I was reading through book 1 and my wife asked me what it was about. I was like 3/4 of the way through the book and I said, “I can follow along with what’s going on, but I can’t really tell you what it’s about.”
I missed so much and I’m on my third read. Love love these books. I enjoy reading everything I can find online as I go. My husband is on book 2 and catches everything lol. He’s missing the fun of it 🤪🤪
My description of the first book is "an assassin, a wizard, an undead swordsman and the chief administrator of an evil empire stumble into the three musketeers and then they all crash the same party"
This sums up my experience with Gardens quite accurately. It got exponentially easier with each installment in the series, though. Once you know the races and warrens you're half way there.
@@miketravelsnowhere6557 even more if you don’t think that you SHOULD know things. You shouldn’t. You know exactly what you have to. Your information amount is based on the fact that you are witnessing the story and not knowing everything about of the world and magic and so on.
@@nazimelmardiExactly. You know as much as the characters do, and you're just as confused as they are. Which makes you feel like you're right there on the journey with them
This is what I hear Malazan fans say: it’s like being tortured but somehow you’ll enjoy it. Imagine complete and utter despair and yet you just mindlessly continue on. It’s like being hopelessly confused and yet you can still convince yourself that the greatest idea ever is just slightly out of reach. I can’t explain it. You’ll have to just read the entire series atleast 3 times to understand what I mean. 🤦♂️
Yup, he's both anthropologist and archeologist. Came up with the story while digging bones and roleplaying with his friend Ian C. Esslemont. ICE also wrote more than a dozen books set in the Malazan world.
I read Malazan for the first time in 2013 and there was some info for new readers available - but, like, a tiny fraction of what is available now. Can’t imagine what it would be like to read on release! That being said - it’s legit my favourite thing on paper and I’ve read it three times through now :)
This is soooooooo true! To all the new malazan readers, just stick with it, things get much clearer once you finish the first two books... Malazan is easily one of the best epic fantasy that I've read
There is a Dramatis Personae at the start and a Glossary at the end of the book. Information given in those 2 sections is sufficient for understanding most things, like the names of the races, people, warrens and everything.
Such a unique world they created in these books. I've only read Gardens, Deadhouse and Night of Knives so far and I'm hooked...if not struggling a little with Deadhouse but I know I'll keep reading.
I’m currently reading dead house, and I was about to quit until I started using the same technique as the first book which is to focus on each scene individually and if I notice things I notice things and if I don’t I don’t.
I love Malazan alongside Tolkien's Middle earth works. Though it is a crusade to read in the vocabulary and plot gathering. Worth it, however get ready for a few brain altering conformity tense understanding tribulations.
That's awesome. I enjoyed this thoroughly. I actually read book 1 twice and made a PowerPoint presentation with notes and characters so I could actually understand what the heck was going on. I was use to having to do that ...IN GRADUATE SCHOOL!
For me, Malazan was a lot about trust. I just toughed through it all, not really going back and rereading even if it hurt to do. By about the ending of Gardens and especially the ending of Deadhouse Gates I knew I was reading something wonderful and special. It's my all time favorite series and one of my favorite things ever.
O man I love these videos❤. I'm reading Dune and I think I owe you a big thanks, What a book man, I'm speechless. I'm continuing with the rest of the books.
I would strongly recommend against looking things up as you read the books. It's not needed. The whole point is that you are learning things with the characters, you are a witness to history, not an omniscient god. This helps you relate to the POV of the characters
I personally like books that drop you into a complicated well realized world and assume you are smart enough to figure it out. The Quantum Thief is similar.
Not for the faint of heart, but the best fantasy series I have read (and I have read the majority of them, Tolien, Abercombie, Cook, Rothfuss, Martin, Hobb, etc.)
It's strange because it's interesting enough to keep you there. Things shown back to front. There's this epic scope world. But zero back ground. So you learn as you go. Through the characters. I've not finished yet. But some how I'm enjoying it 😂
I read in spanish but I'll read Malazan in english, I'm afraid to lose something in translation. I mean, english speakers seem lost, imagine losing an EXTRA thing in translation. So english it'll be.
"Am I even enjoying this?" - I've asked myself that question many times while reading the first book. Still not finished, by the way. I think the only thing stopping me from dropping this book is fear of being called stupid for not recognizing the genius or some shit.
Speaking as a hardcore fan of this series: no shame in not liking Malazan. It has nothing to do with your intelligence. Eriksons style simply is not everyones cup of tea.
@@arcanefeline Black Company is a series i want to read for some time but i am afraid bc someone called it grimdark; and grimdark and me have a complicated relationship 😅 My tipp considering Malazan is: stop if it feels like a chore bc it won't get better, but if you finish the first book and can't stop thinking about it try "Deadhouse Gates". (Some people hate gardens of the moon but realy like Deadhouse Gates)
@@arcanefeline i have the feeling that some grimdark authors are needlessly cruel, in other words they invent ultraviolent scenarios just for „fun“. I have no problem with blood and a realistic portrayal of atrocities, but if the author uses this scenes just as a „gotcha“ to the reader i am out.
