Welcome to the Malazan Reread of the Fallen! Every post will start off with a summary of events, followed by reaction and commentary by your hosts Bill and Amanda (with Amanda, new to the series, going first), and finally comments from Tor.com readers. In this article, we’ll cover chapter nine of The Crippled God.
A fair warning before we get started: We’ll be discussing both novel and whole-series themes, narrative arcs that run across the entire series, and foreshadowing. Note: The summary of events will be free of major spoilers and we’re going to try keeping the reader comments the same. A spoiler thread has been set up for outright Malazan spoiler discussion.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
SCENE ONE
Toc finds a woman’s corpse, a corpse missing feet (a big clue but I’m trying not to name what isn’t named here, at least early in this discussion). The spirit of the corpse is gone and Toc wonders how he might find it. He has a vision of an old woman sitting in a chair, while outside a wolf is being hunted. The horns of the hunt sound victory, and the old woman plucks out one of her eyes and tosses it in the fire, telling Toc to “Loose the wolf within you… and one day you shall find her.” He asks who she is, and she tells him to smell the “wax in the fire.” When he asks where they are, she tells him “Love lives here. The Hold you have forgotten, the Hold you all yearn to find again.” He opens his eye to find himself back with the corpse, which he puts on his horse, then he opens his wolf eye.
SCENE TWO
A female rides her horse after having exited a warren. A storm comes as she pushes on, “regrets like hounds at her heels.” The storm worsens, the road shakes to “thunderous reverberations, like the hoof’s of a god descending.” Beside rides a man on a “huge, gaunt horse black as the sky overhead.” She recognizes him and also recognizes him as the cause of the storm. He tells her it might end when the gate closes. He says it was good to see her again, and she asks, “Does he even know you’re here?” She wonders where he had been and thinks, “The man had ever infuriated her. And now here he was, at her side, reminding her of all the reasons she’d had the first time around for doing… what she did.” She wonders at the things she does “for love.”
SCENE THREE
Olar Ethil tells her group they have to go north and as the two lizards follow her, Torrent wonders where they’ve been the past few days. Torrent recalls the last time he’d been tasked with taking care of children—how he’d seen Toc die—and thinks children shouldn’t ever see what they see. He muses on the inevitability of a child realizing their parents are not gods, are “as flawed and as lost” as the child, and when Storii looks up at him, he is torn by what he sees, thinking: “No, I am not your unflawed protector… Do not look at me like that.”
SCENE FOUR
Olar Ethil reaches her power out. She tells Tool: “You refuse to understand what I seek for you… and all your kin… those who follow you shall find salvation.” She warns him against heeding the call of the First Throne, the “child of the Emperor”, saying her power over him is mere illusion. That what really urges him to follow her is “the stain of Logros” who knelt to the Emperor. But, she says, the Emperor is dead. She warns him his current path will lead him and those who follow him to utter destruction. She threatens him with his son, the death of his daughters, but Toc interrupts and warns her she’d better not harm any of Tool’s children. She mocks his threats and moves forward, but is blocked by Whiskeyjack and a few other soldiers from Death. She’s stunned by their power, and when she says, “You dare challenge me?” and Whiskeyjack pulls his sword, she flees.
SCENE FIVE
Olar Ethil takes out her anger on Torrent.
SCENE SIX
Tool has “unleashed the full power of Tellann,” such that he barely heard Olar Ethil. He remembers the meeting with Logros, after he and the T’lan Imass had killed the last Jaghut of the Odhan and how they were about to return to the Empire, to the Emperor and to Dassem Ultor, “his [Tool’s] mortal shadow, who had taken for himself… the title of First Sword. Prophetic inspiration, for they would soon all be dead—as dead as Onos Toolan, as dead as the T’lan Imass. Or if not dead, destroyed.” He is shocked when Logros severs Tool from the title of First Sword, saying the T’lan Imass instead will avow service to Dassem Ultor. Tool tells Logros Dassem is only a mortal, he doesn’t know what taking the title means, but Logros says the T’lan Imass, by serving Dassem, will “sanctify him,” make him a god, a concept Tool considers the same as damning Dassem forever. Tool thinks Hood will strike at the T’lan Imass through Dassem, “for our crime, for our defiance.” He warns Logros they will make Dassem “a god of sorrow, and failure, a god with a face doomed to weep, to twist in anguish.” Logros merely casts Tool out. Tool thinks how wrong Lorn had been to blame Kellanved’s death for the breaking of the alliance with the Logros Imass; it had been Dassem’s death—though “neither man truly died, but only one bore the deadly kiss of Hood in all the days that followed. Only one stood before Hood himself and learned of the terrible thing Logros had done to him.” He thinks too how everyone had it wrong in thinking Hood had betrayed Dassem: “They understood nothing. Dassem and his daughter, they were Hood’s knives, striking at us.” Tool calls out to Logros, telling him Dassem has rejected his role, “his footfalls now mark the passing of tragedy. You have made him the God of Tears,” and he warns Logros now that Hood is dead, Dassem will hunt down the next one who made him what he was—Logros.
Tool calls himself the “weapon of the godless” and call Logros a fool for thinking the T’lan Imass would be safe from their new god: “Ask Kron. Ask Silverfox… Olar Ethils seeks to wrest me away from Dassem’s curse—but she cannot. You gave him mastery over us… We march to our annihilation. The First Sword is torn in two, one half mortal and cruel in denial, the other half immortal and crueler still.” He says Logros should be happy Dassem and Tool are not together. He warns, “The weapon of the godless needs no hand to weild it . . It is without fear… empty of guilt and disdainful of retribution… It will not cloak brutality in the zeal that justifies, that absolves. And that is why it is the most horrifying weapon of all.”
SCENE SEVEN
Ulag Togtil feels Tool’s thought sweep across the T’lan Imass who follow him. He thinks he and the others also felt Olar Ethil and also reject her: “Our time is over… The blood you demand from this world is too terrible, and to spill it in our name is to give final proof to this theme of tragedy, the dread curse born of the mortal named Dassem Ultor.” He tells Logros he’d tear his head off and bury it if he could.
