Malazan - How important is the order in which you read the books?

Lysalis

Lysalis

Disremembered
Joined
Oct 21, 2008
Messages
49
I'm a newbie to Erikson. I just bought me The Bonehunters and I understand that this is the 6th book of his series. However the cover says " A tale of the Malazan book of the fallen ", I take from this the books are just loosely linked.

Is this true? Would I be better off with reading them in order, starting with Gardens of the Moon? Or would it be ok, to read The Bonehunters first.

The reason why I bought The Bonehunters was that they only had this one, Reaper's Gale and Toll the Hounds in the bookshop. I would have had to order the first books, which takes generally around 3-4 weeks :(.
 
If you start with the Bonehunters, you're starting in the middle. If you can wait, it's better to start at the beginning with The Gardens of The Moon and follow up in the order published. There are a lot of things in the earlier books that are explained in the later books.
 
I was afraid somebody would say that. I don't know if I can wait, waiting is crap *pouts* :( :D

Thank you for the advice nonetheless :)
 
Amen to that. I'm up to book five and still only have a small grasp on what the hell's going on :D

In all seriousness, I second the comment to start at the beginning. Events do, mostly, happen in a linear fashion, characters pop up all over the place, and small things that happen in earlier books can sometimes be thrown into the foreground later on. It's definitely easier on yourself, at the very least, to read them from Gardens of the Moon and onwards.
 
Add my vote as a third. I have read the first two, and have the barest of inklings about what Erikson is trying to accomplish. More is revealed with subsequent volumes, I am told, and if I started at no. 6, forget it. I'd be totally lost.

Very, very complex series. Do yourself a favour and start at the beginning.
 
Luckily - My uncle and Mother are buying me all of the books currently out for Christmas:D Ready for when I go onto him:D
 
I will start from the beginning and put The Bonehunters in my bookshelf for an undefinite time. It even got renamed, in The Dustcatcher *lol*. I mean, if every book has over 1000 pages, I will be reading forever... :D

Thanks for the advice
 
We had quite a nice list until the crash. I think it was Werthead who put it together - a chronological list of the Malazan books, and thus the order in which to read them should you truly want to do it by date. I'm quite sad that we lost it, because I started my re-read of the whole thing today (well, without the novellas, which I don't have), and am quite happily chugging through Night of Knives.

If WH is around, or if anyone copied down the chronological list, I'd be grateful if it could be posted again . Whilst it is fantastic fun to read both Erikson's and Esslemont's books in the order they are published, I'd love to read them in their chronological order, just to further help put all the pieces together. Yeah, it'll destroy some of the magic of seeing various arcs meshing, but I want to do it!!
 
Lenny said:
We had quite a nice list until the crash. I think it was Werthead who put it together - a chronological list of the Malazan books, and thus the order in which to read them should you truly want to do it by date. I'm quite sad that we lost it, because I started my re-read of the whole thing today (well, without the novellas, which I don't have), and am quite happily chugging through Night of Knives.

If WH is around, or if anyone copied down the chronological list, I'd be grateful if it could be posted again . Whilst it is fantastic fun to read both Erikson's and Esslemont's books in the order they are published, I'd love to read them in their chronological order, just to further help put all the pieces together. Yeah, it'll destroy some of the magic of seeing various arcs meshing, but I want to do it!!
Click to expand...
Wikipedia is your friend mate ;)

Due to a failure by the authors to keep track of dates in the series, it is difficult to work out a precise timeline for events in the series. However, it possible to put together a rough chronological order of the series. The dates given are by Burn's Sleep, the calendar used in the Malazan Empire.

  • Night of Knives (1154)
  • Midnight Tides (uncertain, but possibly two years before Gardens of the Moon, c. 1161)
  • Gardens of the Moon (1163)
  • Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice (1163-64, these two novels occur simultaneously)
  • House of Chains (1164, with a lengthy prologue section that takes place some years earlier)
  • The Bonehunters (1164-65)
  • Return of the Crimson Guard (c. 1165, just after The Bonehunters)
  • Reaper's Gale (c. 1165 or 1166)
  • Toll the Hounds (by internal evidence, c. 1169-70, but this conflicts with dates in other books)
Click to expand...
Malazan Book of the Fallen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
I read Gardens of the Moon about 7 months ago, and I remember some of it, but not a whole lot. I know that Deadhouse Gates deals with different characters, so will I be alright without remembering the first book, or should I attempt a reread before jumping into Deadhouse Gates?
 
Lady of Winterfell said:
I read Gardens of the Moon about 7 months ago, and I remember some of it, but not a whole lot. I know that Deadhouse Gates deals with different characters, so will I be alright without remembering the first book, or should I attempt a reread before jumping into Deadhouse Gates?
Click to expand...


These books are so broad and complicated that it probably wouldn't hurt to do a reread. There's always something you didn't quite catch the first time through. You might not need it for Deadhouse Gates, but you will need it later on.
 
I second that -- when I started reading Deadhouse Gates, I found myself not really getting into it, so I went back and reread Gardens of the Moon and then immediately restarted Deadhouse Gates and really got into it. As Murphy says, when you read them through again, you find yourself able to pick up on smaller details (because you don't have to concentrate so much on who's who, where's where, and what's going on!) I think the reread of Gardens of the Moon helped me get into the 'Malazan' frame of mind so I was getting into Deadhouse Gates so much more the second time I started it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
Judderman Erikson, Malazan & link to depression Steven Erikson 1
elvet Path to Ascendency trilogy, a Malazan prequel by Ian Esslemont Will Contain Spoilers. Ian C Esslemont 15
Werthead The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson Reviews & Interviews 27
Werthead Assail by Ian Cameron Esslemont (Malazan) Ian C Esslemont 0
K Starting the Malazan Series.... Steven Erikson 26

Similar threads


Back
Top