Reaper's Gale with spoilers

[emburmak]

Originally Posted by adaephon

i dont know folks at seems that everybody is an all powerful this that or the other at times and then get dismissed in a paragraph when they have an encounter. now dont get me wrong im a huge fan of the books but it sickens me that we see the likes of trull killed as what appears to be an after thought! we see 3 dragons/draconians taken down by 2 bridge burners, and silchas ruin who is meant to be even more powerful in his sembled form than rake (as he drank more and more deeply of tiams blood) getting seen off quite easily by the lads on the roof top....... some times it just seems too easy for them you know???

And that is just part of the problem. Mages seem to be like the cold; everybody can have one. How Quick Ben, Mighty high Mage that he is can comfortably see off 3 dragons who where supposedly more powerful combined than Silcha Ruin beggers belief. Then he handles Ruin himself like an after thought. That would make Ben more powerful than Rake, Shadowthrone etc.

Redmask is a strange and IHMO unneccessary diversion,who goes from brilliant with his Chain'malle to pale ordinary on the path to his demise.

The three sisters, after all the build-up go out with a whimper. As for the eventual,much hyped battle of R Senger and Karsa, it does turn out to be a damp squib. Trull and Fear show great ability in fighting both Ruin and Icarium (Bonehunters) yet their Edur cousins fall without much resistance to the 14th army. I have now read the book twice and my original impression has been confirmed.

[Frozeninja]

We always knew Quick Ben was powerful, but the limits of his power were only ever tested against Icarium, who it says nobody can stand against. That's not much of a measure. The precedent for Quick Ben is that he is infact 12 souls combined into one and can open 6 warrens simultaneously which I don't think anyone else is able to do. I would say means you can expect a fair bit of power.

The importance of Redmask's story will come later I believe, as it set into effect a chain of events from the death of the grey swords, the death of Toc, and the arrival of the Imass and the Barghast. Would they have come had the grey swords not been slaughtered in betrayal?

Trull dying in such a .. simple... manner right at the very end left me feeling a fair bit upset though. I must admit that I wasn't particularly happy with some elements of RG, the internal workings of Lether didn't interest me all that much at times, with the exception of Tehol.

[Lacedaemonian]

Tehol and Trull were the saving grace of this instalment. The death of Trull was cut and pasted straight from George RR Martin. Martin often casually kills off central characters. Somehow this is quite cool and works within his story. However, Steve does not pull this off and it does not work within his story.

Once again I enjoyed the banter between the Malazans, though this contributed nothing to the plot.

Making Tehol Emperor was a child like notion. I cant even be arsed to discuss how crap this idea was. It is not worthy of my time.

Is the Cripple God mentally handicapped now as well as having spasticated limbs? He seemed to have one ploy - which brings me to the next question.... you all talk about the relevance of Redmask but ignore the sheer irrelevance of Rhulad Sengar. His purpose was? I guess Steve was using him as some kind of vehicle (picture window licking) to drive his theme of tragedy. It could have been almost Arthurian if we had given a monkeys. We did not like his family (except Trull) and we knew that Rhulad was going to die. Did anybody actually buy into the Emperor of a Thousand deaths patter. I honestly felt that I could have beaten him to death with a broken bottle and the back of my hand. The Eidar should have buggered off home long before they did. Why exactly were they hanging around?

I dont understand Seren either. She seemed to be in the story for no reason.

The many many people's of Letheras - I could not donate enough attention to who was who, and I secretly (in a dark corner) hoped that they would die so that I would not have to rely on a memory of them if they were to later gain relevance.

However, all these gripes are nothing. Steve still writes much better than some of the other crap people are discussing on these boards (has Terry Brooks not choked on his own tongue yet?). And this book was a far better read than most of the books on my bookshelf. Too often Fantasy novels do not give the impression that their towns and cities are populated by real people. Letheras felt very populated and had bags and bags of character.

When reflecting on the pairings throughout the book, consider this; all of the hard boys have witty romantic literary types who at some point humble the hard boys. Steve wants to hang out with the hard lads. He places himself there.

I enjoyed the book.

[Rosemary]

Well at least Bugg and Tehol are back on the scene! It still reads as if it is a stand alone book to me. I got to one stage this afternoon about Fiddler and I thought - hang on, where did he come from? Where did this Redmask come from, and the Letharie? I really can't see the point yet of introducing them into the story. To be honest, I'm actually finding this book rather annoying.

