Malazan

[Koivu]

Time to put a pre-order in, methinks....

[Dynalisia]

Firstly, an explosion is just an explosion, a function of natural forces, regardless of wether it's created by magic or chemistry. I'm pretty sure that most of you here are familiar with the wise words of 'any technology that is sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic'. This is very much like that, but with a twist. More like 'any kind of magic can be duplicated by technology that is sufficiently advanced'. I think this is at least partly what Erikson is getting at in his books.

Secondly, I agree with a few others here that most of the time when a magic user or otherwise powerful person gets their ass handed to them by mundane means it has to do with surprise. Be it surprise because of ignorance or surprise because of a trap, the end result is that you catch someone off guard. Many powerful beings that don't have any protection magic enabled are nothing but a creature of flesh and blood: weak and ultimately easy to hurt.

[Tabris]

Hmm, supposedly my Amazon.co.uk order for Toll the Hounds has shipped. It will probably take 2 weeks to get here.

[Deathwing]

End of Deadhouse Gates(just finished) spoiler:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Are there more sequences in the series similar to Coltaine's Last Stand? I know it sounds sappy, but that was one of the best and most moving pieces of writing I've read. I've only had this kind of reaction at the end of Saving Private Ryan and certain points of Band of Brothers. Maybe I'm just a sap for last stands.

But then, the twist of the dagger, the one man that could vindicate Coltaine and the 7th is crucified along with 10000 other soldiers. Either unique and heart-wrenching literature, or I just haven't broadened my reading selections enough.

[Vvoid]

Originally Posted by Deathwing

End of Deadhouse Gates(just finished) spoiler:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Are there more sequences in the series similar to Coltaine's Last Stand? I know it sounds sappy, but that was one of the best and most moving pieces of writing I've read. I've only had this kind of reaction at the end of Saving Private Ryan and certain points of Band of Brothers. Maybe I'm just a sap for last stands.

But then, the twist of the dagger, the one man that could vindicate Coltaine and the 7th is crucified along with 10000 other soldiers. Either unique and heart-wrenching literature, or I just haven't broadened my reading selections enough.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Not to sound cliche, but I would have to say that there are very few endings to any books that are that good. To answer your question more specifically, there are some similar concepts, but nothing really quite that moving. I don't think you will be disappointed though.

[Kreugen]

Oh yeah, you're definitely not done being pissed about the Chain of Dogs. Fuckers.

On another note, Silchas Ruin ftw. (I'm still early into Reaper's Gale)

[Jayblah]

Originally Posted by Deathwing

End of Deadhouse Gates(just finished) spoiler:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Are there more sequences in the series similar to Coltaine's Last Stand? I know it sounds sappy, but that was one of the best and most moving pieces of writing I've read. I've only had this kind of reaction at the end of Saving Private Ryan and certain points of Band of Brothers. Maybe I'm just a sap for last stands.

But then, the twist of the dagger, the one man that could vindicate Coltaine and the 7th is crucified along with 10000 other soldiers. Either unique and heart-wrenching literature, or I just haven't broadened my reading selections enough.

Many Malazan readers love Deadhouse Gates specifically because of the Chain of Dogs' arc. Although I rank DHG highly within the series, my favorite remains Memories of Ice. If you are reading in the published order MoI will be the next book on your plate. I think you'll find that it has some equally incredible and emotional scenes, particularly when they involve Itkovian and Capustan. For me, nothing in the series rivals the final battle in MoI. I found it to be physically taxing to read due to how intense it was.

[Koivu]

Toll the Hounds dispatched yesterday from UK to me by amazon.co.uk. Now it's only upto to the fucking Norwegian postal service to get it up here...

[darkblue]

Just got a mail saying that Toll the Hounds is now waiting to be picked up at my bookstore Time to go pick it up.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

And this is where I disappear from this thread, see you all in September you lucky bastards.

[Tabris]

We should make sure to spoiler anything from Toll the Hounds, obviously.

[Draegan]

I recently finished House of Chains. Damn. Favorite book in the series I think. Though the end of MoI is almost as good as the whole HoC. I miss the Bridgeburners.

Just started Midnight Tides. Starting off reading about early Trull. Interesting I suppose, since I was interested in that story arc as Trull and Ontack (spelling?) were going on to defend the throne at the end of HoC.

I'm curious to see if the Trull thread is going to run similarly like HoC where the whole first part was about Karsa.

Another interesting thing was that as Karsa's story was being told I totally didn't realize he was Toblakai even after that guy in the tower in the northen part of Seven Cities revealed who he was. There was too much of a time difference between me reading those books.

[Astennu]

I'm at about the same point (halfway through Midnight Tides) and I've been somewhat disappointed after MoI and HoC. Whereas I thoroughly enjoyed books 2,3 and 4 (1 was pretty good too, but my least favorite) I'm finding it somewhat hard to get into MT. I do like the interactions between Bugg and Tehol though. For some reason their conversations make me laugh most of the time.

[Kaxmax]

It gets much better towards the end, but it's still my least favorite of the series. It's necessary though to set up later books, and after MT you get Bonehunters which is all kinds of badass.

[Tabris]

Man, I thought Midnight Tides was amazing, one of my favorite books in the series. The characters were great and the ending is incredible. I really think the sudden diversion to Lether is the issue that most people have with the book.