[chris777]

Two part question.

One.

Convince me to reread or not to reread. I really can't make up my mind. What has been your experience rereading Malazan? I've been reading for a couple decades now and have yet to reread any books. This series would be the first. I feel it's deserving. I'm just not sure I can enjoy a story that holds little mystery.

Two.

If I do reread, how? I definitely don't want to read ICE again. So it will just be SE's series. I also am a little scared of hundreds of pages of the "Snake" or Felesin younger's broken army story line. All seemed to have little to do w/the main story. Mostly I just want to relive the moments of Rake vs Dassem, Hood biting a Forkrul's head off. Karsa being Karsa. And of course all the Tehol and Bugg commentary. What do you guys think is safe to skip? Any entire books?

[Andorion]

chris777, on 18 January 2016 - 04:31 PM, said:

Two part question.

One.

Convince me to reread or not to reread. I really can't make up my mind. What has been your experience rereading Malazan? I've been reading for a couple decades now and have yet to reread any books. This series would be the first. I feel it's deserving. I'm just not sure I can enjoy a story that holds little mystery.

Two.

If I do reread, how? I definitely don't want to read ICE again. So it will just be SE's series. I also am a little scared of hundreds of pages of the "Snake" or Felesin younger's broken army story line. All seemed to have little to do w/the main story. Mostly I just want to relive the moments of Rake vs Dassem, Hood biting a Forkrul's head off. Karsa being Karsa. And of course all the Tehol and Bugg commentary. What do you guys think is safe to skip? Any entire books?

You should definitely reread. This series rewards rereads a lot. You will see so many things you missed, make connections you couldn't spot foreshadowing etc. The reread enhances the series and you get to understand the degree of depth and complexity on the books

If you don't want to read ICE just read the ten erikson books. I wouldn't advice skipping. I found in my reread that several stretches/parts that I really disliked - Snake, early TtH etc changed. I started enjoying those parts more.

[Egwene]

Step 1:Pick up Gardens of the Moon and begin reading

Step 2:Realise after a few pages that you are completely hooked in again

Step 3:You come to a bit you don't like... skip carefully. As Andorion was saying some of those bits may grow on you. But nobody is forcing you to read every word (I definitely have my regular skips during my regular re-reads)

Step 4:As you are not wanting to re-read ICE (although, I like re-reading some of these as well, personally) then I would say re-read main series in order of publication.

Step 5:You will come to realise just how good re-reading is and you'll kick yourself for having got rid of some of your old books!

And in case you are not yet sure...YES, you definitely want to re-read. A lot of readers will tell you that they thought the first re-read to be an even better experience than the initial read, myself included.

[Gorefest]

Well, it is a very personal choice. It is a massive series and a big time investment, so really it's not for us to tell you what to do.
Having said that, this series is incredibly rewarding on a reread. There is sooo much that one misses upon a first read. Lots of things that in the first read seem odd, disjointed or unconnected suddenly fall into place. There will be tons of stuff that you completely forgot, skimmed over or rejected as seemingly unimportant that suddenly clicks into place. And you can marvel about the incredible amount of foreshadowing of events that is impossible to appreciate on a first read.
Also, the ICE books are actually also a lot more insightful upon a reread, especially NoK and RotCG. So I would definitely advise to at least reread those, if not any of the others.
But yeah, really, it's your call. Or just leave it for a while and come back to them in a few years' time, when the dust has settled.

[chris777]

Thanks for replies guys, I think you have convinced me. I've been wanting to do this for awhile. What prompted this now was that I just finished Assail. I thought it was pretty good. Got me jonesing for Malazan again. So, still not sure I will read the other ICE books again. While I did like the stuff about the Seguleh quite a bit, it wasn't nearly as good as SE.

I have not gotten rid of any books. I have GotM sitting on my nightstand as we speak. =)

[Abyss]

1 - Yes, reread. This is a series that rewards the reread. There is a metric fucktonne of little references, hints, foreshadowing and other stuff hiding in each book that you cannot have caught until you've read them all.


2 - Do it however you want. Published order is sort of the default, but hey, it's your reread. Go nuts.

PROTIP: if you sort of glossed over the little italicized chapter opener quotes, poems, and excerpt things, pay a little more attention to them this time.


As for ICE, hey, again, it's your reread. You may change your mind part way, or not.

[End of Disc One]

Funny, I just started my first reread. I'm about 75 pages into GotM, and I'm surprised how well I remember it all after last reading it in 2005. But I am enjoying some of the random namedrops, like Spindle.

This post has been edited by End of Disc One: 19 January 2016 - 09:44 PM

[paradanmellow]

Have you seen this insanity?
http://malazan.wikia...d_reading_order
It sure helps decide, if it doesn't mess you up first haha

[Kanese S's]

You may find that certain parts of the series are more enjoyable on reread, same with some characters. I did.

[Andorion]

paradanmellow, on 20 January 2016 - 11:47 AM, said:

Have you seen this insanity?
http://malazan.wikia...d_reading_order
It sure helps decide, if it doesn't mess you up first haha

Its Malazan. You need to reread the reading order to understand the reading order

[Gorefest]

Also, the rereading order is different from the reading order and you can have rerereading orders that vary from both the reading order or the rereading order. I'm still waiting for the Malazan equivalent of 'A Ball of Beasts'. It would have all book chapters of all the MBotF and ICE novels, plus bauchelain & korbal broach, in chronological order, ignoring individual book boundaries. I imagine it will be D'rek's life's work.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 20 January 2016 - 02:52 PM

[Andorion]

Gorefest, on 20 January 2016 - 02:51 PM, said:

Also, the rereading order is different from the reading order and you can have rerereading orders that vary from both the reading order or the rereading order. I'm still waiting for the Malazan equivalent of 'A Ball of Beasts'. It would have all book chapters of all the MBotF and ICE novels, plus bauchelain & korbal broach, in chronological order, ignoring individual book boundaries. I imagine it will be D'rek's life's work.

Actually I think D'rek was working on this once. I can't find the thread though

[Gorefest]

I think it may have been a comment in the suggested reading order thread.