[Garak]

Thinking aside, the Malazan books are the only ones were I ended up going "wtf! Did I just read that! NOOOOOOO!!!!!" multiple times (I did that like four times at the end of Toll the Hounds alone). When I finished every book I just had to put it down and gather myself (especially after DG, MoI, TtH and DoD). Seriously, no other book or series of books has ever managed to stir my emotions (and I mean the whole range we humans are capable of) like the Malazan books.

[Primateus]

I'm only just at Midnight Tides, so I'm sure I have many such moments in store for me still.

[Braden]

Primateus, on 19 July 2010 - 10:33 AM, said:

I'm only just at Midnight Tides, so I'm sure I have many such moments in store for me still.

You mean you’ve not had plenty of them already!! Lol



Personally I’ve found the series quite easy to read and realise. I think quite a lot of this comes from my years of being immersed in AD&D or similar RPG’s as well as about 10 years of work in the Live Role Play genre. Seeing and working with a multitude of different realisations of how magic might work for example has lent me well in understanding quite early the notion of warrens for example.



Also, not being led by the hand and given every single detail has been the best for me. Again, in LRP, quite a lot is imagination…I’ve learned to use it and work with it, being given an outline of an idea and allowed to populate the missing bits myself is a fantastic writing skill. What IS really well realised is the environment (understandable considering Erikson’s professional background) and with a well constructed setting its far easier for a reader to fill in the parts missing from…physical descriptions of people for example…these are blissfully sketchy in the books and rightly so, the reader can imprint what they wish upon those basic descriptions (just as in a good AD&D game!).



To me the details that are given in the book are just background to the missing details – descriptions – and it’s a running theme in the series as it applies to plotline too! The details are hidden, often beneath layers of other plots..waiting for you, like Erikson, to unearth them to take that tiny potshard from book one, another from book 4, another from book 5 and then put them together in book 8 to show you the outline (not a complete item) of the rare and extraordinary vase from a time and land long past.

[Sapper JHall]

I compare reading these books to being on a archeological dig with the author. First of all, you are not going to find all of the pieces in a chronological order. Some of the pieces are going to be very ancient, and others are going to be more modern. Secondly, some of the pieces you find will be more complete than others but the more you search you may discover that some of these earlier pieces make more sense with the discovery of some of the newer ones. Does this make sense at all? I personally think that this fantasy series is the greatest that I have come across. Steven Erikson isn't just trying to hook you to read his ten-book series. He is trying to hook you to continually be reading these books over and over again. I will re-read these books many times because I am a huge fan of the search and the finding of all of these different complex layers. So is this series too complex? For some people most assuredly. There are so many people that I would NOT recommend this series to. That being said, for those of us who see the world a little differently than the layman, I think this series provides unique challenges but pays off so much at the end. I am a huge fan of Philosophy so reading Erikson is such a delight for me.

[Grimjazz]

Its probably because I've read a lot of fantasy and am a fan of huge complex worlds and magic systems. But I found GotM to be a really easy read. I didn't struggle with it at any point and if anything I just wanted to get further into the series and discover many of the other wonders of this amazing world. Deadouse Gates next.

[Dragoro]

Its defintely more complicated then the normal reads. A song of fire and ice comes close, but not nearly as in depth. Wheel of time and sword of truth series look like kids books compared to this series.

[Traveller]

'Are they too big and complicated?'

Depends entirely on the person reading them. If you read a lot, and have read similar things before, I can't see why anyone would have a problem. The complaints I've heard about not 'getting' what is going on from the start is based on the way SE doesn't spoon-feed information - which, for me, just made me (and others) want to read more to find out what was going on, rather than putting the book down because I didn't get a character explaining in detail how something like the warrens and holds work in the first chapter, for example.

I can imagine for some people this style is a bit complex, and I would definitely not recommend it to everyone - my wife just read the entire ASoIaF series and liked it, but I don't know if she'd like Erikson. I suspect not, though, they're very different books imo. I'd call MBotF truly epic, as it spans millennia, and features different races across different continents, as well as a comprehensive and often bewildering magic system.

