What powerful? He was more of a schemer who was in right place at right time. He was a priest of Mael, so he has some influence there. Kellanved calls him a 'fop on the throne' which suits him well imo. He was a schemer at Aren, schemed with the Claw against Laseen and won the throne by luck.Mallick Rell isn't powerful?
the guy had Mael doing his bidding! And he becomes emperor! Even a competent emperor apparently
Eagerly awaiting for him to get Karsa'd in the trilogy
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And throughout it all he was always on top. He didn't get to where he got through luck. Remember the scene in BH when Kalam ans Tavore meet Laseen? Kalam's thoughts on it?
As for his own personal power, well, there's a couple scenes from ROTCG that give the idea. He's no anomander, but there's a reason Laseen couldn't assassinate him even beyond his influence...
Vaguely, he made him nervous and thought there was more to him than meets the eye was my basic impression.
He realized Laseen was terrifyied of him and was basically begging Kalam to kill him, somehow
That was purely because he infiltrated the Claw. Kalam would have made short work of him but in grand scheme of things, he was needed to support Tavore. A shrewd political operator, but in terms of powerful (at least in Malazan parlance) falls way short.
He took over at a time when Old Guard was done and most powerful characters (Dujek, Whiskeyjack, Tayschrenn, Laseen) and most of Old Guard were out of reckoning ( or fighting with TCG). If any of them were kicking around, he'd have gotten smacked.
If (when) Tavore and Ganoes along with the remenants of Bridgeburners and Bonehunters plus Wickans return after freeing TCG, he better hunt a hole at other side of the world.
He was a horrible twat regardless. I should probably hate Bidithal more but getting murdered improved my feelings towards him.
Sure, Tay could have smacked him around(Tay could have smacked anyone bar koradas around. He even smacked down D'rek). He certainly wasn't capable of the kind of destruction Anomander or even Quru Kan were capable of. But he wasn't some defenceless scrub. See the Possum pov chapter in RotCG, where he considers killing him...and changes his mind quickly because he realizes he wouldn't make it past the first ward
I need to read Malazan and WoT but I just can't be arsed with them. A lot of my intake is from audiobooks when I'm driving and I think I'll just switch off with these.
Again, Possum was the weakest of the known clawmasters (Surly, Topper and Pearl....maybe Kalam, if he'd accepted). Kalam didn't have any concerns in considering assassinating him in BH but choosing to go with Tavore.
Kalam didn't know him at all. Possum was weaker than those others but still one of the best claws. Only topper and laseen herself were better at that point
WoT could be done with audio books. It is giant but fairly simplistic.
Malazan on the other hand is 10000 pages of bad philosophy masqueraded as bad fantasy novels.
You should not be allowed to post in this thread
haven't read any fantasy for a good few years and not wanting to trawl through the thread has anyone read The Faithful and Fallen series by John Gwyne?
I'd taken a year long break after the first 5 Wheel of Time books. Started book 6 and I'm a few chapters in, bloody hell it's boring so far. Endless descriptions of how awesome and tall Aiel are. Is this the beginning of the dip in quality?
Yes.
The next books are nothing special, get better after the awful Winter's Heart.
Ah crap. I'm not sure I'll make it that far if this one doesn't pick up. I've enjoyed the series so far and want to finish it, but I've limited time, they take a good portion of it to read and I've other things I could be reading. If the dip in quality is this boring then I'll probably end up checking out. Hoping to get this one finished before the next Witcher book next month.
Book 6 is actually very good and book 7 is decent. After that, up to end of 11 is very boring with book 9 or 10 being close to unreadable.
And the 12,13 and 14 will be spectacular with a classic finale! Well worth slogging through the middle imo.
13 is mostly boring bar the beginning and ending. The entire middle is pretty pointless. But 12 and 14 are awesome from beginning to the end.
Gave up on the second book of Three Body problem. The first book was meh for most part with some interesting things, the second one was just genuinely awful and after 30% of it I just dropped my kindle. Arguably the worst thing I have ever read.
feck off to the poster who hyped this shit.
feck off to the poster who hyped this shit.
