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/lit/ - Literature

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23594443 No.23594443 [Reply] [Original]

Amazing, 1000 characters and not a single one with any depth.

>> No.23594517

>>23594443
I bought the first 3 of these, surely you're not exaggerating right? Are there any cool scenes or character development, or is it just "muh worldbuilding" and fake deep "political intrigue"? I've heard that there's a lot of POV characters, do you think he's just wanking and flexing his capabilities as le high fantasy author or is it a real story?

>> No.23594682

>>23594517
I only read the first one and that was enough to conclude "story" and "character development" aren't in this guy's dictionary.

>> No.23594687

Repostin my thoughts I just posted in /sffg/

I'm almost halfway through book 4 and I'm seriously considering just bailing on the series. The first part of this book with only following Karsa was cool, but now that it's back to standard Malazan fare it's starting to feel like a slog again.

I'm barely feeling a connection to any of the characters, there's way too many of them to keep track of and it seems every character will now also be having at least two names to keep track of (and 90% of names are just nouns). There's too many plot-threads going on and it's impossible to gauge what is actually relevant in the text and what is just side tangents and fluff. To top it off there's the endless talk and descriptions of military plans, ranks, squads, companies etc that I can't even begin giving a shit about. I've been using the slides but that just makes it feel like work and studying instead of being a story I can simply enjoy and get immersed in.

GotM was my favorite so far with much tighter and faster pacing and smaller cast and it really got me interested and hooked on the world, it's mysteries and continuing this huge series. After that DHG was a slog and MoI was a step up but still just fine. The payoff to both of these were also really underwhelming after such huge books and after hearing that these are generally considered the two best books in the series. I really want to like the series since I hear so much praise for it and that it all pays off hugely down the line, but I don't know if I can be bothered pushing through. I keep telling myself that it'll start clicking with me if I just give it a bit more time, but I'm starting to feel unsure about it being worth it in the end. I have so many other books I also want to read and these are taking such a huge chunk out of my reading time.

Can anyone give me some motivation to keep pushing through? Or should I just accept that this series propbably isn't for me right now?

>> No.23594701

>>23594517
I think of the series as a microwave meal with particularly stubborn plastic wrapping, the kind that just doesn't want to come off straight away, but after all the effort of scratching at it and trying to dig under the folds with a fork, it opens up and you are finally rewarded with red hot slop holding the same nutritional value as a big mac for 5x the work.

>> No.23594750

>expecting depth from fantasy

>> No.23594851

>>23594443
Why is this board impressed with literally nothing? Is there any epic fantasy series that /lit/ actually likes?

>> No.23594868

>>23594443
I have only read book one and even with just that I know you are illiterate if thats your take away.

>> No.23594875

>>23594443
Read better books then

>> No.23594881

>>23594682
Wheel of Time is the fantasy series that actually lacks those.

>> No.23594956

>>23594851
>Is there any epic fantasy series that /lit/ actually likes?
LOTR and Gormenghast.

>> No.23595169

>>23594851
Im pretty sure most people liked ASOIAF. They just hate George.

>> No.23595179

>>23594517
Malazan is written with actual literary pretentions so it ends up filtering most people (terms like post-modern and post-structuralist are often thrown around). Think of each book as a short story anthology centered around a theme and you'll probably be alright.

>> No.23595490

>>23595179
>actual literary pretentions
Actual literature has characters with backstories and personalities that change over time. Anomander Rake has appeared in about half the books in the series, but what do we actually know about him and how has he changed? He's just a stoic warrior devoid of personality or growth.

>> No.23595494

>>23594851
Book of the New Sun.

>> No.23595522

>>23595490
>Actual literature has characters with backstories and personalities that change over time.
Get more literary experience.

>> No.23595529

>>23595522
>you need to read more literature so you can understand this DND campaign based fantasy novel

>> No.23595570

>>23594687
This is the 3rd time you've posted this. Fuck off.

>> No.23595593

>>23595179
>story anthology centered around a theme
What themes? The series as a whole doesn't even have a theme. It's just stoic anti-heroes fighting comically evil monsters.

>> No.23595598

>>23594682
>>23594443
>>23594517
Sounds like "Zanzibart...forgive me" the book

>> No.23595612

I hate how Erikson uses generic D&D races but tries to mask it by changing their names.

Tiste Andii= Dark Elves
Tiste Liosan= High Elves
Eleint= Dragons
T'lan Imass= Undead
Jaghut= Orcs
Thel Akai= Giants
K'Chain Che'Malle= Lizardmen

Why even bother coming up with new names if you are going to use generic fantasy races? All he's really missing are Dwarves.

>> No.23596317

>>23595598
It pretty much is. There are thousands of occasions of random name-dropping and references to things that aren't explained and play no real role in the narrative, other than to pad out the page count.

>> No.23596356

>>23595490
>personalities that change over time.

Lil bro has never read homer.

>> No.23596533

>>23596356
Achilles changes over the course of the Iliad. When the poem begins he is unwilling to fight because of the prophecy that he will die in the Trojan War. After his cousin dies he overcomes his fear and dies in a blaze of glory to avenge his cousin's death.

>> No.23596541
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23596541

>>23595490
It's almost Malazan isn't driven by characters or something. Which would explain the distaste people have as there's no character drama to latch onto. They're all just players in bigger events.

>> No.23596550

>>23596541
Saying "John fought Adam" doesn't mean much when I barely know who John or Adam are or why they are fighting or what the stakes are. There are plenty of books with massive scopes like the the Book Of The New Sun or the Xeelee Sequence that still manage to have interesting characters.

>> No.23596553

>>23596541
>>23596550
I will say I thought Coltaine was one of the better characters in the series though, particularly because he is more developed than most of the characters in the series. Tehol and Bugg were pretty good too.

>> No.23596605

>>23596533
>Ignores all other characters

>> No.23596614

>>23596605
That's still more character development than literally every character in Malazan combined.