Smiley's Podcast

[Information Requested: Smiley's Podcast, Skysworn, Description.] Beginning report... Skysworn, an apparently rather divisive among the Cradle community, that perhaps can be adequately summed up as "feels." Will expands the world some more (this time without implicating Lindon!), finally gives us the promised duel, ups the ante a little, then ups the ante a lot going into the next fe...

[Spoilers MBotF, NotME, FoD & FoL upto Chapter 9] Mandy broods, Brood mopes, and the Dracons household is caught in the middle of the maelstrom. The Prazek & Dathenar stand-in arrives on scene, and wonderful conversations about the woes of faith, societal injustice, sorcery & healing, and a more comprehensive rundown of Gothos' arguments ensue. All the while, the duo of Brood &...

[Information Requested: Smiley's Podcast, Blackflame, Description] Beginning Report... Lee & Mora are back in Cradle, following a sixteen year old kid that doesn't know what "surrender" or "stop" means. Well, two of them, really. In this installment, Lindon unlocks the titular powers of Blackflame through contact with a turtle (Why a turtle?) all the while training...

Riders as ever engaged in civil conversation, crows of black & white abound, a reluctant bearer of bad news, an unlikely couple sheltering an estranged brother, and Captain Kellaras being given a bath for five Hood-damned pages. It's that kind of chapter. Not very much happens in Chapter 8 of Fall of Light, but simultaneously, a lot of thing happen. It's a bizzare quirk of Kharkanas in...

[Information Requested: Soulsmith, Smiley's Podcast, Description] [Beginning report...] Another day, another Cradle book flew by. A book that well & truly made Lee go "nope, nope, nope, not this, no thank you" with just how much shit Will puts Lindon through. The "most obnoxious character" in Cradle makes his first appearance, our two protagonists are put through even m...

[Spoilers MBotF, NotME, FoD, FoL Chapter 7] And we are back, with verbosity & loquaciousness abound, though we highly suggest you watch/listen to the earlier episode as it follows directly from this, alas. No matter; we return to the whore's tent, where the whore becomes a goddess - or something akin to it; to the unimaginative drunk awakening to dangerous power; and to the captain affecti...

[Spoilers MBotF, NotME, FoD, FoL Chapter 7] Quite the loquacious man, is our Lee, to the point where this particular episode needed to be split in twain. Join us & be witness to the foul meeting between a Father & the unspotted Captain, one who styles herself Daughter Light & a truly horrid drunk, and perhaps the only good Issgin battling her own inner demons. Incidentally, we are also...

So after a night of considerable drinking, and perhaps some less-than-rational decisions, we decided - eh, why not, let's sit down & record an episode on reading orders. After we concluded that there is only one objective answer to this question & no dissent from common opinion shall be tolerated, we decided to at least entertain the possibility of dissenting from said common opinion....

In continuing with the "now the tale's tone must change" motif, we visit the Jaghut & observe their antics. Hood's army is gathering, and the Lord of Hate evidently disapproves of his methods. Arathan & Korya are stuck in the middle, and why do I make this sound so dramatic? A group of Jaghut are arguing about themselves while Gothos is drinking tea. Korya - observing a b...

What happens when two self-pronounced "hardcore" Malaz fans start reading Cradle? Chaos. Chaos ensues. If there's one word to describe Cradle, it's "addictive." Or hilarious. Or "lampshading," insofar as the bloopers are concerned. In short, it's a damn great series and we're just on Book 1 (technically at the time of publishing this, Book 2). We weren...

[Spoilers MBotF, NotME, FoD] And here, the tale's tone must change, and so must the tone of Smiley's podcast. Chapter Five gives us the mystical aura Kharkanas somewhat lacked due to everything being so... well-defined, provides some excellent levity in the form of Lasa Rook, and - perhaps most importantly - takes us to greener pastures compared to the doom & gloom of Kurald Galain. In...

[Spoilers for ALL Malazan books as I do talk about the ending scene of FoL] Why, long time no see, eh? Join Lee today in a somewhat more rambly episode about Kadaspala's thoughts on art (wow, the artist has thoughts on art, who knew), how that reflects on the author as well as the in-world narrator (much more on the latter), what that stupid portrait portends, Kadaspala's art being a gauge...