SCENE EIGHT
Rystalle Ev asks Ulag if they are yet again to be a weapon, “Is peace nothing but a lie”? She wonders if destroying the T’lan Imass is the “only legacy we can offer to all who follow… tokens of useless defiance” since “kinds will still stride the earth, the slaves will still bow in chains… “ Ulag tells her to find a memory of joy or love, and when the time comes, “when you fall inside yourself, and fall and fall, find your moment, your dream of peace.” She tells him she remembers only grief and he says she has to do it. He turns from her when she says the only peace she dreams of is Tool destroying them all, and she thinks, “We are the T’lan Imass. We are the glory of immortality. When oblivion comes, I shall kiss it. And in my mind, I shall ride into the void on a river of tears.”
SCENE NINE
Gruntle enters a cave filled with human, ape, and Eres’al bones, “proof of a time when the world’s future tyrants were nothing but victims” of the big cats. He thinks how all the worlds/warrens are filled with “perfect banality.” He knows he holds on to his own humanity, refusing “the sweet bliss of the tiger’s world.” He says it’s no wonder Trake forgot everything, “no wonder you weren’t ready for godhood. In the jungles of ancient days, the tigers were gods. Until the new gods arrived. And they were far thirstier.” Tonight, he knows, he’ll dream of hunting, and he thinks, “black fur, the taste of blood in my mouth.”
SCENE TEN
Mappo flashes back to finding Icarium outside a dead city (one Icarium himself had destroyed), picking up shards of broken pots and trying to put them back together. Mappo tells Icarium only yesterday he’d spoken of wanting to travel northeast to meet with the Tanno, who have records back to the First Empire. Icarium looks forward to it, though he is dismayed over the broken pots. He asks Mappo if it’s true that the city behind him is filled with thousands of dead and Mappo says yes. Icarium wonders at how that happened, and asks if everything must “break in the end.” Mappo says no, their friendship will not.
SCENE ELEVEN
Mappo thinks of what he told Icarium as “the biggest lie of all” out of so many lies he told over the years, his job being to “feed him only the memories I judged useful, to starve all the others until they vanished.” He wonders what he will find Icarium doing now.
SCENE TWELVE
Faint tells the others a large army had split its forces, a smaller group heading east and the other, larger one heading southeast. She says they’ll have to follow one because right now they’re starving and dying of thirst. Precious Thimble tells her east is something “terrible that way” while southeast tastes of blood. She adds the army going east is all going to dye—-she sees no water for them, sees lots of bones, “mean and women driven mad… children—oh gods—they come walking up like nightmares, like proof of all the crimes we have ever committed.” Faint says they’ll go southeast then. She wonders what the armies are doing, thinking, “Wherever you’re going, it can’t be worth it. Nothing in this world is worth it.
SCENE THIRTEEN
Setoc rides the wild wolves in a frenzy toward cliffs that maybe contain the Beast Hold. She thinks “I am the Destriant of the Wolves. I hold in my chest the souls of all the slain beasts, of this and every other world. But I cannot hold them forever. I need a sword. I need absolution… Ten thousand iron swords. In the name of the Wolves of Winter, in the name of the Wild.”
SCENE FOURTEEN
Sister Equity walks in the far south. She recalls how she once “dreamed of peace… lived in a world where questions were rare.” A world where nothing made her uneasy or gave her pain. The Forkrul Assail had lost their god violently—murdered—and she had hoped perhaps a new god could be made: Harmony. A god that would not demand death, not require killing to feed; there would be no tragedy, no untimely deaths, and the world would be filled with life. She knows now it was a childish dream, impossible when faced with the truth of the world, where “adults took weapons in hand and killed each other over them,” an adult world where “there was no place—no place at all—for peace.” She remembers seeing the humans fighting “for status, for dignity,” trying to keep them and/or take them from other humans, and she believes the Forkrul Assail were right in ending it all: “in the making of peace there must be judgment and retribution. The people of Kolanse and the kingdoms to the south must all be returned to their childlike state, and then built anew.” While she does think it too bad thousands had to die, when placed against the deaths of more, of even everyone, it was the right call. She would have been happy with that—a new balance, maybe a new god, a faith of Peace spread by the FA. But the Heart of the Crippled God changed things: “Our god was slain, but we had already found a path to vengeance—the Nah-ruk… So much was already within our reach. But for the Heart, so poisoning their [the Elders’] souls… A new solution burned bright, so bright it blinded them to all else. The Gate, wrested away from the K’Chain Che’Malle… Akhrast Korvalain, returned once more to the Forkrul Assail, and from that gate… we could resurrect our god. We could be made children once again.” The FA would wipe humanity, “the one force eternally intent on destroying [the] balance.” She has tried to tell herself it will work, they’ll have “the peace of a silent world” at the cost of a “little blood.” But she has looked into Sister Reverence’s eyes and seen “how the hunger of our allies has infected” her: The Tiste Liosan, Elein, the Wolves are allies, but “all they desire is chaos, anarchy, destruction, the end of the Age of Gods and the Age of humans… they thirst for… . oceans of blood.” Equity, working with Calm, plans to work against Reverence and the others, using Calm’s weapon [Icarium] to end their “insane ambitions.” Not because they cared for what happened to humanity, “she cared nothing”, but because of “principle. Balance has an eternal enemy, and its name is ambition”; they plan to remind Reverence of that.
Reverence comes upon Shurq’s group, whom she’d been looking for. She kills several easily after they attack her immediately upon sighting her, then fights Felash’s handmaid. She also uses her Voice to command. Eventually they actually talk, and Equity tells Shurq and Felash that they don’t really understand the complexities of what is going on with the Forkrul Assail. Nor does she understand why the Jaghut would value such weak players, which leads her to ask if the handmaid, who might have a “glamour” on her, is a Jaghut. When Felash says no, Equity demands their ally step forward. Felash replies she made no bargain with any particular Jaghut, an answer that stuns Equity with its seeming ignorance. The handmaid describes the warren she found the ship in, and Equity tells them that wasn’t Omtose Phellack. After saying her group will help them take the Spire, she tells Felash to open the gate again so their mysterious patron will be revealed. Felash does so, and Hood appears, shocking Equity. Equity tries to mindspeak Calm, telling her: “An ally stands before me—an ally of ancient—so ancient—power! This one could have been an Elder God!.” She speaks to Hood and wonders aloud at how the Jaghut, “made you their king… Those who followed no one chose to follow you. They who refused every war fought your war. And what you did then… “ She is rudely interrupted when Hood eats her face. Equity’s last thoughts were of her childhood dream of peace.
