Something to Look For When You Re-read The Malazan Book of the Fallen
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2023
- It is no secret that there is a 'big reveal' at the end of the tenth book of the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson, even if most fans are tight-lipped about it for fear of spoiling it for others. In fact, many fans say you NEED to re-read in order to get the full experience, and there is a grain of truth to this, but maybe not in the way that most people think.
So I am going to do a series of videos on each book from the position of re-reading and points that you might want to consider in light of the revelations from the last book, The Crippled God.
The first part of this video outlines what I am talking about, but then there is a massive spoiler warning so that I don't ruin the end of the series for those that have not yet read it.
Essentially though, this is just an overview that touches on some of the main points that arise when you reconsider the series in light of the new information that you receive once you finish the series.
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Intro and Music by Professor Trip.
Ah, this is brilliant! I have been excited for this video series ever since you mentioned the idea of going back to look at each book in light of the ending of The Crippled God. This is a fantastic introduction, and I look forward to every video!
Gentlemen, am I overlooking something or there is still no spoiler chat on 10th book of the series? :)
@@filipszabo91 beat me to it! Was just gonna ask AP lol, but I will hop on this comment instead so as not to be a Repetitive Robert
@@filipszabo91 That is correct, Filip. We have not yet had our discussions of The Crippled God, but they will happen. When they do, I’ll be shouting a great deal about them. Cheers!
Just finished the crippled god and was looking for the video where you both cover the book. Are you guys still planning on doing a video on tCG?
@@waldo8791 did you read what Philip said right above your comment? If so, read it again 😉
YES! This is EXACTLY what I have been looking for but never thought I'd get! And the timing is perfect. Two days ago I unexpectedly started my re-read of the MBotF.
I had not planned to do it yet, I had this big plan to wait until the Karkanas trilogy was done and then read everything in the Malaz-verse. Instead, the book I was reading was getting increasingly sloggy. So I needed a break and started browsing my e-reader library. Before I knew it I was reading the prologue to GotM, and got this amazing feeling of being home again. So I guess I'm re-reading now and Hood's Balls am I excited!
I think the Witness trilogy (?) will be finished before Walk in Shadow comes out.
@@EricMcLuen One book of Kharkanas is bigger than the whole Witness trilogy 😁
Hope he doesn't pull a "Tad" 😬
I re-read Erikson's introduction and the prologue to Gardens of the Moon a few days ago, and now I want to read the series again this time incorporating the wider Malazan world
I re re read the prologue immediately after finishing my reread after the epilogue of Crippled God and it was hard to stop.
I am now on my 4th or 5th re-read. And each one has shown me so many nuances that I simply missed each reading. This series was so dense with information and hints that it just does not get boring.
Thank you for these videos. They are really well thought out and fun especially since you make so many points that I have ,mostly, found difficult to articulate.
Thanks for watching, I am glad that you enjoyed it and that it helped you articulate some of hte points that you were considering.
I do too
And congrats to you AP for reaching 6.66k subscribers. 😈
❤
🤘
As someone planning a reread, I will keep this video in mind 😁
The Book of the Fallen is Erikson apologizing to his readers at the end for making us work so hard.
🤣🤣🤣
Damn, on time. I just reread Deadhouse Gates. Now I am looking forward to TCD's reread advice for every subsequent book.
Oh boy I'm very excited for this - even with people talking about the series with "full spoilers" it's rare we get that retroactively forwards and backwards, with consideration of everything. I've not re-read but it's clear how drastically the experience will differ just knowing what I know now....
To throw a twist in it though, will this contain spoilers for other Malazan books outside the main 10? I don't think they're necessarily as important, but say talking about TTH could use mentioning bits of OST, for example.
great question, following for the answer lol (I'm reading NotME for the first time now, on SW at the moment, so I'll probably be all caught up by the time this series gets to TtH... but still)
To be honest, NotME don't really figure into this. I don't think that there are many points specifically from this perspective that require knowledge of Esslemont's books.
