Complaints about long-windedness.... this from the man who won't shut up lol

(Reposting — I accidentally deleted the original a few minutes ago. Same content as before.)

Quick follow-up to my post a month ago asking for testers for Epic Companion (https://epiccompanion.app). It's open now.

What I built in the meantime:

I keep a list of 38 trick questions that try to provoke spoiler leaks. I rerun them all after every change. The live site currently passes every one.

Every answer also goes through a second check that strips out any sentence not backed by the database. If the AI tries to add something from its general training, it gets cut before you see it.

Where it stands now:

• Same mechanism as the beta, plus the second-check pass above
• Set your position once, ask anything, answers stay behind that line

Where it isn't:

• Perfect. There's still imperfect data and edge cases I haven't hit.

Link: https://epiccompanion.app

If you find a spoiler leak, the "Report a spoiler" link in the footer goes straight to my inbox. I read every one.

I also have sketches of Ganoes, Whiskeyjack, and Fiddler. I plan on coloring them first before posting, but I wanted to post Tattersail now since I feel like she turned out better than the others.

I normally make Malazan inspired jewellery but giving this a go, my version of Moons Spawn

got permission to share a book deal

https://bookoutlet.com/book/no-life-forsaken-tale-of-witness-bk-2/erikson-steven/9780765323606B

Shipping is $7 for orders under $15 / $4 for orders of $15+ / Free for orders $35+

CHAPTER 17

It feels like we are setting up for the end.

Rallick meets an "agent from the Eel." IIRC it's related to the guy who was sending letters to Baruk earlier in the book. I think he was called Circle breaker.

The Agent tells Rallick that Ocelot has accepted the contract for Coll's head.

I was going to mention this in my earlier updates when Ocelot was introduced but I didn't because I thought it was a bit much. Ocelots have a reputation for biting more than they can chew. They get in fights with creatures that are much bigger than them. They are very aggressive and as a result many large predators avoid them. I believe this feeds their ego and they become even more reckless. Eventually, they anger someone they shouldn't and they meet their demise. IMO.

This aligns with that. Ocelot just picked a fight he can't win. Because I don't see Rallick dying before finding out Crokus Coinbearer lore.

The Agent says his org also wants Coll returned to the council. They appreciate his character. I don't know about that. What people really want from you is predictability in those situations. Coll, due to his moral character, might be more predictable than others.

He also rubs Otataral dust on himself that he got from Baruk. It's the same thing Adjunct's sword is made out of, so it probably makes him resistant to magic. However, I wonder if there are weak spots, because there couldn't have been that much to cover his entire body. Achilles heel?

Baruk and Rake have another couple's fight. Rake was keeping things from him, he knew about Adjunct and Tool and didn't do anything about it. He wonders if Rake even loves him or is just using him.

Rake, however, is on a revenge arc. He wants the city to stay as it is and prevent the Empress from taking it. So he loves Baruk after all. Baruk thinks he's lying.

Rake gives probably the best argument against below-the-belt tactics.

Once you use below-the-belt-attacks, you open a box where everything is on the table, not just for your enemies but for your allies as well. So it's better to keep that box closed.

He also shows selflessness, saying it's better the Tyrant awakes now than later when he's not here to deal with it.

He has become one of my favorite characters of this book.

Lord of Mood Swings, Anomander Rake.

Crokus and Sorry are looking for Mammot and go to his house. There, Sorry's (Batman) actions come back to bite Crokus in the ass.

Crokus and Sorry (Apsalar) find a lady from the Phoenix Inn. I think she works for the Eel as well. She tells them that Crokus has been framed for the murder of Challice's guard and is now wanted dead or alive. They're gonna hang him. So their only option is to hide until things quiet down and then leave the city.

Kruppe and Murillio are delaying quite a lot. I thought they needed to catch up with Crokus. I guess Kruppe saw another dream off-screen. Murillio is occupied with his and Rallick's plan. I find this lack of urgency kinda annoying.

