#gotm reread

[whiskeyjack-bridgeburner]

The wizard had accessed his Warren.

The sorcery bled a strange, swirling flavour that she could not recognize, and it frightened her with its intensity. She met the black man’s shining eyes. ‘I should know you,’ she whispered. ‘There’s not enough true masters in this world for me to not know you. Who are you, Quick Ben?’

Gardens of the Moon The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

[whiskeyjack-bridgeburner]

Quick Ben shrugged to punctuate his last words, then added, 'In any case, we believe Sorry is connected to House Shadow.'

Whiskeyjack surprised everyone by surging to his feet. 'I'm not convinced,' he said, throwing Quick Ben a glare that told Tattersail there had been countless arguments over this issue. 'Sorry likes killing, and having her around is like having spiders down your shirt. I know all that. I can see it and feel it the same as any of you. It doesn't mean she's some kind of demon.' He turned to face Kalam. 'She kills like you do, Kalam. You've both got ice in your veins. So what? I look at you and I see a man because that's what men are capable of - I don't hunt for excuses because I don't like to think that that's how nasty we can get. We look at Sorry and we see reflections of ourselves. Hood take it, if we don't like what we see.' Gardens of the Moon The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

[whiskeyjack-bridgeburner]

Is this a GOTMism? Something I've noticed two chapters into GOTM that I don't really recall seeing as much in the later books is these long lived people. Now, yes there are ascendants and stuff, people like Brood, Kallor (omitting non human races here; obviously the Tiste are eons old) who are old as fuck, but like. Tattersail, 219. Calot is said to be over a century old but carried it well. As the series moves on, there's way more average aged characters. Idk if it's the shift in focus to being mostly new/newish recruits in the army but there seems to be a large dip in characters that fit into this profile where they're beyond 100 years old but appear younger. Enjoying this GOTM reread in any case. This isn't a criticism, merely an observation. I feel like if something sticks out after having freshly finished the series, then it must hold some weight. After finishing chapter 1, I've been having trouble putting the book down. I've decided to just post quotes for now, and then do a regular write up when I finish. I didn't do a write up for GOTM the first time so a Reread write up sounds fun. As a whole, I've been having trouble focusing on reading lately. I managed to read and enjoy The Black Prism by Weeks and while that was VERY fun and I even started book 2, I just can't focus. Been playing a lot of video games instead. I honestly think it may partly be because I lose stamina when a series isn't finished. If there isn't an ending, I feel less motivated to catch up. That said, I really love Lightbringer so far and look forward to finishing it one day. Part of me wants to pick something finished, perhaps Realm of the Elderlings, or WOT, but for now, reading something familiar feels good, so I'm going with it. I don't know if this will lead to a full series reread, if I'll work ICE into it or not, but in the meantime I'm enjoying GOTM. As said by many, and as I expected, it's almost like reading an entirely new book but at the same time it feels very much like home to me. I just love this world and all these characters. I love understanding everything (well, almost, I know I'll notice new shit in 3rd, 4th rereads too). I remember having to just take things at face value in order to move onward on my first read of GOTM so, while I totally enjoyed it the first time and I understood the basics, tons of stuff still got disregarded. Now it's entirely different. I know the lingo. I know the geography. I know the races. I know the gods, the warrens, I know where it all ends up. It's fun to see character names from later books pop up in passing too. The stuff I disregarded the first time is making this time so much more of a fulfilling experience. I totally dig it. Even obvious things like when Fiddler gets mentioned. Aside from the prologue, he hasn't made an appearance yet, but, for example, Whiskeyjack tells Kalam to go get Fiddler to restock the munitions and just seeing Fiddler's name fills my heart with so much love whereas the first time through I didn't know I'd like Fiddler so much until he became my favorite POV in Deadhouse Gates. Well. Long post short, it's good to be home in "Wu" again. I'm going to stop guilting myself about reading other things and just go with this for now. I managed to make it a whole two months before digging back in haha.

[whiskeyjack-bridgeburner]

Tattersail smiled. 'The only death I fear is dying ignorant.'

Gardens of the Moon The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson