@Malcador I think the forum ate what you wrote, or I don't understand it.

I started reading the Silver Spike and am not feeling it so far, but everyone says it's better to finishing before starting the books of the south.

Yeah, on mobile Firefox the Ui spazzed out, so I ended up posting the spoiler clearly and then fat fingered an edit.

Spoiler for Soldiers Live

Everyone dies except Croaker and Lady.

Edited February 1Feb 1 by Malcador

3 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Yeah, on mobile Firefox the Ui spazzed out, so I ended up posting the spoiler clearly and then fat fingered an edit.

Test

Still an empty spoiler. Now you can add the spoiler title and spoiler content. That got me the first time too and I had to edit.

16 hours ago, Malcador said:

Yeah, on mobile Firefox the Ui spazzed out, so I ended up posting the spoiler clearly and then fat fingered an edit.

Spoiler for Soldiers Live

Everyone dies except Croaker and Lady.

Ah, I'm ways off from that but yeah I imagine I will be grouchy too.

Finished the Silver Spike. So far the weakest book for me. Although I liked the epilogue very much.

Shadow Games is back to par with the first 3. On to Dreams of Steel.

Finished Soldiers Live. I don't know, I think I like the original 3 books more. There is a dip afterwards that does get better with the later books but it never quite comes back to the level of the first 3. Saying that I will continue reading the new books as they come out. I started immediately with Lies Weeping.

Another thing I would say is that while Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen is pretty heavily inspired by the Black Company he does a better job with his characters. You are way more invested in the non PoV characters of the Malazan world.

Edited 14 hours ago14 hr by Sarex

Maybe I need to reread the entire series, but I hated the two Murgen books.

I never was interested in Port of Shadows, and now Cook made those two magical babes the protagonists? Lol.

The first 3 were the best for me. I am still unhappy with the characters dying, sure it ties into the "Soldiers Live.." thing but eh, struck me as him just tying up loose ends to wrap things up.

2 hours ago, HoonDing said:

I never was interested in Port of Shadows, and now Cook made those two magical babes the protagonists? Lol.

Port of Shadows was fun for the utter dishonesty and confusion it tries to sow. A novel set back in the Dominator's time would be fun though. And yes Shukrat and Arkania are painful to read

3 hours ago, HoonDing said:

I never was interested in Port of Shadows, and now Cook made those two magical babes the protagonists? Lol.

I am finding them more interesting than Murgen and Sleepy tbh.

3 hours ago, HoonDing said:

Maybe I need to reread the entire series, but I hated the two Murgen books.

There is a meta part in the book where Croaker criticizes Murgen for the way he is writing the annals, being too focused on himself and unimportant details. I was like, "yeah that is exactly what I don't like about these books". I don't know if Cook was trying to be funny and poke fun at the readers who complained or what..

45 minutes ago, Malcador said:

The first 3 were the best for me. I am still unhappy with the characters dying, sure it ties into the "Soldiers Live.." thing but eh, struck me as him just tying up loose ends to wrap things up.

For me personally, I never got attached to most of the characters that died. He never managed to flesh them out enough for me to be fully invested in them.

57 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Port of Shadows was fun for the utter dishonesty and confusion it tries to sow. A novel set back in the Dominator's time would be fun though.

I decided to skip the Port of Shadows.

58 minutes ago, Malcador said:

And yes Shukrat and Arkania are painful to read

Definitely, even though he does it on purpose it doesn't make it any better. But the story is interesting so far.

You could consider "Dread Empire" to be the Dominator series.

That ancient entity under the tree is more interesting than the Dominator at any rate.