I finished reading Deadhouse Gates and gathering ideas so I can write something.

I already wrote a lengthy part, but the end of the book made me reconsider a lot of things. While I read often that the conclusion is one of the best, those last 200 pages soured me quite a bit. I just didn’t like them.

If you follow the forums where I post you may see some of my complaints. Anyway, the book left me drained and tired. Instead the fact that I didn’t like the end gives me motivation to read the third book and dig more to see if I like where Erikson is going. I need to grasp more.

I ordered the collected edition of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, hoping they had a few copies left, but I’m not sure if it was shipped and they are on vacation till the end of the month. I was planning to read that one as an interlude.

About those novellas Erikson confirmed that at least other six are planned.

Gardens of the Moon was recently republished by Bantam UK in mass market paperback for cheap and with a short new introduction by Steven Erikson.

I just found out that the introduction is now fully readable online.

Gardens of the Moon. Just to muse on that title resurrect all those notions of ambition, all that youthful ferocity that seemed to drive me headlong against a wall time and again. The need to push. Defy conventions. Go for the throat.

Heh… I can sympathize.

Gardens marked a departure from the usual tropes of the genre, and any departure is likely to meet resistance.

The rest of this preface is really worth reading. It may sound highly arrogant, but it’s about what you set as a goal and motivations you carry. Readers decide if he succeeded.

Sleight of hand.

The cedar forest south of the river rose on tiered steps of limestone, the trader track crazed with switchbacks and steep, difficult slopes. And the deeper into the wood the depleted train went, the more ancient, the more uncanny it became.
Duiker led his mare by the reins, stumbling as rocks turned underfoot. Alongside him clattered a wagon, sagging with wounded soldiers. Corporal List sat on the buckboard, his switch snapping the dusty, sweat-runnelled backs of the pair of oxen labouring at their yokes.
The losses at Vathar Crossing were a numb litany in the historian’s mind. Over twenty thousand refugees, a disproportionate number of children among them. Less than five hundred able fighters remained in the Foolish Dog Clan, and the other two clans were almost as badly mauled. Seven hundred soldiers of the Seventh were dead, wounded or lost. A scant dozen engineers remained on their feet, and but a score of marines. Three noble families had been lost—an unacceptable attrition, this latter count, as far as the Council was concerned.
And Sormo E’nath. Within the one man, eight elder warlocks, a loss of not just power, but knowledge, experience and wisdom. A blow that had driven the Wickans to their knees.
Earlier that day, at a time when the train had ground to a temporary halt, Captain Lull had joined the historian to share some rations. Few words passed between them to start, as if the events at Vathar Crossing were something not to be talked about, even as they spread like a plague through every thought and echoed ghostlike behind every scene around them, every sound that rose from the camp.
Lull slowly put away the remnants of their meal. Then he paused, and Duiker saw the man studying his own hands, which had begun trembling. The historian looked away, surprised at the sudden shame that swept through him. He saw List, wrapped in sleep on the buckboard, trapped within his prison of dreams. I could in mercy awaken the lad, yet the power for knowledge has mastered me. Cruelty comes easy these days.
The captain sighed after a moment, hastily completing the task. ‘Do you find the need to answer all this, Historian?’ he asked. ‘All those tomes you’ve read, those other thoughts from other men, other women. Other times. How does a mortal make answer to what his or her kind are capable of? Does each of us, soldier or no, reach a point when all that we’ve seen, survived, changes us inside? Irrevocably changes us. What do we become, then? Less human, or more human? Human enough, or too human?’
Duiker was silent for a long minute, his eyes on the rock-studded dirt that surrounded the boulder upon which he sat. Then he cleared his throat. ‘Each of us has his own threshold, friend. Soldier or no, we can only take so much before we cross over… into something else. As if the world has shifted around us, though it’s only our way of looking at it. A change of perspective, but there’s no intelligence to it—you see but do not feel, or you weep yet look upon your own anguish as if from somewhere else, somewhere outside. It’s not a place for answers, Lull, for every question has burned away. More human or less human—that’s for you to decide.’
‘Surely it has been written of, by scholars, priests… philosophers?’
Duiker smiled down at the dirt. ‘Efforts have been made. But those who themselves have crossed that threshold… well, they have few words to describe the place they’ve found, and little inclination to attempt to explain it. As I said, it’s a place without intelligence, a place where thoughts wander, formless, unlinked. Lost.’
‘Lost,’ the captain repeated. ‘I am surely that.’
‘Yet you and I, Lull, we are lost late in our lives. Look upon the children, and despair.’
‘How to answer this? I must know, Duiker, else I go mad.’
‘Sleight of hand,’ the historian said.
‘What?’
‘Think of the sorcery we’ve seen in our lives, the vast, unbridled, deadly power we’ve witnessed unleashed. Driven to awe and horror. Then think of a trickster—those you saw as a child—the games of illusion and artifice they could play out with their hands, and so bring wonder to your eyes.’
The captain was silent, motionless. Then he rose. ‘And there’s my answer?’
‘It’s the only one I can think of, friend. Sorry if it’s not enough.’
‘No, old man, it’s enough. It has to be, doesn’t it?’
‘Aye, that it does.’
‘Sleight of hand.’
The historian nodded. ‘Ask for nothing more, for the world—this world—won’t give it.’
‘But where will we find such a thing?’
‘Unexpected places,’ Duiker replied, also rising. Somewhere ahead, shouts rose and the convoy resumed its climb once more. ‘If you fight both tears and a smile, you’ll have found one.’
‘Later, Historian.’
‘Aye.’