This is a long one. Buckle up, kids. From Caplo Dreem's incessant "Caplo-ing" (TM), the rise of an Eresal apparition, the incredibly cryptic flashbacks (and later flash-forwards) in the chapter, the stupid amount of double entendres ... you get the idea. Chapter 4 is arguably one of the biggest mysteries of Fall of Light, and we're not even a quarter of the way through. Going fro...

There will be justice. When that call came, echoing down the tavern, the two hosts of Smiley's thought it a sour joke. Join us as we continue our exploration of Fall of Light, into the rearmament of the Hust Legion, the rise of the Last Fish & Denier of Life, Truth & Faith, into the pure heartbreak that is Wreneck, and beyond - to the shore, for each of us will come to the shore. Lee a...

[Spoilers MBotF, NotME, FoD] In this episode of Smiley's, we get to meet the unequivocally best duo in the Malazan world (citation needed), talk about symbolism until the sun stops shining, and complain - endlessly - about the machinations of the Tiste. Seriously, people, when did "talking it out" stop being chic? This particular episode of Smiley's - as well as the entire book -...

And now, it begins. Fall of Light is a masterpiece and we can do justice only by limiting our discussions to one chapter per episode. Join us for the first one here and listen as Lee loses his shit at the appearance of his favourite malazan character. And don't worry, there are a few technical difficulties to keep things interesting. If you'd like to get in touch, find us here: smileyspodc...

Welcome to Part One - Part Two... Part One, Chapter Two... oh, don't worry about it - of Lee's series on Kadaspala Enes in the tavern's closing hours. Spoiler scope extends to all of Fall of Light (albeit no explicit spoilers are mentioned, a lot of this won't make sense if you've not read the book), and I spoil the everlasting love out of Antigone - which you should read. It&#...

Welcome to the first installment of Smiley's After Hours, a mini-series where Lee monologues into the camera because he can't be bothered to post his essays elsewhere (no, really). In this first installment - aptly named, "part zero," since it doesn't even get to the point in fourty minutes - we're discussing what makes tragedy, er, tragic, its defining traits, a few nece...

To our American audience still waiting on the Tor release of this book... we're sorry, because this is a damned good book. Hello & welcome to our quick pit stop before our dive back into Kharkanas! Forge of the High Mage is a delightful, whimsical adventure with some surprising depth and nuance at certain points. Of course, if you wanted nuance, you're barking up the wrong tree: half t...

Our (occassionally) drunk escapades have landed us on the porch of Ladrac (u/ladrac1 on Reddit), the newest mod on the Malazan subreddit and - far more prestigious, obviously - the newest addition to the Smiley's Tavern list of customers of honour. On this fair night we're discussing our collection of favourites from the Malazan Book of the Fallen (after having read through it at least twi...

Join us as we drink (perhaps more than is healthy) and make future plans for season 3. There's a bit of soul searching and a lot of unwarranted criticisms of books we haven't liked. But mostly, it's just 2 friends and co-hosts catching up over a relaxed half hour. Books we bring up: 1. Forge of the High Mage by Ian C Esslemont 2. Fall of Light by Steven Erikson 3. Legends and Lattes by...

"There will be peace. No, really, trust me bro." Well, folks, this is it, but for real this time. Our last discussion of Forge of Darkness, mostly drawing on our (unrelated) re-read of Toll the Hounds at the same time. Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone but Kharkanas and Toll the Hounds are awfully similar - cue shocked gasps - and thus, there's a lot of parallels...

"There will be peace." This is it, folks, our last summary episode on Forge of Darkness. The whole book has been quite a ride and these last handfuls of chapters don't let up, either. From Raal's machinations & Scara's amazing outburst, to Kadaspala's fucking excellent monologues (really, go read them, this episode isn't going anywhere), wrapping up in a poetic se...

Our shortest discussion episode to date as we approach the ending of Forge of Darkness, because - to be fully fair - there isn't very much to discuss left. We still need to do Fall of Light, and if we use up all our material here... Regardless, there's still a few things to say with regards to Syntara & company, as well as Ilgast and the now-placed-under-his-command Wardens. Chapter 17...

Three yays for Tiste with no sense of irony. Subtlety is often lost in civil war - so said Gallan, probably - but this is pushing it. Also, Erikson introduces a brilliant character for about three pages before they're gone again. Classic. Also, and perhaps the most important thing that happens in these chapters: incessant flirting - we're talking pages of the stuff - and monologuing. Spinn...