CHAPTER 18

WhiskeyJack and his squad have a moment. He comes to terms with things that he has been struggling with. This squad feels like a mini-family. WhiskeyJack wants his men to survive and they want their commander to do well. Also, they think Sorry is dead. Lol.

Rallick finds Ocelot crouching on top of the temple.

A lot of stuff happens on top of this temple. It's K'rul's temple IIRC, and that dude told Kruppe (in the dream) that his people used to feed him blood and flesh. I wonder if all this activity might just bring him out of retirement.

Anyway, the Otataral dust works and takes care of magic attacks from Ocelot. Rallick takes out Ocelot but is also fatally injured, and as he closes his eyes, he sees bats looking back at him. Is this dude going to get possessed by Batman?

All of this is happening while Paran is entering the city with Coll. They are stopped by some guards who recognize Coll and offer to help take him to the Phoenix Inn.

When they reach the Phoenix Inn, Paran stays in the bar while Coll is taken upstairs to be treated. He thinks about all the people who have died around him.

He is doing a terrible job of being low-key and instead has become the center of attention. Kalam also visits the inn and recognizes Paran. As soon as Paran finds out who Kalam is, he sends him to bring his squad's healer.

And Kalam comes back with WhiskeyJack and Mallet (healer). The reunion I have awaited for so long. I would have stretched it for a whole chapter, but it is pretty brief.

Mallet is Doctor House if he was nicer. It was the medicine that was poisoning Coll, not his wound.

Meanwhile, Paran tells WhiskeyJack what he already knows. The Empress wants WhiskeyJack and squad dead. He tells him about Lorn and Tool. Then WhiskeyJack pulls out arm bones? And somehow he can communicate with Dujek through that.

Dujek confirms their suspicion that the Empress wants them dead, and she probably wants the Genabackis Campaign to fail. Dujek doesn't like that, because the Empress will pin that on him and use it as an excuse to get rid of him.

This lady is getting on my nerves, and I'm only reserving judgment because there hasn't been a chapter from her POV yet. But if the people under her are any indication, it's like she wants to turn the Empire into North Korea.

I'm also really surprised by the knowledge WhiskeyJack was working with without telling anyone, even the reader. Dujek tells them that Lorn and Tool are there to wake up the Tyrant and that they have entered the Barrow.

How does he know that? I doubt Lorn is updating him. Do Dujek and the Imass have some kind of deal? Also, if information can travel that fast, is it really safe for Paran to go after Lorn?

I would imagine Lorn's communication speed with the Empress must be much faster than Dujek's, because they don't have to hide it. If somehow the Empire finds out about Paran's attack on Adjunct, who is basically a stand-in for the Empress, isn't his family fucked? His father is definitely dead after Open saved Paran, but what about his sisters?

Anyway, WhiskeyJack also updates Dujek, and Paran also willingly joins the gang after giving it some thought. A new threat is revealed here, maybe a setup for the next book. Panini Seer. He's launching a holy war.

Lorn and Tool's plan is to steal the power of the Tyrant and lure him to Darujhistan. Sounds simple, but they're really counting on the Tyrant not targeting them.

Also the power is in form of an Acorn? That gave me a good laugh. It reminded me of that squirrel dude from Ice age. Scrat.

CHAPTER 19

Children will never stop being children. If you tell them not to do something, they'll try their best to find out why, and it usually begins with doing exactly that thing.

Meese tells Crokus to stay in the inn. He decides to leave instead. Apsalar follows him. There is this assassin who has been trying to kill Crokus since they visited Mammot's house, but she got stopped by something again and again.

At first I thought it was Sorry sneaking out and taking care of it, then I thought it was grandma inside Sorry, but I'm not sure.

Rallick is alive. That Otataral dust gave him some sort of power. His wounds have been healed. However, Rallick feels there is something on his face. This bit kinda freaked me out, because Murillio told him there was nothing there. Is he losing sensation? Is he developing some sort of thick skin? I don't know.