Seems to me like a skill issue!! Nah but for real it all clicked for me when they had that meeting at that giant table about 300 pages in and Lorne and Tattersail were mad dogging each other
Started Gardens 3 times and gave up after about 1/4 of the way through each time. Finally decided that I needed to buckle down and finish. So on my fourth time, I put in the effort and pushed through to the end. Ultimately I loved it. Read the whole series a couple times now, several individual books 3 or more times. But I had no idea what T’lan Imass was until book 3 lol. But let’s face it, Epic Fantasy is kinda like that. It’s just part of the package deal: Lots of names, places, and concepts coming out of nowhere. I’m almost through listening to the first book of James Islington’s Licanius Trilogy. There’s the same weird names, weird history, and unusual magical concepts, but with time travel thrown in. So it’s not really all that unusual in this genre.
I don’t generally read fantasy (nothing against it, just not much a fan of the writing style of much of it). But I gave this one a go a few years ago because it seemed so outside the realm of most fantasy prose (again, I have nothing against it, I just tend to enjoy a more literary style). I wasn’t head over heels or anything, but I did really enjoy it. I’d love to give it a re-read sometime, but my backlog is just so damn long that I don’t think it will ever happen.
I'm on the third book and loving it, but it is one of those series where you have to push through until it makes sense. That Erikson got his degree in Anthropology and not English definitely shines through, and for the better I think (granted, I'm almost done with my anthropology degree myself, so I may be biased).
this is how it felt reading empire of the vampire when they named the 305th piece of french revolution clothing, and when they spelt regular words in the most difficult ways, like spelling chemistry like chymastry and also writing half of the book in french, italian, old english, latin, portuguese, spanish, and holy tongue or something
I listened to a good portion of the Malazan books on Audible, which was a RIDE, trying to get into them and understand anything. Still haven't finished them yet but love them, I have to take breaks between or during the books sometimes. 😂 It was an experience needing to look up a word up to figure something out but not knowing the spelling.
Haha! I actually kept notes while reading Malazan, and it REALLY helped! I actually really enjoyed it, too, although things got quite a bit too dark for me in book 2, and I ended up quitting the series at book 3. But what I read I mostly really liked!
I really enjoyed the frist several books in the series, but around the halfway point of the series it really just felt like I was forcing myself to get through it. It didn't pay off for me. I wish I didn't keep forcing myself and instead listened to my instincts and gave up. There were too many things going on and I didn't feel like I had a reason to care about any of them.
I’m about to start book 7, I still don’t really know what’s going on and I freakin’ love it! All other fantasy (except Tolkien! ) now seems half-hearted in comparison 😁
@@myself2noone you should. The first book is mostly action heavy and setting up some tones and some of the situations of the political parties. That’s what happening already. You can get a basic overview of the Malazan Empire internal situation on that continent and some of the enemies they face. Also how the military thinks what’s the situation outside there. Etc…. And yes, the deeper themes are starting next.
You see, I just keep going on… I’m one of the psychopaths who read the Silmarillion and never looked in the back of the book. Edit: I didn’t even realize that he was going to pull out the Silmarillion in comparison when I said that.
These paperback editions are very rare and usually you can only find it on eBay for a lot of money. I was lucky enough to receive it from my mother in-law.
My english is mid as well and I had no problem understanding the prose. The only difficulty lies in the complexity of the plot and world building. It is worth the effort though
Not really from a language point of view. I think it is difficult due to all the plots within plots within subplots going on at once. It's hard to keep track of it all
@@myself2noone no, it’s not. It’s a fun read with a lot of deep topics to think about. We who read it back then, 10+ years ago, didn’t make a thing about it.
@@leonardog.6027 To be fair to note takers... I read a lot of comic trade paperbacks, and I'll consult a wiki if I'm trying to recall a bit of info that I may have forgotten. So I do understand.
I was lucky to get it from my mother in-law. I probably wont worry about making sure the other books in the series match especially since most of my books do not match. :)
If you have to google everything to get through it is it really a good book? I have heard of Malizan but this does not make it seem appealing. Why is it so popular if the text is that exhasting?
I put it back on my reading queue as a re-read. I seriously disliked _Gardens of the Moon_ . I think there was a roof-top chase scene towards the end that was superb, but the rest was immemorable save Anomander Rake--or something, who flew around in a castle--and some dude chained to a cart pulled by giant demon dogs. And stopping the igniting of gas under a city. A disjointed mess of nonsense but the series apparently gets better over time? The first book is supposed to hook you and trigger a sense of curiosity and desire to read more. The extrinsic fact that there were going to be 10 books in the series--when I started there were only 4--isn't sufficient grounds to function as a sustainable lure. Your joking here though funny is far too accurate and painful.
Wow an understanding of inability to understand and absorb scope and spread in order to build understanding and absorption of world building.I haven't heard worse pronunciation either.
I don't think I've ever quit a fantasy series before or since. Even if it wasn't great I sort of stuck it out.but I had to give malazan book 3. I was so sick of the Mhybe stuff. Oh, your miserable great good. Please shut up. Pleasee shut up ahhhhhhhhhh
@miketravelsnowhere6557 The problem for me is that a lot of it is really very, very good but when you get invested in a character in one book and they barely appear I'm the next (quick ben) I loose a little interest. It can also be quite repetitive and monotonous at times. Maybe I'lld like it more if I tried again, but life is far too short, and there are far too many other books out there.
