#Felisin

[eminjbrylv]

[iwillberunningfromdemons]

But blood is the chain that can never break.

Tavore was now twenty strides away. Drawing out her otataral sword.

And, though we leave the house of our birth, it never leaves us.

Sha'ik could feel the weight of her own weapon, dragging hard enough to make her wrist ache. She did not recall unsheathing it.

Beyond the mesh and through the slits of the visor, Tavore strode ever closer, neither speeding up nor slowing.

No catching up. No falling back. How could there be? We are ever the same years apart. The chain never draws taut. Never slackens. Its lenght is prescribed. But its weight, oh, its weight ever varies.

She was lithe, light on her feet, achingly economical. She was, for this moment, perfect.

But, for me, the blood is heavy. So heavy.

And Felisin struggled against it - that sudden, overwhelming weight. Struggled to raise her arms - unthinking of how that motion would be received.

Tavore, it's all right-

A thunderous clang, a reverberation jolting up her right arm, and the sword's enervating weight was suddenly gone from her hand.

Then something punched into her chest, a stunning blossom of cold fire piercing through flesh, bone - and then she felt a tug from behind, as if something had reached up, clasped her hauberk and yanked on it - but it was just the point, she realized. The point of Tavore's sword, as it drove against the underside of the armour shielding her back.

(...)

Blood.

Of course. This is how you break an unbreakable chain.

By dying.

I just wanted to know, Tavore, why you did it. And why you did not love me, when I loved you. I - I think that's what I wanted to know.

The boot lifted from her chest. But she could still feel its weight.

Heavy. So very heavy...

Oh, Mother, look at us now.

House of Chains, by Steven Erikson (Malazan Book of the Fallen #4)

[roseunspindle]

Reading deadhouse gates and I feel like Felisin is kinda getting the short end of the stick here. She's a teenage noble girl, who's sister betrayed her, and she trauma bonds with a handled ex-priest and a thug. She pretty much has like a day of being chained up during a plague holiday, then through a riot with blood and gore and violence abounding. Then they are on a ship and the only way to not get tied up in the bowels where you rot or drown is for her to trade herself and she does so because teen girl trying to survive and the two dudes she trauma bonded with. Get to the mines and she gets picked quickly by a slave who is over the other slaves and she once again uses her body to get safetly and aid for herself and her companions (it's all she has) cue said companions treating her like shit and looking down on her for doing so. Also being with guy hurts like hell, and starts trading her to friends and her life is shit but she still thinks she's accomplishing something...then guy gets her hooked on a drug and tries to dump her once she's inevitably hooked. Her companions even think to potentially abandon her because she "seems to have made herself a paradise" like she had any choice? She was trying to have some control but she was a damn kid with no real support from either of you. Then she gets told by them later that "oh your efforts were pointless we got stuff for ourselves, just fel to bad to tell you you were suffering for nothing". Like no wonder this poor girl becomes so acidic and hate filled.

[malazanquotes]

You cannot be remade unless you are first broken

Felisin, Deadhouse Gates, pg. 638

[ae-neon]

One thing about being a woman (and in particular a black woman) is always being burdened with the expectation to remain resilient and gracious, to remain strong through struggle

That's why I love female characters like Nesta Archeron and Felisin Paran, who are bitter, who are broken and exist in sharp shards, who cut even the people who try to hold them because that is simply the form they exist in.

Through simple proximity they cannot help but hurt the ones they love, even though they don't want to

That is the realest, most human shit ever

But fandoms will always despise this in female characters because they expect them to have a sense of grace, a certain level of acquiescence, and an overt kindness to those around them

Fans often expect these characters to perform according to their expectations of femininity and completely ignore or brush over the internal struggles or moral values of these women. It is not enough for these characters to think or act for the benefit of others if it doesn't feel like a direct apology to the often male characters who are important to the audience

Fans ignore how words or actions may hurt these characters while magnifying how the characters words or actions hurt others.

There is no empathy for unkind female characters and straight up contempt for 'ungrateful' ones

[eve-is-obsessed]

Malazan character tier list

Felisin Paran

Sha'ik Reborn

Ganoes' sister

leader of the Whirlwind

Tavore's sister

[apollo-cackling]

a good female character is when a female character is traumatised and abrasive. the more awful she is to be around the gooder female character she is

[every-character-ever-poll]

FELISIN PARAN - Malazan Book of the Fallen

Credit to @merhelv

[say-gex]

[estrogenizedquark]

Thinking about Felisin Paran’s death again

[fox-buried-in-maple-leaves]

18 (short) Drabbles Inspired By @cerasus--flores. Part Fifteen!