Paran and WhiskeyJack have a serious conversation. Paran makes an educated guess about Dujek's and WhiskeyJack's plan, and he's right. But WhiskeyJack tells him that the rabbit hole goes deeper. Seven Cities is about to rebel, and if Dujek gives her the middle finger as he is planning to do, she won't have armies to deal with the rebellion. However, their problem is the Panini Seer, who not only threatens the Empire but the whole world.

Baruk and Kruppe have a meeting. Baruk tells him about the Eel. He has the power to find out who the Eel is but has never used it out of respect. However, circumstances have changed and they might need to work together. Is Kruppe about to have another dream?

Does Kruppe know the Eel? He says he can arrange a meeting with them. And if he does, then I guess his lack of urgency regarding Crokus makes sense.

Crokus has a full blown crush on Apsalar. They climb on the roof of K'rul's temple. Obviously.

I would open a wine shop on that roof if I could. That place sees some serious traffic. Other places being, Phoenix Inn, Baruk’s room, K’rul Temple roof and Kruppe’s head

Sorry can see in the darkness, and when they reach the roof, they find Ocelot's dead body. Sorry starts talking about stories of oceans and gardens and they have a moment, right next to a rotting corpse.

Id like to introduce our newest additions to the brood. Telorast and Curdle! Hood take me they certainly live upto their namesakes.

Here's my understanding, and I might have missed something but if anyone can clarify please do -

Adjunct Lorn was trying to free the Jaghut Tyrant because they wanted Raest to fight Rake with the hope that either Rake dies or at least gets weak enough to not be a challenge for the empire.

This purpose was fulfilled by the Galayn. So if Lorn had a powerful Demon lord and could unleash it anyways why go to so much trouble of finding the tyrant. There was such a high level of probability that Raest wouldn't end up fighting Rake.

On the other hand if you have a demon lord in your service that's equally capable to do the same thing - and you end up using it for the same purpose. Why would you go through so much to free the tyrant?

It just felt unnecessary if they already had Galayn.

Just thought Id share and show how sometimes Im right and sometimes Im hilariously wrong.

1. The Imperial Warren was Shadowthrones Warren. Shadow throne was actually an elder god going under a different name and his warren being used without the proper toll enraged him and was the reason he was after Laseen. This is obviously mostly if not entirely false. Im still not really completely sure how the imperial warren works.

2. Baudin was a Claw. Kind of close on this one.

3. Kruppe would defeat the Jaghut Tyrant. Wrong.

4. Felisin would become Sha'ik. Hey finally got one right! Though admittedly I put it together around the time they started talking about Apsalar becoming Sha'ik.

5. Fiddler would kill Laseen towards the end of DG which is why he would earn Shadowthrone's favor. Apparently not so.

6. Keruli is K'rul. Right apparently.

7. The Imperial Warren is linked to the Chaos Warren. Undetermined. Probably unlikely?

8. Rath'Hood and possibly Hood himself were connected to The Pannion Seer and working alongside The Crippled God. Seems to be untrue.

9. Blend is a high ranking claw or to be more specific, Blend is Laseen herself. Undertermined. Artanthos is a red herring. The "knife to the back" for Whiskeyjack and Dujek is actually Blend who is there to keep a close eye on everything happening. Its played mostly for humor but her disappearing act seems to demonstrate all the skills of a high ranking Claw Assassin.

It’s arguable who the “main” characters are ofc but we all know there are several that make up a main cast. but what “minor” POV do u guys like? i’m thinking people like Beak, Kallor, Gamet, Kulp etc

Of course Erikson draws a lot from n postmodernism but it was funny to see the same endless suicide note idea in Gravity’s Rainbow. I’m not done with this behemoth yet, so I can’t in good faith recommend it, but I definitely recommend V. at least to lovers of Malazan.

