[Sir Thursday]

I have to agree with the many people who have posted to say that MT is their favourite...I found it to be the best Erikson has written. He got the balance between humour and heartbreak just about perfect, and he had many memorable characters. Tehol and Bugg are at the pinnacle of the comic pyramid, the moral-twisting situation that Udinaas and Trull find themselves in is truly gut-wrenching, the horror that Rhulad has become is portrayed brilliantly, and Seren Pedac also struck a chord with me.

Then there was the conclusion, which was everything we've come to expect from Erikson and more. The book did seem a bit Shakespearean - homage to Hamlet as it were. Certainly the throne room scene, anyway. I was particularly touched by the ambiguous betrothal of Trull Sengar and Seren Pedac - I'm just glad that Erikson had a way to explain the coincidences away, (The Errant's nudge, and all that) because that had the potential to diminish the ending slightly.

For these reasons, along with the sense of dread that SE instilled in me as Rhulad awoke from Udinaas' ministrations, I had to put MT above all the others. If I had to list, it would go:

Midnight Tides
Deadhouse Gates
Memories of Ice
The Bonehunters
House of Chains
Gardens of the Moon

[pippin]

Agraba said:

Really? That was my least favourite. I started reading it to compare it to GRRM, and I remember at the end of it that I still rated A Game of Thrones better than GotM.

Anyways, I'm glad that Midnight Tides, my personal favorite (since my first read, and nothing's changed after my second) is getting many votes. I thought most people disliked it because it deviated from the known characters. I personally feel that an author should never stick to the same characters over and over again throughout a long series, especially when they had their moments. That's why I'm hoping that SE will focus more on characters like Bottle, Fear, Helian, Taralack, Udinaas, etc...

I also like GRRM (Game of Thrones), but every single book of MBotF is superior to the best of GRRM (my opinion). Strangely enough (given that there is almost no magic in GRRM) I find it more difficult to like GRRM's characters (I hate Cersei (like her current position:)), dislike many, like Sam, Lord Snow and Arya. The way magic works (My real name is Merlyn) is far more interesting in MBotF, I also like the vulnerabilty of the gods and ascendants (very much like the Greeks).

Memories of Ice (10)
Deadhouse Gates (9,5)
Midnight Tides (9)
Bonehunters (8,5)
House of Chains (8,5)
Gardens of the Moon (8,5)

[Dolorous Menhir]

Because HoC lacks a defining story thread or a single event of great emotional power in the same way that MoI, DG & MT have. (respectively - fight against the Pannion, culminating in the astonishing battle of Coral; the Chain of Dogs, finishing with the death of Coltaine, betrayal of Duiker; the savage Edur-Letherii war and the final scenes in the Throne Room, MURDER OF THE CEDA)

HoC's main thread - march of the Fourteenth to Raraku - lacks the impact of any of the above three stories, and its end is particularly weak - Dogslayers killed largely offscreen by ghosts, Felisin abruptly executed by Tavore. Although I wasn't one of the many people who hated Felisin, and I did think it was a tragedy, there's no comparison for me between Felisin's death and that of Whiskeyjack or Coltaine. And the soldiers of the Fourteenth failed to capture my interest in the same way as the Bridgeburners did.

It's this lack of a central anchor that leaves HoC somewhat formless in my mind, the book is not distinguished by any definitive scenes (death of Andarist and Trull's tears being the standouts for me, and of course Karsa's epic journey in the beginning).

BH is afflicted by a similar problem - under Y'ghatan (excellent) occurs partway through the book, and the death of Poleil and battle in Malaz City were not that involving (for me), Kalam's battle with the Claws was too similar to DG. And I think SE outright fluffed the Jade Giant scenes, they seemed too rushed, and were transparently setting-up for later storylines, seeming disconnected from what was happening to the characters.

GotM is quite obviously a first work when reread, it lacks the emotional & storytelling maturity masterfully displayed in MT, and the ending is a bit hard to understand at first (the huge threat - Raest - is neutralised by something you've never heard of before, with no explanation, and Rake fights some demon you don't particularly care about)

Well, that's my opinion. Got a bit carried away there...

[Midnight]

I voted for Midnight Tides. For a long time Gardens of the Moon was my favourite and I thought that MT came the closest in terms of structure and characters while having more of an epic and high tragedy feel to it.

I might have voted for Bonehunters but I still don't really understand it...driving me a bit batty.

[Blind]

It's a tie between DG and MoI for me. I finally voted for Deadhouse Gates, because it's the book that impressed me the most when I first read it. The books are full of emotionally powerful scenes, but I was never quite as touched as when reading the Chain of Dogs.

If I had to make a list:
Deadhouse gates
Memories of Ice
Bonehunters
House of Chains
Midnight Tides
Gardens of the Moon

I put MT next to last, because I found there was too many introspective PoV (Udinaas, Seren Pedac, and Trull), even though the humour of the Tehol&Bugg chapters do balance it in a way. Perhaps I didn't care as much about the characters in this one as well.

