Finished Cold Iron a couple of days ago. Sooo god. I do like Miles Cameron style. It is because of books like his, or Abercrombie’s or Cornwell’s, that I know that I can read fast, if the book really grips me. Their novels always do.
It is great to see how being a reenactor and HEMA practitioner himself shows through his action scenes. I thought Cornwell was a master at narrating action in a historical background, but Cameron’s knowledge shows through so much. Cannot stop recommending his Traitor’s Son series enough, and I cannot wait to get the second book in this series, Dark Forge
I am moving away from fantasy now, and starting Lethal White. It was a birthday present, and I want to read it so I can lend it to a friend who is another fan of the series.
I am doing my 3rd reread of Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson because a friend of mine started reading it and I wanted to read it with him.
Amazing series, my favorite one for sure. I am missing the words to describe it because it is really hard to do so.
This video explains well why it is so hard.
And here a longer video about why you should read this series.
I like that one a lot, it reads user comments and puts it very well. More emotional, than the other one
I just commented to C that I was rereading the Sandman Mystery Theater series (a superhero comic set in the 1930s, in the idiom of pulp and noir rather than four-color heroics). She pointed out that I was partway into The Fellowship of the Ring, and I said that I was actually reading several books: Aristoi (recommended by Phil Masters), Commander Cantrell in the West Indies, a novel by Mackey Chandler in his Family Law series, and a book-length study of Tolkien’s theological and pneumatological themes. This is pretty normal for me; I pick up the particular book that fits my mood at the moment.
So far it’s interestingly different from the other WJW I’ve read (the Drake Maijstral books, the Metropolitan series, and a couple of volumes in the Dread Empire series).
One of those books I regret to say it did not convince me. I did about 40% of the first book, and left it… Didn’t click with me. Luckily I didn’t buy several of them as I intended to initially.
I admit that my second read ended somewhere in the really weird middle where some of my favorite characters disappeared for a while. I really need to get back to it. On my first read I was lost half the time not quite understanding what was going on. second time went better. It didn’t help though that it was a group read on Goodreads and people began dropping of around book four.
I made it as far as The Bonehunters in the Malazan Book of the Fallen. The two year gap between it and the previous book meant that I felt like I had forgotten what had happened and was getting a bit lost.
The thickness of the books has intimidated me from ever beginning to re-read them, although I aspire to try again one day!
One of those books I regret to say it did not convince me. I did about 40% of the first book, and left it… Didn’t click with me.
It is not a read for everyone, you get thrown in the middle of a whole world and history without any knowledge and nobody gives you any starters. And Erikson has this style of “show, no tell” (he writes his novels like short stories) which makes it not easy to parse through motivations and plans. You can also not trust the characters much in regards to their knowledge. You think something is a certain way because a character thought or told so but that is not guaranteed. They get things wrong. Even now, I often stop and reread several pages or paragraphs to get a better grasp of someone thoughts.
It is not an easy flow, but it is very rewarding! Especially when you figure things out on your own, when you start to feel a part of this rich huge world. And you can’t imagine where the journey takes you, it all starts so weird because you are not understanding the context.
It is also worth to notice that Gardens of the Moon was written 10 years before the other books, because Erikson didn’t find a publisher. They told him to tune down his ambition So the style from book 1 to book 2 (and the rest) is different, it is noticeable. Many people think the first book is the worst and that you have to fight through and give the series more time (at least till the end of book 2 or 3) to judge it. I’d say maybe to that, maybe not Sure, it is hard to judge a 10 book series after 1 book, but it is not a series which is for everyone. And it doesn’t have to be. But there are a lot of people who got really into it later on
Personally, I felt kinda luke warm to book 1 back then. I found it interesting enough to continue on though, despite I had no idea what was going on and I always looked for the good and bad guys. Couldn’t find them, didn’t know for whom I should root. I was not used to that.
But book 2 really gripped me. Totally different continent, for the most part a different cast, the style felt different, a different experience all in all.
This series is the embodiment for the term epic fantasy.
I feel you, I missed a ton of the subleties on the first read too, I guess, most people do so. This is a series which gets better on multiple reads for sure. Erikson also wrote it with that intention. First of, your understanding of the world is way better and you know the story, so you can way better pay attention to all the small details you missed the first time. The first read is something special of course (will never forget how I spent the ending of book 3) but the subsequent reads increased my understanding by so much more. It almost felt like a new series
There are some first reader guides which help summarizing the chapters and gathering information you could miss otherwise. They are also good to recap the books after being gone for a long time.
