SFF Readalongs led by Kitty G discussion

This is for discussion of Chapter 14 of Memories of Ice. Please ensure you do NOT post spoilers for any other part of the book! Thank you!

And darkness descends.

The soldiers depicted in this series, be it the Malazan army, the Wickans, the Grey Swords, are mind-blowingly amazing! Is this a legacy from this world that is constantly torn in conflict and war that soldiers march to their possible death with so much honour and courage?

And now we finally see that it is Gruntle who has been claimed by the ascending Tiger of Summer. I liked how Erikson painted the visual of Gruntle rallying the citizens from a 3rd person's perspective - holding the remains of a half-eaten child *shudder* and using the child's tunic as a standard. Really amazing stuff here.

I still can't quite make up my mind about Bauchelain and Broach, as macabre as they may seem. Bauchelain, especially, is so droll and self-assured. His remarks actually make me snicker.. "It seems.. we must needs refine our tactics" and "Yes, well. Good day to you too, Buke". In the context of what just happened, I cannot help but appreciate the ironic humour in this.

In the midst of this major battle is where I really understood the progression in Erikson's writing compared to GotM. Darujistan felt like out of control chaos and was a little hard to follow in the final battle. Here, even though he does move from situation to situation within the battle, I was able to keep up with the details of battle much easier.

Gruntle certainly came to life in this chapter. His leading of the militia was a fun read, and as TS mentioned well written from the third person perspective. Maybe I am an old fashioned type of guy, but I want one good happy love story to come out of all of the chaos. Gruntle and Stonny seem to have seeds sown for such an occurrence. There is certainly a lot of care shown between the two.

Agreed about the writing progression with the battle scenes. I am finding them a LOT easier to follow in this book and I can't wait to finish it up and get further into the series now that I feel more comfortable with the battle scenes :)

I also agree. Eriksons writing all round has made major leaps in this book. So far the tempo has been much better through out. I also feel i haven't had any of those moments were I'm reading and a paragraph later I'm like hang what just happened and have to read again.