Welcome back Bottle 

By on

‘Kept looking at a card, y’see? Kept looking at it. Welcome back Bottle.  Gods below welcome home.

The Crippled God
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen 10, Steven Erikson

If you recognise the quote then you already know what an exciting journey this series by Steven Erickson is.  If not then the only thing I really need to say is that you must read the series. 


The Crippled God,
the tenth and final book in the series.
I’m near the end of the series and these books have taken top spot in my favorites list.  So much so that not only am I writing this off-topic post, but it’s my second on the same series.  My previous post was written after finsihing book 4 or so [Lead us, Warleader].

To work out why the series is so good (and being diligent )I have done my research on the author; at least I checked Wikipedia:

Steven Erikson (born October 7, 1959) is the pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin, a Canadian novelist, who was educated and trained as both an archaeologist and anthropologist.

His background in archaeology and anthropology is clearly evident in the books.  Not only that, but I discovered a lot of the story was relevant to my own experiences [which may or may not be perceived as a good thing given what happens in the story].  Reading the story did impacted on my views of our place in the wold and has changed some of my thinking.  I think everyone reading the story will find something that in some small  (or large) way changes previously held concepts.  This is some achievement for a fantasy book. 

The story itself is amazing - completely different from so many fantasy books around.  Each book astounds and when you think it can’t get more climatic, the next book in the series proves that it can.  A cliche - but you can relate to the characters and  each one is unique, brings varying perspectives to the story and continually evolves.  However, the author has no compulsion against killing main characters when needed, bringing a does of reality to the series. 

Now, by this stage you may have noticed I haven't talked about the plot [story] and I don’t intend to.  It’s just too vast to summarise and I could never do it justice.  The only way you can truly understand and appreciate it is to read the books.  Reading the series is a must do activity - immediately add it to your 101 things to do before dying list. 

As a final note (having given so much praise), I will mention two things (both of the Author’s own making) which almost stopped me reading the series in the first place - so you don’t fall into this nasty trap.  In the introduction to series Gardens of the Moon),  the author lets you know the world was originally devised as a setting for a role playing game;  ignore this - there is nothing nerdy about the series, not an elf in sight and the world is way more. 

Second ,in the same introduction, the author warns about the lack of handholding and guiding you gently into the story; saying people either love or hate the books due to this.  Again ignore it.  You do sort of ump in at the deep end, but by the time you get to book 3 everything is starting to make sense - of course it all gets thrown upside down in later books, but that's the joy of the series. 

So there you are - read the books and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.  If you are, you can always come back here and berate me in the comments section.



Steven McFadyen's avatar Steven McFadyen

Steven has over twenty five years experience working on some of the largest construction projects. He has a deep technical understanding of electrical engineering and is keen to share this knowledge. About the author

myElectrical Engineering

comments powered by Disqus

  1. Mullac's avatar Mullac says:
    10/9/2011 3:57 PM

    Excellent books

  2. Steven's avatar Steven says:
    10/20/2011 9:08 AM

    Just finished reading the series. You won’t be let down – the ending is everything you could hope for and more.
    Steven


Comments are closed for this post:
  • have a question or need help, please use our Questions Section
  • spotted an error or have additional info that you think should be in this post, feel free to Contact Us



Closed Doors

"I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong...

Fire Resistant and Fire Retardant Cables

Fire resistant and fire retardant cable sheaths are design to resist combustion and limit the propagation of flames. Low smokes cables have a sheath designed...

8 Steps to Low Voltage Power Cable Selection and Sizing

A recurring theme on our forums is cable sizing. Now many installations are unique and require special consideration. However, a lot of the time things...

Capacitors - Energy Storage Application

Capacitors have numerous applications in electrical and electronic applications.  This note examines the use of capacitors to store electrical energy....

Fault Calculations - Typical Equipment Parameters

A frequent problem in fault calculations is the obtaining of equipment parameters.  While it is always preferable to use the actual parameters of the equipment...

Fault Calculations - Introduction

Fault calculations are one of the most common types of calculation carried out during the design and analysis of electrical systems. These calculations...

Cable Trumps

Bored at work and would rather be playing trump card game with you son. The next best thing (or not) maybe the online cable trump card game from AEI Cables...

Copyright Infringement

myElectrical does not support or promote the use of copyrighted material without the copyright owner's consent. If you believe that material for which...

Batteries

A battery consists of one or more cells, each of which use stored chemical energy to produce electrical energy, There are many types of cells and these...

Thermoplastic and Thermosetting Insulation

While there are a vast array of cable insulation materials, these are often divided into two general types; Thermoplastic or Thermosetting. For example...

Have some knowledge to share

If you have some expert knowledge or experience, why not consider sharing this with our community.  

By writing an electrical note, you will be educating our users and at the same time promoting your expertise within the engineering community.

To get started and understand our policy, you can read our How to Write an Electrical Note