From the meetings in UK:

Erikson proved to have a nice dry wit, and his answers got plenty of laughs. He revealed quite a lot of interesting stuff. For example, he has signed on for two trilogies after the Malazan series. The first will focus on the early mythology of the Malazan world, while the second will pick up on events after the end of the current series. He also revealed that he writes for four hours a day, which can result in anywhere between two paragraphs and twelve pages of writing. He is currently playing ‘Age of Conan’ online, and criticised the way the NPC characters so willingly provide the information the player-character needs. He suggested this was unrealistic, given that people in real life would mostly refuse to co-operate or lie. He said that if there was a Malazan MMORPG, he would want all actions taken by the player to have consequences and would want the history of the world to be tangible. He also admitted he gets frustrated when asked by mainstream journalists as to what relevance fantasy has to modern life, and confirmed that the gender equality prevalent in the Malazan world was totally deliberate, a reaction against the gender-specific roles in other fantasy novels.

Can I work on the Malazan mmorpg? Please?

(but it would be REALLY hard to realize that world)

P.S.
I also add about the publishing deal that Erikson will release those books with a more relaxed schedule, so not one every year as he’s doing now. He says it is too draining.

‘I know you by reputation, Gesler. Once a captain, then a sergeant, now a corporal. You’ve got your boots to the sky on the ladder—’
‘And head in the horseshit, aye, sir.’

‘Convenient, that. Tell me, is the prophecy as clear on the rebellion’s end? Do we now face a triumphant age of Apocalypse unending? Granted, there’s an inherent contradiction, but never mind that.’

‘Four voices,’ she whispered. ‘No bone, no flesh, just these feeble noises that claim their selves. Four points of view.’

‘They know nothing of what is to come,’ Iskaral Pust whispered. ‘An eternal flare of pain, but shall I waste words in an effort to prepare them? No, not at all, never. Words are too precious to be wasted, hence my coy silence while they hesitate in a fit of immobile ignorance.’

(while being heard by everyone)

The possibility is… possible. A likely likelihood, indeed, a certain certainty! I need but turn this ingenuous smile on the Jhag to show my benign patience at his foul insult, for I am a bigger man than he, oh yes. All his airs, his posturing, his poorly disguised asides—hark!’

Such are memories in full flood. We are not simple creatures. You dream that with memories will come knowledge, and from knowledge, understanding. But for every answer you find, a thousand new questions arise. All that we were has led us to where we are, but tells us little of where we’re going. Memories are a weight you can never shrug off.’

‘Shadowthrone… uh… my worthy Lord of Shadow… is thinking. Yes! Thinking furiously! Such is the vastness of his genius that he can outwit even himself!’

Not much to report, I got my copy from Amazon to Italy of Erikson’s last tome in its UK hardcover edition. Huge.

I can’t do much with the book as even looking at the Dramatis Personae is filled with spoilers. 923 pages fully written, longest book in the series (will likely break the 1300 pages in MM if they keep the same format they used till now). The extras are a bit scarce, no appendices and two maps of two cities (Darujhistan is the same old, Black Coral is, I think, new, but it doesn’t show a whole lot of detail).

On the other hand lots of people are reading through the book, so comments are starting to appear. They say it’s one of the best “written” book in the series and a kind of ‘calm before the storm’, where the storm is supposed to the the epilogue of this long series in the form of book 9 and 10. Lots of minor and major characters coming back and plots being resumed.

Cryptic comment from Werthead, whose review I’ll expect soon (and he was not exactly a fanboy, so interesting to see what he thinks on this one):

Took me a few chapters to work out what the fabled ‘new writing device’ Erikson was employing for this book, and when I did I saw how subtle it was. Quite intriguing.

But don’t tell me what it is. I’ll probably have a full year of dodging spoilers ahead of me…

Toll the Hounds is being shown as “in stock” at amazon.co.uk.

