“What do you mean Karsa isn’t even in this book?” Corporal Snack demanded. “It’s called The God is Not Willing!”
Folibore shrugged.
“Iskar’s limp—he’s the fucking god! How can he not be in the book?”
Anyx Fro snorted. “You’re an idiot. Obviously, he wasn’t willing.”
Well, here we are all too soon at the end of our look at the opening of The God is Not Willing, after diving into the Prologue and Chapter One. We ended Chapter One with the unsettling idea that things are often not what they seem, and we pick up with Chapter Two (after the epigraph, of course) with a question from Spindle that has him worrying about that same concept.
Welcome back as we enter The God Is Not Willing proper, now that we’ve covered a very brief recap of pertinent events and names from the series and also taken a look at the prologue. In Chapter One (which you can read in full here) we’ll meet a raft of new characters, one old friend, and—because it’s a Malazan book—a bunch of old bones.
Welcome back as we take our first plunge into the actual text of Steven Erikson’s The God Is Not Willing—we’ll be covering the prologue and first two chapters of the novel, and if you want to read along, you can find the prologue here. And in case you missed it, I put together a refresher on everything readers will need to know heading into the book, which takes place roughly a decade after the events of The Crippled God. And now, without further ado, let’s join the four Teblor standing on a sloping, ragged ridge high in the mountains…
Welcome back to the Malazan Empire! This time, instead of another prequel, we’re picking up roughly a decade after the events of The Crippled God. So before we dive into our discussion of the opening few chapters of Steven Erikson’s The God Is Not Willing (TGINW), we thought it prudent to offer up a bit of a refresher on what’s what, where’s where, and who’s who, not to mention who is still alive, who’s dead, who is still dead, who was alive then dead then alive again and is still alive, who was alive then dead then, well, you get the idea. Though it needn’t be said, I’m going to say it anyway: Given that this is a recap of pertinent events and people from the Malazan Book of the Fallen (MBoT), there will be spoilers—sundry and specific—for, well, all of it (no spoilers here for The God Is Not Willing, though). That said, what this is not is any attempt at a full plot summary, because let’s face it, that would be absurd…
Kellanved’s Reach concludes Ian Cameron Esslemont’s Path to Ascendency, his prequel series of Malazan books (as opposed to Steven Erikson’s prequel series of Malazan books)… and while three is the classic book number in fantasy series, I personally wouldn’t mind if he snuck in another volume or two between this and Night of Knives, the next book chronologically in the series’ events.
Because it occurs not that far along into Deadhouse Landing, I don’t feel bad about revealing that at one point our erstwhile heroes Wu and Dancer are forced into confronting one of the most dire threats of the Malazan Universe—being taken by an Azath. A revelation that I’m sure will have many of you wondering which of the many great powers of that universe could have driven them onto those perilous grounds: K’rul? T’riss? Kallor, a Matron, Icarium? Worthy candidates all, but none powerful enough. Because it turns out each pales beside the unstoppable, the irresistible puissance of . . . the double-dare.
“G’wan,” the lad called, “we double-dare you.”
Hi everyone,
Our apologies for the suddenness of this announcement, but it seems our long (seven years!) journey is coming to an end, as Tor.com will soon be reorganizing some of the content and formats on the site so as to better meet the needs/desires of its audience. But while that means that the reread will be closed out, that doesn’t mean that discussion of the Malazan universe will disappear from Tor.com—just that further exploration will come via different formats, such as essays or reviews.
Welcome back 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, and finally comments from Tor.com readers. Today we’re reading Forge of Darkness, Chapter Four.
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, but 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.
Welcome back 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, and finally comments from Tor.com readers. Today we’re reading Forge of Darkness, Chapter Three.
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, but 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.
Welcome back 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, and finally comments from Tor.com readers. Today we’re reading Forge of Darkness, Chapter Two.
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, but 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.
Welcome back 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, and finally comments from Tor.com readers. Today we’re Forge of Darkness, Chapter One.
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, but 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.
Welcome back 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, and finally comments from Tor.com readers. Today we’re tackling the prelude to Forge of Darkness.
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, but 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.
Welcome back 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, and finally comments from Tor.com readers. Today we’re wrapping our coverage of Ian Cameron Esslemont’s Assail.
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, but 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.
Welcome back 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, and finally comments from Tor.com readers. Today we’re continuing Ian Cameron Esslemont’s Assail, covering the epilogue.
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, but 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.
