[Egwene]

One can read any book at any time and get something out of it... BUT... in the case of the Malazan series, it would turn an amazing story into something mundane. Not just the overall story arc - there are many instances where the actions of characters become meaningless to the reader without the background story.

The new reader would definitely loose out on too much for me to ever consider recommending such an approach.

Seeing as we are discussing reading order...

still need to slot Dancer's Lament into the Ultimate reading order on the Wiki.

Any suggestions?

Should the ultimate reading order suggest it as an alternative entry to those that get put off by GotM?

[Gorefest]

I guess technically speaking it could go before GotM, especially as the protagonists are quite ignorant of larger world events and mechanics as well. You will not get the 'oh wow i recognise that character!' cameo thrills, but then again you would assumingly get those the other way around when reading mbotf and the empire books.

[Abyss]

Werthead, on 30 May 2017 - 10:12 PM, said:

I agree for cohesiveness, publication order is the way to go, and for rereads people can mix it up a little. GotM is a problematic entry point for new readers, as I've found many times over the last fourteen years (it worked fine for me though).

GotM remains a problematic entry point for certain kinds of readers, but i now wonder whether these are the kinds of readers who wouldn't enjoy the series in any event.
It's not like warrens or the pantheons or 'who the good / bad guys are' are set out any clearer at the outset of any of the other books, for the most part.

And had SE 'dumbed it down' way back when, i suspect he would have lost those same readers down the road when some other plot development or unexplained reference caused their heads to go all 'splodey.

The infamous GotM 200 are what drew me IN to this series. I LOVED not knowing WTF was going on and slowing figuring it out over time. Take that away and a whole chunk of what makes MBF so great might be lost, imnsho.

Egwene, on 31 May 2017 - 09:12 AM, said:

...
Seeing as we are discussing reading order...

still need to slot Dancer's Lament into the Ultimate reading order on the Wiki.

Any suggestions?

Should the ultimate reading order suggest it as an alternative entry to those that get put off by GotM?

I'd stick with after ASSAIL, perhaps irrelevant in terms of where one reads the KT.