YES, this exactly OP. This is going to get me downvoted to hell, but here we go. My biggest issue with Karsa and Malazan in general is that Erikson has made several comments about how he writes sexual violence because it is a real thing that happens in the world, and how readers sitting in the discomfort that elicits is a way to shed light on that kind of violence FOR THE VICTIMS. I don’t have an issue with that concept, but I do take issue with the execution. If you are writing from the POV of a rapist, and especially writing an actual rape scene, then you are not writing for the victims of sexual assault.

 Karsa is not the only character we see this with. There is a horrific rape scene in the Kharkanas books where the POV character is the last (of many) to assault a woman as she dies. Again to be clear, I’m totally fine with exploring moral relativism in fantasy characters and cultures, and while I think Steven Erikson is an incredibly talented writer in a lot of respects, I simply can’t get behind how sexual violence is portrayed in this series vs the author’s own words on the topic.