Finished the Powder Mage trilogy. Very unusual fantasy series in that the setting is a mythical modern western society complete with trade unions and elections, though the armies all have cavalry divisions who charge on horseback, while the infantry divisions fire bullets and are equipped with bayonets. The magic system is similar to Mistborn, in that ingesting gunpowder confers some supernatural abilities to those who have the power (hence the name of the trilogy).
I think the biggest mark against the series would be the prose, which is somewhat simplistic, of the order of pre-Elantris Sanderson. This is not surprising, as this is the author (Brian McClellan)'s first series, and he happens to be a Sanderson disciple. Unlike @SmashedHombre, I do not consider the quality of the prose to be a determining factor in my enjoyment of a fiction book. For me, the most important qualities are story, story, and characters. And this series has an engaging story that kept my attention throughout. So I enjoyed the series even if the prose was not quite Tolstoy-level. I think those who enjoy Sanderson would like the Powder Mage series.
Started the first book of the Unhewn Throne trilogy (Brian Stavely).
I think the biggest mark against the series would be the prose, which is somewhat simplistic, of the order of pre-Elantris Sanderson. This is not surprising, as this is the author (Brian McClellan)'s first series, and he happens to be a Sanderson disciple. Unlike @SmashedHombre, I do not consider the quality of the prose to be a determining factor in my enjoyment of a fiction book. For me, the most important qualities are story, story, and characters. And this series has an engaging story that kept my attention throughout. So I enjoyed the series even if the prose was not quite Tolstoy-level. I think those who enjoy Sanderson would like the Powder Mage series.
Started the first book of the Unhewn Throne trilogy (Brian Stavely).
Elantris is first published Sanderson's novel (with absolutely atrocious writing), so what is pre-Elantris Sanderson?
I really liked The Powdermage Trilogy.
I read the first book in the proposed second trilogy 'Sins of Empire'. I did not like it.
I read the first book in the proposed second trilogy 'Sins of Empire'. I did not like it.
Elantris was his first published novel, but he wrote a lot of stuff before Elantris was published, and he has given some of it free to his fans. Such unpublished works as The Way of Kings (Prime), The Liar of Partinel, etc., can be obtained by writing to him.
Isnt liar of partinel like 4 chapters?
Going to start The Lies of Locke Lamora. Is it good?
It's fantastic
One of the best books in the genre.
I'd be as excited to see The Thorne's of Emberlain (book 4) as I would the next Kingkiller or ASOIAF.
That's high praise man. Kingkiller is one of my favorites in this genre along with Stormlight.
Don't care for kingkiller but i agree.
Like everyone else has said, it's excellent.
Lies of Locke is on par with Name of the Wind. And comfortably so. Better than anything Sanderson has written bar The Gathering Storm.
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This.
Loving all the Malazan chat. Just on to Blood and Bone, tearing through this series. Love that it's contemporaneous with the 'main' series, feels like it's fleshing it out even more. Not sure if I'm just (finally) getting used to it, but also find Esselmont a lot clearer and less confusing. Will be a sad day after Assail
No, the writing improved noticeably between RotCG and Stonewielder. And there's the dancer/kellanved trilogy too!This.
Loving all the Malazan chat. Just on to Blood and Bone, tearing through this series. Love that it's contemporaneous with the 'main' series, feels like it's fleshing it out even more. Not sure if I'm just (finally) getting used to it, but also find Esselmont a lot clearer and less confusing. Will be a sad day after Assail
Read the first 2 books from the Codex Alera series and starting the third. Pretty light read with a lot of action and decent characters. Nothing groundbreaking but really enjoying it so far.
Manged to buy The Ryria Chronicles and The Powder Mage at a huge discount so those are my next reads after i complete Alera.
Manged to buy The Ryria Chronicles and The Powder Mage at a huge discount so those are my next reads after i complete Alera.
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Codex Alera is one of those series when all books are enjoyable, but neither of them is that great (or even, very good bar possibly book 3).