Smiley's Podcast

[SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MBOTF]And Gardens is a wrap! A decently lengthy denouement with Rake continuing to, quote, "aura farm," some setup for Books 2 & 3, sedition, betrayal, a love story, oh my. Deadhouse Gates will unfortunately have to wait (life is coming at us fast & November is promising to be very busy) but we may not be done with Gardens altogether just yet. Stay tuned.---Socials!Shoot us an email with questions or the like: [email protected] you prefer YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/@smileyspodcastJoin the r/Malazan Discord: https://discord.gg/V8EwKkdzv9Want schedule updates? https://bsky.app/profile/smileyspod.bsky.social

[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 while we don't have much to talk about thematically, there is a lot to (very) briefly summarise (courtesy of Mora's cliffnotes).Join us next time as we wrap up Gardens of the Moon, hopefully with fewer digressions.---Socials!AO3 link - https://archiveofourown.org/tags/The%20Malazan%20Book%20of%20the%20Fallen%20-%20Steven%20Erikson Shoot us an email with questions or the like: [email protected] you prefer YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/@smileyspodcastJoin the r/Malazan Discord: https://discord.gg/V8EwKkdzv9Want schedule updates? https://bsky.app/profile/smileyspod.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wanna buy us a drink? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/smileys

[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, you understand. ---Socials!Shoot us an email with questions or the like: [email protected] you prefer YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/@smileyspodcastJoin the r/Malazan Discord: https://discord.gg/V8EwKkdzv9Want schedule updates? https://bsky.app/profile/smileyspod.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wanna buy us a drink? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/smileys

[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) can be found here.---Shockingly, the sub-book titled The Gadrobi Hills takes place in the Gadrobi Hills. More Lorn (which is excellent news for yours truly) and, in less excellent news for yours truly, more Ganoes. Crokus is being a hormonal teenager, Anomander fucking Dragnipurake "outmogs" the Hounds of Shadow, and Coll & Paran sit down for a cold one. All the while, Tool & Lorn creep ever closer to Raest's barrow, and we creep ever closer to the end of the book.---Socials!Shoot us an email with questions or the like: [email protected] you prefer YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/@smileyspodcastJoin the r/Malazan Discord: https://discord.gg/V8EwKkdzv9Want schedule updates? https://bsky.app/profile/smileyspod.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wanna buy us a drink? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/smileys

[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 City of Blue Fire. All told, things are heating up within the confines of Darujhistan.Lest I've forgotten, there aren't any links we promised in this subbook, hence, socials!---Shoot us an email with questions or the like: [email protected] you prefer YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/@smileyspodcastJoin the r/Malazan Discord: https://discord.gg/V8EwKkdzv9Want schedule updates? https://bsky.app/profile/smileyspod.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wanna buy us a drink? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/smileys

[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, Ganoes & Toc reunite, arrests must needs take place, and Imass think of futility.--- Socials!The Caladan Brood songs we mentioned: City of Azure Fire and A Voice Born of Stone and Dust Our episode on Lorn in the dinosaur timesShoot us an email with questions or the like: [email protected] you prefer YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/@smileyspodcastJoin the r/Malazan Discord: https://discord.gg/V8EwKkdzv9Want schedule updates? https://bsky.app/profile/smileyspod.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wanna buy us a drink? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/smileys

[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 Memes link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dust_of_Memes/s/0kzCbF8BGqShoot us an email with questions or the like: [email protected] you prefer YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/@smileyspodcastJoin the r/Malazan Discord: https://discord.gg/V8EwKkdzv9Want schedule updates? https://bsky.app/profile/smileyspod.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wanna buy us a drink? ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/smileys

[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 to stuff mentioned:AP "A Critical Dragon" Canavan's various videos on Gardens' prologue:Analysis of Mother's Lament, Dialogue in the Prologue, Analysis of the first paragraphQuartermaster Pores' many essays on the Malazan Military. As examples, we add here: Ranks & structure, and the military's disposition pre the Fall of Pale.Flicker kel Tath's excellent essay on Paran's deal, and an expansion on the selfsame essay by michhoffman.---Socials!Shoot us an email with questions or the like: [email protected] you prefer YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/@smileyspodcastJoin the r/Malazan Discord: https://discord.gg/V8EwKkdzv9Want schedule updates? https://bsky.app/profile/smileyspod.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wanna buy us a drink? ⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/smileys

[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 pulpy, part wonderful) covers and the otherwise great prefaces of Gardens of the Moon, ere we get into the meat of things with the actual book proper.---Socials!The cover gallery for Gardens which we've thoroughly excoriated.Shoot us an email with questions or the like: [email protected] you prefer YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/@smileyspodcastJoin the r/Malazan Discord: https://discord.gg/V8EwKkdzv9Want schedule updates? https://bsky.app/profile/smileyspod.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠Wanna buy us a drink? ⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/smileys

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 an email with questions or the like: [email protected] you prefer YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/@smileyspodcastJoin the r/Malazan Discord: https://discord.gg/V8EwKkdzv9Want schedule updates? https://bsky.app/profile/smileyspod.bsky.social⁠Wanna buy us a drink? ⁠https://ko-fi.com/smileys