SCENE FIFTEEN
Hood tells the others they don’t need allies. Plus, he’d just learned a lesson “in brevity,” from someone, though he doesn’t answer whom when Shurq asks. Felash throws up.
Amanda’s Reaction
This first section with Toc is so quiet and sad, as he looks as this corpse (which must be Hetan, with the stumps for feet—and isn’t that also a sad picture, the idea of her all curled up and looking at what happened to her as she dies?) I hate this line particularly: “No gestures left to remind himself of who he had once been.” Toc has come so far and suffered so much that it really does seem a long road back.
The part with the woman and the whole ‘wax in the fire’ thing perplexed me. I don’t have any idea who she might be. But this did jump out at me: “Love lives here, Ghost. The Hold you have forgotten, the Hold you all yearn to find again.” What Hold might that be?
Hmm, this woman on the horse—could it be the one that Cotillion and Shadowthrone referred to? The one that Cotillion had pointed towards a particular mission? The fact that she talks about the Whirlwind makes me think that I will know her, but I can’t put together the hints right now.
Now this part of Torrent’s thoughts—where he thinks about when parents fall from their pedestals for children—is very poignant. I’ve been through it myself, and there is a real sense of loss.
“Did there not come to every child that moment when the mother, the father, loses that god-like status, that supreme competence in all things, when they are revealed to be as weak, as flawed and as lost as the child looking on?”
I feel so strongly for Torrent actually—all he can remember is the time he has failed, but, in his actions here with the children of Tool, he shows that his spirit is still unbroken. Even with his treatment by many of the characters around him—like Redmask and Olar Ethil.
I think one of the most scary things in the world is a person who acts in a horrific manner because they believe they are doing something that is needful. Olar Ethil, with her thoughts that Tool needs to bring her the T’lan Imass not vowed to Silverfox in order for them to achieve salvation, is willing to threaten children to bring it about. Not cool. Her approach is rather bull in a china shop.
I love how Toc thwarts her and then, especially, seeing the Bridgeburners and Whiskeyjack force the Bonecaster away from Tool. For me, that suggests that what Olar Ethil is doing has no good in it, because otherwise Whiskeyjack would not feel moved to challenge it.
Uhhhh, what? That whole memory of Logros blew my mind a little! So everything we have believed about Dassem Ultor and his daughter, and the way that they related to Hood was actually wrong! Instead Dassem was forced into the position of First Sword and that meant torturing a mortal man with something that only a T’lan Imass can handle. And this as well led to the creation of Dassembrae, a god of tragedy and sorrow. And means that Dassem Ultor walks the earth now, seeking vengeance from Logros, since he has taken down Hood. I think that’s what it all means. It did make me pause and read a couple of times, because it has completely overturned something that we felt was true for the rest of the series gone so far.
And it seems that even with all this, the world might be better served with Dassem still as First Sword: “We march to our annihilation. The First Sword is torn in two, one half mortal and cruel in denial, the other half immortal and crueller still.”
It is so worrying that nothing at all can reach Tool—not the power of Olar Ethil, but also not the thoughts and concerns of his followers. I wonder what will be able to reach Tool, what will turn him from this path.
Talk about circle of life reflected in written form: “This was proof of a time when the world’s future tyrants were nothing but victims.”
Oh wow… That was something I hadn’t considered about Trake. We’ve seen that the wolves were hunted, but here we also have Gruntle thinking about the jungles now being empty of tigers. Is this why Trake doesn’t really seem to have a direction right now?
“No wonder you forgot everything, Trake. No wonder you weren’t ready for godhood. In the jungles of ancient days, the tigers were gods. Until the new gods arrived. And they were far thirstier for blood than the tigers ever were, and now the jungle is silent.”
Oh. The whole section where Mappo thinks to when he met Icarium tears at my heart. “It is such a loss, when precious things break, isn’t it?” That could easily be the phrase that sums up both Icarium’s life and the friendship between these two. Indeed, “a friendship that could never break.”
And oh again. Mappo still carries those pot shards, the shards that Icarium had forgotten the same day. My heart really does break for these two.
The foreboding! “East. That army—they’re all going to die.” I still can’t help feel some sort of hope that the Bonehunters will survive what is coming, but everything that is being said and done makes me wonder. Are they all going to die? All of them? “Wherever you’re going, it can’t be worth it. Nothing in this world is worth it.”
Well, Sister Equity doesn’t sound anything at all like the other Forkrul Assail we’ve seen, with her memory of the terrible grief her race suffered when their god died, and her childish hope that a new god could be made. And her picture of how the future would be with that god called Harmony. It’s all almost sweet, and able shows that not every member of a race feels exactly the same about everything.
Having said that, she does still believe that in the making of peace there must be judgment and retribution. And it was all going so well…
Wait, what? The Forkrul Assail are in alliance with the Tiste Liosan, the Eleint, and the Lord and Lady of the Beast Hold? And, with that last, it makes me wonder how Setoc and the Perish fit into that. If the Lord and Lady—Togg and Fandaray—are in alliance with these folk, will they drag their Mortal Sword, Shield Anvil and Destriant along with them?
Wow, Felash’s handmaiden presents mystery after mystery with her fantastic ability. Even with a Forkrul Assail using her Voice to stop her from attacking, she is still attempting to get up and join the fight. That is some will and power.
Can Forkrul Assail heal themselves? That isn’t exactly going to make fighting them very easy…
That last scene! That appearance of Hood; Equity’s assessment of his power. I cannot express how horrifying and gratifying and unexpected it was to see Hood’s reaction to Equity. I mean, sure, Forkrul Assail. But then Equity did seem to be one of the better ones, and was seeking to find alliance against her Elders who were seeking to destroy everything. Hood’s… eating of her seems rather precipitous.