This is the eighth book in the Malazan series. It will be published by Tor in the US only in September, and this UK edition is for the first time hardcover-only, with a trade paperback coming out in October.

The last time for Reaper’s Gale mass market edition I had the book in preorder at Amazon, but had to cancel and make a new order for them to notice the book was in stock and could be shipped (ahead of time). This time too the book arrived soon (it is supposed to come out officially the first of July) and my order can’t be modified because it’s been processed, so I hope it will be shipped on Monday.

Anyway, I’ll get this hardcover edition just for the fetish of it, as I’m still faaaar from book 8 and I’ll surely get the mass market UK edition when it comes out next year to have the whole collection in the same format.

UPDATE: To say the book was shipped to me and that is currently ranked #1 on amazon in fantasy bestsellers, #20 for books in general. No idea how amazon can be relevant, especially on a list updated hourly, but it doesn’t seem bad at all for the eighth book in a series sold in hardcover only.

UPDATE2: I’m seeing TTH still ranked #1 for fantasy and #8 for books in general.

Some pretty books arrived today. Hooray.

The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss.
If you look back at the blog you can see I already purchased a copy of the book. The luscious and huge UK trade paperback with a pretty cover. But then I actually prefer reading the smaller, tightly written editions, so decided to get the mass market US version as well. The fact that the huge UK version was written so big was tricky and made me believe the book wasn’t so long. The US version is really tightly written, with a small typeset, and still takes 720 pages. It is indeed one huge book.

I like this US MM version too. The map, though, is rather ugly and much worse than the classic-looking ink version that I have on the UK one. The rest is good. The new, darker cover is surely much, much better than the old US ones, and I like the plastic material they used for the cover: you can open the book easily without creasing it.

I’m in no rush to read it. The next has been delayed to next year, so I can give priority to others.

A Feast for Crows – George RR Martin.
I skimmed a lot through the books but still need to read one from back to back. Will do it later. Since I have already the other three books, I got this one too. For “Dance” I’ll wait for the MM edition to come out. No rush. I’m a bit skeptic about the writer’s true will to end the series (lack of self-discipline, some would say. He should meet Erikson). The fourth book wasn’t so warmly received as the others and the fifth was supposed to be ready years ago. Without a change of pacing I fear not much can be saved and I already read that some prefer to consider it a trilogy. It will be interesting to observe the reaction to the fifth book.

There’s an interesting thread here. But really, the more he gets swamped in the minutiae and perfectionism the worse the books will actually be. I’m pretty sure of this. He needs to find the momentum, not to revise the same page 100 times.

Memories of Ice – Steven Erikson.
Well, this is pure Erikson fetish. I already have the book, and still wanted the US, ugly, MM edition. I don’t think the artist who made the cover(s) is a bad one, but he’s really out of style with Erikson. Looks like a spin-off of Forgotten Realms and it can’t give a wronger impression (and despite the US cover is actually more pertinent to the story). 900 pages, one of the longer books in the series, the best for most of the readers. Those 900 pages are actually on the short side as the typeset used is as tiny as possible and there’s not even spacing between chapters. So, outside the fetish, the UK editions are much, much superior.

Legend – David Gemmell.
Going back in the years. I never read Gemmell and I’m more interested in this long series than semi historical fiction he wrote. 350 pages, this should be quick to read compared to the epic sized things I’m reading lately.

A Cavern of Black Ice – J. V. Jones.
If it wasn’t clear, I prefer to get into living writers who are productive and that I can look forward in an ongoing way. I actually enjoy the wait and hype in the sense of the community, frequenting forums, discovering new authors and so on. Much more than digging on the past, on which there are less interesting things to say.

I think this series started as a trilogy then blended into a “pentalogy”. Third book came out last October after a long wait. I think she’s trying to rival Martin (in time elapsed between books). On the other side I read the series is good, rather complex, with lots of characters and multiple POV. Yeah, I don’t know a whole lot, but between all the books I have on the to-read list, this one makes me curious and the one I’m the most eager to read. 770 pages, this also a rather big book.

And, drumroll….

Wizard’s First Rule – Terry Goodkind.
I said I was going to buy it, and I did. Got the new Tor edition with the stone bridge on the cover. 820 pages, surprisingly thin on quotes and praises ;)

Oh, and I actually plan to read it, probably soon.

I’m 300 pages from the end of Deadhouse Gates and while I expect to follow with Memories of Ice, I’d still put some other book in between. I definitely need a break or risk exhaustion, so I need something lighter and easier to read while I recover. I’m wondering what. It could be either J. V. Jones or Goodkind, but both are big books and I may decide for book 3 of the Black Company (Glen Cook) or Gemmell as they are shorter. On the other hand I prefer to read something entirely new so it could really be Goodkind or J. V. Jones. Or even go back to Jordan and read the third book. Undecided.

