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Steven Erikson: Malazan Book of the Fallen

Blewin

Blewin

New Member
uh hum, i already know a lot of people don't know of this great series (either because it's new or because it's a Bristish author), but now that i'm in the fantasy forum, i hope some might have read or heard of it.

what i like about this series is the amount of details (on war, quite surreal and creepy in its truest sense) the author gets into and how it (magic system among other things) differs greatly from mainstream fantasy fiction. My favourite book is 'Deathhouse Gates'. Vivid physical and emotional depiction of the refugees' long march while being attacked all the way to the last city. oh gee.. I have never seen any fantasy books that stand up to Erikson in this particular area (in which most authors just breeze through).
 
As I mentioned before, some more info on this fantastic series:

Some good chocies listed, however i want to point out again that the Malazan series by Erikson is not limited to two novels (if you order online) these are available now:

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

Bonehunters (forthcoming)
Reapers Cale (forthcoming)
Toll of Hounds (forthcoming)
Dust of Dreams (forthcoming)
The Crippled God (forthcoming)


Blood Follow and Healthy Dead are two novellas out released in UK by PS Publishing, and being rereleased as special editons by NightShade later this year. Also another novella Night Of Knives set in the Mazalan world will be written by Ian Cameron Esslemont an be released by PS publishing as well.

I have never seen any fantasy books that stand up to Erikson in this particular area (in which most authors just breeze through).
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I like Erikson's work a lot, it's a fun read, kind of taking one back to Sword/Sorcery with an epic feel/scope, and one of the better epic series out currently IMHO, however I thinK Martin is substanitially better particularly for mature readers who desire a tighter plot, and better overall characterization. I do agree he is defintely he is offering one of the better traditional fantasys available currently.
 
Does this series serve up plenty of magic, or is it more geared towards gritty 'realism' - war, relationshops, plenty of politics?

ds
 
Does this series serve up plenty of magic, or is it more geared towards gritty 'realism' - war, relationshops, plenty of politics?
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Both, it is a heavy magic novel. In fact it's one of the few heavy magic series I can stomach anymore:) A real fun, series. Highly Recommended.

I wrote a review on the first book Gardens of the Moon Here
 
What I like about the Malazan novels (I've only read books 1 & 2 so far) is that they are UNIQUE. The only thing I can compare them to would be the Black Company novels by Glen Cook.

The books aren't character-driven in the typical Fantasy-cliche vein, rather the characters are swept up in the events going on around them. There is much detail regarding magic, creatures and races. The U.S. versions have a handy-dandy index for reference (trust me...you'll need it).
 
Sell Sword said:
What I like about the Malazan novels (I've only read books 1 & 2 so far) is that they are UNIQUE. The only thing I can compare them to would be the Black Company novels by Glen Cook.
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I also thought of the Black Company series when reading these books. They are very similar in style, but the Malazean books have a much more epic scope. The reference to the black company comes mainly from the characters and the style of magic used. I liked them a lot.
 
The books aren't character-driven in the typical Fantasy-cliche vein, rather the characters are swept up in the events going on around them.
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IMHO character driven novels are much more rarer than event driven novels. Mainly due to man yfanatsy author's choose no to write outside of popular archetypes. I find the majorit yof authros are what I call "map makers", they make a map and try to write a story in it creating a world of there imagination, but don't have the ability to populate it with viable characters. This mainly conerns epic fantasy as authors get swept up apparently trying to match Middl-earth in it's world building. There are some exceptions of course (Martin, Keyes, Bakker currently)

I also thought of the Black Company series when reading these books.
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Cocnerning Glen Cook, I like hsi work, although I admit he is not among my favorites, I consdier him a solid author however, I am interested in his new work coming later this year, a new series entitled Instrumentalities of the Night, Book one is called Tyranny of the Night, check out the cover and synopsis HERE

I'm hoping to have an advanced Reader copy to give the early review of it.
 
I bought the first book of Erikson's series, but I had a hard time with it. I didn't know what the heck was going on so I gave up about halfway through. I will have to pick it up and try reading it again sometime. :eek:
 
I also just picked up on the first book on the strength of the recommendations here. From the few pages I've stolen a glance at it looks to be very very interesting.

And there's plenty of magic too, it seems. Once I get a substantial bit of reading of the book I'll post my impressions.

ds
 
I've read the first book and really enjoyed it, although it can be hard to work out what is going on, stick with it cos it all comes together.
Read the book as quickly as posible otherwise you'll forget what is happening and you'll be lost. Good value $$$$ wise as they are looooooong books.
 
I am about finished with Gardens of the Moon and found that i cannot get a caopy of the next book in the series in mass market paperback??? Is there plans that anyone knows about to make this happen or will i have to buy the trade paperbacks to read the rest of the series. It seems odd that Erikson is on the 5th book in the series and only the first one is in mass market form, anyone ahve any insight.
 
Wow! I just finished Memories of Ice (892 pages long and I finished in 2 weeks). I'm just blown away, this book was incredible.

Spineshank...I have been patiently waiting for the U.S. versions in hardback, although Memories of Ice was a humongous softcover (?).
 
These books are amazing, I normally don't like the military type fantasy but I just couldn't stop reading from page 1.
 
Well Malazan series is the best fantasy series I've read, probably because I like EPIC series more than any other form of the Genre so I do have a certain bias here.

I prefer it to GRRM's Song Of Ice and Fire although along with R Scott Bakker he's also excellent.
 
I just found out that Deadhouse Gates is coming out in Mass Market Paperback in the US in February, my dreams are fulfilled.
 
Spineshank said:
I just found out that Deadhouse Gates is coming out in Mass Market Paperback in the US in February, my dreams are fulfilled.
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I'm sorry you've had to wait that long actually but good to see the books are finally making it to the US in MMPB.

Along with Book 3 MOI and in fact the other books so far in the series prepare to have your literary socks blown off!!...:D
 
hmmm....looks like something i should get my ink stained fingers on!!!:D

I guess i better start catching up before the february release!!
 
It's my favourite epic fantasy series at the moment - Erikson may not be a master at prose, but he certainly has some very powerful moments, and he's an expert at contrasting the tragic with the hilarious. And the best thing is that the books keep improving and he's still writing them very fast (he's half way through book 7!) Erikson's one of the few fantasy authors who actually writes "epic" fantasy, in that there's no one author I can think of who's created such a complex world (Neal Stephenson's the Baroque cycle is more complex, but it's set in our own world, more or less). I'm coming up for a re-read of Memories of Ice soon (my favourite in the series).
 
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