Return of the Crimson Guard - Ian Cameron Esselmont

bonkey

OK...I know its linking to another forum, but for any Malazan junkies out there...


Prologue
Chapter 1

/waiting for his copy of the first edition in the post.

ixoy

Any idea when it's going to be out?

Oh and bonkey have you read "Laughter at Lee's End"? I've read the other Buchelain books and wondering if this was of a similar quality.

bonkey

ixoy wrote: »

Any idea when it's going to be out?

First Ed before the end of this month.
Standard hardback should be August...might slip to September, though.
After that...October or November for the first paperback releases, I think.

Oh and bonkey have you read "Laughter at Lee's End"? I've read the other Buchelain books and wondering if this was of a similar quality.

I haven't read any of the Baucelain/Broach stuff. Keep meaning to track down a set. If you know where I can lay my greedy hands on a copy, a link would be appreciated.

ixoy

bonkey wrote: »

I haven't read any of the Baucelain/Broach stuff. Keep meaning to track down a set. If you know where I can lay my greedy hands on a copy, a link would be appreciated.

www.pspublishing.co.uk - They've got the full set.

They're pricing the 1st edition of "Return of the Crimson Guard" at £75 - is that what you're going to pay?!

bonkey

ixoy wrote: »

www.pspublishing.co.uk - They've got the full set.

Cool. Last time I looked, they didn't.

They're pricing the 1st edition of "Return of the Crimson Guard" at £75 - is that what you're going to pay?!

/embarassed

My sis gave me a First Ed copy of Night of Knives that she tracked down somewhere for Chrimbo in '06.

My wife heard me saying how I'd be tempted to get ICE's books in First Ed, but that the cost was just too high.....so she pre-ordered it for me for my Chrimbo '07 pressie.

Sensibly, she chose the dollar price, which has continued to make it cheaper and cheaper* as the release-date got pushed back

jc

* read as "less and less ridiculously expensive"

ixoy

*bump* It's out in the bookshops now (not released in the UK for another couple of days). Just picked up a copy - it's in hardback and large trade paperback formats.

moridin

Amazon delivered mine to me yesterday... and then I left it in work. Doh!

moridin

Okay, I read this one slowly (which is not like me at all) and overall I really liked it. Timeline wise, has a huge advancement to the whole malazan saga.... this is definately to be treated as a "must have" read for anyone following the Erikson books.

bonkey

I've resurrectd this thread, because I can't find the one where I was somewhat critical of the poor quality of proofreading in the first-ed that I got.

The reason I'm resurrecting it is because I'd like to say just how damned impressed with PS Publishing I am. They acknowledged the fault, and offered everyone who bought a copy of the first ed a free book of their choice from the PS Publishing catalog (on the provisos they still had copies of what was requested, and that it was released pre 2008).

Its far too rare a thing today to see such customer focus, and I just thought I'd applaud them here, seeing as its where I complained about the thing.

(Naturally, my choice of book has been the Corbelain & Broach collection)

fitz

I'm on the third novella of the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach book.
Great read.
And appearance wise, a beautiful little book. I'll definitely buy from PS Publishing again.

ixoy

fitz wrote: »

I'm on the third novella of the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach book.
Great read.
And appearance wise, a beautiful little book. I'll definitely buy from PS Publishing again.

"The Lees of Laughter's End" is going to be an X-mas pressie for me, so glad to hear it's good

fitz

Twisted stuff, but brilliantly written and massively entertaining.
I just finished "The Healthy Dead" last night.
This collection is definitely going to be on I re-read every once in a while.

On a side note, has anyone else suffered from Malazan withdrawal?
I've found that I can't get into other books cause I find the writing weak after reading Erikson. ICE suffers a little with some of his characterisation I think...some of his central characters (Kiska, Kyle, Gethel) are difficult to warm to, but the I think he's finding his stride, and the shared world and similar style to Erikson make it an easy transition.

But I bought a book a while ago (in between Reapers Gale and Toll the Hounds) by an author I've always enjoyed, only to find that I couldn't get into it because the difference in writing style was just too jarring...it just felt weak in comparison.

This series has me ruined...
I think I'm gonna start re-reading Ice & Fire...

Sarky

I found Return of the Crimson Guard a big improvement on Night of Knives with regards to writing. It gelled together a lot better, fit in more with Erikson's stuff.

And bugger me but the last few chapters were bombshells.

fitz

Yeah, I'd definitely agree there.
NOK was let down, imo, by Kiska's parts being irritatingly written. He seemed to have no problem moving Temper along through the plot, but with Kiska, there seemed to be quite a bit of repetition in terms of her actions, and she was a bit of a two dimensional stereotype. Lacked depth. Gethel in ROTCG was the same, but on the whole, the difference between ROTCG and an Erikson book was far less noticeable than with NOK. I'm keen to read what he does next. If he can improve that much again with his next book it should be a great read.