[Tiste Simeon]

Merrimack has a sense of the whole team in it together against the odds etc. Can't remember who wrote it though. Good fun books!

[Binder of Demons]

It's years since i read them, so the plot details and the cast of characters are vague in my mind, but maybe THE GAP CYCLE by Stephen Donaldson would work. It is pretty epic in scale, has a very gritty feel to it, and your opinion of the characters shifts all over the place throughout the series (similar to the malazan series).

Apart from that, others have already mentioned the main contenders. DUNE is the most logical contender i think, as long as you stick to the original Frank Herbert novels, as the quality of writing falls off a cliff after that (you'd nearly get as much satisfaction from reading the wiki summaries).

I love the POLITY novels by Neal Asher, though i don't know if i would see them as an analogue to the Malazan series in sci-fi. There is an epic scale at times, but maybe not the depth. Some awesome characters though, and some great battles. Mr Crane is still one of my favourite characters in sci-fi.

[Abyss]

Tiste Simeon, on 06 February 2017 - 10:10 PM, said:

Merrimack has a sense of the whole team in it together against the odds etc. Can't remember who wrote it though. Good fun books!

RM Meluch, and I reco the first four books without hesitation. Mil sf, mostly, not really all that Malazanesque tho. Great squad vs aliens action.

[Mentalist]

Is there a bigger plot arc to the "StarFist" books?

early on in my SFF reading I read the first 3(?) I think, from the library. They were fun squad-level mil SF, but I'm not sure if they ever got any "big picture"

Gavin Smith's "Veteran" and "War in Heaven" duology is awesome SF/post-apoc/cyberpunk read that's got both the "band of misfit heroes" plot and a "big, global events happening" theme. And everyone should read it, because it's awesome.

[Andorion]

Mentalist, on 07 February 2017 - 05:30 AM, said:

Is there a bigger plot arc to the "StarFist" books?

early on in my SFF reading I read the first 3(?) I think, from the library. They were fun squad-level mil SF, but I'm not sure if they ever got any "big picture"

Gavin Smith's "Veteran" and "War in Heaven" duology is awesome SF/post-apoc/cyberpunk read that's got both the "band of misfit heroes" plot and a "big, global events happening" theme. And everyone should read it, because it's awesome.

IIRC, I really liked the first two starfist books, and then I had to drop the series because of a lot of sexism.

But this was 5 years or back, so I may be thinking of something else

[Abyss]

Aventinus, on 04 February 2017 - 05:28 PM, said:

What's an equivalent you might ask. Well, let's see: Long-lasting, complex, deep, superbly thought-out, brutal, dark, does not spoon-feed you, with many awesome characters, amazingly huge lore etc.

So basically, as Malazan fans, do you know a scifi book series for which you might say that it is the equivalent of Malazan?

It occurs to me that HYPERION/FALL OF HYPERION may be exactly what the OP is looking for.

...i haven't read the later books but these two stand complete, the series has massive depth, great multi pov characters, long-running backstory, and a plot that is complex as fuckstars.

[Binder of Demons]

Abyss, on 13 February 2017 - 03:57 PM, said:

Aventinus, on 04 February 2017 - 05:28 PM, said:

What's an equivalent you might ask. Well, let's see: Long-lasting, complex, deep, superbly thought-out, brutal, dark, does not spoon-feed you, with many awesome characters, amazingly huge lore etc.

So basically, as Malazan fans, do you know a scifi book series for which you might say that it is the equivalent of Malazan?

It occurs to me that HYPERION/FALL OF HYPERION may be exactly what the OP is looking for.

...i haven't read the later books but these two stand complete, the series has massive depth, great multi pov characters, long-running backstory, and a plot that is complex as fuckstars.

Yeah, AVATAR recommended HYPERION on the first page. The first two books are amazing, and I actually found the 3rd and 4th books to be decent as well, just not as good.

For the purposes of the OP's question though, I'd say it's a toss up between HYPERION and DUNE. Hyperion certainly has the moving parts and complexity, as well as the non-linear storytelling. Dune has all of that as well as the insane timescale of Malaz, as well as things like prophecies, death being "negotiable" for characters, and definitely the lack of spoonfeeding in the original series (the later abominations are the literary equivalent of baby food).

can't go wrong with either.

