[DAJT]

In years past I have mostly read science fiction, but The Song of Ice and Fire left me nostalgic for some good fantasy reads. I devoured The Black Company.

Most of what I have read about the Malazan series makes it sound like exactly what I am looking for,

But I have had a hard time staying interested in GotM. I am going to rough it out for as long as I can just because of the overwhelming positive comments about the series.

My difficulties staying interested got me to read more comments and critiques about the series and it sounds like this situation occurs from time to time.

There were several comments that made me wonder about skipping GotM and starting at say DG.

The reasons for that are because so many people trying to defend how awesome this series is to people that put down GotM say how much better the series gets. Some people have also mentioned that the 8 years between the first and second book really show in his writing style.

So I guess my main question is; How much would be lost by skipping GotM?

Another question I just thought about while typing this is about several comments I have read concerning the complexity of this book.
It has been stated multiple times that in order to understand what is happening people actually take notes and draw/edit map's just to keep things straight.

Is that true or is it what I suspect and is just an over exaggeration of its complexity?

[Gust Hubb]

No skippy.

[worry]

A chapter a day keeps the doctor away.

[The_Wanderer]

It's not possible to skip and read all 10 of the books. You could start with the 2nd book Deadhouse Gates, and then come back to Gardens of the Moon. But in order to understand the 3rd book Memories of Ice you will definitely need to have read Gardens of the Moon.

[Garak]

Note keeping isn't required. Don't try to hard to figure out everything that's going on, you'll burn yourself out. Just let the story flow and enjoy the events as they happen and the various scenes.

Reading DG first has some spoilers for GotM but I actually did give DG first to a few people, since the quality of the writing is superior.

What you can also do is ask us about stuff you find confusing, people on this forum are helpful about that sort of stuff. There is also a re-read on tor.com (here) that might also help keep track of things.

[Tarthenal Theloman Toblakai]

Depends on how good your memory is I suppose, mine tends to be very good on the most part so I have never needed to take notes, I do forget scenes then I am reminded on here at points in time, bound to happen over 18 books and counting! As to skipping the first book, I would say that the first book is awesome and worth the read, but if you can't keep at it, go to the second then come back to the 1st, I think that maybe once you are used to the characters and the writing style, the 1st book will be easier to understand and to read. I did find the 1st book difficult at 1st but got used to it and now the Malazan books are my favourite by far.

[Puck]

As others have said, it IS possible to skip ahead to DG, but you will have to go back to GotM after that, as it's requiered for MoI. Also, GotM introduces a few things that are then taken for granted in DG and may seem like coming completely out of teh blue in DG, but there are people who have read and enjoyed the series this way around, so it's possible. Also, I think going back to GotM after DG might be easier because you'll have a sense of where it might be headed and be more in touch with the writing style.

This post has been edited by Puck: 21 January 2014 - 07:58 AM

[Garak]

Truth be told there a few things in both GotM and DG that at first come out of blue but as the series goes on, they make perfect sense. You just have to remember this world's history is taking place and we're only seeing bits of it - there's also a ton of stuff happening off screen or that happened before we began GotM (major understatement).

[nacht]

It is the friggin rite of passage Man.

This post has been edited by nacht: 21 January 2014 - 02:48 PM

[Abyss]

 The_Wanderer, on 21 January 2014 - 02:14 AM, said:

...You could start with the 2nd book Deadhouse Gates, and then come back to Gardens of the Moon. But in order to understand the 3rd book Memories of Ice you will definitely need to have read Gardens of the Moon.

 Garak, on 21 January 2014 - 06:04 AM, said:

Note keeping isn't required. Don't try to hard to figure out everything that's going on, you'll burn yourself out. Just let the story flow and enjoy the events as they happen and the various scenes.
...What you can also do is ask us about stuff you find confusing, people on this forum are helpful about that sort of stuff. ...

 Puck, on 21 January 2014 - 07:58 AM, said:

As others have said, it IS possible to skip ahead to DG, but you will have to go back to GotM after that, as it's requiered for MoI. Also, GotM introduces a few things that are then taken for granted in DG and may seem like coming completely out of teh blue in DG, but there are people who have read and enjoyed the series this way around, so it's possible. Also, I think going back to GotM after DG might be easier because you'll have a sense of where it might be headed and be more in touch with the writing style.

^these.

If you're a fantasy lit fan, you owe yourself this series.

[Khazduk]

As was said above, let the story flow.

I'm a Ph.D. in history and should probably be trained to manage these things but it wasn't until The Bonehunters (volume 6) that it started to come together for me on my first read. Up until then I had a very impressionistic take on it all, just sitting in slack-jawed awe of just... everything.

Or maybe I'm just basically slack-jawed.

[DAJT]

Thank you for all the responses. I got exactly the information I was looking for.


I have had some other things come up this week so I will have to delay getting into this series, but rest assured I will get through at least GotM and DG; like someone mentioned above, as a fan of similar books I owe it to myself to become immersed into the world of Malazan.




Thank you,
Dave

[Anaximander]

Regarding the note-taking business...

I don't know how others feel about this, but it may be worthwhile to know that Tor is doing a reread of the series: http://www.tor.com/f...d-of-the-fallen I wouldn't look at any of the comments for fear of spoilers, but there are chapter summaries for each novel. So...if you take a break and want a quick refresher when you return, it may be a useful resource for you.

Other--more experienced--folk might have better advice here, though.