But the best thing is just to start from the start and read all the books again. It will be a new experience to you. I can only recommend getting back into it, it is absolutely worth it
Thanks for that @Boronian, I might give it another go, I still have it in my Kindle. Although I have other things I am more interested in reading first. I must say, as a first novel, he does not follow conventions that are there for a reason. You are right about the feeling of just being thrown in the middle of a world that is going on, and you don’t have much to grasp at. Lucky for him, he seems to have listened to his editors on the following books, or his books would be so niche only very few people would be fans.
At least I know now that it wasn’t me and my circumstances when reading it.
To be honest, that never changes. He “didn’t listen to his editors” (I assume they knew what they got, they gave him a contract for a 10 book series after 1 book), you just learn more about the world, because you spend more time in it. And this learning process is fascinating and alluring. Erikson uses the “show, not tell” approach. Showing it in subtextual characterisation instead of writing it out loud. My advice is just to go with the flow, it will get better.
The characters in these books treat you as any other person in that world. They don’t talk to you in a different way, because the characters expect you to have a similar knowledge as them. I find that very refreshing. And after a while you really have that knowledge. Till book 3 I gained separated spots of knowledge in my brain and then I suddenly started to connect different things without any character spelling it out for me (that happens too, don’t get me wrong) and that was the best feeling ever. Felt so rewarding.
The world is so deep and rich, you can really feel that Erikson is an archeologist. This world lives and continues on when you are gone. In many other series it feels only what happens in that corner of the world we are right now is important. In Malazan that’s different. You will also have story lines which are only told for themselves. It is like life, you meet people, they are important to you but they also disappear again, because life took you somewhere else.
I am not the best at explaining it all. There is this video talking about Malazan being a “postmodern, poststructuralist critique of the fantasy genre” which apparently hits the nail on its head as Erikson confirms in the comments.
If you want to have an easy to read novel, you won’t find it with Malazan. If you want to understand everything from the get go and you dislike being in the dark, you won’t enjoy the series. It is a challenging read, it forces you to engage with the text but if you do that, it is very rewarding. It is a series which combines tragic, compassion, darkness, epicness, and humour in a way, I haven’t seen anywhere else. Especially the humour is surprising.
It takes investment, but that is not how everybody likes their books, which is totally fine.
Tehol and Bugg are my favorites too, they made me laugh so hard so often. I was so lucky to get them as chrochet figures. Spoilers if you don’t want to see how these two humans look like in the series (I don’t think it is a spoiler, but just so you know)
Kudos to him, then, if he got away with it. As I said before, I might give it another go in the future. And probably with notes to check on.
One thing I hate in books is when I have no memory of a character that appeared previously, and it was so unremarkable or so briefly described that it did not leave a sufficiently remarkable imprint enough in my memory of the book, and I am clueless about who he/she is. That is where a glossary of characters comes in handy (same reason I gave up War and Peace) and probably I need to do my homework beforehand.
Suffice to say that if a book needs all that prep from me, well, let’s say that it is not a good start.
Just ducking in to say that I am enjoying the heck outta Ancillary Mercy, which I only picked up because one of the SU&SD crew (Quinns, maybe?) said it was better than Ancillary Sword, which was okay but significantly weaker than Ancillary Justice. Thus far, totally true… I’ve been reading it in 20-minute bursts over my lunch at work, and I was this close to bringing it home with me over the weekend (I decided against it because if I read it at home, then what will I read at work?).
On that note, one of the SU&SD crew mentioned that there is a whole series of books based on The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, which I loved, so I ordered all of those, and the sequel to The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis, called By Fire Above, and the sequel to Locked In by John Scalzi called Head On, and a trilogy of old Battletech novels (The Warrior trilogy, I believe).
Plus a bunch of Brit Lit I need for my degree. Some newer stuff in there, but nothing I remember as super exciting.
I listened to the excellent audiobooks of this series. They are all standalone stories with a bit of overlap in characters and of course world building. I found the first one the hardest to get into. Have fun
It really helps if people are always known by the same name.
In the otherwise excellent Gideon the Ninth, the same character may be referred to as Palamedes, Pal, Sextus, or Warden. Even the crib isn’t always a big help here.
Malazan has a huge cast and no clear main character(s). So that could happen. It didn’t happen for me, but that’s not saying much of course. The books have a glossary with the characters though. Don’t know if Tolstoj’s books had one.
You can take notes, I know people who did that, but the first reader guides I linked are practically doing that
I would recommend just using them if you ever come back to the series. They make it way easier to get a feeling and a grasp of what’s happening.
His writing style often reminded me of Terry Pratchett. They have more in common than it first seems
Sure, it is hard to judge a 10 book series after 1 book, but it is not a series which is for everyone. And it doesn’t have to be. But there are a lot of people who got really into it later on 
