also there was a scene in Bonehunter I guess. When a woman who was pregnant was haunting Bottle under Y'ghatan. Apparently her child would be the only one who can be rule the Throne of Shadows. Will we get more info about this?

Spoiler

Somewhat. It's a tricky subject when it comes to the Throne of Shadow, the Eres'al, Trull, and Seren Padac.

Toll the Hounds is a side-step in the series from here. Erikson has called it the "cipher" of the series.

 

Do the books get easier to get into?

I've always wanted to get into it... Epic Fantasy.

How are the fights? Are they like Gods going against each other or is it more Dresden style?

First book kinda steered my away.

 

The first 200 pages of Gardens of the Moon are infamous for turning readers away. You get thrown into the deep end, and more doors just keep opening instead of being tied together or built up. It's worth it, though. GotM is the weakest of the series, IMO.

As for the fights, you'll get all sorts of style from Erikson, but he is fairly good at detailing what is going on. I'd say it compares favorably to Butcher, yes. But you also have far bigger set pieces in Malazan as well as one v. one.

 

He writes full military engagements very well imo. Mainly because you never get the sense that despite the power of it, magic isn't the deciding factor every time or even most of it.

 

If you've read the Codex Alera series you know that Butcher can write set-pieces fairly well, and I was thinking of this when comparing the major battles of Malazan. However, Dresden is much better at presenting differing power levels in a fight and is comparable to Malazan in that way.

However, there is no comparison when it comes to the impact of the writing. Erikson excels over Butcher here. Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice will blow your mind.

 

Finished Toll The Hounds today morning. Have no fucking words right now. Still processing.

I think I will just read Rotcg and Stoneweilder now instead of Dust of Dreams.

 

Share your reactions mate really interested in reading them, especially with the convergence and the shit that goes down.

 

So a question. Can anyone remember if there is any mention of the Queen of Dreams having an established cult/ church that she has acknowledged or is she Like Rake and just ignored all of it for the last 300k years?

I've just started Stonewielder and there's a comment Kyle makes that says that She, Rake and Osseric all ignored their worshipers and stayed as ascendants. Is this true? Because I always assumed Rake didn't because he didn't want to take MD's place as the deity of the Andii, and Osseric just didn't give a shit. If she has then it kind of undermines the whole duality thing that Rake and Osseric had going on right?

 

Will comment about TtH later.

I know that she has temples dedicated to her and priest too. Don't know whether she has acknowledged it.

Speaking of Queen of Dreams, will we see more of her deal with Leoman and Whiskeyjack's sister?

There was also a quote about Rake in some of the book. It talks about him wondering the world with Caladan Brood and Envy. Can anyone find the relevant quote?

edit: nvm, found the quote.

I am reading Stoneweilder too. Just started. I hate Kyle. Reads too much like a cliche hero to my taste.

 

She's literally asleep right? plus she's Elder not an ascendant and other than Krul,Mael and the letheri god if luck(momentarily forgotten his name). the rest don't give a shit about mortals.

 

Burn is the sleeping Goddess. T'riss (the Queen of Dreams) is.... elsewhere. But she does have agents and a cult surrounding her (which is the mechanism of worship in the absence of being a God for example: The Cult of the Black Winged Lord in Bluerose and the Shadowcult prior to the events of Night of Knives). You learn more about T'riss in Blood and Bone and Forge of Darkness.

Plus, there's Elders and then there are Elders. One might mean an Elder people (Jaghut, Imass, TTT), or one might mean Elder God, or one might mean an Elder Ascendent.

It's purposefully vague to retain some characters' mystique.

 

But T'riss makes use of the cult? she's not like Rake and ignored it all, (which leads to that rather amusing mental image of Clip/ The Dying God getting all worked up over the fact that Rake didn't show up for the confrontation he wanted so desperately).

Speaking of Forge of Darkness does anyone have any thoughts about who Arathan's mother is?

 

But, T'riss is different than Rake. You know this. The cult worshiping is the same, but being worshiped and even taking advantage of a cult (ala Shadow Cult) isn't the same as being in the Pantheon as acknowledging your Godhood.

 

What do you mean elder ascendants? an example? aren't Elder gods not gods that use the warrens, since the warrens are an Elder's (Krul's) construction.
So are you saying Burn is the one that has agents and a cult? because I only know that Caladan Brood is the only one whose directly related to her and when Kamnisod was poisoning her she was using some other beings to protect her.

 

No, it's T'riss, Queen of Dreams, Queen of High House Life, that has agents and a cult but doesn't really embrace her role as a God like Rake.

Burn is a Goddess. She has an organized priesthood as well as agents working on her behalf, Brood being just one.

As to ascendents, elder ascendents, elder gods, etc: Across all races there are ascendents. All gods are ascendents but not all ascendents are gods. See, Icarium (Jhag) or Kilava (Imass).

 

That's what I am trying to explain an ascendant is and ascendant doesn't matter whether they ascended during the first empire or whatever they can't be described as elder ascendants but Elder gods are Mael, Krul, Knuckle basically the old gods with guys like Shadowthrone being the new gods.

By the way what makes an ascendant a god? when they capture the throne for a particular warren?

 

Someone who is worshiped that has accepted the nature of give and take that Gods and their followers have as opposed to one who has moved beyond what their fellow race can normally achieve.

The point I'm trying to make about Elders is that not all of them are Gods. You'll have regular ol' people described as "Elder" simply because they are members of an Elder Race. Then you also have Elder ascendents. Then you also have Elder Gods.

 

Ah that makes sense, sort of like how Tanankalian became a god due to the people who worshiped him, what was his cult called again?

Another question, in ICE's books, if you've read them is there any hint as to who or what edgewalker is? I remember reading a chapter where he said that he was a guardian of the Shadow throne but wasn't really interested in it. Which by the way brings about the question as why Shadow even has a throne since its just a piece of the splintered real of darkness or am I misremembering?

 

Cult of the Redeemer.

Not yet, not really. Night of Knives has some hints in it, but that's all there really are for now.

As to Shadow having a throne, Kurald Emurlahn, from which Shadowthrone now rules a part of as Ammanas, was its own realm like Kurald Galain and Kurald Liosan, before being sundered.