Midnight Tides

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1. NoNotTheDuoDec 2023
   Gardens of the Moon, Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice, House of Chains, Midnight Tides, The Bonehunters, Reaper's Gale, Toll the Hounds, Dust of Dreams, and The Crippled God - aka Malazan Book of the Fallen - all by Steven Erikson.

   Talk about a renewed interest in reading. After getting through Gardens of the Moon, I realized that I didn't really know what was going on or why these characters were doing what they were doing. I found a readalong podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ten-very-big-books-a-m...), which really helped me put into context the storylines throughout the series.

   It's the most epic fantasy series out there. The stories are based on GURPS games that Erikson and his gaming partner Ian Cameron Esslemont ran in the 1980s on archeological digs.

   And there are an additional 16 novels, written both by Erikson and Esslemont, which continue to flesh out the universe.

   I became completely enamored with the books. I couldn't put them down. It took me from about February through October to finish all 10. There's so much content, and they really shine on a readthrough.

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2. gajjanagFeb 2017
   > It's serfs and masters, and it always has been.

   This is an excellent point, whose magnitude I have come to appreciate more recently.

   One of my favorite ruminations on the fundamental role that inequality plays in civilized society comes from "Midnight Tides" by Steven Erikson:

   "As they walked, Tehol spoke '... the assumption is the foundation stone of Letherii society, perhaps all societies the world over. The notion of inequity, my friends. For from inequity derives the concept of value, whether measured by money or the countless other means of gauging human worth. Simply put, there resides in all of us the un-challenged belief that the poor and the starving are in some way deserving of their fate. In other words, there will always be poor people. A truism to grant structure to the continual task of comparison, the establishment through observation of not our mutual similarities, but our essential differences.

   'I know what you're thinking, to which I have no choice but to challenge you both. Like this. Imagine walking down this street, doling out coins by the thousands. Until everyone here is in possession of vast wealth. A solution? No, you say, because among these suddenly rich folk there will be perhaps a majority who will prove wasteful, profligate, and foolish, and before long they will be poor once again. Besides, if wealth were distributed in such a fashion, the coins themselves would lose all value - they would cease being useful. And without such utility, the entire social structure we love so dearly would collapse.

   'Ah, but to that I say, so what? There are other ways of measuring self-worth. To which you both heatedly reply: with no value applicable to labour, all sense of worth vanishes! And in answer to that I simply smile and shake my head. Labour and its product become the negotiable commodities. But wait, you object, then value sneaks in after all! Because a man who makes bricks cannot be equated with, say, a man who paints portraits. Material is inherently value-laden, on the basis of our need to assert comparison - but ah, was I not challenging the very assumption that one must proceed with such intricate structures of value?

   'And so you ask, what's your point, Tehol? To which I reply with a shrug. Did I say my discourse was a valuable means of using this time? I did not. No, you assumed it was. Thus proving my point!'"

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