[Books] Malazan Book of the Fallen

Greetings TeamLiquid! I thought with all the hype and fuss about Game of Thrones, and the resultant upsurge in George R R Martin's book sales, it might be a good time to start a thread about another great fantasy series, the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson. It kinda suprised me that there was no thread about this series on TL, as it's got a pretty huge following (second only to A Song of Ice and Fire, if I'm not mistaken). Personally, ASoIaF was my favourite book series ever - that is, until I read some Malazan!

Some intro about the books: The Malazan Book of the Fallen is a grand, epic, dark military fantasy series. It follows the movements and actions of numerous armies across several continents, each continent embroiled in several wars. Within the confines of the genre, Erikson philosophically opposes Martin - where in Martin's work, magic is downplayed and the plot largely advances through human plots and plans, Erikson's universe emphasizes magic to the extreme. There is a whole ever-shifting pantheon of gods and demigods, and incredibly powerful mages and warriors each with their own agenda. This creates really dramatic, epic scenes as whole cities and continents are caught up in the powerplays of the mighty.

Erikson's work is, in my opinion, most distinguished by its tone. The series consists of the darkest, grimmest books I have ever read. Again opposing Martin, who zooms in on his different characters and is more concerned about their detailed comings and goings than an overarching philosophy, Erikson embraces the "big picture" - his style is much more thematic. His characters are often seen waxing philosophical, and it is a stylistic mark of the series that Erikson's opinion on the nature of heroism and sacrifice comes across through several characters who serve as his mouthpiece. Erikson (and his characters) relentlessly seek "ultimate truths", and constantly judge the actions of others within the series. The truths arrived at are almost always dark and painful, a reflection of how broken reality is. This creates a moody atmospherical backdrop which accentuates heroic acts and epic moments when they happen in the books. It also creates really memorable grim heroes when they follow and act on their philosophies. If A Song of Ice and Fire is a political soap opera, Malazan is a stage tragedy.

My recommendation for new readers is always to start with the second book of the series, Deadhouse Gates, then go back to read the first book and then complete the rest in sequence. This is because the first book is extremely confusing to get into; also it was written far before the others and is easily the weakest of the books.

Let's get some discussion going! Personally I'm in the middle of Dust of Dreams and can't wait to finish off the series. Unfortunately my reading is sort of set back because I simply can't remember who 80% of the characters are; it's been a long time since I've read the rest of the books, and Erikson really doesn't spell things out for you so a lot of his more subtle stuff can go over my head. I wish we had a wiki as awesome as the ASoIaF one just so I could catch up on the ridiculous number of characters.

For the fans: who's your favourite character? What's your favourite book in the series? etc. etc. (mine are Trull Sengar and Deadhouse Gates respectively).

pred470r Bulgaria. May 26 2011 19:04. Posts 3129

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I still haven't read the 10th book, but my fav char is Karsa Orlong, and my second favorite is Fiddler <3

snotboogie Australia. May 26 2011 19:06. Posts 3496

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Karsa's my second favourite! It's really weird because at first I really hated him and thought he was an idiot - except it turns out that's what everyone thinks he is. I love how it's slowly revealed that everyone (including myself) has severely underestimated him!

Jumbled May 26 2011 19:14. Posts 1463

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It's an enjoyable series, and I disagree with your advice about starting with the second book. While Deadhouse Gates is very good, Gardens of the Moon has some very strong characters and is far from the weakest in the series.

In fact, I came across this series years ago due to deciding to read A Song of Ice and Fire. I went to a library to pick up Game of Thrones, and picked up another book on impulse because it looked interesting. That book was Gardens of the Moon, and after reading a few pages it was sufficiently engaging that I actually put Game of Thrones aside and finished reading Gardens first.

OKMarius Norway. May 26 2011 19:16. Posts 434

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I disagree that the first book is the weakest in the series. I liked it better than the last 4-5 books. But yeah, Deadhouse Gates is fantastic, as is Memories of Ice.

There are too many great characters, but Hood really takes the cake in the last book.

Premier United States. May 28 2011 12:33. Posts 498

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This series is so boss. Memories of Ice is fantastic, and so is Midnight Tides.

Karsa is a champ... one of my favorite characters, all he does is tear shit up haha.

Out of all the fantasy books and series that I've read (I've read alot. Alot alot. Alot alot alot.) Id say Malazan is in my #2 favorite series (With #1 being Wheel of Time).

Gardens is the weakest of the series, but still overall very welly done. I encourage everyone to give it a try... its fantastic.

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CDRdude United States. May 28 2011 12:41. Posts 5413

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I'm not reading any of the posts in this thread because I'm only on book 8, and I'm afraid of spoilers. That said, I love every one of the books so far. Everyone who likes fantasy should read these books. It's kind of hard to get started, but it is incredibly worth it.

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HuskyMUDKIPZ May 28 2011 13:12. Posts 228

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I love this series, I have read it manymanymany times

. If you have not read it before you should read it now.

Elyvilon United States. May 28 2011 13:19. Posts 3856

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This series is incredible, easily my favorite fantasy series ever.

Nidoa Canada. May 28 2011 13:20. Posts 239

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loved the series too. got almost to the end of dust of dreams then waited for the crippled god cuz i heard it kinda followed it right after (in terms of the story). The last book is as epic as you could imagine.

My favorite book is the Bonehunters, no doubt, as for the characters there's several i like a lot. Erikson is so good at making you like/dislike some characters. Soo much choice for fave character.

EDIT who's that in the picture, Karsa? can't imagine any1 else's horse doing that. Except Fiddler's, but then that wasn't in combat.

Talking about Fiddler's horse biting a face off (in the second book), any1 think that same guy is horse-face, or whatever his name, in the sixth book? Roaming that city with the plague goddess and that hates horses because one bit his face off?

Last edit: 2011-05-28 13:22:42

Xeteh United States. May 28 2011 13:21. Posts 504

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I have this on my list of books to read, finishing up the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb at the moment. Definitely intend to check this out, glad to hear its well liked.

Ace United States. May 28 2011 13:22. Posts 13483

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ah nice another fantasy series to start reading. Thanks for this :D

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hox United States. May 28 2011 13:38. Posts 56

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Coltaine is probably my favorite character ever, followed by Crokus/Apsalar.

I've been stuck on Midnight Tides for awhile now. It feels so much less awesome than the previous 3 books D:

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elt Thailand. May 28 2011 13:38. Posts 455

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Love the series, finished The Crippled God as soon as I laid hands on it... The end was epic, and still made me want to strangle Erikson if only for the multitude of questions left unanswered. But it was a satisfying end to a very, very long journey

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Dirt McGirt New Zealand. May 28 2011 13:41. Posts 104

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Great thread idea - love this series. Epic storytelling imo.

On a slight tangent there are some related books by Erikson's colleague Ian Cameron Esslemont. Between them created the world/history that the Malazan series is set in. They kind of divided up the areas they would write about. At this point Erikson has been more prolific.

Esslemont started out with Night of Knives which was ok but not on par with the Malazan books. However I'm re-reading his second book, Return of the Crimson Guard which is much, much better. I think he just needed to get into the swing of things. Picking up Stonewielder next which is set around the same time as the 10th and last Malazan book The Crippled God.

If you haven't read them and love epic fantasy or even Greek tragedies you should totally check them out. Awesome characters and heaps of macabre humour and brutal fights/wars.

Last edit: 2011-05-28 13:41:55

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Dirt McGirt New Zealand. May 28 2011 13:46. Posts 104

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On May 28 2011 13:38 hox wrote:
Coltaine is probably my favorite character ever, followed by Crokus/Apsalar.

I've been stuck on Midnight Tides for awhile now. It feels so much less awesome than the previous 3 books D:

Wait till you've gotten through next couple of books after midnight tides. It's amazing how a couple of the books feel a wee bit disconnected while you are reading them. Then you read another 1-2 and it all becomes clear. There are so just many layers, characters and story threads across the series - definitely makes re-reads very pleasurable and rewarding!

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Elyvilon United States. May 28 2011 13:52. Posts 3856

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The beginning of MT is pretty slow, but the end is good.

Kage India. May 28 2011 13:57. Posts 784

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You know the problem with this series is that it is great till book 4 or 5 then starts trickling with certain moments of splendour. Game of Thrones on the other hand slowly picks up, doesn't confuse too many issues and is decidedly less ambitious. But not uninteresting.

I just ordered The Crippled God. Want to read it, but Dust of dreams was just so hard to read unlike Fire and Ice book 1 that I just breezed through.

dignity Canada. May 28 2011 14:13. Posts 709

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I picked this series up from the book store while browsing (mostly finding filler material to read before the release of the 5th book of song of ice and fire) at my local book store. The only qualm I have with this series is the style, since it has many vague segments involving minor support characters. I am still going through the first book, and I am beginning to see several of the main characters, but the story as a whole is still somewhat confusing since so many minor characters are given points of view.

snotboogie Australia. May 28 2011 14:46. Posts 3496

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On May 28 2011 13:20 Nidoa wrote:

EDIT who's that in the picture, Karsa? can't imagine any1 else's horse doing that. Except Fiddler's, but then that wasn't in combat.

The picture's labeled Itkovian so it's probably a MoI battle.

On May 28 2011 14:13 dignity wrote:
I picked this series up from the book store while browsing (mostly finding filler material to read before the release of the 5th book of song of ice and fire) at my local book store. The only qualm I have with this series is the style, since it has many vague segments involving minor support characters. I am still going through the first book, and I am beginning to see several of the main characters, but the story as a whole is still somewhat confusing since so many minor characters are given points of view.

That's definitely a hallmark of the series. At this point in Dust of Dreams I have no idea who about 80% of the characters are! But I look forward to rereading the whole series and picking up all the bit I've missed. It's sort of a strength and a weakness.

Last edit: 2011-05-28 14:49:12