@@ACriticalDragon Perfectly fine, just wanted to double check! given 'The Thing' in particular you mentioned, makes sense why it may not be
I feel like I have such a greater nuanced understanding of this series through-line and related themes now! I was planning to do a reread at some point, but this video and the ones that will follow will make it so much more enriching for me I think, pointing me to look out for elements related to the series’ narrator which I dare say might have been easy to overlook if I just got completely caught up in the events of the individual books again. Thanks for this tremendous video, A.P.!
Great video AP! looking forward to the next videos!
The ending completely reframes the narrative of the entire series. On my frst, so far, some of the foreshadowing was almost painfully obvious but the sheer scope of the interconnected events was mindblowing. There are so many layers to unearth if you want but aren't necessary.
A recent interview on Legendarium said some people start to read Wolfe for the purpose of rereading him. The desire, if not need for many, to reread Malazan isn't fully realized until the first read is almost done.
Unfortunately, this holding off for so long is also why some people don't finish.
I also just realized similarities of Tad Williams' Otherland series to Malazan.
Rereading is so common in academia that I forget that it is not 'the norm' for most people.
This was so cool. Really looking forward to the rest of this series
Wow thanks so much for the beautiful insights you have for this series. I’m about to start my 3rd read through and this video was perfect to get me going. All you said about Toll the Hounds just keep solidifying why I consider it the best book ever written. Anyways will be looking forward to this series of videos!
This is perfect. Just finished bonehunters on my reread and this is exactly the content I've been wanting. Nice one.
Great video! Thank you for all the work you did and will need to do for this series of videos. :)
Thank you very much for watching, I am glad that you enjoyed it.
Very much looking forward to this! I’m about 70% through The Crippled God, so I’ll finally be able to follow along with your series in real time!
I hadn't watched any of your videos for a while and this left me wondering why?
Always they are excellent, looking forward to more
Starting my reread, which i never thought I'd do, and this video has me primed and ready to go - thanks AP!
Great idea and video...looking forward to the rest. I just reread GOTM and it is an entire different experience the second time around. Currently at the end of MOI for the second time. It is truly amazing how much more I understand now that I have read the series...additionally!...how Erikson was able to include aspects from the story as a whole is truly impressive
Great timing on this. I’m about 90% finished on my gardens of the moon reread
Excellent recap of the Book of the Fallen. Really look forward to the individual books.
One of your best!
Lots of food for thought, AP. I thought I understood pretty much what the series did but you opened my eyes to some new angles.
New angles and new perspectives are the aim of the game.
Where the hell was this when I started my reread last year? 😆 Kidding, obviously - this is awesome! Looking very much forward to all of the upcoming reread videos. ♥
This introduction is brilliant. I am looking forward to this series and will try and sync my reread with it👍🏿
Given how erratic my uploading has been recently, you might want to just re-read at your leisure.
But I will try.
Thanks for watching.
Absolutely super. Thank you for the insight, and the new way to think/read when I go to the re-read.
I am glad that you enjoyed it, thanks for watching.
@@ACriticalDragon You are welcome. In Ukraine, we need to learn about compassion very quickly. I hate that ended that with an adverb.
This is exactly why it’s so frustrating when someone asks me what Malazan is about. Many people say that they can’t answer that. I usually say that I could tell them, but they would hate me if I did.
Masterful video, sir. This helps me as a writer, but also as a person, the retrospective format in this way was absolutely essential for me, like I said, a writer and a person.
I am really pleased to hear that. Thanks for watching Billy.
Bookmarked this and will be revisiting periodically. Thanks AP!
You are very welcome. I am glad that you enjoyed it. Thank you very much for watching.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh this is so good!! AP you are the master of the Malazan universe, a true Malazan scholar, and while your works thus far have completely earned you that title, this video and subsequent series will really cement it. This video was amazing, you definitely helped me gain new insights, and I can not WAIT for the forthcoming videos on each book!! Hopefully you get to pull Steve in every now and then for a little added authorial color 😀😀😀
There are so many people out there who are true experts when it comes to this series, I am just a meddling amateur. But I am glad that you enjoyed the video.
Really enjoyed that. I’m rereading TBoTF and will shortly take on Memories of Ice. Your videos will provide an additional layer that I’ll look forward to.
It is a lot of fun (for a given value of nerdy fun) to think about this perspective as you read. Or at least I think so.