Bill’s Reaction
I haven’t seen Amanda’s response at this point, and because there are a few unnamed characters in this chapter, I’m going to err on the side of not revealing too much in case she hasn’t written it yet so as to allow her some space to figure things out and to enjoy that sensation without me just naming folks (some have some pretty big hints, others are a bit more subtle). And to allow the same pleasure for her fellow first-timers. Once I see her post, I’ll comment in more detail once I have, as I assume the rest of you will as well…
So much of this novel has shown us characters who agonize over what they have become, or mourn the loss of the person they were. Here we see Toc go through this, something we’ve seen before from him: “[There were] no gestures left to remind himself of who he had once been.” Besides the big plot questions—how will they stop the Forkrul Assail, what will happen with the heart of the Crippled God, etc.—we as readers are also left to wonder how many, if any, of these characters will find their way back to who they were, or find some sense of redemption, or peace.
The corpse is unnamed but its condition—“the stumps of her feet” are a good hint. In fact, it seems to me such a huge hint, almost a naming in and of itself, that I admit I wonder at the lack of a name, which does draw attention to itself. Is it to keep the reader on his/her toes? Just habitual obfuscation? Or does it say something perhaps about the state of these two?
Another mysterious personage in his vision—the old woman. “Wax in the fire” seems to be a clue. I’ll confess to not knowing who this is though.
Another unnamed character, this one with the ability to travel the warrens. Someone haunted by past actions and past regrets. Someone near a sea. Someone who had been in Seven Cities during the Whirlwind. Someone doing something for love. Someone who recognizes the other rider who appears, on a “gaunt” black horse. Another rider who knows her, who says it’s good to see her again, who grins a lot, who makes her ask if another unnamed person “know he’s here. Again, I think there are clues here, than can narrow options as to who these people are (one I think easier than the other). Is there a reason for the ambiguity? How do people—those who know and those who don’t—feel about this ambiguity?
Amidst all the talk of how humanity treats other creatures, the small details, seemingly throwaway, re Toc’s treatment of his horse take on more significance
I like how his not so insightful views on how children inevitably learn their parents aren’t infallible gods (wait, my son will sometimes stop seeing me that way?!) takes on a bit more meaning in universe where we actually see the gods people look to.
Lots of folks with plans we don’t know much about. What is Olar Ethil planning? What does she mean by “salvation” for the T’lan Imass? Is that necessarily a good thing? And at what cost? We used to think ill of Jaghut, of the Crippled God; might we find out Olar Ethil is trying to do some good here? Earlier changes rippled outward from prior books, making us question what we think about everything, everyone. Even if so, can one countenance using Tool’s children (or any children) as a weapon, as a, um, tool?
Don’t you love that moment of realizing it is Toc coming to this stern defense? And who might Olar Ethil also need to be wary of? What wings in the darkness? What eyes in the morning frost? What scents? What ice? I think we could name some.
And then don’t you love Olar Ethil getting taken down by Whiskeyjack?
Olar Ethil sees Tavore as the “child of the Emperor,” one who may “even stand in the shadow of secrets.” Is this implying Tavore is in contact with Shadowthrone?
OK, speaking of having things we thought we knew overturned or complicated, what the heck with the whole Logros—Dassem deal, right? (btw, it’s interesting that Olar Ethil makes the same mistake Lorn did—thinking Kellanved’s death was the big deal with regard to the ties between the T’lan Imass and the Empire). I’d love to give my deep insight as a rereader here and lay out exactly how all this happened and why and what it all means, but unfortunately I’m in fail mode on that. So what we seem to have here is:
- Tool is First Sword (best fighter I think that means)
- Logros decides Dassem is Tool’s heir and thus Tool will lose that title (why I’m not clear. Is it that Dassem is “better” or is it that transferring the title to Tool will gain the T’lan Imass something?)
- The T’lan Imass will serve Dassem as their First Sword and this in turn will make him a god
- Tool finds this godhood a horrific concept, one that will damn Dassem forever, make him a god of sorrow and tragedy. Is this because he will be a god of battle, a warrior’s god—and this is inevitably tragic and sorrowful? Is it because he will be linked the eternal grief of what the T’lan Imass have done themselves in the name of a war that has turned out not to be the clean war of liberation we might have first thought? Or is it due to some other reason?
- What had broken the alliance of the Logros T’lan Imass and the Malazan Empire was not the “death” of the Emperor but the “death” of Dassem
- Tool thinks Dassem was not betrayed by Hood (via his daughter and one of the Chainings if you recall), but Hood used both Dassem and the daughter as weapons against the T’lan Imass. Why? Because via the ritual the T’lan Imass had defied Death? Because Hood is a Jaghut and they were, well, T’lan Imass? For some other reason?
- Tool says Dassem has “rejected” his role as First Sword, yet he is now the God of Tears—is that different than the curse of being a god of sorrow? Or was he cursed by the sanctification and then kept the impact despite rejecting it? Or did he shove off that part of himself into Dessembrae?
- Tool thinks Dassem will go for Logros next (does Tool know Dassem that well?)
- Tool says Dassem still has “mastery” over the Logros—might that come into play still?
Tool’s promise of annihilation is bad enough. But in this series, tying an action to someone “immune to doubt, armoured in pure righteousness” well, that would seem the kiss of death. Three concepts we’ve been told/shown again and again not to trust: certainty, purity, righteousness.
Well, Ulag at least thinks whatever Olar Ethil wants or plans (if he even knows) is not worth the cost.
Is oblivion the best these T’lan Imass can hope for? The best peace?
Sometimes it’s hard to pick out saddest (non-children) plotline in here. Mappo and Icarium have to be in the running, so many layers of tragedy—Icarium’s destructive nature, his memory loss, his innocence (is the “mud” really “mud”?), Mappo’s lies, the depth of their bond. (I’ll admit, the lines on things breaking were a bit too on the nose for me).
If we thought this was going to end prettily, the visions of what happens to the two armies doesn’t really bode well.
Where might Setoc find a bunch of iron swords? And absolution?
This section with Equity has a lot to like.
