Malazan Book of the Fallen

Well, I thought it was about time we had a thread on this brilliant, brilliant series.

Ooh, big big note: DON'T ASSUME THAT ANYONE HAS READ BEYOND THE FIRST BOOK. Be very generous with your spoiler tags, considering how things tend to go in this series.

Hm, to start off with... I'm reading The Crippled God right now, and we get a lot more of "just what the hell is up with Quick Ben???" moments. This one is... is Ben part Tiste Andii? He refers to Mother Dark as "Mother", and he has black skin, but whether it's Andii black or just dark, I can't tell (Erikson tends to use skin colours literally). Or maybe one of the souls inside him is Tiste Andii? Eh, it'll probably get explained.

I tried to take up this series. Couldn't make it past halfway through the first book, though the fact it was a translation may have had some influence on that.

Don't worry if you can't. I must've read the first 200 pages of Gardens of the Moon three times before I could get past them and really enjoy the rest of the book. It is notably weaker than the rest of the series, if that's any consolation - Erikson started it about 10 years before the rest of the series, and it shows. And some concepts in it never even show up again. (Just what is the Spar of Andii's deal again?)

I really enjoyed the first three books, felt the fourth one was kind of a let down, and the fifth was just a chore to slog through. Never did work up the energy to start the sixth one.

Hm. To each his own, I guess - House of Chains is probably my favourite of the series, alongside Memories of Ice and Reaper's Gale. But yeah, I never was a great fan of the Lether plotlines. And I would advise you to read the sixth book, because

a) it's better than Midnight Tides, b) Tavore, Karsa and Icarium continue to be awesome, c) and we get back to Paran, Kalam, Fiddler and Quick Ben.

Fair warning, though... Toll the Hounds is my least favourite of the series, and was my chore to slog through. Erikson basically lost track of himself there.

There were some interesting characters and ideas in Midnight Tides, but most of them ended up not going much of anywhere, and the main conflict suffered from Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: if both Letheras and the Tiste Edur are oppressive empires waging wars of aggression, who cares which of them conquers the other?

I may still give The Bonehunters a chance, but let me ask one thing first: does Kruppe turn up in it? 'Cause that guy is, by far, the most annoying character in the entire series. Characters keep talking about how incredibly brilliant he is, enough to intimidate even the gods, but he hardly does anything, certainly not anything that lives up to the hype. His only real talent seems to be making friends and allies out of all the right people.

Still, Memories of Ice managed to be all kinds of awesome despite Kruppe's presence, so who knows.

edited 17th Jul '12 11:10:55 AM by RavenWilder

Nope, no Kruppe. Good thing to, because I also think Kruppe is awful. Not as much as Nimander Golit, though (don't bother looking up who that is, you'll get spoiled).

I've read up to and including Midnight Tides, but when I read them I was so confused about what was going on that I think I have to read all of them all over again. I've got The Bonehunters waiting for me in the collection. Still, I remember pausing several times because the books were simply too depressing for me.

I heard that this book began when the author was commission to write lore and story for a videogame, and he fell in such love with the concept he was making that he just took it away and wrote these books?

I absolutely love this series. Mind you, I'm only about half way through Memories of Ice, but so far it's been fantastic. I think partly why I love it so much is because I picked it up after trying to read number four or five of the Wheel of Time series and just being crushed when I finally realized "Oh my god this series absolutely crapped the bed after book number 2". Reading an epic fantasy where shit actually gets done was a huge relief.

Started reading this series recently and I'm nearing the end of book two. I'm loving all the mystery and complex machinations, although I still have very little idea what's going on.

I'm not enjoying the second book as much as the first, since the plotlines are all quite removed from each other and only a few of the characters from the first book return. Felisin's plotline is great, but Duiker's feels like a real slog with the endless battles with obscure tribes and I found myself skimming quite a bit of it. Looking forward to book three since it returns to Genabackis.

I just started book one. So far I'm enjoying it.

I just got to the part where Sorry joins up with the army just after Ganoes gets promoted to Lorn's staff.

I'm guessing Sorry is the fisherman's daughter. I mean I feel it's obvious but I'm not sure if there's supposed to be a twist here.