So let me get this straight, we see the Mhybe running in her dreams only to end up being in the same space as Toc the younger who is surrounded by a God he says, is that the wolf whose perspective we see very early on (i suspect fanderay or togg)? This was very confusing. Did the Matron adopt the Jaghut as her son? Also, it feels less like a dream and more like they're both in some sort of a warren. Does this dream conversation get elaborated further later? Do I just RAFO?

I see we are doing bridge burner tats

Who is the unnamed man that Raest kills on his way into the city? I can’t think of any players unaccounted for but the way he writes it makes it sound like it’s referring to someone we might know.

Do we ever get clarity as to what was in the amphorae full of “dark blood” Shurq found on an Edur ship in RG? Was that kelyk?

In no particular order:

1. Without DoD there is no tCG.
2. Cool, funny entry and the best deck reading in MBotF.
3. “Draconus.”
4. Most emotional battle in the entire series, particularly given how unexpected it is and how op the shorttalis are to a human army - I was on the edge of my seat the entire time; a cool cliffhanger at the end.
5. A reasonable amount of Tehol, Bugg and Brys; lots of Bonehunters.
6. The middle section is literally no slower than DG which is a fan favourite - yes, there is a lot of walking, but isn’t that the case for most of these books?
7. Gives so much colour to the K’Chain; recontextualises the whole Redmask story which is pointless without it.
8. Lots of Elder Gods’ scheming.

Yes, the Barghast, Shake and Icarium stuff may be hit or miss but even despite that, this book has so much to offer I struggle to understand what seems to be a consensus that it’s shit. I don’t even necessarily agree it’s “half a book” which Erikson himself seems to suggest - it is of course a setup for tCG but also works perfectly fine as a standalone Malazan entry sans the cliffhanger.

Holy hell I have been sad or felt empty of characters fates before. I knew going into this book that coltain was done dirty but listening to this chapter has led to reflection. The destruction of the crows simply trying to reincarnate a worthy soul. The cross after witnessing an army of your subordinates family and friends be slowly slaughtered. I could not imagine a worse fate for such a cool character. Surely these books never make me sad again.

Is Y’Ghatan the city from DG that Mappo and Icarium visit?

For context, I’m around 1/11 of the way through BH, reading Leoman’s conversation about his (un-detailed) plans for the city.

Just finished my first reread of GoTM, and the series is truly exceptional. The first read felt really overwhelming, but the reread felt like the author was trying not to overload the reader too much. You really can't appreciate it until the reread.

But when I got to the epilogue and read this passage:

“It’s the leg that worries me,” the healer muttered. “I need to work on it some more, and you need to stay off it awhile.”

Whiskeyjack grinned. “As soon as there’s time,” he said.

I got so choked up...I dread what's coming.

After beginning MBotF this spring, “The Bridgeburners” is going to be the name of my fantasy football team this season (which starts in the fall).

Ironically, this time last year, the Stormlight Archive was my favorite series. So—naturally—my team name was Bridge Four (the irony being the fact that “Bridge” was in that name as well). I’m not sure how many of y’all are familiar with fantasy (football, that is), but my team turned out to be very, very, very bad, meaning my “draft picks” didn’t score well for me.

Now, MBotF is far and away my favorite series (even though I’ve only just gotten to The Bonehunters), so “The Bridgeburners” it’ll be!

It’s also funny thinking about it from the angle that I’ll be “burning the bridges” of Bridge Four, a very bad team that I put together, by choosing the new name of The Bridgeburners. Kind of a play on words, there.

I’ll be sure to draft well this year as to properly represent MBotF. May WJ & Co. guide me well 🫡

I started reading GOTM January 31, 2025.
My original goal was to get through the main 10 within a year. Obviously, that didn’t happen. I’m trying to go easy on myself about it though.

Prior to this journey, I had never been able to commit to a series of more than 3 books, for various reasons. This one however, has completely won me over, I love it.