One is the different look at a Forkrul Assail. We’ve already been shown dissension in their ranks, so that isn’t much of a revelation. But this is a more intimate POV than we’ve gotten before I think and that intimacy complicates readers’ viewpoints. I think a first-person POV does that on its own—lends a kind of intimacy that starts the reader in empathy mode, but this one goes further. For instance, who thought of Forkrul Assail has being children? As having a childhood? We warm to Equity here, almost instinctually.
Here too, we have another example of nodding in agreement with the horrible Forkrul Assail. Who could argue against the idea of a god not dependent upon death? Against a world where killing wasn’t necessary for survival? A world filled with birds and fish and animals? Especially in our current world where those things are fast disappearing before our very eyes. Each of our generations sees fewer and fewer fish, fewer birds, fewer animals, fewer honeybees, fewer frogs and fireflies and salamanders and the list goes on.
Who could argue against a desire for a world at peace?
But then she has to go and ruin it all with the understated, “unfortunate” deaths of “many thousands,” a “selective” culling, and the like. But still, thanks to the POV, thanks to the language (“child”), thanks to the content, we read this in a different light than we would have a few pages earlier. It’s all quite well done.
And then, how different a goal, how different a response, to the desire to “be made children again” (though considering how children fare in this series, that sounds a lot better on paper than in reality).
So we’ve wondered before, and had a few bits and pieces and hints and blunt statements, but now the alliance is directly laid out for us: Forkrul Assail, Tiste Liosan, Eleint, the Wolves.
We’re also bent toward her a bit by her “victimhood” in the way that she starts to announce herself but is attacked before she can say much of anything. ‘Course, we are bent away from her almost immediately by the ease of her lethal violence.
Yep, that handmaid is curiouser and curiouser. So, not a Jaghut (if we can trust Felash, assuming she knows). But perhaps a glamour laid upon her. But clearly not what she seems, as has been made manifestly clear time and time again.
Then of course we have the big reveal, Hood stepping forward, he who has been there in some fashion all along, unbeknownst to Felash. I love Equity’s response to his appearance, talk about building up the character.
Even better though, I love how just as she is soooo impressed by his power, his reputation and his history, and just as the reader is perhaps thinking—finally, we see our guys catch a break, now they’re going to get FA allies and have ringers on the inside and those Pures won’t see them coming and and and—And then wham, Hood eats her. Eats her! (followed by the double entendre of “never liking Forkrul Assail”—their attitudes or their taste one wonders?). Love that suddenness, that shock value.
And I love too that call back to having learned a “lesson in brevity.” Think back and you might recall when Hood had something similar done to him.
But here we are, not quite a third of the way through, and Hood is now out onto the board. That’s a major player added to the foreground.
Amanda Rutter is the editor of Strange Chemistry books, sister imprint to Angry Robot.
Bill Capossere writes short stories and essays, plays ultimate frisbee, teaches as an adjunct English instructor at several local colleges, and writes SF/F reviews for fantasyliterature.com.
So, just going back to last chapter, if the Shake storyline wasn’t obviously important before, it ought to be now as the Tiste Liosan are revealed to be Forkrul Assail allies.
It’s interesting that the two FA who we might be inclined to like – Equity and Calm – are put in situations where we aren’t inclined to like them. Calm has Icarium, who we always had a soft spot for. And Equity’s actions, words and thoughts are too mixed to be accepted completely. And she gets her face bitten off anyway…
I have some ideas about who the woman and man are in the second scene. In fact after multiple reads I should know but it’s been a while so I am not entirely sure.
Don’t forget to add the K’Chain Nah’Ruhk in this happy gathering of antagonists. :)
You can add the Nah’ruk as antagonists, sure, but not as actual allies of the FA, I think. Equity thinks of them seperately of the TL, Eleint and Wolves. Even then, I don’t think this is meant to imply some secret council where the representatives of each of these forces sat down and made a big shadowy plan. The Eleint in particular, I see as being more of an unleashed force than one the FA actually met with and discussed plans with.
Of course, that list of allies curiously leaves out the EGs. Kilmandaros and Sechul more or less outright said that for their plan they were in some way working with the FA in Kolanse. Maybe it wasn’t all of them and Equity is unaware of their involvement?
The man coming through a portal on the black horse should be fairly obvious (considering the last person we saw jumping into a portal on a black horse) and then of course his first words to the woman are perhaps the biggest her clue to her identity. :D
On Scenes One – I have to admit having read this book a few times now, and it was only this last time reading closely I even noticed the missing feet there, so well done on picking it up. As for the Wax Witch, I initialy had thoughts of the Mhybe, then Riggalai, the seer from GotM, but neither really fit. No idea frankly.
As to Scene Two – well, this is clearly the person who Cotillion set on the road last chapter. And she rides like the hounds of hell are on her tail, crossing between warrens on the edge of some kind of chaotic storm. She rides from Shadow, to somewhere touched during DG. Eeeenteresting. And for those rereading … another oh how did I miss that moment.
I love Hood’s reappearance … “This one could have been an Elder God. This one could have been … anything!”
And then WHAM … another abrupt ending. We have no need of allies.
Yes, it is interesting looking at that list of allies, but Equity is part of Calm’s faction. She may well not know of that discussion.
Also, the goals of the EGs seem aligned slightly different to the others.
Maybe if Equity had said, “I have reconsidered…”
@Mayhem
Riggalai was a wax witch, she made candles, and she used her power to keep a connection to the souls of her loved ones.
@Mayhem: the EGs don’t even have a unified set of goals amongst themselves! At least Errastas, SL and Killy seem to have a common goal but even up to halfway through DoD SL and Killy had been running their own game under Errastas’ nose to some extent (on the other hand, he hadn’t told them about the Otataral Dragon part of the plan at that point either).
You know, it might be helpful to do a bit of a list at this point. There are so many factions that have been confirmed to be in play at this point, and some of them perhaps could use bringing up again.
