I share your dislike for arrogance, but I think you do yourself a disservice by so quickly dismissing the whole series based on a comment that, honestly, could be considered a warning as much as a display of ego. Gardens of the Moon is the weakest book of the series and is still not half bad.

By dumbing down, I think he refers to the way he works against what most people are accustomed to in learning how things work in the world. There is not much of an impersonal, omniscient narrator that lays it all out there for you and lets you know what other characters are thinking. It does come off as arrogant, but…

That's a pretty fair assessment about putting the pieces together, but I have to say that, on a re-read, the pieces are all there to be put together, they're just not delivered in the usual fashion. It's actually quite astonishing to see how those pieces are strewn about, bit by bit, throughout the books

Although Erikson's style is not to everyone's taste, I'd say the Malazan Book of the Fallen is among the best the fantasy field has to offer and, in my opinion, the very best. The characters may not get the minute-level of attention you'd expect from Martin, but that doesn't mean they're flat or one-note; most are…

Re-reading Memories of Ice, book 3 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, by Steven Erikson, at work through the magic of audio, and physically reading Orb Sceptre Throne, another Malazan book (but not part of the main sequence), by Ian Cameron Esselmont, at home.

It is tedious until you're able to start figuring things out, and even then, there's more to scratch your head over. A decent amount of seemingly throw away happenings turn out to be quite important, and the same goes with characters mentioned in passing. Think of it as a vast web, in which only a small portion is…

I take it you've never read the Malazan series?

As much as I am in agreement with you about Mappo/Icarium, you could honestly make rock-solid cases for a large number of characters in the Malazan series-Trull (hell, the whole Sengar family), Onrack, Rake, Beak, Coltaine and the Chain of Dogs, Duiker, Korlat and Whiskeyjack, Toc, Tool, Grubb and Sinn, Kulp, Felisin,…

I've always found any of David Mack's Kabuki books to be great gifts, but the later volumes, Metamorphosis and Alchemy, are the cream of that crop. For me, Mack's work has been one of the most life-affirming things I have ever read

And behind them both sits Steven Erikson, shaking his head at them, muttering, 'Amateurs'.

Too many moments and people to list in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Coltaine and the Chain of Dogs, Kulp and Baudin, Felisin, the Bridgeburners and Bonehunters both, Bent and Roach, Beak, Duiker, Not-Apsalar, Murrilio, Whiskeyjack and Korlat and many, many more.

For those of you lost on parts of this series-and it's not hard to feel that way-check out malazanempire.com, a fan site with many many discussions about nearly any topic you can think of; or, you could check out the re-read they have at tor.com, which includes both Erikson and Esselmont books. They're near the end of…

ah, whoops, misread that. It was early in the morning!

A grandmother at 51? Hah, that's old! I made my mom a grandmother at 43!

Bleh, how stupid of me to not include his name earlier. His name is Anomander Rake, a character from Steven Erikson's Malazan series

I'd say this guy would beat all of them. In addition to being able to veer into a massive dragon, the kiss of his sword promises a trip to a pocket dimension, where you are consigned to forever keeping the gate to his plane of origin ahead of the reach of chaos. And he's an all-around awesome guy

Neither of those are really morose. This would probably be more deserving of that descriptor

All told, on NBC and NBC Sports, 15 games. 22 nationally, if you live outside the Philadelphia area, as per: http://www.broadstreethockey.com/2013/1/12/3871098/2013-philadelphia-flyers-schedule-dates-calendar

I found TOR to be really boring and the stories (Agent and Inquisitor) to be terribly predictable and not well told. Those CGI shorts were certainly good though

I experience this once-shortly after the first time I used E. Never on subsequent uses, tho. I was just really tired the day after