Ever Struggled with Erikson?

[Trencher]

read book 1 liked it read 200 pages of book 2 5 months ago never picked it up since ! just cant seem to get into them, i find too many of the characters a chore to read

I agree. I finished GoTM and read half of DG and just quit. Flat characters and deus ex machina moments were just silly. I just finished Martin so maybe that spoiled it for me, but I thought Erikson just sucks as a writer. I picked up Abercrombie and am almost finished with The Blade Itself. Love it. Erikson just can't develop a character in my opinion. I don't care how much they level up. It was like reading bad D&D with a convoluted magic system.

[Luonas]

It's fun to see the same people roam the fantasyforums, sign-up and see that all their posts are about how much Erikson sucks. Christ, for people that loathe Erikson so much they sure are obsessed with him...

[Trencher]

It's fun to see the same people roam the fantasyforums, sign-up and see that all their posts are about how much Erikson sucks. Christ, for people that loathe Erikson so much they sure are obsessed with him...

Ha, ok that's fair. I just saw this subject so threw in my 2 cents. At least it's not to the Goodkind level of bashing (which he deserves as well). I mean people go on forever ripping on him.

[Luonas]

Ha, ok that's fair. I just saw this subject so threw in my 2 cents. At least it's not to the Goodkind level of bashing (which he deserves as well). I mean people go on forever ripping on him.

Yeah, there are whole forums dedicated to that. Crazy!

[owl]

I'm reading GoTM now and find myself struggling a bit. For the most part I enjoy the writing and the storyline so far, but just as I get comfortable with one group of characters (and by comfortable, I mean remember who is who), I hit the next chapter and Erikson introduces more characters, more background, and more history. I'm only up to around page 220, but I nearly screamed in frustration when Erikson introduced the undead companion to Lorn and started to detail some of the history behind his kind.

I hope it starts to flow along a little easier as the books progress. Right now I have a hard time seeing how people prefer this series over ASOIAF.

[Silverlake]

I would have to agree, I believe most if not all will be clear by the end of it. But.......myself and I'm guessing a lot of people will have to reread many if not all the books again to understand it. Events, people, gods, cards, what the characters say, and etc. was a mystery in books 1-4 or so will become clear by the end of the series. But I for one will forget a ton, so a reread will be in order.

With these books as massive as they are, will I want to reread it?

[Silverlake]

I'm reading GoTM now and find myself struggling a bit. For the most part I enjoy the writing and the storyline so far, but just as I get comfortable with one group of characters (and by comfortable, I mean remember who is who), I hit the next chapter and Erikson introduces more characters, more background, and more history. I'm only up to around page 220, but I nearly screamed in frustration when Erikson introduced the undead companion to Lorn and started to detail some of the history behind his kind.

I hope it starts to flow along a little easier as the books progress. Right now I have a hard time seeing how people prefer this series over ASOIAF.

I like both, but Steven understands that fans can only wait only so long. I get the feeling that GRRM hates writing his series now, or he has writers block for every book. COME ON AROUND 3 YEARS OR LONGER FOR EACH BOOK! My big worry with Martin is he will not live to see the end of ASOIAF.

[owl]

I did finish GoTM a few days after my last post, and... it got better, a lot better, but then (IMO) fluttered out at the end.

For a few hundred pages the writing was tight; I was looking forward to reading each new chapter, the fight scenes were described very well and exciting, and all was good.

And then:

came the party at that noble ladies' house. The ultra powerful Anomander Rake, lord of Moon's Spawn, goes to a freakin' costume party?!? With his magical two handed sword on his back? wtf. After the party started it only got worse. They long-dead super creature awakens from its tomb and then starts wreaking havoc on the land and fighting some dragons. Cool. But then it inhabits the body of someone at the party inexplicably, and there is some really embarrassingly bad writing trying to describe what's occurring in some sort of fight scene and as a house (grows out of an acorn?) appears in the garden. That whole section was extremely confusing, and not in any sort of deep interesting way. It was just poorly written IMO. Then suddenly Anomander turns into a dragon and fights a dragon. Sheesh.

The book could have been fairly good, but I thought it turned out just mediocre.

[Evil Agent]

Well owl, you need to be congratulated for making it through the most difficult book in the series! It only gets better, especially the next one (Deadhouse Gates). I'd suggest trying that out, before abandoning the series.

However, Erikson's series REMAINS confusing and sometimes frustrating. It slowly starts to make more sense, but only slowly (I'm talking like "by books 5 or 6" slowly). Still, it's usually not as annoyingly confusing as the climax of Gardens of the Moon. The things you mentioned also confused and perplexed me. But I'm glad I kept reading.

[owl]

Well owl, you need to be congratulated for making it through the most difficult book in the series! It only gets better, especially the next one (Deadhouse Gates). I'd suggest trying that out, before abandoning the series.

However, Erikson's series REMAINS confusing and sometimes frustrating. It slowly starts to make more sense, but only slowly (I'm talking like "by books 5 or 6" slowly). Still, it's usually not as annoyingly confusing as the climax of Gardens of the Moon. The things you mentioned also confused and perplexed me. But I'm glad I kept reading.

I already bought Deadhouse Gates (before I finished GotM), so I'll probably read it at some point, but I'm certainly in no rush. After that ending (and the long, slow beginning) in GotM, I'm rather surprised that so many people continued on in the series.