Here’s a start. I’m only going to stick to major factions and/or gods we’ve seen in play, because listing off every single character seems to me like it’d ruin the fun. Besides, you don’t really need me to tell you that Torrent isn’t sure what to do with himself at this juncture :P
)) The Forkrul Assail – use the Heart to open Akhrast Korvalain and wipe out humanity
)) Togg/Fanderay – wipe out humanity
)) Kadagar Fant’s Tiste Liosan – destroy the Shake, take Kharkanas, wipe out humanity
)) The Eleint – hasn’t been shown yet, much, but said to be allied with the FA’s goal of wiping out humanity
—
)) The Young Gods – steal the Heart and drain its power for themselves
–includes at least Beru, Jhess, Dessembrae and Mowri
—
)) Errastas – unleash the Otataral Dragon, which will kill the Young Gods and a whole lot of mortals. Restore the Elder pantheon to rule over the survivors.
)) Kilmandaros – allied with Errastas. Kill the Otataral Dragon after it has killed the Young Gods
)) Sechul Lath – follows his mom around
)) K’Chain Nah’ruk – destroy the K’Chain Che’malle
—crossed the Bonehunters’ path (almost certainly nudged by Errastas)
—defeated and their warren gate blocked by Icarium/Sulkit
—
)) Olar Ethil – restore the T’lan Imass? Definitely wants Tool on her side, at least.
—
)) Draconus – unknowable!
—
)) Mael & K’rul – hanging out on the bottom of the ocean with Heboric’s corpse. Plans and motives unknown, but have favourable opinions of the Bonehunters.
—
)) Tavore, the Bonehunters and their allies – fight to the Heart and liberate the Crippled God, so no one can use his power (and because it’s compassionate).
)) The Master of the Deck – fighting the FA and referred to as allies with the Bonehunters on several occasions. Shadowthrone seems to think Tavore doesn’t even know he is involved, let alone that they have shared any plans.
)) D’rek – Plans and motives unknown, but seems to be helping the Bonehunters.
)) The Shake – more or less allies of Tavore. Have Kharkanas, now they want to hold it and seal back up the Liosan.
—
)) Shadowthrone & Cotillion – as if we could ever know just what they’re up to :P
—
)) Gruntle/Trake – going a little crazy there
—
Sounds kinda scattered when put like that, and there’s dozens of other wildcards out there like Quick Ben, Silchas Ruin, Badalle, Toc, the Jaghut, Hood, etc. Who knows what any of them will do! But other than all the wildcards, I think it draws up best into
-the FA and their allies – wipe out humanity
-the Young Gods – steal the Heart and consume it for power
-the Elder Gods – destroy the Young Gods and a lot of humanity with the OD
-Tavore and her allies – release the CG
those would be the biggest 4 factions, the ones who have big plans and machinations revealed already.
I miss anything major?
Note: On “preview” it seems some of this has been answerd by Tufty in #8 above (Thanks!), but, enough of the below is still unanswered, so I won’t make much of an edit before posting.
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.
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Well, its nice to have the antagonists laid out for us;although I, too, am curious about the omission of the Elders (and, predumably, Trake and, as a consequence Gruntle?). I suppose the Nah’Ruhk are now incosequential.
While there is certainly more than one game afoot, I am curious about the other alliance(s). Who, for example, are the “we” Hood refers to when he says “We have no need of allies”? And how did he ally himself with Felash?
Hood, at least from TotH, is in cahoots with Draconus and Iskar Jarak & crew. Did Rake’s part of that deal bring the Andii (Nimander, Spinnock) in?
What about Silchas? He didn’t appear to be part of any of that. And, speaking of “any of that,” who were the other two (besides Edgewalker and ST) at the meeting in the Prologue to TotH?
And, at least for now, the title character appears to be a somewhat impotent victim in the whole affair.
And, lest I forget, ST and Cotillion are behind large swathes of whatever is unfolding.
Any help would be appreciated.
@9 GoodOldSatan, I am with you here, spoilers are no longer a relevant concept now that we have reached this point in the books. From this point in the novel on out, I seem to recall that many different threads of the MBOTF story are revealed. However, said reveals were not always plain to me, so please anyone who knows the answers to the reveals please chip and and explicate the different scenes and the elements therein, such as what is the Hold of Love, what the wax in the fire meant, who the girl on the horse was, who rode the gaunt horse, etc. etc. I like some ambiguity, but when the time to tell the full tale comes, I do wish I was less obtuse.
I felt like Dassem became linked to sorrow because of his “adoption” by the T’lan Imass, a sort of “guilt by association” where their endless suffering is shared with him because he becomes their point guy.
It was also at this point that I decided the handmaiden must be some sort of demon.
@8 To add to Tufty’s list, I think that Quick Ben wants to heal the warrens / sort out the Crippled God’s problem, and the KC want to evolve and survive. I think Hood is allied to the other fourteen Jaghut who have been wandering around.
@10 I think the Hold of Love is the original realm of Tellann – Lifegiving Fire.
It’s where the Beasts have left, and the Imass no longer hang out, wrapping their warren around themselves.
The wax … no idea.
The riders are made very clear later on so I don’t want to spoil, just make a mental note so later you can go AHHH.
The Handmaiden is another one of those “Well of course” moments, as all the pieces fall into place.
w.r.t Tufty’s list, Quick Ben wants to heal Burn / sort out the problem of the Crippled God. Slightly different aim.
The KCCM want to return to the world and survive.
Hood is aligned with the other Jaghut – they met with him when he emerged from Dragnipur at the very end of DoD. They are the last of his Army from the War on Death.
Silchas is being drawn into convergence, we see his overt motives soon.
However I think ST has just enmeshed him into the overall scheme … perhaps against his better judgement.
@6 Tabby, that made me laugh out loud. @8 Tufty, great list. I would add Karsa Orlong to it as one of in the ‘destroy humanity’ campers. Though he just wants to destroy cities and make the humanity back into a tribe-like state. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him. There’s also the Azath who don’t like anything getting too powerful. And we were told earlier by Mael that the son of Trull Sengar and Seren Pedac was goin to be a major player in things to come. Will he be saved for a set of follow-on novels, or will he somehow pull a Silverfox and grow up in a matter of weeks?
