Malazan Book of the Fallen

[DrNefario]

In the early WoT books the gang was all together and had a recognisable sub-goal to achieve. When they started to split up, and meet even more new characters, you ended up with about a sixteenth of a story about each of them in each book. I think it's a problem with any sprawling, continuous, multi-viewpoint series like that. Song of Ice & Fire arguably has the same issue right now. Anything much over a trilogy is probably unsustainable unless the books can stand on their own.

[Ravensknight]

The last couple of books of Book of the Fallen were so filled with existential preachiness that it destroyed my love of the series. I loved the first 5 or so, then liked each successive book less.
I'll probably do a re-read in 10 years or so just to confirm [and decide if I still want to keep those massive hardcovers I bought, sigh]

[Katsunami]

[QUOTE=jgaiser;2768824I picked up the Tor omnibus...[/I].

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

What kind of bargain did you get on the omnibus, just out of curiosity?

It has different prices in different countries, and in some, it's not available. I acquired this omnibus at Kobo, using a large coupon. In the end, I paid around $2.75 per book.

Originally Posted by jgaiser

... Big? Calibre pagecount (APNX algorithm) reports about 13500 page for the omnibus, so this isn't going to be one I read one after the other.

For your interest, the paper pagecount is close to 12,000 pages. Using 2400 characters per page (which is how I count all books), the pagecount is 8,656 pages.

I did split up the omnibus into 10 books. If I'd read them one after the other at my current pace, it would take me around 6 months to read them all. If I do that this year, I'll fail my own subchallenges, so I'll probably start this series somewhere at the beginning of next year.

Good to hear that you're enjoying it

[mewmartigan]

[QUOTE=Katsunami;2770407]

Originally Posted by jgaiser;2768824I picked up the Tor omnibus...[/I

.



It has different prices in different countries, and in some, it's not available. I acquired this omnibus at Kobo, using a large coupon. In the end, I paid around $2.75 per book.

$2.75 a book is a bargain! Now that an omnibus exists, maybe Amazon will offer a daily deal on it eventually. I still have plenty to read beforehand but I will be keeping an eye out for good deals on the Malazan books (either separate or omnibus).

[jgaiser]

So... I finished Gardens of the Moon this morning and I don't care what anyone says, it was a great book. First couple of chapters were confusing, but even some of those confusions were explained as the book went on. An interesting ending and of course leaving some things unfinished. I'll definitely continue, though not right away.

[Katsunami]

Thanks for the mini-review. I look forward to reading it; someday

[DrNefario]

It's probably good that you liked it, given that you bought the whole set.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

So... I finished Gardens of the Moon this morning and I don't care what anyone says, it was a great book. First couple of chapters were confusing, but even some of those confusions were explained as the book went on. An interesting ending and of course leaving some things unfinished. I'll definitely continue, though not right away.

Good to know!

I've always been leery about starting this--in part--because most people (even huge fans of the series) say that it wasn't all that good. And I'm one of those who's not really willing to trudge through an entire bad book just because it might be necessary for what comes in the later "good" books. In short: I don't give whole bad books "free passes" simply because they're part of something "better."

I don't mind being dumped in an author's world and having to fend for myself (even for long periods of time). I'm actually not a fan of brick-by-brick world-building. So you mentioning that the confusion is only for a few chapters gives me lots of hope. The fans I've talked to before made it sound as if they were lost for almost the whole book! A few chapters is nothing!

[Katsunami]

Taking into account that this guy writes 1200 page long books, a few chapters can easily be 200 pages of being lost

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I've always been leery about starting this--in part--because most people (even huge fans of the series) say that it wasn't all that good. And I'm one of those who's not really willing to trudge through an entire bad book just because it might be necessary for what comes in the later "good" books. In short: I don't give whole bad books "free passes" simply because they're part of something "better."

Ok... This is *my* take on the first book. The writing isn't *bad*, but the first three or four chapters are confusing. You are dumped into the middle of something with no explanation of the events or the characters involved. *Almost* everything is explained as you continue, but even at the end of the book I still had questions.

The book has 24 chapters in 7 books and by chapter 8 I was fully hooked and the final 5 chapters were difficult to put down.

I've read a lot of reviews from both fanboys and haters. If you can't make yourself get past the first confusing chapters, you're probably not going to like the book.

Now... I'm pretty easy to please. It takes a truly excretable or truly boring book to get me to put it down, so you can take my recommendations with as large a pinch of salt as you wish. In the end, I enjoyed the book and I'm eager to see where the story goes from here.

Edit: A Steven Erikson quote from the reissue of Gardens of the Moon:

In the years and many novels since, certain facts have made themselves plain. Beginning with Gardens of the Moon, readers will either hate my stuff or love it. There’s no in-between. Naturally, I’d rather everybody loved it, but I understand why this will never be the case. These are not lazy books. You can’t float through, you just can’t. Even more problematic, the first novel begins halfway through a seeming marathon – you either hit the ground running and stay on your feet or you’re toast.

[Pax]

I also read the first 3 books.
First it was really tough to get into the series, but now I am enjoying it.

A great help was this page for me:
http://www.tor.com/features/series/m...-of-the-fallen

Each chapter gets a summary and an interpretation of two readers, one with and one without background information of the whole series. (No major spoilers, just hints)

[taosaur]

Hey, I just heard of this series/author today over on io9 and grabbed the first e-and-audio books. It looks promising. I'm on the last book of Jim Butcher's Codex Alera (fun, adult sword and sorcery, but pretty boilerplate), and have the first Recluce book but haven't been too excited about it. About the only high fantasy I've had a stomach for the last few years is Sanderson and Rothfuss, but this series at least looks more interesting than Jordan or Eddings.

[xg4bx]

I was inspired to pick up the first book in the series by this thread. 100 pages in and I can't make heads or tails of what's going on lol. I like the writing style and the atmosphere but it seems like a slog, at least so far.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

I was inspired to pick up the first book in the series by this thread. 100 pages in and I can't make heads or tails of what's going on lol. I like the writing style and the atmosphere but it seems like a slog, at least so far.

Keep going, keep going!

You're experiencing the well-known "Gardens of the Moon first 400 pages WTF Syndrome"!

Graham

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by Graham

Keep going, keep going!

You're experiencing the well-known "Gardens of the Moon first 400 pages WTF Syndrome"!

I found I was pretty much hooked by chapter 8. Things start making sense by that point, but the wild ride continues.