Totally. And only fitting that an omnipotent narrator turns out to be a god. This will be my fourth time with the Malazans, and I’m still getting new or different stuff. It’s also been great to find your videos, along with those of Mr Chase - proper intelligent and critical discussion of a genre that was often sneered at by the book snobs.
perfect timing, i just started my reread :D thanx A.P.!
You are welcome, Trip. And thank you once again for the intro.
I've been away from Malazan these past few months... This brings it back in all its stunning glory. Will be watching the series! Very impressive.
Thanks Johan, I hope that you are doing well.
@@ACriticalDragon I am. Finishing part 2 of a duology, deadline 20 June, publication in September... Hence my absence. But your series I won't miss for the world.
I finished The Crippled God (my first read through) near the end of last year. I can't get the whole series out of my head. I'm SO VERY MUCH looking forward to this series of yours, AP. Thanks for putting in the time to deepen our understanding of this important story.
You are very welcome. I am glad that you enjoyed it.
I like this theory. It also opens up the possibility that the true story is actually about Burn getting sick, and having a fever dream about her immune system being an army defeating the illness. Like the Princess Bride lol
This video was like a meditation. Thank you! :)
You are very welcome. Always great to hear from you, Rox... and I assume from your silent partner partner too.
@@ACriticalDragon hahah yes, Lorant is not active on any media, but we both watch your videos :)
Loved this.
Thank you for ting all things that are only intuitive to me. Thank you very much! :)
You are very welcome, Franz. It is always good to hear from you.
Hello AP !
I'm a long time silent follower of your channel, a little satellite orbiting Wutube, and I would like to say for once how much I deeply appreciate your videos. Thank you for taking the time to share with us your knowledge, your analyses with this witty tone which makes your videos so enjoyable !
A point occured to me :
You emphasize multiples times how much Tavore is a central part in the crippled god's narration. By following the logic of your exposé, why would Kaminsod choose to be frustatingly obscure about Tavore's reasons/thoughts/motivations ? I know that SE expressed that it was a choice not to gives us the perspective of some characters, like Anomander Rake / Shadowthrone / Tavore, to make them more mysterious/equivoque. It's a sound explanation from an author's perspective. But it's difficult for me to reconcile such mystere around Tavore with Kaminsod being the narrator.
What am I missing ?
Just finished TCG. Looking forward to check out all of the spoiler content now
I hope you enjoyed the series and that you find some interesting discussions on the books.
I honestly think someone who was really unsure and looking to not read Malazan could watch this and most likely not have it spoiled but decide to read it. For prior readers who would like a forty minute reminder of how amazing Malazan is it's stunning. I see it for my favourite TV programs. That TH-cam one that shows the best bits from a certain series? Never had a book series one this good. Fantastic work AP
Given how spoiler averse people seem to be, it might be hard to convince them to watch this :)
This is perfect! I'm on my third read and have just finished GotM and am a few chapters in to Deadhouse Gates. It's like being home again. Curled up with MBotF a cup of tea and my cat Bugg...bliss. (note: perhaps I should have named said cat Tehol or Toc ... he lost his sight in one eye after a wee accident) 😜
The take home point is : Pearl was a great guy ! Lostara, care to comment ?
On a serious note, great intro A.P. I look forward to the rest of your breakdown videos.
I am honestly surprised that no one else has ever done this. But I will give it a shot.
I've always known and felt that Malazan is one of the best fantasy series out there for me. Truly one of the greats if not the greatest. And I just added another argument as to why. This recent spike in booktube discussing Malazan just goes to illustrate that fact. This is a series that is so rich that by engaging it multiple times, watching other people discuss you still see new things to discover in it. To me it is such a powerful indicator of a great series that stands the test of time. Some series I've loved have been great but after reading them you see the engagement drop off. That in no way takes anything away from it but there's something special happening with a series when you can explore it to this extent. Just a thought I had whilst wathcing the video.
There only two series i re-read and they have nothing in common. Malazan Book of the Fallen and the Outlander series. Like i said: completely different. Thank you for your videos.
When they reprint a decent set of the series, I will reread. Not suffering through those small print paperbacks again. And definitely not digital.
