Smiley's Podcast

[SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MBOTF] Our penultimate summary episode on Gardens tackles the Fete from chapters 20 through 22, with the various Smiley's trademarked digressions and distractions sprinkled throughout for flavour (to wit, talking about polycules and AO3 - link below - Malazan fics). In somewhat classic Erikson fashion, shit happens fast and confusingly in the climax of Gardens, and so...

[SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MBOTF] One of the smaller sub-books in this book, Book 6 wraps up the setup for the Fete. Raest is released into the world, Rake lays down his creed, the Eel all but reveals himself to the world, the Malazans are in place, and it won't be long ere the Fete starts & Raest starts smashing shit. "Darujhistan" was taken so we had to find a different name for this sub-book,...

[SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MBOTF] This is a re-recording & so we may skip a couple things here and there; please bear with us. Correction: The Warren diagram I'm referring to was made by Sigilatus in response to (and addition to) Jade Raven's diagram; I was made aware of its existence by Niflrog & thus conflated them. My bad. Niflrog's video on Warrens (which led to the confusion...

[SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MBOTF] Assassin wars, dreaming and scheming Eels, Sons of Darkness descending, rooftop battles, oh my. This subbook includes by far the most exposition about the broader world (Founding Races, the calling down of the Crippled God), the birth of Silverfox (check out images of labour at your own peril!), Pearl (we do pity him, really), and a war amidst the rooftops of the Ci...

[SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MBOTF] Our questionable heroes assemble to storm Darujhistan in the titular mission, while in the meantime, the best scene in the book transpires. The dinner scene sets the tone for the rest of the Imperial storyline and offers an excellent lens to view the position of Adjunct through for the rest of the series. With the conclusion of the dinner, High Mages part ways, Gano...

[SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MBOTF] After a lengthy absence, Mora & Lee return to the City of Azure Fire in its earlier conceptions. From Kruppe's earliest mumblings & prophetic dreams, the machinations of the Daru crew, the Three Musketeer inspired quartet, assassins, maidens, alchemists, oh my! In the words of one Fisher kel Tath: Oh frail city, where Smiley's abide... --- Socials! Dust of M...

[SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MBOTF] Welcome to our first actual episode on Gardens of the Moon, wherein we tackle the insanity that is the fall of Pale, the prologue, and how utterly dislikeable Ganoes Paran is. Lee's one-sided beef notwithstanding, Pale is a fairly enjoyable (if, again, utterly insane) opening to Gardens, with a few kinks to be ironed out in the rest of the book & series. Links t...

[Spoilers MBOTF] Come one, come all, to our Malazan rereader's rereadalong (better title pending). As the title suggests, we are tackling the Book of the Fallen from a rereader's perspective, and as such will be spoiling the series extensively (true to our word, we've done so from the very first episode). This episode is more of an intro of sorts, tackling the (part atrocious, part pul...

Pending the start of our reread, we figured it'd be an interesting point to give a brief recap of the history of Malazan, how it came about, and what it is about, anyway, in a spoiler free manner. From the series' RPG origins to movie scripts to ten-book publishing deals, Malazan is storied both within & beyond its pages. --- Socials! The link to Blackdog Blues , as promised. Shoot us...

As promised, more episodes! The hope is that this reread — by rereaders, for rereaders — will carry us until Walk in Shadow comes out, or we lose access to the internet; whichever comes first. Join Lee & Mora in this (very spoiler-filled) reread of Steven Erikson's magnum opus (you wouldn't catch me dead saying that; Kharkanas is Erikson's magnum opus, but I hope this catches the a...

The end, at last. The book ends with a promise - there will be justice - and so it's only fitting that our podcast series on Kharkanas ends with a similar promise; there will be more episodes. The marriage is done. The war is over. The storm has passed; elation. Sorcery burgeons upon the dawn of a new world, heralding a new era; let us see what they make of it.

Draconus has done all this before. The tapestry unravels, Rise Herat spirals, Mother Dark releases her - incredibly righteous - anger, the battle is lost, the standard is struck. Rise paints an invariably different picture of the battle compared to Henarald & Wreneck, and what are we to make of that? There will be peace. And our socials in the description. Eventually.