@Wilbur, 10:
If you really, really, REALLY want to know who the two riders are, here it is whited out:
Minala and Quick Ben
A nice chapter with a couple of great scenes and a couple of personal niggles for me too. We continue the ‘ensure everyone in the series is name-checked in the finale’ mission by getting Lorn, possibly Riggalai the wax witch, and FINALLY an appearance from Logros himself via a flashback. Only to find he’s a bit of a bastard :D
I have to be honest, though, the whole Logros-Dassem story stank of a retcon to me, and I fully think this is one of the reasons why it still seems all ‘wha…?’ upon a reread or five. It’s interesting, sure, but it still felt clumsy to me.
The other niggle is the needless hiding of the identities of the two riders, which seems to serve no purpose. Usually SE is good at keeping obfuscation engaging rather than annoying, but here it seemed overdone.
But yeah, Hood. That guy is too cool for school.
Well,
I agree that the woman rider might be tricky but the man shouldn’t need to be named. You don’t need to reach too far back in your memory to find that out.
I don’t think Logros-Dassem sounds like a retcon. It might be one, but we’ve only ever heard the Empire’s side of that one, never anything from the T’lan Imass and there’s two sides to every story. We ought to know by now not to have too much trust in what characters tell us.
It always felt a lot like a retcon to me because it makes no sense with events that have already been portrayed. Sure, the timeline is more than a bit hedgy already, but there’s a difference between Fear and co. just spending a *really* long time wandering about between MT and RG, and actually putting in new events/revelations that require time travel to be even remotely plausible. Trying to add in this new Dassem-Logros revelation gives us this horrorifying chronology:
1. Dassem becomes First Sword of the Empire and also becomes Knight of Death (not necessarily at the same time)
2. The latest Chaining happens. Hood uses Dassem’s daughter as a power source or something like that. Dassem is pissed and renounces his Knighthood.
3. Dassem fights and ‘dies’ at Y’Ghatan (NoK says this is after #3)
4. The Return: Surly ‘kills’ Kellanved and Dancer.
5. The Logros march off into the Jhag Odhan.
(I can recall at the very least that GotM says this happens right after Laseen takes the throne. I think other sources do too.)
6. Kig Aven and his clan are all destroyed in the Jhag Odhan except for Onos T’oolan, now clanless. Logros declares Dassem Ultor, who died several months ago, the new First Sword of the T’lan Imass.
7. Hood is so pissed off at Logros that he goes back in time to do the Dassem’s daughter thing…???
8. Onos T’oolan, now clanless and therefore free of any obligations or need to follow commands, and also quite pissed off at Logros, agrees to return to the Malazan Empire with the rest of the Logros T’lan Imass and undertake a special mission with Lorn.
SE really shouldn’t have tried to put that Dassem-Logros revelation in the Jhag Odhan war and not tried to tie it to Onos T’oolan becoming clanless. It just doesn’t work.
Which is too bad, really, because it would make for a great explanation to the whole Surly-did-it-no-Kellanved-did-it Aren Massacre debacle! Dujek, Fiddler and Apsalar can all be right! No one gave the order, the Logros were just taking out a bit of furious revenge on the people of the Empire and Seven Cities right after their new champion and god was ‘killed’ !
Maybe 6-8 happened before 1, and the T’Lan Imass just went back to the Jhag Odhan after their split from the Empire for a really dour victory party. . . . I just imagine them standing stock still with party hats on, not speaking at all, over a dessicated Jaghut corpse.
Hey everyone, first time reader. Started following the re-read when I was reading Deadhouse Gates and was looking for something to help with the confusion and enrich my reading.
I’ve finally caught up and actually moved ahead because I can’t put the book down at this point. I have some guesses for the riders in the warren and I think the one on the gaunt horse is pretty clear. As for the woman, at first I wanted to think she was Apsalar because I still want her to find Crokus and have a happy ending. But I recall someone saying on here that she never returns to the story so, my next guess is Kalam’s wife. Is she going to retrieve him from the
I was fairly pleased with myself for picking out the identity of the two riders last chapter. Of course I either missed or simply forgot the footless corpse scene at the start of this chapter… but now it makes certain later scenes I had been wondering about make more sense now.
I was completely lost on the Tool-Dassem-Logros bit. First time I really missed having the reread available since I had overtaken it. Reading the summaries and comments above I think cleared that up some though. Does reading the Esselmont books shed more light on that particular storyline (at least the relationship between Dassem, Hood, and Dassem’s daughter)?
Loved the Hood scene. Just not at all what I was expecting to happen. I thought the scene with Equity was quite well done, though. It gave a more nuanced view of the FA that was somewhat lacking up to this point. I agree with her views on some level of wishing we could learn to share this world better with its other denizens. Its her methods that don’t sit too well. Even if Hood had let her speak, I’m not sure they would have managed to find much common ground.
@16 my theory goes like this:
1) Same as your nr 1.
2) gods and such start planning for the new chaining. They all want a piece of the power / influence being part of this event gives. Logros wants some too, and he has found a loophole in Dassems status as first sword. He ruthlessly takes it, during or just before the chaining. Dassem does not realize quite what happened yet as apparantly his consent is neither asked nor needed.
3) Hood refuses to be left out of the proceedings and defaults to Dassems heir, who cannot handle it. Dassem blames Hood and is only half wrong, debatably. Possibly he doesn’t understand what happens and he still believes he is Hood’s knight for some years after this ( this is the weak point of my theory… Was he still officially Hood’s at the time he ‘died’?)
4) A pissed of Tool marches of with his clan and returns alone. I suspect this is not a tragic coincidence, but that Tool himslef got rid of the ‘survivors’, or alternatively Kilava did. Tool is now free, but goes to kill Raest… Because he has nothing better to do? My guess is he uses it as an opportunity to think over his options.
5) K&D disappear. Some years pass, and Laseen takes the throne. She wastes no time getting rid of the old guard, and one of the consequences is the leaving of Logros Tlan Imass. This is probably when Dassem fully realizes what was done to him and he renounces his worshipers, the Tlan Imass and Hood and swears revenge. Dessembrae becomes a somewhat separate entity as a consequence. This might actually spark the Aren fiasco, I love that connection.
The timing of Logros’ departure is the most confusing part, but I don’t hink we have a reliable witness for that. It is definitely somehing Laseen would try to hide and would lie about.
