I am in my mid-late 30's. I have philosophy degrees. I wanted a distraction from what I normally read (i.e. academic philosophy, lit). I used to read high fantasy as a boy and teen and I was curious what had happened in the genre since I had moved on, and I found this series, the stormlight one, and kingkiller books (I read the first two books recently). This is not the fantasy I grew up with! The writing quality in the genre (if Rothfuss is a general indication) has very much improved since I was reading books as a teen. Although I still really enjoy Zelazny's Amber books (which maybe someday I will reread). Anyway, I also am impressed with the elevated scale of contemporary fantasy.
My favorite writer is Tolstoy. My favorite philosopher is Nietzsche. My favorite poet is Rilke. I love the Chicago Cubs and my favorite type of food to eat or cook is Italian (also regional Italian food, e.g. Piedmont and Tuscany). I was a goth in the nineties. I still go to club once in awhile for that. Denver has a wonderful community for that type of thing. I live in Denver.
So I guess I had two questions for you, to satisfy my idle curiosity.
1-how do the Malazan books compare to the Stormlight series? In the fantasy community at large, these seem to be the two series that brook the most comparisons: they are (so I'm told) both incredibly ambitious, the world crafting is very complex, they both contain an extremely large cast of characters, etc. not to mention that they seem to be the current fantasy series with the largest fan followings/dedicated communities. So for someone about to jump in, what would you say about these two by way of comparison?
2-I'm sure there exists a thread somewhere, but is there anything you would recommend me doing or knowing before reading the Malazan series? Something that, with as much experience as you have with it, in hindsight you would suggest would have made the reading/cataloguing/analysis easier the first time around? More efficacious, lol (I read somewhere here that Erikson uses this word too much). Anyway, suggestions are appreciated, thank you.
This post has been edited by AnthonyAlcott: 07 January 2017 - 08:19 PM