[Aftertime]

Okay so, to begin with I'd like to welcome all new readers to the series. I myself finished reading the first book yesterday, so we're all freshies here hehe.

As many of you have a tons of questions before starting to read such books, I can assure you that you gonna have a millions more of them once you start. I have to admit that in 20 years I haven't read a single book above 150 pages which means this - as a first one was a huge step over the ocean. I'm far from being native english speaker and I'd rate my english skills with a score of 6.5/10, so if you're anywhere near close to those statistics you can view the following paragraphs from my point of view.

For who is the book: The book is for anyone who loves epic fantasy, sorcery, assassinations, wars, magic encounters, mysteries, twisting stories and for the one's that would like to take their english skills to the next level.

For who is not:: /

What to expect: First - confusion. I'm gonna put it this way: first 200 pages are confusing as hell. You won't be sure what you're reading, you won't be sure who is who or what they're doing and why. Don't give up! After this, comes the best part, 450 pages of awesomeness. The story is great and it's pretty clearly written. You'll start getting it and it's meaning, you get to know who the main characters are and what they want to achieve, but still, be sure that a little confusion with the mysteries is gonna be present throughout the entire book. Keep on reading, cause as you do it, the things start falling together into a one big masterpiece and everything gets clearer at the end. Now the last part, last 50 pages are like semi-hard to understand. So many things going on, that you have to read it really slowly to fully understand it, so pay attention! Expect yourself scrolling to the first pages, throughout the book loads of times as that's where the map and characters are. EXPECT YOURSELF GETTING HOOKED!

What not to expect: You should NOT expect an easy read at all cause information you gonna need are far from being given on a plate. Oh, and don't expect forum members to spoil you stuff cause all you gonna get is "RAFO "

Tips'n tricks: I'd advise you not to read the book if you're asleep, cause all you gonna achieve is scrolling through the pages with not a single clue what you're reading. Steven Erikson made it that way, that you actually gotta put some effort into it. Wiki! Wiki is your best friend and all you need to know is there, BUT I warn you...it contains spoilers! Make sure to have open google translate while reading, or to have a dictionary nearby. The words that are not familiar, search them up and write them down, as it turns out that Steven used most of the "complex" words again and again. For better or even complete understanding, an immediate re-read is worth doing for anyone trapped in a state of total confusion!

Good luck, hope you found this helpfull.

Edit: For the ones that have already read the book, if you have any tips what to add/change, let me know, I'll try to keep the post updated.
Edit 2: Updated Egwene's tips!

This post has been edited by Aftertime: 08 August 2014 - 03:42 PM

[Aertheron]

I would say a good description and good tips.
The book is definately not for people that want to have an easy relaxing read like Harry Potter or Eragon.

[Egwene]

Welcome, Aftertime. I envy you! You still have all the other books ahead of you!!!

In addition to your tips, I would suggest that an immediate re-read is worth doing for anyone trapped in a state of total confusion. I did at the time and it was incredibly rewarding. There is a lot of info which only makes sense with the benefit of hindsight so unless you have total recall... read again . I promise, there are so many light bulb moments, you won't be bored

[khan1241]

I was told this series was amazing and had some spare money so I bought a box set of the first 6 or so books. I started it and was extremely confused and frustrated. I have read many styles of writing over many subjects and this was about the most challenging. I was regretting ever buying the series.

I felt the structure was poorly written and hard to understand and without purpose. It is like reading a text book, of a subject you don't understand, written by a nonnative speaker. I had to continuously reread sections to maybe understand what was being told to me. Then around half way through either my mind broke and reformed or the writing style changed. I could understand it much better.

So for all the new readers, I recommend keep up reading and give it a try. I am not going to lie, I ended up reading spoilers about the ending because of how dry and boring the reading was. But it is worth continuing . Don't give up!!

[sendo]

thanx for the tips. i am about to finish the book and it had been getting better and clearer

[SeomanSnowlock]

i never understood people who said this book is confusing as hell, and will make you feel like you have no idea what you're reading. aside from the plot elements which are to the characters even a secret, everything is laid out right there in black and white. anyone who can't figure out who is who, I'd advise to look at the dramatis personae section. it's ALL there and in the glossary.

"first 200 pages are confusing as hell. You won't be sure what you're reading, you won't be sure who is who or what they're doing and why. "
this was not even slightly the case in my reading. now, maybe I'm some sort of super-comprehending amazing reading machine, but I doubt it. I'm beginning to think fellows like yourself just GROSSLY overrate the difficulty of the book.
considering I've only just finished book 1(Pale) and this is supposed to be the confusing as hell part...come on. settle down guys.

[Whiskey Jim]

Lots of people read books, but few read literature. Their level of comprehension is relatively low. These books, being fantasy, make people assume it's like reading the back of a cereal box, then they read bigger words, and more complex sentence structures that make them have to think, and they fail.

[Abyss]

SeomanSnowlock, on 10 January 2015 - 04:56 AM, said:

i never understood people who said this book is confusing as hell, and will make you feel like you have no idea what you're reading. aside from the plot elements which are to the characters even a secret, everything is laid out right there in black and white. anyone who can't figure out who is who, I'd advise to look at the dramatis personae section. it's ALL there and in the glossary.

"first 200 pages are confusing as hell. You won't be sure what you're reading, you won't be sure who is who or what they're doing and why. "
this was not even slightly the case in my reading. now, maybe I'm some sort of super-comprehending amazing reading machine, but I doubt it. I'm beginning to think fellows like yourself just GROSSLY overrate the difficulty of the book.
considering I've only just finished book 1(Pale) and this is supposed to be the confusing as hell part...come on. settle down guys.

