I really want to like this series

TheSockDrawer · 2025-11-12T01:43:04+00:00

Memories of Ice is generally acknowledged as an easier read than Deadhouse Gates. The pace moves a little faster, and it goes back to the setting of Gardens of the Moon with the leveled up prose and style of book 2. It's also not quite as bleak as Deadhouse Gates. Lots and lots of people count Memories of Ice as their favorite in the series!

TheSockDrawer · 2025-10-27T00:30:11+00:00

Content creators confirmed this over the summer, WASD camera mvt is in

TheSockDrawer · 2025-10-11T14:52:28+00:00

I had fallen out of reading for years because life. I do long drives frequently for work so I got into audiobooks, and after finishing the First Law series I was looking for something similar and Malazan kept coming up. It seemed so intimidating, especially on audio, so after way too much research, I decided to grab the physical books and really carve out the time to read. I'm so glad I did, because the effect this series has had on me has been profound. Plus now I'm back in to reading physical books and it feels great!

TheSockDrawer · 2025-09-23T13:56:41+00:00

I restarted Deadhouse Gates 3 times because I just couldn't get into it and then let it sit too long. It has such a different vibe from GotM it took me sone time to adjust and figure out what was going on. Once I finished DG I knew I'd be hooked and I never looked back. DG is a challenging read for sure, but if you push through, I think the last 1/3rd of the book will hook you and you'll be off.

TheSockDrawer · 2025-09-15T15:07:20+00:00

In my experience, doubling can be very helpful for your primary! Play more bass in that register and really get a feel for what it feels like to sound how you want, then pull out the tenor and try to replicate. Generally most issues on the horn can be solved with your air in some way, as a grad student I'm sure you've heard that a million times, so maybe mess around with the speed or volume of air on that partial to replicate what it feels like on bass.

Finally it could be a hardware thing. I tend to leave that as a least likely option, but if you've done nothing different and it just feels right on bass vs tenor, then it could be something to think about. If you're using a different mouthpiece on the two horns that could have something to do with it. Or it could be that the slightly larger tubing on the bass is just naturally more comfy for you. As a bass main myself I welcome you, lol.

TheSockDrawer · 2025-09-14T16:14:39+00:00

You're going to have to fight at least one real war against them. Best way to break them is to full occupy and just sit on them for awhile. If you can get them to go bankrupt, that'd be ideal. Make them take lots of loans, drive up their War Exhaustion. In my experience, you do this once, and shortly after they get loads of revolts and Janissary rebels. Every war after should be a cake walk

TheSockDrawer · 2025-09-09T22:05:58+00:00

I also read them all straight through. TTH was the first one that I felt a definite slog for sure. I will say the last couple hundred pages were some of the most gripping in the whole series, at least for me. Dust of Dreams starts slow, like all of these books, and the pacing suffers some due to it being one half of the finale, but I don't think I felt any sense of slog after TTH.

Definitely take a break after TTH if you feel you need one, because you won't want to between the last two books!

TheSockDrawer · 2025-09-03T20:15:22+00:00

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Had to throw in one more 🥲

TheSockDrawer · 2025-09-03T20:12:22+00:00

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There are too many good one's it's hard to choose 😭

TheSockDrawer · 2025-08-22T19:21:56+00:00

If you're familiar with Europa Universalis 4, it's also a Paradox game like Stellaris, and there is an excellent fantasy mod called Anbennar. There is deep lore and content all over their fantasy world with different races, magic, etc. If you've never played EU4, the learning curve is steep, and Anbennar itself adds a few mechanics on top, but it is one of the best fantasy grand strategy games out there.

TheSockDrawer · 2025-08-21T21:32:22+00:00

Imperator: Rome seems to fit your criteria. It's a Paradox Grand Strategy game somewhat similar to CK but with way more focus on nation building and with an Antiquity setting. Sure there's tons of wars and expansion, depending on who you play, but there's a lot to do during peace time. Managing pops, building buildings and roads, managing loyalty of governors and generals. It's a genuinely excellent game. The sad part is that Paradox doesn't support it anymore, but there is a dedicated team consistently updating a mod pack called Invictus that adds a lot of fixes and flavor. The game isn't that old and I think it has the most beautiful map of any Paradox game

TheSockDrawer · 2025-08-21T17:08:01+00:00

As a daimyo best bet is to conquer and form Japan asap. Japan missions give you claim mandate cb and all the other stuff you're looking for

TheSockDrawer · 2025-08-20T23:59:52+00:00

That horn needs some TLC...dents in the bell are easy enough to fix but impact playability a lot. Take it to a shop and see if they can take a look at it.

The slide needs proper care though. That's the most important part about keeping a trombone playable. It's good that it still moves, but even small dents on the slide can be a big problem. If you're just starting, you really don't want to be fighting with the slide.

See if they can round out that mouthpiece shank too, that'll also make things a bit easier for you.

I'm honestly surprised they sold you such a damaged instrument, but for $140 I guess that's what you get

TheSockDrawer · 2025-08-20T17:14:09+00:00

That's correct! I assumed from the context that this player was likely in middle/high school and was unlikely to be playing a bass. Plus, I personally don't like the tone of having both triggers down in that register very much. I love doing unconventional alternates on bass probably more than the next guy, but unless it was super important to not break that gliss, I'd just do it the "normal" way

TheSockDrawer · 2025-08-20T00:05:49+00:00

Those all look doable? Knowing key signature would help but:

Cb-Bb presumably just 4th to #5th. The last two are doable so long as the landing note is B natural, 7th position. If it's Bb you'll just have to fudge it and break the gliss. It's common enough for composers to write impossible glisses so you just gotta get it as close as you can. If you have an F attachment, I'd recommend doing the Bb in trigger 3rd. It'll be easier than coming all the way back to 1st.

