re: Anybody read The Malazan Book of the Fallen series?

I actually really like Assassin Apprentice and that entire series as well as the follow up series, but I am closer to your sentiment on Malazan Book of the Fallen. The problem is you are dropped right into the action and a little is revealed at a time. I far prefer the standard Hero's Journey where we start at the very beginning and go from there.

I listened to the audiobook, and didn't give a damn about any character other than Whiskeyjack until the last quarter of the book. It was about there that you finally had enough information about the world and the people in it to somewhat put the actions of the characters into some kind of context.

I think I liked it in the end, but I didn't really have any desire to pick up the next installment immediately.

I'll try to give a brief summary past book 1 of what makes this series so fun and unique to me. A lot of the hate in this thread comes from the fact that they didn't like the first book. I will say this about the first book. It is easily the most immature of the series. By immature I mean that Erikson is almost writing to a different audience in the 2nd book entirely, which follows an actual army led by one of the best characters in any series for my money, Coltaine. The tone of book 2 is considerably darker. You don't jump around through all these side quests as much and in fact you follow at least one army around in every book after that.

Pros
- his take on the elder races is beautiful imo. The various personalities of characters that have lived for hundreds of thousands of years is almost perfectly done.
- the magic - warrens, houses, and holds each having their own hierarchy and personalities really is unique.
- anything Cotillion or Quick Ben
- the truly heartbreaking moments and depth of some of the characters, you will laugh and you will cry. The comedy as the series progresses is ridiculous considering the subject matter. Some of the best comedy I've seen in a fantasy series. Tehol and Bugg later are magnificent characters.

Cons
- deus ex machina - there are a couple points I almost yelled at the damn books later
- books start stronger than they finish as the series progresses imo.
- so many stories that you will inevitably care about some more than others

If you don't read the series, everyone should at least read the second installment, Deadhouse Gates.

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Some of the best comedy I've seen in a fantasy series. Tehol and Bugg later are magnificent characters.

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Love me some Tehol.

As to what Shameless said, many folks suggest skipping the first book with Malazan and starting with the second book in the series, then reading the first book 2nd. It actually is probably a good idea in many ways. The quality is tremendously better in the second book (and the third, as those two are probably the best two books in the series along with book 5 for some folks).

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- the magic - warrens, houses, and holds each having their own hierarchy and personalities really is unique.

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Part of the reason I didn't finish book 1 was I didn't really grasp the magic situation. Didn't like it at all.

Probably why I jumped ship to the Mistborn Trilogy where the "magic" (allomancy) has very specific guidelines and rules

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Memories of Ice is where this series truly took off for me. That said I am unsure if I actually finished this series. I might still have the final novel to read. I did read some of ICE's companion novels as well.

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That right there, THAT is a good indication of suckage. I can't think of any series I've read where I'm not sure if I've completed the series.

To name just a few of the series I've read:

LotR - Tolkein (several times)
The Dark Tower - Steven King
The Belgariad - David Eddings
The Song of Ice and Fire - GRR Martin (I've read all the existing books twice as well as the Dunk and Egg short stories)
Tarzan -ER Burroughs (I've read them all at least once)
John Carter of Mars - ER Burroughs (Read them all at least twice)
Carson of Venus - Burroughs
Sword of Truth - Terry Goodkind
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - SR Donaldson (Both Chronicles, haven't read the third)
Raven Shadow Series - Anthony Ryan (all so far)
King Killer Chronicles - P Rothfuss (all so far)
Enders Series - Orson Scott Card
Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson (all so far)
Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson (all so far)

And many more. My point is, it seems there are authors out there that are very prolific and sometimes their world building is given more credit than the actual story creation. Maybe I need to just power through the first one in order to get to the good stuff. But it's hard to commit to reading this stuff when it is so poorly constructed and paced.