Different readers come at the series from different places.

If a reader is used to nice easy intro style fantasy where everything is conveniently explained as the reader encounters it, then being thrown into the end of a battle, then back to the middle of it, with various factions acting against each other, not a clear good or bad guy to be seen, and a wholly novel magic system can be offputting. Some people can figure it out, some can just go with it until all is explained, some push through... and then there are those who bail out. Which saddens me because their lives are emptier as a result. Alas.

[Egwene]

Abyss, on 27 January 2015 - 04:52 PM, said:

and then there are those who bail out. Which saddens me because their lives are emptier as a result. Alas.

Well said, Abyss.

I am thinking that 'difficult to read' is maybe not the right phrase to describe the reason why readers don't persevere. It's more a case of 'wrong expectations'. When people have read the likes of Tolkien, Jordan, Brooks etc., and fallen in love with the fantasy theme, they go out looking for more of the same. GRRM sort of delivers that theme at first glance and gets away with it. Erikson is a different matter. There is no clear cut quest, no one main hero, no definite good or bad cause. That becomes apparent very early on and there are many who feel lost in that uncertainty. Or maybe who just don't like that ambiguity.

My own feelings were mixed when I read GotM. I would and have describe it as a difficult read, not because I did not understand the words, or couldn't follow the story but because there was such a wealth of foreshadowing, it felt like I was holding the strands of a thousand possible storylines in my hand. The trouble was that, coming from traditional fantasy, I was looking for that one, main strand that bound it all together and it wasn't there. I defy anyone to say honestly that they had the measure of it on the first read. There is no way to fully grasp the richness of tMBotF until much further into the series. In fact, I would say that anyone who thinks they have must have read straight past a lot of stuff.

For myself, I decided not to worry about the storylines which were sneaking off into all directions, just to follow the main ones and not expect anything to proceed as I might have expected reading other fantasy authors. Then I did an immediate re-read and the rest is history.

So if you're looking to add to your tips, Aftertime... Do not read with pre-conceived ideas about how fantasy books are written and above all PERSEVERE!

[Kruppe'sStainedClothing]

I'm actually a new reader too

I'm about 500 pages into Deadhouse Gates

Gardens of the Moon is definitely confusing at first, but its because your thrown into this world that already has a rich history and culture that you need to piece together

i feel like the first book is a really good introductory book if you can finish it, even though it throws a lot of different and intense stuff at you...

trying to figure out the history of the first rebellion, and trying to understand what exactly a t'lan mass is, trying to piece together which Gods belong to which house, also trying to see all the foreshadowing the deck of dragons are able to reveal

the storyline though and characters aren't to hard to follow though, its just piecing together the world that is kind of difficult at first

also i still dont know what a sapper is.......

i keep thinking their just canadians that suck the syrup out of trees

This post has been edited by Kruppe'sStainedClothing: 05 May 2015 - 09:51 PM

[The Hust Legion]

Kruppe, on 05 May 2015 - 09:49 PM, said:

I'm actually a new reader too

I'm about 500 pages into Deadhouse Gates

Gardens of the Moon is definitely confusing at first, but its because your thrown into this world that already has a rich history and culture that you need to piece together

i feel like the first book is a really good introductory book if you can finish it, even though it throws a lot of different and intense stuff at you...

trying to figure out the history of the first rebellion, and trying to understand what exactly a t'lan mass is, trying to piece together which Gods belong to which house, also trying to see all the foreshadowing the deck of dragons are able to reveal

the storyline though and characters aren't to hard to follow though, its just piecing together the world that is kind of difficult at first

also i still dont know what a sapper is.......

i keep thinking their just canadians that suck the syrup out of trees

i kinda think of sappers as batshit crazy bomb experts/engineers. the kinda people you would never trust explosives with but know how to use them not effectively at the same time. i mean with the intro of moranth munitions a lot of their work involves explosive but they also dig the trenches and stuff so yah batshit crazy bomb experts/engineers to me anyways.

[Puck]

Kruppe, on 05 May 2015 - 09:49 PM, said:

also i still dont know what a sapper is.......

Sappers are not a malazan invention, though: Wikipedia to the rescue!

So malazan sappers are all that + Moranth munition.

This post has been edited by Puck: 06 May 2015 - 08:27 AM

[pavanvandaal]

Thanks for the post) i'm going to start the reading of this book. Wanted to read it for a year, after seeing this page, but didn't have time.

[Disgruntled]

I found GoTM to be far and away the most difficult to make sense of. DG was not too far behind. There is a big transition in MoI, however, where Erikson becomes much more expository, and lots of things start getting explained or are clarified. None of the books are easy, but if you get through MoI (and hopefully you do, it's fantastic), subsequent books become more of "page turners" that you can zip through a little more quickly if you're so inclined. It doesn't hurt that HoC, which immediately follows MoI, is probably the easiest read out of the first seven books (which is as far as I've got).

[Egwene]

pavanvandaal, on 22 July 2015 - 01:06 PM, said:

Thanks for the post) i'm going to start the reading of this book. Wanted to read it for a year, after seeing this page, but didn't have time.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did at the time

[ssaabbuu]

Great explanation of what I felt when reading GOTM. I am still through the series and it's getting better and better. Thanks for the tips.
What I would usually do after reading a chapter if I'm struggling is go through the analysis that can be found at goodreads where they explain every single chapter and make some comments too.

[worry]

Okay but the book isn't relaxing.