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anteus7's review against another edition
3.0
Six or seven stars for worldbuilding, one for plotting, two for characters.
I wanted to like this book way more than I ended up liking it. I've heard from many people I trust when it comes to fantasy that this is one of the gold standards of fantasy storytelling and I just don't see it. The world building is great. I would love to play a story set in this world, or watch something set in this world, but the book seemed to be trying to do too much of that building and not enough of the telling of the story. It reminds me of reading Greek mythology--the stories each give a piece of the world, but they are all separate from each other and give a sense of the world as a whole rather than a cohesive story that I could enjoy from beginning to end.
I don't know...I usually look past that kind of thing when reading a good world. I guess I just wasn't in the mood to spend that much energy parsing the place without the story. I know I will return to Kharkanas someday, but that day will not be today. Or tomorrow. I need lighter fare for now. Like Neal Stephenson or something like that. Come here, Termination Shock!
I wanted to like this book way more than I ended up liking it. I've heard from many people I trust when it comes to fantasy that this is one of the gold standards of fantasy storytelling and I just don't see it. The world building is great. I would love to play a story set in this world, or watch something set in this world, but the book seemed to be trying to do too much of that building and not enough of the telling of the story. It reminds me of reading Greek mythology--the stories each give a piece of the world, but they are all separate from each other and give a sense of the world as a whole rather than a cohesive story that I could enjoy from beginning to end.
I don't know...I usually look past that kind of thing when reading a good world. I guess I just wasn't in the mood to spend that much energy parsing the place without the story. I know I will return to Kharkanas someday, but that day will not be today. Or tomorrow. I need lighter fare for now. Like Neal Stephenson or something like that. Come here, Termination Shock!
blaiser34's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
bergsteiger's review against another edition
4.0
This one is hard for me to rate. I love the world building here. I love the different races and the political and cultural backgrounds. Some of the characters are pretty good too...but there are 84 Dramatis Personae. Which brings me to the things I didn't like about the book.
This tale hops all over the place. In one chapter it can switch perspectives a half a dozen times or more and they aren't connected beyond being characters that exist in the world that Mr. Erickson has created. I don't mind multiple threads and having to figure out roles and plots on my own as the reader, but this almost came across as a parody of parallel narratives.
And as some people mentioned there are a lot of rambling philosophical points. Some of these worked for me and others didn't. The worst though were the rambling internal monologues, that were thankfully designated by italics, which I then used as my cue to skip to the end of said rambling monologue. Sanderson's Light of Archive books are long, but I don't skim/skip sections, so it says something that I wasn't willing to spend the time on these.
Why 4 stars then? I believed in this story and the events unfolding. I mean this was a well crafted tale inside a well crafted world. If you could get over the ADD manner of presentation, this was top notch. I feel like a heavy handed editor would have been useful in this case: "Look Steve, I need you to make 3 parallel threads instead of 84 and cut out the rambling monologues". At any rate, it is a well wrought alternate world, a la Frank Herbert, and while it might be closer to 3.5 stars I do want to give this tale its due.
Will I continue on with the next 30 books though...probably not.
This tale hops all over the place. In one chapter it can switch perspectives a half a dozen times or more and they aren't connected beyond being characters that exist in the world that Mr. Erickson has created. I don't mind multiple threads and having to figure out roles and plots on my own as the reader, but this almost came across as a parody of parallel narratives.
And as some people mentioned there are a lot of rambling philosophical points. Some of these worked for me and others didn't. The worst though were the rambling internal monologues, that were thankfully designated by italics, which I then used as my cue to skip to the end of said rambling monologue. Sanderson's Light of Archive books are long, but I don't skim/skip sections, so it says something that I wasn't willing to spend the time on these.
Why 4 stars then? I believed in this story and the events unfolding. I mean this was a well crafted tale inside a well crafted world. If you could get over the ADD manner of presentation, this was top notch. I feel like a heavy handed editor would have been useful in this case: "Look Steve, I need you to make 3 parallel threads instead of 84 and cut out the rambling monologues". At any rate, it is a well wrought alternate world, a la Frank Herbert, and while it might be closer to 3.5 stars I do want to give this tale its due.
Will I continue on with the next 30 books though...probably not.
ramb0two11's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
sourcerunner's review against another edition
This book may cut extra-deep for people who work in law and justice, public service, or child protection. The prose and the story formulation are excellent, just maybe a little too excellent. Read with caution.
tatedixon19's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
timinbc's review against another edition
2.0
Nope, didn't work for me.
