Just started

[hodor]

I just started the first in the series... tis a bit odd but I am plowing on. I think once I develope a more in depth knowledge of characters I will be more moved.

 

[red_temple]

Hey - me too! I'm about half way through the first book, and I find it a bit thin on character development. Otherwise, the plot is very complex and is keeping me interested. I'm having a hard time digesting everything in one go so I find myself re-reading a lot. I've been told by friends that the first book is jumpy and erratic, but if you stick to it, the second book pays off big. Overall, I'm happy to have picked it up.

 

[hodor]

Aye... me too mate. I have nearly finished with the first book (despite the fact I am reading another Follet book at the same time). Erikson starts of with an interesting plot but little to drive you in; I do expect more from this author in future reading and can easily see how it might all come together for me.

 

[Neon]

I assume you're starting the Malazan series? And if so, is this considered sci-fi or fantasy?

 

[red_temple]

Definitely high fantasy. A LOT of magic - mages and demi-gods all over the place. Very militaristic as well.

 

[Rane Longfox]

Very very epic fantasy.

I'm sure I've said it before, but I'll say it again just incase, the first book is weird, and qwuite confusing. You won't understand half of it by the end, for the simple reasons that the explanations aren't present in the book. They're not amazing stand-alones, but as a series, its quality You just have to have a certain amount of patience

 

[Tsujigiri]

My partner and I are of the distict opinion that the first book reads as if there are a couple of chapters or a prologue missing.

I think it reads from the start as if you are already expected to know the characters and care about them.
Initially this put me off, for about 4/5 pages, then the quality of the book started shining through.

Did anyone else find this to be the case?

 

[red_temple]

I'd say that's pretty accurate, but it took me longer to get attached to it - more like 100 pages or so. And then it was the story and writing that hooked me, not so much the characters. I'm now almost finished with book 1 and I can honestly say that the characters (finally) have come alive for me now and I find myself caring for quite a few of them. Quick Ben, Toc the Younger, Coll, and even annoying Kruppe are some of my favorites.

 

[Rane Longfox]

Its a fair critisism. Its unfortunate, because you just have to run with it and not try to understand it all at the beginning, which is quite difficult for some people (easy for others)

 

[hodor]

I am sure it is easier with "hindsight". I have found this series very interesting and I love it. I must say that I like the series, so far, better than Hobb (as it is more in depth and militaristically dark), but not as much as Martin's series. I can not draw a full conclusion at this point however as I haven't finished the series. Great promise is shown here.

I can understand why the series started as it did... with such complexity how can you have a prologue less that a series in itself.. only Martin can do such a thing. I much give this author credit for not continuing the "rambling" that seemed to occupy the book for the first 100 pages and finding an excellent gripping way to pull the reader into an in depth plot.

 

[Culhwch]

Yeah, I have just started reading the first one of these, too, and was finding it a little bit difficult to get into. The writing is good (which is what has kept me reading so far, as good writing is so hard to find in fantasy these days) but so far the story and the time-jumps are just plain confusing. In comparing it to Martin - it seems to have the same denseness and depth of world, but without being unobtrusively informative, as Martin is. But after reading the other posts here, I'll stick to it in the hope of far better things to come.

 

[GOLLUM]

Hi all,

I’m new to this forum and am from Melbourne, Australia. Please check out my introduction on this forum!!

I’ve been reading in the fantasy genre for the last 25 years and am able to answer most queries regarding fantasy authors/series, release dates etc... Basically I'm a Steven Erikson fan (No 1. of all time) with George RR Martin at No 2. on my all time hit parade. Other authors I like include Kate Elliott, JV Jones current series, Janny Wurts, Stephen Donaldson, Paul Kearney, Robert Silverberg (Majipoor series), Tad Williams, Greg Keyes, Glen Cook and the list goes on.

Please refer to my fairly comprehensive list of recommended fantasy books over the past 25 years in the thread Your Favorite Fantasy Books under the Books and Literature forum.

Anyway, Steven Erikson’s Malazan Empire series is the best fantasy series I’ve ever read in my 25 years spent reading in this genre!!!! He’s a Canadian writer and UK based. Compared to Homer by some critics for sheer scope and complexity of storyline. Great storytelling especially for his first venture into this genre!!!!

The “Malazan Book Of The Fallen” is the series title. Malazan is the empire in charge of things like the Romans in ancient history. Steven writes 1/year, as it is part of his contract with the publisher.

It takes places currently on around 3 different continents but each novel will focus on a particular continent with characters and continents interlinked so say book 1,3 are on continent x, book 2,4 continent y etc.. Each novel is also in a sense standalone with most threads pulled together by story’s end, which is a good feature for me, so I’m not waiting for the next instalment to see if character x is about to fall of the proverbial precipice. This is not to say that the books don’t follow each other or not interlinked as they are.

As he deals with Military fantasy on the grand scale he's fairly hard edged as well as being brilliantly conceived and written. The point is Erikson drops you into his world in the middle of what is obviously an EPIC series but whilst it is not easy to follow early on he does tie most threads by books end. The last 200 pages of Book 1 is action packed, what one critic very aptly put as a 'machine gun finish" I've never read a book that was so packed in those last few hundred pages. WOW!!!! Book 2 Deadhouse Gates and the future books reach a high water mark in fantasy writing that never goes down. Anyone I know who has read Erikson immediately places him at or near to the top of the list ahead of Martin and others as great as they are. He obviously thought the entire series through extremely well from the beginning. He has a background as an anthropologist and archaeologist and it sure shows in his world building. Epic, gritty, grey characters along the lines of The Black Company, amazing complexity and magic systems!!