[adaephon]

hey frozeninja, eh u say ben is th eonly one that can open 6 warrens... emm did we not see whatsisface the "natural high mage" that saved the malazans opened them all at once? sorry his name escapes me right now.

but really quick ben i always thought his power lay in his intelligence and planning, i think it detracts from him if he is suddenly this ppowerhouse. and he was one of my faves, hence my login name! i know he has the advantage of having the souls of most of the other high mages/priests from the journey across raraku and id like to see that explored a bit more!

sorry this is rambling a bit but what im saying is that every 2nd person is seemingly unstoppable or immensely powerful and it just seems to be getting a tad ridiculous thats all.... feel free to agree or disagree thats just my opinion!

[Talyn]

Rg was good, but I found there were too many parts of the book that just didn’t grab my interest. SE, for me is at his best when he’s dealing with the Malazan’s, and they weren’t even in it until the latter half of the book. Although I must admit I have a soft spot for Tehol and Bug, but then who doesn’t?

I pretty much agree with what’s already been said, too many differing perspectives again, the awl, killing the Grey Cloaks and Toc… why? After the hell they went through in MOI to give them such a pointless death?

Still, I hope there’ll be some significance to their demise. The fact that wolves came and ate there hearts gives me hope, although I have a feeling that it’ll be something akin to the crows coming for Coltaine… i.e. we’ll never actually get to see the reborn Coltaine.

Anyway, next book he need to reunite Quick Ben and Kalam… and more Cotillion, and more Apsalar.

[Frozeninja]

adaephon, good point I'd forgotten about the "natural high mage". I confess I was quite surprised by just how powerful Quick Ben was in RG, but it just didn't bother me overmuch I suppose. I'm still waiting for Quick Ben's soletaken form to be exposed.

I agree with just about everything Talyn said, especially the piece about Toc and the Grey Cloaks. For the entire Grey Cloak company to be destroyed just like that after they played such a key part in MOI I didn't like too much. Poor Toc just never got a break, he practically died 3 times, coming back each time just to be thrust into another losing battle.

Definitely more Apsalar and Cotillon needed. I have a fear that Kalam may not return in a proper manner after the remark of "The Azath collects".

[anomanderis]

I don't really remember MOI enough to compare it with Bonehunters or Reaper's Gale, but I thought that the book was really good. Maybe not as good as some of the previous ones, since I distinctly remember not being able to read much in a row. Or that could have been because my arse was beginning to cramp.
The someone who mentioned that they didn't like all the "philosophyzing" Erikson did would really hate most of my writing then, yet I thought SE should have added even more into the fray.
I was a bit boggled by the quick deaths of the Grey Swords and then the demise of Redmask and the Awl, but imo it was all made up with Tool's despair at seeing his friend killed in front of him.

[Brys]

I thought Reaper's Gale was pretty good - a definite improvement on the Bonehunters, but still not quite back up to the quality of the earlier novels. There were some really nice twists in it - eg Redmask actually losing the final battle and being killed by his K'chain Che'malle guardians, but some not so great ones (Tehol being made emperor, Brys coming back from the dead). It was good to see Tehol and Bugg again - hilarious as ever. But I think he could have made more of the Karsa Orlong storyline - he didn't seem to have as much character as the earlier ones, and not quite enough time actually spent on him to make it worthwhile.

I'm still annoyed about Hedge being brought back from the dead, but it's a fault I'll keep in the Bonehunters. What I did like about this book was that it gave the sense of complete despair and collapse, and a bit more moral ambiguity than BH - and some of the parallels with the earlier novels (ie the outlawed army, but this one failing in its unclear objectives as compared to Onearm's host MoI).
I think Erikson's also got to the point where it might be a good idea to stop introducing new characters every book - most of the new ones introduced in Reaper's Gale weren't particularly distinctive. He should focus more on developing the characters he has. Still, RG was a good sign - he seems to be tying it all together well, which I wasn't confident he could do after BH.

[Rahl Windsong]

I am starting to not like this series as much as I did when I first began to read this Malazan story. I think it is because the story just goes on too long. If we take a look at the fantasy genre today it seems that the books have to be so big that they are difficult to hold, and not only that there must be at least 10 volumes to the series or its not worth the publishers time?

Ten books is way too long for any writer to be able to carry the story and keep it interesting, in fact I am starting to think that even George RR Martin's A song of Ice and Fire should not go 7 books, its just too damn long ALthough Martin takes his time to write so maybe he will be able to pull off a 7 book story.