“Jing!”

You called after the felisine girl, gasping for air as she ran ahead of you with glee. You couldn’t keep up with her, especially not her in fact! Your hands on your thighs as you bent over, trying desperately to catch your breath.

“Oh come on!” She stopped, boots skidding in the dirt as she quickly pivoted on her heel. Her tail swished behind her as she put her hands on her hips. Your name left her lips and she shook her head at you. “We’re not even halfway to the base!”

You stood up straight, adjusting your bag on your shoulder as you walked after her. “Last I checked the base isn’t going anywhere.” At least, it wasn’t slated to change any time soon. At least Jing let you catch up with her. But she was jogging in place, already ready to go again, and you couldn’t imagine where she got the energy.

“Captain Xie is waiting for us!”

You held your hand to your forehead, shielding your eyes from the sun as you looked up at the blue sky. “Captain Xie is sleeping, it's only noon.” You lowered your head to look at her, quirking an eyebrow as she rolled her eyes at you.

“Semantics!” She stuck her tongue out between her fangs. “He’ll still be waiting for our mission report! That village isn’t going to fix its plumbing problem on its own, you know.” She skipped ahead and you groaned, following after her already increased pace.

“I know! I’m just saying, I would have liked to enjoy the scenery a bit more!”

Jing barked out a laugh that ended with the softest ‘mew’ you almost missed it. “Scenery!? It’s all the same.” She spun in circles as she walked, her arms outstretched, her black tail hit you in the leg. That wasn’t remotely the truth, but you could understand her lack of appreciation.

She looked at a lot of the same infrastructure as part of her position.

“Still. Take it slow, Jing. Enjoy life.”

Jing stopped and grinned at you with bright eyes.

“I am enjoying life! I got you by my side.”

[eminjbrylv]

Malazan 4 də belə bitdi. 10/10 xal verdim çünki Malazan dünyası baxımından yetərincə açıqlayıcı hadisələr, söhbətlər oldu. Seriyanın oxuduğum digər kitabları ilə müqayisədə ikinci və üçüncü kitabların səviyyəsinə yaxın dura bilməyib heç. Görək İthaki yayınları 5. kitab üçün nə qədər gözlədəcək oxuyucuları...

[iwillberunningfromdemons]

He saw her at the edge of the glade, small, bedraggled, pulling herself forward in torturous increments.

L'oric reached her side, a hand reaching to settle at the back of her head, onto sweat-snarled hair. She flinched away with a squeal, fingers clawing against his arm. "Felisin! He's gone! It is L'oric. You are safe with me. Safe, now-"

But still she sought to escape.

"I shall call upon Sha'ik-"

"No!" she shrieked, curling tight on the sand. "No! She needs him! She needs him still!" Her words were blunted by broken lips but understandable none the less.

L'oric sank back, struck mute by the horror. Not simply a wounded creature, then. A mind clear enough to weigh, to calculate, to put itself aside... "She will know, lass - she can't help but know."

"No! Not if you help me. Help me, L'oric. Just you - not even Heboric! He would seek to kill Bidithal, and that cannot be."

"Heboric? I want to kill Bidithal!"

"You musn't. You can't. He has power-"

He saw the shudder run through her at that.

L'oric hesitated, then said, "I have healing salves, elixirs... but you will need to stay hidden for a time."

"Here, in Toblakai's temple. Here, L'oric."

"I will bring water. A tent."

"Yes!"

The rage that burned in him had contracted down to a white-hot core. He struggled to control it, his resolve sporadically weakened by doubts that he was doing the right thing. This was... monstrous. There would be an answer to it. There would have to be an answer to it.

Even more monstrous, he realized with a chill, they had all known the risk. We knew he wanted her. Yet we did nothing.

House of Chains, by Steven Erikson (Malazan Book of the Fallen #4)

[optiwashere]

I stopped reading Gardens of the Moon after 250~ pages because frequent character switches got confusing and I couldn't get a solid idea of the magic system. Does it ever get better?

I liked the the prologue, but I feel like they just dropped me into middle of 50 different powers scheming against each other after that. Also the coin is spinning.

TL;DR — This is a series that I love but really struggle to recommend.

Anon, it took me... ten years (?) to finish that book. I still think it's pretty terrible even having read the whole main series. So, I get where you're coming from lol.