[Werthead]

kkyyyssss, on 05 February 2017 - 11:16 PM, said:

You guys are not answering the question, you re just giving you favorite series with a similar Epic quality. Epic is not what defines the Malazan series for me. It's the nitty gritty of squad base level next to the powerful and the mysterious. From what I have heard so far, Dune comes the closest but it's missing the while small squad of military working side by side. I would like to hear more suggestions in that sense.

Seriously everyone? The closest thing to Erikson and the MALAZAN series in SF is quite clearly WARHAMMER 40,000.

Although that's still a pretty big comparison, considering there's hundreds of books (though only a few dozen good ones). For the squad-level stuff through which is filtered the mass epic events, go for GAUNT'S GHOSTS. For the colossal epic battle of morally conflicted antiheroes (with chaos prowling in the wings) there's the HORUS HERESY mega-series. For tight, smart sci-fi noir with howling insanity creeping in the edges there's the EISENHORN-RAVENOR-BEQUIN trilogy-of-trilogies. For humour, there's the spectacularly brilliant CIAPHAS CAIN series.

I literally can't think of anything else that hits the same spot. And it's notable it takes dozens of books and a dozen or so authors (including the excellent Dan Abnett and Paul Kearney, one of Erikson's favourite fantasy authors) to match the same sort of stuff that Erikson and ICE are doing.

This post has been edited by Werthead: 15 February 2017 - 01:31 AM

[Andorion]

Werthead, on 15 February 2017 - 01:31 AM, said:

kkyyyssss, on 05 February 2017 - 11:16 PM, said:

You guys are not answering the question, you re just giving you favorite series with a similar Epic quality. Epic is not what defines the Malazan series for me. It's the nitty gritty of squad base level next to the powerful and the mysterious. From what I have heard so far, Dune comes the closest but it's missing the while small squad of military working side by side. I would like to hear more suggestions in that sense.

Seriously everyone? The closest thing to Erikson and the MALAZAN series in SF is quite clearly WARHAMMER 40,000.

Although that's still a pretty big comparison, considering there's hundreds of books (though only a few dozen good ones). For the squad-level stuff through which is filtered the mass epic events, go for GAUNT'S GHOSTS. For the colossal epic battle of morally conflicted antiheroes (with chaos prowling in the wings) there's the HORUS HERESY mega-series. For tight, smart sci-fi noir with howling insanity creeping in the edges there's the EISENHORN-RAVENOR-BEQUIN trilogy-of-trilogies. For humour, there's the spectacularly brilliant CIAPHAS CAIN series.

I literally can't think of anything else that hits the same spot. And it's notable it takes dozens of books and a dozen or so authors (including the excellent Dan Abnett and Paul Kearney, one of Erikson's favourite fantasy authors) to match the same sort of stuff that Erikson and ICE are doing.

My problem with Warhammer is the uniformly grim, super-serious, dark tone. This is one reason I did not like Gaunt's Ghosts that much. This is also why Ciaphas Cain is excellent and IMO the best stuff Warhammer has to offer.

The charm of Malazan is that it has everything - compelling characters set in a huge, deep, textured world with a flamboyant yet mysterious magic system, raging mage and dragon battles as well as munitions and sword fights, totally OTT people like Karsa as well as very subtle character work with Tavore and Fiddler, long discussions on philosophy, the environment, the very nature of civilisation, as well as uproarious humour, both slapstick and grim banter-based.

Warhammer cannot hope to match that. Horus Heresy combined with Cain might have

Dune comes close in terms of scope.

Hyperion in terms of narrative complexity and characters.

Hamilton and Reynolds in terms of number of PoVs,length of the story and convergences.

But to be honest, SE and ICE stand alone and tall.

[wabus44]

I would suggest The Zones of Thought series by Vernor Vinge. His Realtime series is also really good. There are two series from the 80's that might somewhat meet your criteria. These are The Galactic Center series by Gregory Benford and the Eon series by Greg Bear. Early Robert Charles Wilson are also very good and moving. Robert Reed's writing style put me off a bit, but Marrow was interesting and I liked Down the Bright Way. The Takeshi Kovacs series by Richard Morgan is gritty, and for alien politics and a gritty fighting unit at the center, the Chanur series by CJ Cherryh is great.

[Werthead]

Andorion, on 15 February 2017 - 05:27 AM, said:

My problem with Warhammer is the uniformly grim, super-serious, dark tone.

