Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 3)

More pain, this book made me restless and lose sleep also put my heart through it

"We are all pushed into a world of madness, yet it must now fall to each of us to pull back from this Abyss, to drag ourselves free of the descending spiral. From horror, grief must be fashioned and from grief, compassion" -Itkovian To start with MoI was a wild ride & probably a fairly confusing one at times. This wasn't a story stictly about a particular set of people. This was a book that had a plot with a truck load of sub plots. From the Outlawed Malazan/Brood/Rake/Pannion Seer plot, to the Grey Swords/Capustan seige plot, to Stonny/Gruntle part, to the Crippled god/Elder gods foray, to the death of gods and finding of new ones, and T'Lan I'mass/ Jaghut conflict (phew!! i think i covered everything) it'll be impossible really to coherently write a review on each story so i'm just going to stick with characters that totally threw me (in a good way) The Brideburners - First In Last Out (Motto of the Bridgeburners) From GoTM we are regaled with how exceptional the bridgeburners are especially WhiskeyJack's crew. Unfortunately after the events at Pale, they are more or less a broken bunch. Paran refers to them at a point, as a "brittle, heart-broken company". and while you see, the effects of that, lack of cohesion and all that, what i absolutely loved about them was their willingness to stick with each other to the bitter end and lord, when it came down to it at Coral, you could totally see it. Itkovian - ...And i am not yet done Oh this man, this wonderful, weary absolutely wonderful man..Not sure i can write a whole lot about him without spoilers but let me just say that Itkovian was bad ass!! i mean just look at that man. Captain Paran Gotta say Paran really stepped up. Dude went from whinny and no i don't want to do it, you can't make me to completely taking charge of the Bridgeburners and what he became. Totally loved the growth and the better confidence he had in himself,how he finally accepted responsibility for the bridgeburners and kicking that debilitating doubt to the curb that was always weighing him down. Always love him for what he said to Lt. Picker here "The Bridgeburners...Keep them together, no matter what happens. Together Lieutenant" Honourable Mentions:Korlat, Toc the younger, Tool, Gruntle & Stonny, those segulah (that the spelling?), those two Malazan soldiers that took over guarding silverfox (we never did learn their names),QuickBen, i want to add envy but that woman was like the annoying grown up version of Kruppe. Can never get a straight answer from those two. In reference to the story, i honestly thought meeting the Pannion Seer thing was a bit underwhelming after Capustan especially as you already figure who the Pannion seer is way quite early too, as far as i'm concerned. Also did not enjoy the whole Mhybe woman plot, i mean for crying out loud, why the fuck did she keep running? One minute everything is fine and next thing she just switches off like whoa. Then Silverfox, sigh* it's actually ironic that while the Mhybe was depressed about how Silverfox was her daughter but not really her daughter, Silverfox was basically channeling her mother at the 2nd convergence with the T'lan Imass. You wait fot that long and the first thing you spew is that nonesense? Nah, i was disappointed with her. Also i really really really did not like Hetan. The woman was bloody annoying. Anyhoo, i definitely enjoyed it and i'm totally looking forward to book 4.. p:s - i really think the plot of the book was way too divivded for the book to be called memories of ice so yes once again i'm calling it on title of book that really doesn't gel all the way with the plot.

Actual rating: 4.5 stars Erikson crafted something truly spectacular in his Malazan novels. The setting is unlike anything I’ve ever read. The magic is wild and terrifying and surely among the most fascinating in fiction. But what truly makes these books shine are the characters within them. The character development here is fairly unique in that we get most of from external opinion instead of internally within the characters themselves. So many of these characters have a level of nobility and courage and selflessness that they not only never expect but never acknowledge within themselves. We see these attributes through the eyes of others, which makes them even more worthy of respect. These characters are what both draw readers in and make them hesitant to continue, because you can be sure that any character to whom you grow attached will either die epically or endure the level of trauma that can break the strongest of minds. That knowledge, garnered over the course of the first two novels in the series, is precisely why it took me almost a solid month to read Memories of Ice. This series is so dark and heavy that I have to slowly pace myself through them, balancing them out with lighter fare so as not to sink into a fictionally-triggered depression. I was also suffering some severe battle fatigue by the halfway point. However, I was invested in so many character arcs that there was never any question of my finishing the book. There were some truly epic, immensely powerful scenes that had me in tears at the end. Some were almost expected, but others completely blindsided me. If I was rating this book strictly on its most powerful moments, it would be a solid 5 stars. It’s going to take me a while before I can even consider moving forward in the series, but that’s definitely not due to any failing on Erikson’s part. I just need some emotional distance and fortitude before I can continue.

It's only the third book of the ten Malazan Book of the Fallen Series books and it breaks your heart into its subatomic constituents with its beauty.

I HATE THIS BOOK!!1!!1 STUPID BOOK MAKING ME HAVE ALL THE FEELS! GO AWAY I DON'T WANT TO LOOK AT YOU AGAIN!!1!!

So far, from my experience with Malazan, the novels are of 5-star quality right from the beginning. Then, with around 200 pages left, Erikson smashes through the Goodreads rating system: the endings are that epic. Memories of Ice is no different. The first 800ish pages are awesome, but the ending just blows everything out of the water. In Memories of Ice, we can finally see the main storyline of the series unfold which is pretty exciting. The prologue really set the tone for the whole book with a flashback to a world long lost, but slowly reemerging. Erikson is one of the few authors I can think of whose prologues actually entice me to read the book; most of the time I suffer through those first few pages with irrelevant characters who have some cryptic message that you don't understand until the end of the book, but Malazan really hits you from the first page. One of my favourite aspects of the series is watching a few small groups of characters on their own before they all somehow come together and intertwine at the end (though I love that too, of course). One of the new groups with familiar characters that I loved was Tool, Toc the Younger and Lady Envy. They were just so funny even though they were just wayward travelers trying to get to everyone else. Toc the Younger is also now one of my favourite characters (I have a very long list of those). The other duo I loved was Paran and Quick Ben. This book, in general, boosted Quick Ben onto the favourites list. Another favourite, I was so happy to see Anomader Rake again, this time with much more of a role than in GotM. Something that kind of hit me out of nowhere was (view spoiler)[ Whiskyjack's death. I liked him, but it was about time a main character was killed without somehow coming back to life. I wasn't sure if he was actually dead at first because of Tattersail's "death" and life in Silverfox, but it seems he's gone. I am happy Toc the Younger was brought back and so I can forgive the non-death death there (hide spoiler)]. Just everything about the ending was fantastic - no complaints whatsoever and I'm excited for the next one! Honestly, everyone should immerse themselves in the Warren of Chaos and visit Malazan - though not literally because it seriously seems like the worst place to go if you actually want to live without (view spoiler)[ being eternally trapped in a sword or having three souls possess your body (hide spoiler)].

Now that I have a pretty good idea of what's going on as I'm reading rather than just going through it as a completely lost soul, I'm loving this. The magic is inventive, the politics are fascinating, the way he writes a battle is enthralling. Not to mention that his characters are balanced, nuanced, and interesting in every way. 7 more tomes to go and I might actually know what the hell I just read...but for the moment, I think I'm doing ok, and that's good enough for me.