That said, the writing quality immediately skyrockets when you hit Deadhouse Gates due to the fact that he wrote that book so many years after the first. But the books fly around a massive world and constantly switch around POVs, so...

If you don't like frequent POV switches, then you won't like the series. Flat out. There's something like 450 POV characters, but some of those brief POVs are some of the most powerful. Some of the characters are really high up in my faves of all time. Onos T'oolan, Tavore & Felisin Paran, Beak... Samar Dev??? Korlat!!! Itkovian, my beloved... there's some amazing characters mixed in with some truly awful ones.

And if you're someone that likes hard magic systems, you won't like Warrens. I don't like hard magic — when a book touts its "magic system" first, I'm immediately negatively biased towards it through no fault of the writer in 99% of cases — so it worked for me.

Pros:

Really broad worldbuilding with lots of cultural influences that aren't Western blended in with traditional Western fantasy.

Erikson has an excellent prose style later on (yeah, I know, it's very difficult to believe considering Gardens) and he has a very elegant way of expressing postmodernist ideas.

Extremely varied women characters (hell, Tattersail in Book 1 is already pretty unusual, sadly, in fantasy for being a fat character who's noted as extremely attractive — and Erikson doesn't stop at her when it comes to hot fat women, what a king.)

My favorite withdrawn, depressed, badass, ruthless lesbian commander character of all time, Tavore Paran.

Very strong messages about compassion and what it means to do "the right thing" in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Despite largely dealing with militaries and soldiers, the books are really about kindness, loss, and love, as well as finding the space within oneself to reject the notion of unconquerable despair.

Cons:

Erikson has, like, four character archetypes and they all blend together (barring a few standout characters.)

The worldbuilding is so broad that it sometimes feels pretty shallow.

Erikson loves using excessive epithets (the soldier, the ex-priest, etc.) and it's wild that those made it through professional editing.

Sometimes, Erikson likes his own prose style so much that we have to listen to identical characters internally monologue over identical woes and dramas. I love the Tiste Andii, but holy shit...

There are so many cases of plotting being hidden from the reader in transparent ways. Conversations where two people will refuse to elaborate their thoughts where they often cut off one another with inane, oblique reasons so that the reader is left in the lurch in a way that is often personally unsatisfying.

Possibly neutral or possibly a con, but there's a trillion content warnings scattered all through the books that are actually really, really serious (lots of sexual assault, and in several of those cases it's either completely unnecessary or actively detrimental to the story IMO.)

Having said all of that, I'll leave you with some quotes for why I still love the series despite its (to me) many flaws:

Open to them your hand to the shore, watch them walk into the sea. Press upon them all they need, see them yearn for all they want. Gift to them the calm pool of words, watch them draw the sword. Bless upon them the satiation of peace, see them starve for war. Grant them darkness and they will lust for light. Deliver to them death and hear them beg for life. Beget life and they will murder your kin. Be as they are and they see you different. Show wisdom and you are a fool. The shore gives way to the sea. And the sea, my friends, Does not dream of you. —Reaper's Gale

"No tyrant could thrive where every subject says no. The tyrant thrives when the first fucking fool salutes." —Toll the Hounds

Against a broken heart, even absurdity falters. Because words fall away. A dialogue of silence. That deafens. & The failure of hope has a name: it is called suffering. —The Crippled God

[literary-illuminati]

tbh I am kind of hoping you'll read mbotf to see what things you'll say about my girl felisin paran lol but no pressure

So I mean, I am enjoying Forge of Darkness! Definitely willing to try the main series.

BUT 900 pages is Too Long for one book*. Going to take a looong break from big fantasy chonkers after this. I've got histories of the Commanche and Ancient Near East that have finally that finally arrived** and my hold on the first book in the one xianxia novel series about necromancers everyone's been insane about since 2020 finally came around. So, like, sometime in 2024, probably? :P

*Web serials are different. Also I can read them as they come out.

**The clerk at the bookstore recognizes me by face at this point, I'm kind of curious what they think of my order history.

[ae-neon]

Thinking about how Felisin Paran had the Paran name and her autonomy taken from her as she is sold into slavery. And she learns to give up, to acquiesce, in her words "no rape, no grief".

And then she's encroached upon by this goddess of the apocalypse who promises power and blood. She's slowly taken over and, as the broken girl has learnt to do, she acquiesces until even the armour which shielded her inner child is broken and she becomes Sha'ik Reborn

But then - perhaps as a last act of the girl she once was - Felisin passes on her name, rather than give it up, to the girl she adopts in the hope that the girl and "Felisin" live better lives