WH40K has nine-foot-tall genetically engineered superhumans in power armour riding into battle on the backs of also genetically-engineered giant wolves, and the people they are fighting are space orks made of fungus who have cockney accents and whose style of battle is based on football hooligans.

40K can take itself stupidly seriously at the time (in the hands of the wrong writers who don't "get" the origins of the setting), but no moreso than Malazan. The tone of the setting is often darkly humourous because it's all so preposterous, and the best stories acknowledge that.

[Gabriele]

Werthead, on 26 February 2017 - 10:11 PM, said:

Andorion, on 15 February 2017 - 05:27 AM, said:

My problem with Warhammer is the uniformly grim, super-serious, dark tone.

WH40K has nine-foot-tall genetically engineered superhumans in power armour riding into battle on the backs of also genetically-engineered giant wolves, and the people they are fighting are space orks made of fungus who have cockney accents and whose style of battle is based on football hooligans.

Now that sounds metal. Which book(s) are those critters in? I've not read any Warhammer so far though I've heard the Abnett's ones are good. And can you start the series just somewhere in the middle, so to speak?

[Werthead]

Gabriele, on 27 February 2017 - 05:21 PM, said:

Now that sounds metal. Which book(s) are those critters in? I've not read any Warhammer so far though I've heard the Abnett's ones are good. And can you start the series just somewhere in the middle, so to speak?

Those are the Space Wolves, one of the Space Marine chapters. I think there are several books based around them.

The best WH40K books to start with are probably the GAUNT'S GHOSTS series (starting with FIRST AND ONLY) because they start with the human-level Imperial Guard, the "normal" soldiers of the Imperium, who are all a bit more relatable than the Space Marines. This series is the closest to the Bridgeburners/Black Company level of squad combat and epic battles. Abnett's EISENHORN trilogy (and its two sequel trilogies, RAVENOR and BEQUIN) is also great for a down-to-earth slice of dark SF noir (probably the closest the series has to Richard Morgan). Then you CIAPHAS CAIN, which is the more absurdist dark comedy end of the series, being influenced by FLASHMAN and BLACKADDER.

[Andorion]

Briar King, on 06 March 2017 - 12:53 AM, said:

QT is always singing the praises of that series. Let's see I think I'm full to 2036 so I ll put this down for my 2037-2040 list since there are so fucking many.

Don't try to read them all, you can't.

Try Gaunt's Ghosts/Ciaphas Cain/Eisenhorn

[Mentalist]

If you read Russian, I strongly recommend Vadim Panov's "Enclaves" sequence. smaller scope (only one world), but very deep, most certainly doesn't spoon-feed you, and is probably the greatest mix of "epic" and "cyberpunk".

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Mentalist, on 09 March 2017 - 12:46 AM, said:

If you read Russian, I strongly recommend Vadim Panov's "Enclaves" sequence. smaller scope (only one world), but very deep, most certainly doesn't spoon-feed you, and is probably the greatest mix of "epic" and "cyberpunk".

Can you translate them? Thanks.

[worry]

I can read Russian, I just can't understand any of it.

[Abyss]

Feed me enough vodka and I become fluent in Russian.

[Mentalist]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 09 March 2017 - 03:57 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 09 March 2017 - 12:46 AM, said:

If you read Russian, I strongly recommend Vadim Panov's "Enclaves" sequence. smaller scope (only one world), but very deep, most certainly doesn't spoon-feed you, and is probably the greatest mix of "epic" and "cyberpunk".

Can you translate them? Thanks.

Right after I get around to translating Nick Perumov's "Chronicles of the Rift"

[amphibian]

Mentalist, on 09 March 2017 - 05:22 AM, said:

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 09 March 2017 - 03:57 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 09 March 2017 - 12:46 AM, said:

If you read Russian, I strongly recommend Vadim Panov's "Enclaves" sequence. smaller scope (only one world), but very deep, most certainly doesn't spoon-feed you, and is probably the greatest mix of "epic" and "cyberpunk".

Can you translate them? Thanks.

Right after I get around to translating Nick Perumov's "Chronicles of the Rift"

I actually emailed the translator of Godsdoom to see if she was working on the others a couple years ago. Nope. This sucks. Godsdoom is hilariously awesome. We need more translated Perumovs.