And there are also Scott Bakker and Abercrombie to consider. And Donaldson Gap series. And Keyes.

(I’ll probably read a bunch of prologues and then decide for the stickier)

I’m past halfway through “Deadhouse Gates” and it’s really buckets of awesome.

In the meantime I hunt restlessly for non-spoiler comments on the later books. Since I’m stuck with Erikson for a very long time, I also crave some perspective on what comes later. One can only hope the best is yet to come.

So lately I read a review of book 6, “The Bonehunters”, repeating again that the book is overlong. A common theme among forumers and reviewers that I’ve yet to experience. Book 1 for me needed about 200 more pages to feel less confused and better paced, especially toward the end. Book 2 instead has a truly perfect structure. Perfectly balanced, paced and executed. But then I’m only past page 500 and I need to see how it works toward the end.

“Toll the Hounds” should have a review next week from Pat. Longest book in the series, so far, and Pat doesn’t seem to like it too much this time, especially the pacing:

Okay, 412 pages into it and I must say that TtH is the slowest Malazan book to “get going” yet. You can see that SE is setting quite a few pieces on the board and there are a number of pleasant surprises, but I think that some readers might have issues with the pace.

—
Oh there’s a convergence coming, have no fear. . .

And there are many, many guests invited to this dance!

572 pages into TtH, and the book still hasn’t kicked into gear, though. . .

—
I particularly enjoy the two Tiste Andii POVs, which gives us some insight into Anomander Rake’s past, the clash with Mother Dark, the civil war in Kurald Galain, etc. The Tiste Andii have always been very intriguing, and even though these two characters are new to the series, they are very interesting…

On the other hand an advance reader keeps the hopes very high:

This is his best, most mature book, imo – including his efforts outside the genre. If this book doesn’t reach you emotionally then there’s something deply wrong with you IMO. Until I read that he’s a fan of Robin Hobb, I was tentative about what I am about to say (haven’t even said it to him) but one of the impressions that stuck in my mind after finishing this manuscript was that he had out-Hobbed Robin Hobb. It’s weird because I don’t like Robin Hobb all that much but the emotional content makes it worthwhile for me. Her worldbuilding is shite, the plot is generally lame and predictable, but certain chracters I genuinely care about and want to see come through the other side, happier and healthier amidst the tragedies of their respective lives. And some don’t make it.

That’s all for now.

One downside of reading Steven Erikson is that I don’t have anymore the excitement and curiosity of what to read next, as I have a (growing) pile of books still to read and I know it’s better that I don’t let pass time between each to not risk getting lost and enjoy all the details and layers.

This means that I wait eagerly for all new Malazan things. I wish a review for “Toll the Hounds” would come soon to give me at least an idea about where it sits in the series (from quality point of view), but no review on the horizon. In the meantime we got more infos about Esslemont’s second book, whose wonderful cover is on the left, but just for the expensive collector edition.

There’s an interview with the author discussing some interesting things, but that I had to skip here and there to avoid spoilers. It also gives more details about the correct reading order:

The events occur just before Steve’s Toll the Hounds and relatively soon after The Bonhunters. Unforunately, due to timing, Steve’s Toll comes out just before Return – rather than the reverse. It would be better had Return preceeded Toll, but that’s just how things turned out given my coming into all this later than we both had wanted originally.

And something about the next book planned:

The third novel deals with the over-reach of the Malazan occupation of Korel lands to the south of Quon. After internal reordering the empire turns its attention, and resources, to this drain on its treasure and blood. Currently I’m just getting into it – the writing is slow in that I’m trying to learn from my experiences with both prior novels and adjust accordingly (fan feedback helps here!).

This left me doubtful. He wrote ROTCG for at least two years, and it was already completed in an early form even before “Gardens of the Moon” was published (so very long ago). So the next book will likely arrive for 2010 or later. And by that year Erikson should be done on his own side. In previous interviews Esslemont said he had a plan of five novels in the Malazan world:

1) Night of Kinves – About Dancer and Kallanved’s assassination
2) Return of The Crimson Guard – About the invasion of the Crimson Guard to Quon Tali
3) Stonewielder (working title) – About the Korel campaigns
4) ? – About a return to Darujhistan
5) ? – The epilogue to Erikson’s last book

And he also said that the fifth book may even split in two… In order for this to work Esslemont should start working on the fifth volume as close as possible to Erikson’s last. So what will happen to everything in between? Maybe the return to Darujhistan was integrated with “Toll the Hounds”?

Sure is that the Malazan project is truly massive. With the downside that the authors may feel bored or demotivated and not complete it. Let’s hope the enthusiasm sticks.

Finally, about ROTCG we’ve got two reviews. One from Pat, the other from Dancer on the forums.