vouch... damn naps :/

It's like "the best song ever" let me laught.

This post was edited by Eti_fr on Oct 10 2007 03:19am

Good to see that someone else likes both Lynch and Bakker, I'm looking forward to Bakker's next series and for the next book in the Gentleman Bastard sequence. If you enjoy reading those, you'd love Erikson, I'd rate his Malazan Book of the Fallen series higher than Martin's work, although Martin has an exceptionally good series too.

I'm a regular at a George Martin board and Erikson is a popular topic there. There are those who absolutely swear by him, some that are ambivalent, and many more who enjoyed it in parts, but threw the series down at one point or another. I'm in the last group. I got into the rock'em, sock'em, superpowered robots aspect of GotM. Loved the main storyline of DHG...as well as the introduction of one of the best written female characters in fantasy. (which is shocking because character isn't one of Erikson's strong points.) But I was really turned off by MoI. There was just so much needless info-dumping and retconning. And the enemy was built up to such enormous proportions and yet countered at every turn so easily. The deaths and sacrifices typically fell flat.

And that was the beginning of the end through me. The next book was mediocre. And I threw down the fifth book after 150 pages and haven't looked back. Why he thought we'd be interested in a prequel about a bit character who was completely irrelevant to the plot before than and was never really interesting in the first place i have no idea.

In general I think Erikson is a competent storyteller and worldbuilder, but weak on character and prose. His soldiers tend to be redundant. And if he's not writing the 'ULTIMATE BADASS' character (which 90% of them are), he doesn't really know what he's doing with them. I think he overuses the Deus Ex and puts a bit too much in his world to follow...especially when we're rarely given a reason to care about following.

There are intelligent, well read people on my board who place Erikson above Martin. So I'm not giving you shit for doing so. But I definitely wouldn't. The two major components of a novelist are his abilities as a writer and as a storyteller. And I think Martin easily beats Erikson in both. Just my take though.


But yeah, loving Lynch and definitely looking forward to Aspect Emperor. (Bakker's new series)

If you're reffering to the prequel in book 5 it becomes extremely relevant to book 7.

I've heard that. but I've largely stopped caring. There were characters introduced in book 2 who still had done nothing, still irrelevant by 5. And its not like they were brief introductions. He spent significant storytime on them in those books for no apparent reason or effect. That's just sloppy storytelling IMO. I shouldn't have to wait 3-5 books for these characters to become interesting or relevant.

Except that there's a hell of a lot happening in between those bits, and quite often he uses those parts to fill out information about the Malazan world. Which character in book 2 are you refering to as having done nothing by the way? All the major ones has a significant part to play in the main storyline.
Maybe your problem with the series is the fact that it's written in such a way that a lot of characters and storylines are introduced before concluding existing ones?

In book two, the two guys (one a Jaghut or whatever) who simply walk around for the entirety of the book. Mappo maybe for one of them. Its been a while since I've read it. I don't like travelogues. They're a lazy fantasy convention that needs to be done away with. And Martin isn't innocent of it himself. There were some storylines in his books that were just that, most notably Brienne in book 4...who was really unreadable.

And the conclusion of the existing ones is not the problem. I simply don't think that you should spend 100+ pages on any character if they aren't interesting and don't do anything important til 3-5+ books later. If he's not important to the story yet, save him or do a brief introduction, than bring him in later when he is.

Also, fantasy authors should be limited to one crazy/rambling eccentric per series. Between Kruppe and Pust, I wanted to gouge my eyes out. They're supposed to be comic relief with the occasional info-dump. They're not funny. They are annoying.

Kruppe and Pust are funny, just wait till book 5 and Tehol get's introduced, and Shadowthrone is pretty fucking crazy too.
As for Icarium and Mappo, he becomes incredibly important later on, and they get a much needed introduction in book 2, and are seen in book 4,6,7 too.

Oh well, if you don't like them you don't like them. The novellas he's written are incredibly good too, and short so you don't need to worry about him wasting pages on "unnecesary" characters.

Nah hes not the best