[polishgenius]

It's really rather close between MoI, DG, and MT (in that order).
DM is pretty much spot on with his reasoning - I was thinking exactly that yesterday, they both lack a clear single, plot strand that climaxes in the book - the Fourteenth thing is great but overshadowed, much like it is in the book, by the Chain of Dogs, and the ending is weak, while the best strand - of Karsa - is a pretty minor detail in the whole convergence by the climax, and hasn't ended yet.
BH suffers even more from connecting novel syndrome. Several plot strands are pretty much intervals to get characters where they need to be - Paran with an army, Karsa and Mappo in Lether, Lasseen in trouble. The climax comes halfway through the book, with Y'Ghatan, and after that it was just a case of tying up the Seven Cities stories as quickly as possible - which, as DM noted, led to some seemingly rushed parts - in particular the Jade Giants and the sudden appearance and subsequent dealing with of Poleil.

They're both still ace, but hopefully when the series ends they'll look better as part of the whole.

[Agraba]

The death of the dogslayers by the ghosts wasn't supposed to be the climatic moment of House of Chains. Sure, on the back cover, it said that the book was about the 14th's march on Raraku, but in the book itself, much less focus was put on that than on the actual hostile politics inside Raraku itself. So the climax was the "night of knives" (and the giant stone sword) inside Raraku, which I thought was very well done.

[Abyss]

maybe just because i'm mid reread, but i always switch between DG and MoI... DG had the better story, but MoI the better characters and sheer scope.

Imnsho, these two books GRAB the reader and pretty much lock them in for the ten+ book ride. All the rest are great, but with DG, it was 'you had me at hello', only with shapeshifters, assassin wars and crazy battle scenes.

- Abyss, reserves the right to change his mind post-reread.

[drza44]

My order would go:

Bonehunters
Memories of Ice
House of Chains
Gardens of the Moon
Deadhouse Gates
Midnight Tides

Outside of MoI, my list is almost inverse from most that I see on this site, but I think it just goes to my own personal preferences. I'm much more character-driven in my reads than many, and tend to process the story with respect to the characters I like or identify with the most. I also like payoff more than I like build-up. Bonehunters gave me the best combination of development with my favorite characters and payoff as far as plots coming together and seeing how the different factions play off each other. MoI and HoC both had a nice degree of development, but I like the characters from the GotM/MoI branch better. GotM, DHG, and MT were all intro books to me, and I enjoyed the second half of each more than the first, but as I said I liked the characters in GotM better, and the Chain of Dogs won out a bit over the Tehol brothers in the other two.

Keep in mind, though, that I have only read each of the books one time. I imagine that all 3 intro books will be dramatically better upon re-read, so I reserve the right to switch up my order in the future...

[Dr Trouble]

I voted Chain Of Dogs straight away before thinking because first thing that came to my mind was "Karsa kicked so much ass in that book it was awesome."
But that was probably the only part of the book I liked, and the Trull scenes.

So I would probably say... Midnight Tides. I enjoyed the whole book cover to cover. Wherad in say, DeadHouse Gates Felisin pissed me off so much I couldn't enjoy those parts. I hated her Character.
In order:

Midnight Tides
Gardens of the Moon
Memories of Ice
The Bonehunters
House of Chains
Deadhouse Gates. (Although I loved Duiker and Coltaine and the rest of the gang. It was just polluted in my mind by Felisin)

[Dinivan]

Yeah, i'd pretty much agree...

Midnight Tides was just fun plus a decent package of awesomeness...
Deadhouse Gates was saved imo by Mappo+Iccarium...loved them. With the chain of dogs...first time i skipped it, second read i recognised it, liked it with the third time through the book

my ranking is:

Midnight Tides
Memories of Ice
Gardens of the Moon
Deadhouse Gates
Bonehunter
House of Chain (the karsa chapters were just too tiresome)

[Monoch Ochem]

My order is:
MT
MoI (a VERY close second)
DG
GotM
HoC

In my view:
MT had the BEST humour with Tehol and Bugg. It had the BEST sorcery with the Ceda...and the tragedy of those battles with the Edur. We had some great insight into the Eleint, the Soletaken Eleint, the KCCM.

MoI was just great: Icarium, Silverfox, the Imass (including Olar Ethil!!!...I can't WAIT for any other book featuring her!!), the T'lan Ay,....that great piece of writing where the 3 Bonecasters rise saying to Gethol "We greet you Jaghut." Great stuff generally but Bugg and Kuru Quan hit a soft spot.

DG...hey, Sormo, Coltaine...need I say more?

GotM: Rake, Rake and more Rake!!! And Baruk...and a Galain Lord to make even Rake sweat!

DG: a bit gloomy and while Karsa's a GREAT character, he really irritated me!