Some people are going to like learning as they read, and others aren't. Like games I guess - some people like to get a guide at the same time as they get the game, and literally walk through it; while others prefer to explore and work it all out for themselves.

I think if you've got an open mind and like reading something that truly can be referred to as 'epic', then you will enjoy MBotF, and keep reading - even if it's just to find out wtf is going on!

Like the above poster - I never had a problem with it, I love the complexity that almost begs for re-reads, which are all the more satisfying as there is so much happening on different levels.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 27 December 2011 - 10:15 AM

[The Pack]

Without the complexity wouldn't this series be not too dissimilar to every other out there? The genre as a whole is saturated with novels which are similar in style and scope, the writing style of the malaz novels set them apart for me by not explaining things, while I was given just enough to grab my attention with the first book, and haven't looked back! I've got the last book on my desk along with the whole korbal set and the couple before the main story arc i didn't know about. Stoneweilder is a great read at the moment! THEN, as if that wasn't enough, Orb sceptre throne is around the corner. The best part of these books i enjoy is the "OMGWTF" moments when characters i had completely forgotten about pop back in for another go, my mind fizzes trying to piece together where they've been and to remember where i last left them. In this last part i fail miserably, i forget characters then have to look them up on this site to realise who they are. And don't get me started on my geographical knowledge, place names mean little to me as i can't picture the whole map in my mind in relation to everything else I've got a few decades left in me to sort that out though!

[Catherine]

This series is a thinking man's (woman's) series, how many other series have sooooo many ah hah moments, besides the obvious emotions we are forced (is that the right word?) to go through.

[D'iversify]

Hoid, on 13 December 2011 - 09:48 PM, said:

Its probably because I've read a lot of fantasy and am a fan of huge complex worlds and magic systems. But I found GotM to be a really easy read. I didn't struggle with it at any point and if anything I just wanted to get further into the series and discover many of the other wonders of this amazing world. Deadouse Gates next.

I think that whilst, as Traveller notes regarding his wife below, reading other fantasy previously isn't necessarily going to mean you're going to like tMotF, it is a series which it helps if you have already developed your literary pallette by having already digested a large amount of related material - not least because part of its appeal is that Erikson upends many of the genre's cliches that can start to stick in the teeth of long-time fantasy readers.

[Tattersail_]

I just think if you give people the first book then they will purchase the next one and before they know it they have the complete Malazan Series. I gave GotM to my work buddy after seeing him read a book by Gemmell. He gave me it back a week later because he had bought his own. It's so good to talk to someone in real life about Malazan who have a:not read it before b: are really excited about c:finding things out for the first time. It's increased our working relationship and i'm happy about it.

I know though that if someone dumped all the books on my lap at once then i'd feel a little intimidated. I'd still read them but at first it would be a daunting task. I like the excitement of looking for the next book to read as well. The bigger the better. I hardly like to read books that are stand alone anymore, I need a series. I like character development and complex plots

[Dutch]

I lend out Gardens of the Moon to an Uncle of my Dad last year, a while later he asked if he could borrow DHG and MoI and before I knew it he had bought the first nine books himself.

It indeed is nice to talk with someone in real life who has read it for the first time, last December I drove him back to the train station after he had visited my Dad's Birthday and it was a fun conversation.

The only complaint that he had was not the volume of the books (in total), but the loads of names.

[Powder]

The first post was in March of 2010. This post is Jan 12. I think we have a dangerous thread necromancer on the loose.

-Powder

[Salt-Man Z]

Powder, on 06 January 2012 - 04:58 PM, said:

The first post was in March of 2010. This post is Jan 12. I think we have a dangerous thread necromancer on the loose.

I say we break all his limbs and pin him under a sorcery-invested boulder. It's the only way to be sure.

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

No such thing as "too big": http://www.jimchines...baby-got-books/

Admittedly, I stopped reading GotM in the middle and started over at the beginning, so I could read it more slowly and carefully. After I did that, I didn't find it particularly complicated. Yes, reading it is like getting dropped into the middle of the story, and yes, there are lots of new words that I won't quite understand until later books. But discovery is one of the joys of reading. I love how SE doesn't dumb things down.

