Toll the Hounds [Spoilers]

Nequam · Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:12 pm Post subject:

I agree with an earlier post by Stonemaybe. I have to say that, though I am an incredible fan of Erikson, Toll the Hounds was not that good. I felt so dissapointed about so much. Every plot line in the book either ended up seeming pointless, boring, or biult up and then flopped over to die. Especially the Traveller story-arc and the whole things with the Hounds of Light.

Erikson is still my favorite writer I'd have to say, I mean books 2-6 absolutely blew my mind with awesomeness (7 and 1 still blew my mind in the end, just not as easily)...but I'm not sure how much longer I'll be saying that after Toll the Hounds.

Sad

Maybe the next two will bring the series back up again...
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Spiral Jacobs · Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:07 pm Post subject:

I just finished it (I'm late, I know), and I'm kinda feeling the same way as I did after reading Reaper's Gale: 80% of the book is walking and talking, and the last 20% is awesome action. In RG the whole Clip thing was just talk, talk talk and half of it I didn't get. Then this book again! But I must admit when Rake decapitated Hood my heart skipped a beat. Wait, what? Let's read that sentence again.

lucimay · Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:54 pm Post subject:

heh.

yeah i'm in the ever-thang-he-writes-is-gold camp myself spiral.
i'm sure there's some stylistic bias sort of reason for that
but nonetheless, i like all that stuff that was annoying to some of
you in those particular books. i particularly enjoyed (as i was
reminded of recently in another thread) riding around inside Corab's
head myself, and i always enjoy riding around in Fid's head too.

having begun reading for consecutive threads in this series (went from TtH back to MoI then back into TtH to get the capustan thread/events clear for myself - gruntle and stonny and harllo, paran, matron, bastion, etc and such) all that walking and talking is invaluable! heh.

my feeling on the clip stuff is that its a character that, in fact, didn't really work for either erikson or esselmont. i think they didn't like him anymore that the rest of us! so he got cut...er....clipped, as it were. Laughing

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I'm Murrin · Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:56 pm Post subject:

Clip was in Esselmont? Hmm.

(I do think his changes in TtH were a deliberate undermining of the established character, mind you. They set him up to confront Anomander and then pulled the rug out from under him.)
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Heart of God

Onos T'oolan · Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 1:42 am Post subject:

Demondime-a-dozen-spawn · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 5:33 pm Post subject:

About 300 pages into Toll the Hounds.

Loved the exchange between Gothos and Kallor.

"I greet you as guests and so will not crush the life from you and devour your souls with peals of laughter. No, instead, I will make some tea."
...
Skintick squatted to pick up two of the cups, straightening to hand one to Nimander.The steam rising from the tea was heady, hinting of mint and cloves and something else. The taste numbed his tongue.

"Where is mine?" Kallor demanded. "If I must listen to this creature I will drink his tea."

-----

Some of it is difficult and convoluted reading. Is Kruppe narrating parts of this book?
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I'm Murrin · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 5:48 pm Post subject:

Indeed he is. His is the unifying voice that ties it all together thematically, though really it tends to come and go in bits and pieces.
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Avatar · Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 6:17 pm Post subject:

Did I ever post in this thread? TtH blew my mind.

Serious spoiler:

Spoiler:

Anomander!!

--A
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Onos T'oolan · Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 12:48 pm Post subject:

Yeah, it's an incredibly powerful book!!

Spoiler:

Yup!

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lucimay · Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:41 pm Post subject:

Spoiler:

i know, huh! better yet...HOOD! Shocked

and who was it that witnessed that whole scene again...oh yeah,
samar and karsa!!

well Av, there aren't many answers to this scene in DoD so here's
hoping that TCG will be the tying up of loose ends to beat all tying
up of loose ends.

i have not gone to the malazan forum to peek at their analysis and
theories since before i read DoD.

i just don't really know how all the loose ends can be tied up in one
last book.

list of explanations i need:

how much of what has occurred with the Bridgeburners
was planned by Laseen and what was it she was hoping
to accomplish - that's still never been made clear

who WAS T'amber?

where is kalam?

was the entire point of this whole series really to do with Shadowthrone
and Cotillion? (their's was the very first story thread in GotM) and was
their only motivations revenge against laseen? (to destroy the empire
that she did not deserve to rule)

karsa? (you will be needed. for what? to kill a god)

seren pedec and trull's kid?

silchas ruin and rud ellale (or however you spell that, or whatever
silchas is calling him now)

is Toc's story really over and done with?

tool? *sniffle*

paran and the deck of dragons and its import in all that has transpired?

silverfox?

is nimandar's storyline done?

gruntle? not to mention harllo and that t'lan imass he discovered?

Apsal'ara (go with my blessing. where? you will know soon enough.)

and speaking of Apsalar and Cutter?

not to mention all the NEW questions generated by DoD.

arg. one book?
_________________
you're more advanced than a cockroach, have you ever tried explaining yourself to one of them?
~ alan bates, the mothman prophecies

i've had this with actors before, on the set, where they get upset about the [size of my] trailer, and i'm always like...take my trailer, cause... i'm from kentucky and that's not what we brag about.
~ george clooney, inside the actor's studio

a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~

aliantha · Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 4:22 am Post subject:

Yeah. Wow. I foresee some fancy Erikson footwork....

Hey, I just did the math -- so TCG and AATE are coming out in the same year? Not to mention the final Harry Potter movie? 2010 is gonna rock! Smile

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Avatar · Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:22 pm Post subject:

Started my re-read of TtH yesterday. Only the second time I'm reading it, so will doubtless notice plenty of stuff I missed before.

--A
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Onos T'oolan · Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 6:11 pm Post subject:

I wonder how much I'd be willing to pay to be able to read as fast as you do.
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Avatar · Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:26 am Post subject:

Reapers Gale took long this time round (by my standards). It's always a juggling act between reading, internet and computer games. Very Happy

--A
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Mr. Broken · Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 11:45 am Post subject:

I took a short break from my re-read, to read Stoneweilder, and Crack'd Pot Trail, now Im ready to begin Toll the Hounds. Again.
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Avatar · Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:55 am Post subject:

And on to Toll The Hounds. Very Happy

--A
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Avatar · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 4:59 am Post subject:

Wow, he sure does jump around a lot in this one. Some incredible stuff, but yeah...some stuff that didn't really matter too.

I forgot about Murrilio when we were talking about people dying in the other thread...damn, that sucked.

Anyway, couple hundred pages into StoneWielder now...

--A
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Mr. Broken · Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 9:54 pm Post subject:

I stalled in this one , I guess that's acceptable during the re-read , but I went through at least a 2 week period where I didn't read at all. I'm back at it now , but slower. I have time because I know how this ends.
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Cambo · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:03 am Post subject:

Not far in, so not reading through the thread as I usually do. Just a question: it's recently been revealed that Traveller is in fact Dassem Ultor. Cool! But, I thought, at the end of RoTC, that Spoiler:

it was Dassem who showed up out of nowhere to duel Skinner. But I made no connection at the time between him and Traveller. Was it him, and Esselmont intentionally kept it enigmatic? Or was it someone else?

Also, I got the suspicion from somewhere that the god Dessembrae was an ascended Dassem Ultor. Was I just flat out wrong in this?

Confused

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Avatar · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:17 am Post subject:

It was him, and he was being enigmatic. And yes, he's Dessembrae too. Murrin is better at explaining it. Very Happy

--A
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