DUST OF DREAMS - Malazan Book 9 Spoiler Discussion ft. Johanna and Andy Smith 

43:55 I remember that, too. I was sitting at the side of my daughter‘s bed in the hospital, watching at night. (Eleven years ago. She‘s perfectly healthy. Everything worked out alright.) Reading this with my little one beside me, fearing for her life, was devasting. And I was quite angry at Erikson, I must confess. I kept on reading, almost frantically, to get that dark place behind me. Even though, of course, that’s not really what you’re meant to do. But I knew that if I put down the book then, I might not be able to take it up again. He challenges us, he really does. And today I‘m thankful for that.

"HAIL THE MARINES!" gave me more chills than anything else I've ever read

Thanks so much for the kind words in the video!!!!! Didn't expect it, but greatly appreciate it. This conversation was amazing, as always, can't wait to hear your thoughts for the final tale!!!!!

Wonderful discussion guys. You bring up some fantastic points. I'm so happy that Malazan is finally getting its exposure. I read the series for the first time 11-12 years ago and it was really frustrating not having anyone to share my experience with or at least have some discussions to follow. Had to keep it to myself or occasionally bore my wife with! It's just so fulfilling to find people who share this passion.

"You stopped them? Blood of the Gods, what manner of soldiers are you?" is maybe the quote you're thinking of around 25:00 Jimmy

1:32:45 I also called it. Ghost being Icarium that is tho just before the reveal he had somehow thoughts of Taralack Veed about a wife that he hurt and hurt and how he killed her and the lover and then fled and I then thought it's either Icarium or Veed or that they merged or sth crazy like with Silverfox' situation. I also had a suspicion about Taxilian and the whole crew being the ghosts and Ghost being real cuz I remembered Tax & Rautos dying but I wasn't sure... I did semi predict some of that storyline and seeing how messy it is I'm proud of myself for that. I thought tho that Breath was some former Edur slave that only heard of Feather Witch & Udinaas cuz in one chapter she remembered the story without saying the names but like it was clearly about the 2 but she spoke like it happened to another witch/ Tiles caster that was more powerful than her so I thought she was just another person but not really her

Here's the video on the hobbling we talked about! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-w1EVwJ-BFYQ.html

Finished listening, great stuff, as always. Ya, those two final battles, man... with the reputation this book had, I foolishly wasn't expecting much of a climax; biggest narrative sucker punch I've ever experienced. I adore the way chapter 23 opens with Queen Abrastal telling the story of how her uncle died by accident. "No, what fascinated and indeed haunted her was that such a convergence of chance events could so perfectly conspire to take a man's life." Love Erikson taking the time to butter us up for what's to come. This kind of stuff is what makes Erikson the writer he is. After reading this section I began to get a bad feeling. And then as soon as we're with the soldiers and the pov starts jumping around quickly, I said to myself "well..." and straight up went to my kitchen and took a shot, because I knew what was about to happen hahaha. Being almost done with the ninth book I thought I'd seen it all... and then a literal alien invasion happens... shooting lighting guns at the little army that could that we've been following since book 4... The battle scenes are possibly my favorite in the series. Yes, they're unbelievably cool, but they're very emotional as well, and extremely, incredibly intense. I feel a heightening of experience; every sense, every emotion dialed up to 11. Johanna said in her latest Malazan video that she experiences "an altered state of consciousness" with these endings and I think that's a great way to put it. I hope to catch your Crippled God stream and be hanging out in the chat!

Yay re-read! First read will always be special to me, but the re-read i did last year deeply impacted me. Edit: I'd love for you all to talk about in the next one how we get to see how certain outside groups see the marines. Thought of it cause of the Heavies in the end of this book. "Hail, the marines!" AHHHH so good.

It's been so fun to just know after these blocks of pages that I will have these talks awaiting me, and that each one was a countdown to a distant finish line. Just finished DoD and the end is in sight,

Great discussion! wish I'd been following this channel from the start of the series. Loved the Toll the Hounds chat also. Excited to check out the full series content when I finish!

Great discussion again!! Finished DoD yesterday morning and watched this discussion last night. While I really enjoyed the Icarium storyline I was apparently massively confused about what was really going on!! WOW! Thank you Jimmy for clearing it up because now it makes so much more sense. I had also watched Johanna’s Malazan experience video last week and that was really my only warning as to how dark the book was about to get. As I start CG I definitely intend on watching Andy’s reading vlog of it. I so appreciate everybody’s thoughts and insights as they add so much to my experience in the Malazan community.

Wasn't able to catch this live, but looking forward to listening. I'm about 2 minutes in and you said you're on the last chapter of The Crippled God?!? Wow. Are you done with it by now? What a way to bring things home; a life changing series. You are very right about not being done with the series after finishing it the first time. It's been maybe 2 years since I first finished and I'm not even close to done. I don't think anyone is truly done with these books until they're dead! I very much look forward to your discussion on the final book and see how that effects how you view the series as a whole. P.S. If you did finish the chapter, I can't believe you went on to do a multiple hour stream discussion on Feast for Crows! After I finished all I could do is just stare at the ceiling for a few hours till it was time to go to sleep lmao.