Anyway, I just finished GotM for the first time. If this is supposedly the worst of the series and the hardest to get into...then I guess I am in for a real treat, because GotM has just become one of my favorite novels of all time.

Goin' to Granny's for a belated family Christmas party on Sunday, and I'm gonna take DG with me so I can read it while the gabbers gab...

This post has been edited by Kruppe's snacky cakes: 06 January 2012 - 09:15 PM

[Blind Sapper]

The reason I love this series is because it is EPIC!

It contains a number of epic conventions, ie tons of characters, broad in spectrum, heck, it even time travels.
The reason you hear of people buying the series and not just going to the library is because all of the books are so fun to reread.
The Siege of Capustan and its aftermath are some of the greatest storytelling I have ever read. (and read, and read, and read.)

@Dutch, I lent GotM to my uncle, and he also bought the whole series. I saw him two months later, and he had filled three notebooks with names and information about them, just to keep himself on track. Thats dedication.

[RMosack]

Gothos, on 16 March 2010 - 12:27 PM, said:

Well, there's always Bauchlain & Korbal novels, ICE's books, future Toblakai Trilogy and Karkhanas Trilogy, the Darujhistan novel, Assail novel, Stonewielder, etc... I doubt that the imaginative gentlemen will just leave that world be for quite some time.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what the heck are all of those things?

Background: I just finished reading the first nine books (GotM through DoD). That leaves, I thought, "The Crippled God" (Book 10) as the last book in the series. Or so I thought! I was poking around Barnes & Noble a couple days ago to see if they have TCG in paperback yet. I was shocked to see some book about the Crimson Guard sitting there right next to the Erikson books. It was written by another author entirely: Esselmont (or something like that). Luckily, it was a name beginning with 'E', so it was in the same section.

Huh? Other authors writing Malazan books? What else don't I know?

What is "ICE". Are the other books listed in the quote more Erikson books or from someone else altogether?

[Sinisdar Toste]

RMosack, on 06 January 2012 - 11:25 PM, said:

Gothos, on 16 March 2010 - 12:27 PM, said:

Well, there's always Bauchlain & Korbal novels, ICE's books, future Toblakai Trilogy and Karkhanas Trilogy, the Darujhistan novel, Assail novel, Stonewielder, etc... I doubt that the imaginative gentlemen will just leave that world be for quite some time.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what the heck are all of those things?

Background: I just finished reading the first nine books (GotM through DoD). That leaves, I thought, "The Crippled God" (Book 10) as the last book in the series. Or so I thought! I was poking around Barnes & Noble a couple days ago to see if they have TCG in paperback yet. I was shocked to see some book about the Crimson Guard sitting there right next to the Erikson books. It was written by another author entirely: Esselmont (or something like that). Luckily, it was a name beginning with 'E', so it was in the same section.

Huh? Other authors writing Malazan books? What else don't I know?

What is "ICE". Are the other books listed in the quote more Erikson books or from someone else altogether?

Here's what you don't know:

The Malazan world was never SE's alone. from it's very inception it was a world built around pen-and-paper RPG's that he played with Ian Cameron Esselmont (ICE). many of the characters you've met are ICE creations (Shadowthrone), and some have nothing to do with ICE (Karsa).

ICE has three novels published: Night of Knives, which covers the night of Kel and Dancers 'assassination'; Return of the Crimson Guard, which covers... well... you get it; and Stonewielder, which is about Korel and the Stormwall, and how the Malazans are involved there. He plans to publish three more, one of which is due to be released in about two weeks. it's called Orb, Sceptre, Throne. The last two are supposedly going to be set on the continents of Jacuruku, and Assail, respectively.

(and don't forget to read the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas by SE)

Edit: oh yeah, the Kharkanas and Toblakai trilogies are SE's next projects. first book of the Kharkanas trilogy is called Forge of Darkness and SE just finished writing it.

This post has been edited by Sinisdar Toste: 06 January 2012 - 11:36 PM

[RMosack]

Awesome. Thanks for the quick response. And here I thought I only had one more book left to read!

Just arranged to pick up "Night of Knives" at B&N on the way home from work tonight.

[worry]

It's like Christmas all over again!