I've read maybe three of the Malazan series, so I knew to expect long, rambling sequences with a zillion characters, some weirdness, some battle stuff, ...
This is a tawdry combination of gloomy philosophy, implausible magic, and a large dose of violence porn in the Game of Thrones model. And mostly it's boring and confusing.
I can only assume that the high ratings here are from people who have read ALL the Malazan books, most of them more than once, and can recite the family trees of all the participants without notes. The kind of people who a generation ago learned to speak Klingon, and a generation earlier Elvish.
Mother Dark is amazingly powerful, apparently, but here her magic consists mostly of turning people's skin black when they get near her. Draconus is powerful beyond belief but doesn't do much, and can turn into a - well, if you know any Latin you'll figure it out - but doesn't use that ability for any practical purpose. Urusander is just Thomas Covenant, sulking in his tower while everyone else in the world thinks he's The Ultimate Warlord. Feh. The only fantasy trope I hate more than each-character-is-more-ridiculously-powerful-than-the-previous is players-with-awesome-powers-don't-use-them. Grrr.
Every time we meet a new character, we know that person is going to go one of three ways: (a) spouter of gloomy philosophy (b) listener to a spouter (c) victim of an extremely gory and explicitly detailed death. Some get to be all three!
Every armed troop has one noble philosopher and one lout. Inevitably the noble is going to give the lout a fearsome wallop, inflicting serious injury or more, just so discipline can be maintained.
Every time a soldier prepares for action, we get a detailed description of armour and weapons, which is OK but can get tedious, and Eriksen never fails to mention the vambraces because what a cool word.
And he can write good descriptive and action scenes. Probably because he has had so much practice in a career of kilopage books.
Several times we get a big buildup scene and at the climax something magical happens, but it's the WTF? What just happened? kind of magic. Kinda like building us up for a big football game, with detailed biographies of the coaches and players, and analysts making predictions, and when the Big Moment comes the author blows up the stadium, or has the two owners decide not to play the game at all. Feh.
And there's a lot of who did THAT? and WHY???
If you want to spend a thousand pages in a pre-Malazan world, you'll like this book.
If you want a good fantasy that stands on its own merits, look elsewhere.
I've read maybe three of the Malazan series, so I knew to expect long, rambling sequences with a zillion characters, some weirdness, some battle stuff, ...
This is a tawdry combination of gloomy philosophy, implausible magic, and a large dose of violence porn in the Game of Thrones model. And mostly it's boring and confusing.
I can only assume that the high ratings here are from people who have read ALL the Malazan books, most of them more than once, and can recite the family trees of all the participants without notes. The kind of people who a generation ago learned to speak Klingon, and a generation earlier Elvish.
Mother Dark is amazingly powerful, apparently, but here her magic consists mostly of turning people's skin black when they get near her. Draconus is powerful beyond belief but doesn't do much, and can turn into a - well, if you know any Latin you'll figure it out - but doesn't use that ability for any practical purpose. Urusander is just Thomas Covenant, sulking in his tower while everyone else in the world thinks he's The Ultimate Warlord. Feh. The only fantasy trope I hate more than each-character-is-more-ridiculously-powerful-than-the-previous is players-with-awesome-powers-don't-use-them. Grrr.
Every time we meet a new character, we know that person is going to go one of three ways: (a) spouter of gloomy philosophy (b) listener to a spouter (c) victim of an extremely gory and explicitly detailed death. Some get to be all three!
Every armed troop has one noble philosopher and one lout. Inevitably the noble is going to give the lout a fearsome wallop, inflicting serious injury or more, just so discipline can be maintained.
Every time a soldier prepares for action, we get a detailed description of armour and weapons, which is OK but can get tedious, and Eriksen never fails to mention the vambraces because what a cool word.
And he can write good descriptive and action scenes. Probably because he has had so much practice in a career of kilopage books.
Several times we get a big buildup scene and at the climax something magical happens, but it's the WTF? What just happened? kind of magic. Kinda like building us up for a big football game, with detailed biographies of the coaches and players, and analysts making predictions, and when the Big Moment comes the author blows up the stadium, or has the two owners decide not to play the game at all. Feh.
And there's a lot of who did THAT? and WHY???
If you want to spend a thousand pages in a pre-Malazan world, you'll like this book.
If you want a good fantasy that stands on its own merits, look elsewhere.
mehdfaisal's review against another edition
5.0
this shit felt shakespearean man i can't explain it. thank you steven erikson