As I’ve stated on other forums and as other users are obviously saying here, PLEASE don’t be put off if you’re finding it hard to follow things in the first few hundred pages of book 1, lots of concepts that get fleshed out in later books appear here. By end of book 3 I had a fair handle on things.

For UK/Aus readers, Books 1 –4 are in smaller paperback, ranging from 700-1000+ pages. Book 5 is in trade paperback and 500+ pages, so plenty of reading there. Book 5 in smaller paperback, approx 700, pages comes out in March 2005. Bantam is the UK/Aus publisher. Books 1 and 2 have now come out in the US.

Malazan Book Of The Fallen

PUBLISHED UP TO 2005/Early 2006.
1. Gardens Of The Moon.
2. Deadhouse Gates
3.Memories Of Ice
4.House Of Chains
5.Midnight Tides
6.The Bonehunters (due Feb 2006).

TO BE PUBLISHED 2006 and beyond.
*NB Roughly the first five books came out around April of each year, book 6 may still be by April so basically the books come out in the first half of each year.

7.Reapers Gate (2006?)
8.Toll The Hounds (2007)
9.Dust Of Dreams (2008)
10.The Crippled God (2009)

Hope this info proves useful!!!

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Hiya Gollum & welcome to the forum.
I've (literally) just started reading this series now (although had I known it was a 10 book one I may not have - I have an aversion to these since Hubbard & Jordan)

I'll let you know how I get one with them on here - better than GRRM? High Praise indeed!!

 

[Rane Longfox]

Heya Gollum, welcome to Chronicles

I think I would agree with absolutely everything you said in that post Except some of your other favorite authors
You mentioned he's based in the UK. Well, he's actually living back in Winnipeg now, though he did live in Britain for a while...


Are you on the malazan.com forum?

 

[GOLLUM]

Heya Gollum, welcome to Chronicles

I think I would agree with absolutely everything you said in that post Except some of your other favorite authors
You mentioned he's based in the UK. Well, he's actually living back in Winnipeg now, though he did live in Britain for a while...

Are you on the malazan.com forum?

Hi Caladanbrood!!

Good to make contact and thanks for the update on Steven.

I've certainly visited the malazan site several times but yet to join. I think I'll make a date to do that soon.

Bye for now...

 

[GOLLUM]

Hiya Gollum & welcome to the forum.
I've (literally) just started reading this series now (although had I known it was a 10 book one I may not have - I have an aversion to these since Hubbard & Jordan)

I'll let you know how I get one with them on here - better than GRRM? High Praise indeed!!

Winters sorrow,

Yes for me better than GRRM but he’s still excellent. No 2. behind only Erikson. Erikson is fairly reliable, producing on average 1 book/year.

If you’re into the good fnatasy you may find soemthing that takes your fancy in my recommended reading list in the Your Favourite Fantasy thread.

Bye for now..

 

[rune]

I read the first book in this series and quite enjoyed it though I did find it frustrating that there were so many character plots going on.

However when I started the 2nd book and was introduced to more characters and half way through still didnt know what happened to the first lot of characters introduced in the first book, I put it down and never returned to the series.

Plenty of good ideas but too many character plotlines.

 

[Rane Longfox]

Erikson tends to alternate, at least for the first four books. Gardens and Memories of Ice follow the same group of characters, on Genabackis, and Deadhouse Gates and House of Chains follow the group on Seven Cities. This is why some people say its better to read the first and third together, and the second and fourth, but I disagree. But thats just me, its a shame you felt a bit overwhealmed, but they are quite complicated books, and to a certain extent you just have to let it happen, and try to catch up later. The books don't really work as standalones...

 

[GOLLUM]

I read the first book in this series and quite enjoyed it though I did find it frustrating that there were so many character plots going on.

However when I started the 2nd book and was introduced to more characters and half way through still didnt know what happened to the first lot of characters introduced in the first book, I put it down and never returned to the series.

Plenty of good ideas but too many character plotlines.

Let me put my two cents in here also and add to caladanbroods comments. You're really mising out on the best fantasy sereis I've ever read here. Try to stick with Book 2 and 3. By the time I had completed Book 3 I had a reasonable handle on characters and the complex magic system Erikson has developed. YES it's the most complex sereis I've ever read BUT also the most rewarding in the long run. Also as caladan suggests Book 1,3 and 2,4 are linked with the same characters and continent so you do get some familairty during the course of this series. As I tell other people, you need to be patient and persistent with this series and the rewards will start to come. Anyone I know who has continued with this series is very happy they did!! and basically place Erikson at No 1 or 2 in their all-time fantasy list.

Please reconsider!

 

[Brys]

My partner and I are of the distict opinion that the first book reads as if there are a couple of chapters or a prologue missing.

I think it reads from the start as if you are already expected to know the characters and care about them.
Initially this put me off, for about 4/5 pages, then the quality of the book started shining through.

Did anyone else find this to be the case?

Yes, on the first read. A re-read after reading the other books is almost necessary for this one, and then it'll seem just as good as the others (almost). It makes it hard to start, but once you get about half way through it improves a huge amount.

The thing with MBotF is that the books are pretty much standalones (except for MoI and HoC), so you should treat them as such. The huge number of plotlines makes it a lot better overall, and giving up on Deadhouse Gates is really a bad time - it is the second best book in the series, and the Chain of Dogs is unforgettable and has the most moving scenes I've read from any books.