I wish, Cassanne, I wish… I really do! But:
–From this chapter, Tool reflects that when Logros announced that Dassem would become the new First Sword, they had just finished killing the last Jhag/Jaghut in the Jhag Odhan. It was specifically said earlier in the series that when the T’lan Imass marched off into the Jhag Odhan, it was with the purpose of killing Jaghut enclaves there. There’s no way they could’ve gone into the Odhan, killed “the last Jhag/Jaghut” in the Odhan, come back, then gone back into the Odhan to fight more Jaghut.
–Dassem had already renounced being the Knight of Death when he “died” at Y’Ghatan – we see this in NoK when he tells Temper before the Y’Ghatan battle about how things have changed.
I would love a [ Logros ->Dassem’s ‘death’ -> Aren Massacre ] connection, too, but the mixed accounts of the Aren Massacre all put it right before or right after Surly assassinates K&D, when Dassem had already been ‘dead’ for months. IMO, it best fits between the GotM prologue and NoK, when Surly has started calling herself Laseen but not officially taken the throne yet – that is how the quotes from Fidderl, Apasalar and Dujek all work the best.
No matter what though, there are too many existing references and causality that the timeline *has* to be:
Dassem ‘dies’ at Y’Ghatan >>> GotM prologue >>> [The Return =~= Logros T’lan Imass march into the Jhag Odhan (approximate same time, could go either way)]
and from the way this chapter describes them being the Jhag Odhan after having killed the last Jhag/Jaghut… it just *has* to be a timeline-destroying retcon, there’s no good way to add it to previous events without messing lots of established things up.
I wish it wasn’t so… :(
Yes, if only things were simple ;)
What I’d like to know is: when and where was this most recent chaining? Without knowing that we can’t really start to make sense of the timeline. I vaguely remember there were hints that it was a hundred years ago, but that makes no sense at all with the other known facts. So maybe that was just in my head? But a very recent chaining also doesn’t seem to fit. So that would kill my theory that the Tlan Imass had anything to do with whatever happened to Dassems daughter. *sigh*
The problem is all the hints are spread out so much, and between two authors too.
As far as I can tell, Logros TI leave while Kel is still nominally Emperor — after the general conquest of Seven Cities, but before Y’Ghatan — and the First Sword thing, Dassem’s “death”, and Laseen’s usurpation all occur while Logros TI are away. Obviously the TI know Dassem isn’t actually dead, but rather that he’s left the Empire, so with him and Kel both gone, they stop serving as well upon return.
@22: Let’s say the Chaining happens between Seven Cities’ main conquest and Y’Ghatan…Logros makes Dassem First Sword while they are at the Chaining, and Hood immediately understands he and Dassem have been severed. Hood informs Dassem of this, Dassem misunderstands, a dust-up occurs, and it’s actually Dassem who kills his own daughter accidentally while she steps in between Dassem and Hood (her body definitely has actual wounds on it, not necessarily supernatural life-sucking). Dassem blames Hood, renounces his Knighthood, and becomes the Lord of Tragedy.
Or that’s all nonsense.
I like worrywort’s idea.
The betrayal occurs prior to the NoK according to Tattersail.
Back in Seven Cities,’ she said quietly, ‘the story goes that the
Emperor’s First Sword – his commander of his armies – Dassem Ultor, had accepted a god’s offer. Hood made Dassem his Knight of Death. Then something happened, something went . . . wrong. And Dassem renounced the title, swore a vow of vengeance against Hood – against the Lord of Death himself. All at once other Ascendants started meddling, manipulating events. It all culminated with Dassem’s murder, then the Emperor’s assassination, and blood in the streets, temples at war, sorceries unleashed.
I also like the idea of there being two trips into the Jhag Odhan. One trip involved the Unbound – they were the lone survivors of combat against Aramala, who was the Jaghut that Karsa frees. She was later imprisoned when Logros sent the rest of the army in after her.
It is possible Logros sent a large party off on the suspicion of there being Jaghut, and sent the rest of the army later when they didn’t return as that would act as confirmation.
I might be missing the obvious, but what is Hood referring to when he says he “recently learned a lesson in brevity”?
@25
‘Son of Darkness,’ he said, ‘I have reconsidered—’
And the sword lashed out, a clean arc that took the Lord of Death in the neck, slicing clean through.
Regarding Equity’s “promising” beliefs until she starts talking about a cull: It’s worth noting that in a way, her reasoning is sound.
We tend to think of industrialized technology as being the main factor in pollution, but that’s because of the climate change bias. Medieval technology doesn’t have that huge of an effect in that regard (certainly less than what the Jaghut have done with Omtose Phellack over the millennia). That said, there’s a lot of other major effects that medieval technology has. Deforestation has huge detrimental effects, and despite the fact that we now have chainsaws instead of hand-axes for chopping down trees, we’re actually way better at getting lumber without destroying the entire forest now; in those days, they just chopped down the forests – thee’s a reason there’s so few forests in Europe and it has nothing to do with nature. Pollution from inefficient smelting practices has similar effects on river ecosystems; these days, we’ve developed systems that usually contain the mineral processing/smelting byproducts (they sometimes fail spectacularly, true, but at least we don’t just dump it in the river deliberately.
Atop that, it’s worth noting the age of this world. Kallor is basically the Gilgamesh of Wu, and his story started 300 000 years ago, going by that flashback way back when he and the gods exchanged curses. So people have had a lot of time to do all this damage.
And then look at the population. Wu’s population is huge by medieval standards. All those people need wood for cookfires, metal for their tools, etc, agriculture that supports their food needs.
Sustainability needs one of two things: a lot more tech, or a much smaller population. We’re working on the tech side of things in real life, and we’re still not there yet, so it’s unlikely that anoyone would consider that a reasonable solution for Wu.
So the logical solution is a cull. Humans use culls for similar reasons in wildlife populations – deer are getting out of hand, cull them back a bit, that sort of thing. Equity’s just operating from an ethical perspective that places humans in the lesser group where we normally put animals, with Forkrul Assail up at the level of being individually important. Which I’d argue is a flawed perspective, but I’m human; I’m sure anything that we class as animals would argue for moving the line such that they qualify as worthy of individual consideration, were they able to voice such concerns.