Is there a better example of an author hiding behind a literary trend? Erikson has little to say. He gussies up DND and Warhammer tropes and hides them in a dense, post-modern text. The difference between him and Gene Wolfe? Wolfe could write anything he wanted and excel. Erikson shields his lack of talent by obfuscating the text.
It’s cynical, isn’t it?
>>24110115Post one (1) passage from any of the Malazan books that could even be misconstrued as being tough to read.
>>24110115I genuinely have no idea what in the Malazan series qualifies as post-modern.
>>24110141Some describe it as poststrucalism. Postmodernism without the cultural relativism.
>>24110115It's impossible to read this book without imagining the author and his friends playing DnD together and doing all the voices and lame shit that comes with it.
>>24110115Erikson isn't good at writing and I'm tired of pretending that he is.
>>24110193He's the ultimate sunk cost fallacy author in Fantasy. Robert Jordan at least didn't have pretentions of being Wolfe or Pynchon.
wow you guys really hate this author
>>24110239No, I hate OP.
>>24110239natural progression when people try to compare this slop to Gene Wolfe.
Absolute gutter trash. A waste of the paper it’s printed on.
Based. I will now read these books.
>>24110133Describe what the fucking Deck of Dragons does in ten words or less and without looking it up.
>>24111480It's that world's version of a tarot deck.
>what are Warrens?uuuh it's a mystery also they can do whatever the plot requires at any given moment>what is the Deck?uuuh well you'll have to keep going till book 8 to discover it! Also it sometimes predicts the future, but in a manner so cryptic that it foreshadows events 6000 pages later! >what are the changelings? What's the Path of Hands?we don't know but they have the entire second book devoted to them yet we explain nothingand so on and so forth. I was two books in because I was promised some kind of genre-changing epic, and it's probably the most obscurantist dimwit bullshit I've ever read. Absolute time waster
>>24110115Is that the one where men rape men, monsters rape men or demons take souls and rape the men's souls?
>>24110166What makes it postmodern?>Postmodernism without the cultural relativism.lol. You have no idea what you are talking about.
>>24112177Don't you dare compare Bakker honeyed anus to this slop.
>>24112167Same. But three books. Fell for the meme.
>>24112167For me, it's when a character changes their name and the reader isn't told who they are and then four books later one of their scenes ends with a telling hint about which character they actually are but by that point you can't remember why it's important that that character didn't die or what the significance of them coming back is.
>>24112926That’s the problem I have. I couldn’t give a fuck about character #450. Bro thought he was writing fantasy War & Peace.
>>24112167>promised some kind of genre-changing epicand yet your complaints are that it isn't the same generic slop you're used to
>>24112177No, in Malazan women rape the men.
>>24112167I think you just might be skimming the books, anon. Or listening in audio format which is a HORRIBLE idea for Malazan.
>>24113194motherfucker I've read everything from Gravit's Rainbow to War and Peace. Malazan isn't that deep. The juice is not worth the squeeze.
The thing that bothered me the most was that I could never tell what parts was I supposed to understand and what was intentionally left vague and mysterious. Like there's some reveal about how X is Y, and I'm just left thinking: "Okay, so? Is this supposed to mean something right now and I don't get it because I forgot some detail established 4 books ago, or is it something that will only become meaningful later on?". There were a lot of great characters that I enjoyed and kept me going, but unfortunately the massive, ever-expanding cast meant that those characters got ever-decreasing amounts of page-time, so I eventually dropped out after book 7 (which incidentally also killed several of my favorites).
>>24113796And behind all that extra legwork is what? A mediocre DND campaign masquerading as literary fantasy.
>>24113820>masquerading as literary fantasy.I don't even particularly like Malazan and I don't know what your problem is whether you're just a massive brainlet or what, but let me tell this. It does no such thing
>>24110115>a dense, post-modern textlmao
>>24114396I can tell you’re a kid.
Malazan is just a dogshit lefty version of the black company. It’s more than an homage like they claim; it is just a hack job copying it outright but somehow making it worse. Malazan is the biggest disappointment I’ve had in reading in about a decade.
>>24114569Are you ever going to answer the anon who asked what makes it postmodern?
>>24114607I just read up to Deadhouse Gates (the second one). Really if Erikson had just stripped it all down to the "Chain of Dogs" plot, and not written anything else, he'd be fellated on /lit/. Probably get some movie deals too.
>>24113024anon it's so fucking generic it hurts. There's zero fucking nuance or interesting characters, no vulnerabilities or actual development. It's all literally a D&D party of people with the same personality and inner monologue, there's only archetypes:>i'm so gritty and hardened man. Like, other people wouldn't even get it. I've shed my feelings, it's almost as if i am... inhumane. I'm so uncaring and focused on my ever-shifting goals man>i'm so mysterious and cryptic man. My motives aren't even clear in my inner monologue because the writer would be revealed as a fucking hack. Like, I won't explain my motives even to my closest allies, who stick with me for some reason. I'm also sixteen bajillion years old and I've left behind my feelings because i'm just so ancient and I've seen so much shit man. The god shit, the undead shit, the magic shit, it all tries to purposely sound cool and mysterious and it has 0 narrative grip. You can't expect me to chow down 2000 pages of mystery box nothingburgers and go "mmh yeah I'll read 10000 pages more"
>>24114657exactly my feelings. Dude knows his ancient history equipment and some manner of army tactics, albeit being a bit fantastic, the battles are the most fun part of the books. If he could focus on a single actually developed plotline for a Roman republic army with barbarian auxiliaries fleeing across a desert from a provicinal revolt, that'd be tight as fuck. Alas he has the need to fellate himself on dogshit character plots
