“Something can be born out of everything – if you want it to,” said Iris Haim, whose hostage son Yotam was killed in Gaza. Those words are helping her find hope, as she seeks to use his sperm to have a grandchild.
It’s been years but I don’t think you’re supposed to be picking sides exactly.
The malazan empire is explicitly corrupt and the invasion of continent a pointless and cruel disaster. The whirlwind in extrodinarily unnecessarily violent and doesn’t represent some unified purpose but one extreme faction rising to prominence. The chain of dogs could have been entirely avoided with an orderly evacuation but greed and cowardice + political scheming means a heart rending amount of suffering is going to take place.
In this backdrop a bunch of imperfect people are trying to do their best. The wickains are facing their own annihilation as the malazan empire subsumes them, but perhaps military performance can win them some freedom, a group of people set out to try kill the person they hold responsible but get tangled in a giant mess and end up maybe making things worse or perhaps not, a shithead becomes a broken girl but maybe also hope for tempering the uprising and wresting control from a corrupt and sexually perverted elite.
It’s just messy, and what drives it is people trying to do their best and often on different sides. You confront how good intentions can make mortal enemies and sometimes mortal enemies can become something else through recognition of common humanity.
The whole series is basically a meditation on the corrupting influence of empire, the momentum of historical events, the fundamental goodness in ordinary people, and how compassion can win something kinder from the ashes and blood left behind by imperial ambition.
It’s been years but I don’t think you’re supposed to be picking sides exactly.
The malazan empire is explicitly corrupt and the invasion of continent a pointless and cruel disaster. The whirlwind in extrodinarily unnecessarily violent and doesn’t represent some unified purpose but one extreme faction rising to prominence. The chain of dogs could have been entirely avoided with an orderly evacuation but greed and cowardice + political scheming means a heart rending amount of suffering is going to take place.
In this backdrop a bunch of imperfect people are trying to do their best. The wickains are facing their own annihilation as the malazan empire subsumes them, but perhaps military performance can win them some freedom, a group of people set out to try kill the person they hold responsible but get tangled in a giant mess and end up maybe making things worse or perhaps not, a shithead becomes a broken girl but maybe also hope for tempering the uprising and wresting control from a corrupt and sexually perverted elite.
It’s just messy, and what drives it is people trying to do their best and often on different sides. You confront how good intentions can make mortal enemies and sometimes mortal enemies can become something else through recognition of common humanity.
The whole series is basically a meditation on the corrupting influence of empire, the momentum of historical events, the fundamental goodness in ordinary people, and how compassion can win something kinder from the ashes and blood left behind by imperial ambition.