After I finish each book this is the first place I go. Thanks for these discussions! It’s time to start the crippled god

Great discussion! So many themes, characters and plot points to explore in this novel - especially because the convergence of plot lines is coming in the next book. Thanks Jimmy!

Something no one ever mentions when talking about this book is the k’chain chemalle that is with Icarium through his scenes at the end it transforms into a matron and is left in the new built Azath from the final battle at the end of the book… a matron in an azath house 🤯 and no one else thinks this is a big deal?

1:48:00 I think Sinter did tell Tavore about them splitting up but they just did it without her permission and kinda told her afterwards. Masan finds the 5 of the remaining 7 Teblor gods and they say that she's searching for them and Kisswhere was kinda sent by Tavore or rather Sinter but wanted to desert afterwards

It's weird coming on two years after the fact. I hope everyone is reading Esslemont's stuff too, especially, but not limited to, Path to Ascendancy.

2:35:00 weren't the Shake not already mentioned in Midnight Tides? Or at least Twilight and her soldiers. Also I do like the Shake especially Yedan Derryg and him grinding his teeth while thinking reminds me of Stannis and I do love me some Mannis so yeah Shake are cool. Ah and he single handedly killed a Forkrul and then I think 5 Liosan scouts what a boss

2:07:00 Keneb one of the mvps. F for our fallen brother

“Returned to the world, Chadconus” 🔥gives me goosebumps every time! Tavorr is really such a great character. I love seeing people loving her. Also Ganoes is the one with the highest number of pov followed by either Bottle or Fiddler.

So on Draconus' grand entrance, there were a couple of earlier battles/attacks in DoD where Everyone Died - were these all Draconus trying to break through, or were some of them the Nah'ruk?

49:50 very true. The Hobbling was very hard to read through but at the same time we kinda just read about battles were 100s and 1000s die in Dust of Dreams and before that the Awl a whole people are going extinct and we aren't as triggered and I wonder why that is

Oh just one thing, Steven Erikson said we might be able to figure out Ruthan Gudd's identity by the end of the Kharkanas trilogy.

Yah by the end of RG I realized there wasn’t really a big bad haha. Cripple God has done nothing but catch L’s the entire series, poor guy! About to start CG right now. Don’t really have too much expectations for things being resolved but I really hope I’m able to make some sense of Heboric by the end. Any Heboric scene from like half way through HOC on might as well have been written in Swahili for how much I was able to understand them.

It's for sure interesting in hindsight to go back and think about the crippled god and his actions given he's a prisoner in every way that really matters. Watching his schemes sort of fall apart and fail on a first read is much different than on a second or on reflection. Or maybe I'm just oblivious and more people than I would think caught that initially. The consequences to him if things remain as they are are pretty dire.

Agree with Andy on how we can't ignore real life, regarding the 'hobbling.' Rape in general is something hate to see in fiction, if it serves no further purpose. Reading that chapter was rough, to say the least, but then I found out that apparently these were real life practices carried out by certain tribes. So it wasn't something Steven Erikson just put in for 'shock value', but it raised our awareness about the more tragic parts of real life and human history

Talking about Draconus: how funny is it that he's travelling with Ublala Pung😂

Kruppe>Tavore, i said what i said!!.

Man, this makes me feel terrible. I have read through the entire series and haven’t felt a single emotion since book 4. I can’t even tell you what happened in the chapter where y’all have referred to it as needing a serious trigger warning. I’m halfway through Crippled God and I feel like I haven’t latched onto a single character or moment at all in the last 5-6 books.

I've predicted since MOI that this series was heading for release of Crippled god but I didn't think that Tavore might have already known that was her endgoal the entire time til I read DoD (still not done with last book so please no spoilers past DoD)

at sub press they got gardens of the moon, not sure if you knew

Just now finishing this phenomenal chat! Thank you all! Shame we lost Andy to politics haha

Great video!! 🎥📓

Well, I can finally say it. I've started The Crippled God

How can someone quit a series because of a scene when you're on book 9?

What chapter is the one you're mentioning that ppl may want to skip?

2:26:00 didn't like the Senan being massacred cuz Strahl at least did what he could for his people tho Ig not for Hetan but Bakal and the 100 warriors would have gone to the camp and saved Hetan but Maral Eb didn't trust them tho letting them hobble Hetan was weird couldn't they have done sth when they got there Idk. Ig I can see why some would say they can die with the rest but what I couldn't root for was the killing of the children tho this 1 girl and her friends can die where I'm concerned (the one that helped kill the woman that fell in love with Bakal. The little girl and her friends made Hetan eat goat shit and found that funny so yeah they can die) but the babies and children that didn't do anything shouldn't get punished for what their parents did

They completely spoiled the 10th book for me by simply saying that you will be rooting for the Crippled God by the end. Goddammit! 😢

I was so excited to get here but man this is already so hard to watch. This doubles as a recap for me and that’s precisely why it’s hard to listen to the hobbling scene talk.

F**k Trigger Warnings. The job of the Writer is to hold up a mirror to our world, not to black out those reflections of the things that are horrible.