The battle rages around us, ghosts are afoot, dragons very well might descend on the battlefield, sorcery is unleashed - and the climax of the battle, the various character moments, the last stands, are played out - in an oh so pointless manner - over the board of a wargame between a child who would be an adult & an adult who would be a child. Powerful stuff.

We march to war at the unveiling of sorcery. Things are coming to a head, ghosts waltz through the streets, the jigs are up on the betrayals, and yet, we view the world through the lens of a child. What are we to make of this? Find out with us.

A quick interlude in the betrayals & depression that abound the last episode, we have Prazek & Dathenar discuss & dissect poetry. And then more depression & betrayals, as you do. But the interlude was more than welcome! In any case, we're but two chapters from the end - the excitement is palpable. Please be a dear & pretend I've linked our socials here; we appreciate yo...

In what is possibly one of our longest episodes to date (the recording took damn near three hours!), we reach the beginning of the climax of Fall of Light. Betrayals abound, philosophy is uttered & mangled, sorcery manifests, love, ghosts, oh my! I'd love to plug our socials here, but we've not used them in eons, so just imagine I've put them here.

The end draws near. Hood's war draws to a close, his Legions having gathered, and its interlopers (Korya & Arathan) shunned. Heartfelt goodbyes are exchanged. Portentous prophecies are uttered. Lasa Rook finally gets a good lay. With the last episode before we dive headfirst to the culmination of the Tiste civil war, we wrap up the wonderful journey of Lasa Rook and company, and leave off...

K'rul and Skillen discuss the wider lore of the Malazan universe (how convenient) while Ardata & the dragons torment Osserc. The captain of my heart steals the show (since he already stole my heart), and we get a bombshell reveal about the nature of the Tiste. Oh, and a hidden astronomy lesson within. All told? A great chapter going into the ending. Take note, viewers, of our extraordinary...

The Hust assemble for the coming ritual, consternation taking hold of the soldiers as the unknown sorcery of the Dog-Runners will soon be awakened. Listar arrives - absolved of his guilt & grief - with the Dog-Runner witches, Galar despairs in the face of Toras' drunken indifference, and not even Prazek & Dathenar seem inclined to lighten the mood. Portent hangs above the Tiste, as it does...

[Information Requested: Why are the Shi family such assholes?] Bloodline is the hero's (ha) homecoming & in hindsight does plenty of legwork to set up the next large arc of the series. Unfortunately, being a Cradle book, it can only be so big, and it's got a lot of legwork to do. It's got a nice gimmick & a sense of heightened urgency (and cool fights), but it's also sandwi...

This is Part 2 of our Chapter 20 discussion. Following Anomander & company, we eventually stumble upon Sharenas Ankhadu, reminiscing about Kagamandra & war. Pelk & Ivis do much the same, while Gripp & Anomander speak of the coming battle. Wreneck thinks of Korlat & Orfantal and parental burdens, while Sukul entreats Rancept not to go to war. Love is at the heart of this chapter...

This is Part One of our episode on Chapter 20. Noble asshattery contrasts with the Liosan asshattery from the previous chapter, with the added benefit of Rancept & company to make things more palatable. In the aftermath of the noble congregation, we are returned to the company of Sandalath & the Dracons Houseblades, among them Lord Anomander, who gets to rant for ten pages. We've cut the e...

[Information Requested: Points] Wintersteel is a great book. Fast paced, exciting, cool ass fights, the culmination of eight books' worth of setup, it's just awesome. While we both could do with a little less emphasis on Lindon's POINTS, there's no denying that this book's awesome. [Suggested topic: Smiley's socials. Continue?] [Topic accepted, continuing report...]Reach ou...

Chapter 19 happens to be one of Lee's favourite chapters in Fall of Light, so this episode just so happens to push 90 minutes after editing (I'm sure these two facts are unrelated). Liosan asshattery prevails, Renarr provides Lee the pretext to monologue for sixty minutes, Hallyd Bahann (crowned biggest idiot of the book) gets his long-awaited comeuppance, joy all around. Emailing seems such a sim...

[INFORMATION REQUESTED] Holy shit you guys are still alive? It's been a hot minute since we last posted, friends, and while this particular Cradle episode has been stewing for some time, we finally did get around to posting it. Uncrowned is a while back, but we still look upon it fondly. If by fondly you mean "how dare you," then yes, very fondly. Uncrowned marks the beginning of the...