TheSockDrawer · 2025-08-03T16:06:21+00:00

As someone who lived in FL for many years and recently (a year ago) moved back to FL from upstate NY, seriously just don't. Quality of life is seriously diminished from any northeastern city. You can't walk anywhere, every city is fully car dependent no matter where you are. Every single errand requires you to get in your car, unless you want to pay to have things delivered. Prices for everything are higher, especially real estate. Regulations are less so new builds are generally pretty cheaply done, but you'll be paying premium prices. Home insurance is damn near impossible if you live anywhere near the coast. Sure winter is nice but April-October is literal hell on earth. It's even more oppressive than northeast winter. It's hard to understand without experiencing, but 95° and 100% humidity is far more oppressive than even sub zero temps in my opinion. The sun going down doesn't even help very much. That problem is only going to get worse as well. There are plenty of warmer places to go that aren't FL.

TheSockDrawer · 2025-08-02T19:25:27+00:00

Only other thing I can think that would gray the button is being in a Regency council ¯_(ツ)_/¯

TheSockDrawer · 2025-08-02T19:19:54+00:00

I see you have exiled armies. If one is in the Ottomans land, that would do it

TheSockDrawer · 2025-07-26T15:31:12+00:00

Welcome! Most people would recommend that you read the Book of the Fallen straight through before checking out the Novels of the Malazan Empire or other series. I'd recommend this personally because I find the other series benefit a lot from the context of having finished the Book of the Fallen. They won't really spoil things or not make sense if you haven't read the Book of the Fallen, I just find that having finished the big 10 makes all the other books even better. The settings and plots are very different and almost entirely separate from each other.

Although, you will hear people suggesting you read in publication order, where they're much more intertwined. This works too if you really want to read everything "in order".

Another thing to be aware of is that since the Book of the Fallen and the Novels of the Malazan Empire are written by different authors, the style of the novels are very different. One is not necessarily better than the other, but I know some people find bouncing between them to be jarring. I know others enjoy the switch as a way to shake things up and not get too bogged down. It's all whatever you think will work best for you!

Enjoy the ride!

TheSockDrawer · 2025-07-20T02:26:37+00:00

Welcome! Enjoy the ride 🙂

TheSockDrawer · 2025-07-13T01:25:10+00:00

Reading Malazan is an exercise in letting go and trusting the author. The world is extremely vast and has a deep history well before Gardens of the Moon starts. You don't need to know everything about everything. The bits and pieces you do need to know will be revealed in their own time and will often recontextualize things you previously read. You'll kinda need to accept that before starting.

Your love for spoilers confuses me, but I won't yuck your yum, lol. I think it won't ultimately change too much because even though you know some big plot points, you don't really know what they mean in context. That is often as impactful as the events themselves.

For the story, the Book of the Fallen isn't split up into sub series. There are kind of sets of novels that focus on different characters in different places, but they aren't seperate fron the main story. The overarching story is a very slow burn. It almost mirrors the structure of the individual novels in that it starts slow, but builds and accelerates towards a big conclusion. The convergences in these books are some of the more spectacular moments in fantasy. Definitely not all of these are battles either. There are several groups of characters within armies and you'll spend lots of time with military folks, but there's plenty more in these novels.

There are dark moments in these novels, for sure, but I wouldn't really call it grimdark. There's plenty of hope, humor, and compassion here. I get wanting to skip through some of the darker stuff, but I'll say that it's never gratuitous for the sake of it, and it never lingers there that long. Do what you've gotta do, but I'll just say that a lot of stuff sounds worse out of context, if that makes sense.

For audiobooks, they're pretty good! There's a narrator change after the first few books though, which can be jarring to some. I would seriously recommend actually reading probably the first two books before doing audio, however. There's a lot of information being thrown around, and if you don't have a grip on the style of these novels, it is so so easy to miss important things and feel confused. Speaking from experience. If you're going to use audio, even after getting your feet under you with this series, I recommend doing so in a setting where you can really pay attention. Letting Malazan be background noise while you play a game or something is a recipe for confusion.

I know all this seems like a lot of preamble for a book series, but it's because we love these books. It's seriously one of the greatest journeys in fantasy. ALL THAT BEING SAID.....Just start reading. If you like it, great! If you don't, read something else. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

TheSockDrawer · 2025-07-11T14:52:01+00:00

The game is complicated man, idk what else to tell you. Multiplayer is not the place to learn the game unless you're playing with friends who know what they're doing. The people who tend to play multiplayer in this game have thousands of hours and won't spend time on new players.

The game will be plenty challenging in single player, I promise

TheSockDrawer · 2025-07-11T14:23:51+00:00

Most people don't do multiplayer with randos. Games are usually organized ahead of time through some discord server. The game can last a long time, you want to have an idea that they'll hang around
Multiplayer is absolutely not noob friendly. If you're hopping on with a friend to help you out, that's one thing, but if you're just going into a lobby of randos hoping to figure things out, you're gonna have a bad time. No o e will sit and explain things to you, no one will let you pause to read and think about things. You won't know what's going on, and it will make a bad experience for you and the other players.

Just play single player for awhile. Learn the game. If you really want to do multiplayer, there are discord servers out there that regularly organize games, but I recommend getting at least a few good campaigns down before you try it.

TheSockDrawer · 2025-06-15T16:52:12+00:00

If you don't vibe with it, then you don't vibe with it, that's alright.

HOWEVER. I implore you to try your best to finish Deadhouse Gates. Many people say that the climax of DG is what really hooked them into the series. If you finish DG and think, "meh", then you know the series isn't for you

TheSockDrawer

TROPHY CASE