I already have too many books to read. Don't make me drop all that to reread Malazan!
It can't hurt to just read a couple of pages... or chapters... or books :)
Note: It's not an IF it's a WHEN!
I'd love to reread malazan but no way have I the patience to go through it again. So glad I stuck with it and read the series finishing last year but it was a massive slog at some stages. A reread would definitely fit all the pieces together but I don't think I'd be able.
If you ever decide to try a reread I think you might find that the series feels very different.
Hey, I'm a scholar who is beginning my career writing about fantasy literature. I'm a PhD hopeful, and my idea for my dissertation is called "Framing Grimdark in The Malazan Book of the Fallen: A Post-colonial Frankenstein." Would you be okay with me using your videos and quotes (with proper citation) in my writing? You've done truly excellent work here, and I want to work with someone who knows the series better than I do.
YES! the Illiad is more a reciting of thre greatness of the streength of greek peoples (ionians/Laomedon's included), than just of Achiles. Id suggest its even a parable of "triumph over tradgedy" when looked at from the Laomedon Line of inheritance and the surviving sons. I always thought "the Fallen" referred to "everyone" in the story - Steven Erikson likes his wholistic metaphors.
I am glad that you enjoyed the discussion. Esslemont's series has a different style and focus, but it is refreshing to see the world from a different perspective and one that is just as valid.
Well damn I read that ending wrong, I just thought he died at the end, that it was a mercy killing (which is a real damn fine character arc for Cotillion considering how he started); I assumed this because when Gods are slain on the mortal plane like Fener they're dead for good (is it because he didn't die on his world's mortal plane I wonder).
Thanks for watching.
I would say that if you prefer your version of the ending and it makes more sense to you, then believe that. It is not an equation to be solved with the 'right' answer.
If Erikson wanted definitive interpretations he wouldn't have made the story so ambiguous. I blame him entirely.
Your interpretation makes a lot of sense, even if I read the ending quite differently.
So this random idea came into my head on re-reading for maybe the third time Gardens of the Moon: The Azath starts out new in Darujhistan. But what if started to grow in an HOA? Is the Azath obligated to to the terms and conditions as set forth by the HOA? What about all those gnarly roots and barrows in the front yard? What kind of fines would an HOA in the Malazan mythos impose? What are the consequences of noncompliance? Would a third party arbiter be required? If so I imagine it would have to be an Elder God, maybe K'rull. Because by the end there would be blood.
In a fight between the Azath and an HOA, my money is on the Azath. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I’m up to House of Chains in my reread. There is so much foreshadowing I didn’t pick up on my first read.
SPOILERS
Felt like a complete moron not picking up on who Shadowthrone and the Rope are. He pretty much flat out tells you in the opening epigraph to GOTM lol
The Crippled God ENDING SPOILER
**********
you also get to see my favorite single bit of foreshadowing, when Karsa breaks a boar statue randomly for no reason... 😂😂
Apparently there are a lot of people who don't work that particular point out in Gardens of the Moon. So I wouldn't feel bad about it.
Will there be spoilers for the adjacent novels?
They aren't narrated by the same person, so it is unlikely.
"Re-read"?! I didn't make it the first time around 😵💫
And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
Overrated, I can't get through halfway of the first audio book, people say its better than WoT? hhhmmmm
Sometimes it is the book, sometimes it is the reader.
@@ACriticalDragon Really? hhmmm
@@d3mist0clesgee12 Yes.
Definitely understand why someone couldn't get through Malazan, it's not simple, a lot of the themes are heavy, and Erikson does NOT hold your hand.
That being said, I read Wheel of Time, I even reread large parts of it. It easily became one of my favorite series(and still is), I talk about it all the time with a buddy of mine, I vehemently disagree with those people who say WOT isn't worthwhile read(I think everyone should, at least once).
But I can say with absolute certainty that Malazan is a far superior work. One of the things that Erikson does is he forces you to think, especially on themes that can make someone uncomfortable.
Now like I said, I UNDERSTAND why many people have a hard time finishing this series, but the reward of the final book makes it incredibly worthwhile.
@@ACriticalDragon Maybe some people not into drawn out intrigue and jus likes cool visual fantasy with more magic, hmmm