Let’s talk about Malazan Book of the Fallen! I’m finally halfway through the main serie so I thought it was time to write down some of my thoughts before starting on the other five books (well technically I’m now more than halfway through The Bonehunters but when I wrote this I wasn’t). I will make an article about each book but I wanted to say something about the serie in general first.

Before I start, I don’t think I even need to stay this but don’t put spoilers in the comments please and thank you.

So. I think I can safely say this is by far my favourite fantasy serie and just overall my favourite serie of books and I’m not even nearly done reading it. I could probably talk for hours about how amazing it is. And I do spend hours thinking about some characters or a random scene and making up theories that invariably end up being wrong. It really deserves to be more known, it’s a true gem of literature and epic fantasy. Oh and it’s actually a finished serie. There are more books coming out regularly but the main serie is done so no waiting around for the next book.

It has everything I love in fantasy from amazing worldbuilding (we’re talking literal millenias of relevant history spawning multiple continents/realms here) to fantastic (and very diverse) characters. Kruppe and Tehol are my personal favourites and then you have Anomander Rake, Icarium, the Bridgeburners and of course all those interfering gods, (Cotillion I’m especially looking at you). And since it’s written using shifting POV you get to know a lot of those characters quite well.

There’s so many vastly different cultures and races you can’t possibly keep track of all of them (how do you go from the Tiste Andii to the Letheri or the T’lan Imass). Oh and dragons. And dinosaurs. With swords. And flying mountains. All this without even mentioning the magic system which makes this world a sort of multiverse but honestly I’m still very confused by how the sorcery works so I won’t even attempt to explain, only that it has basically infinite possibility if you’re good enough to master it (looking at Quick Ben right now). So yeah it’s truly epic in scale and it’s masterfully done.

What I also love is that it’s not a clear cut black and white story, there is conflict, with truly horrifying conclusions sometimes but I’ve never been able to just pick a side in any of the five books and five main conflicts. The closest I’ve come to is Memories of Ice but even that isn’t as simple as it first seemed. And the “villains” are some of the best ever, the Midnight Tides arc… it just hurts. It actually gets you thinking and at least in my case it had a real impact on how I see things, clearly there will be a “before Malazan” and “after Malazan”.

Another great thing in my opinion is the writing style. At times it can be hard to keep track of because it’s almost written like a short story in that absolutely EVERYTHING is relevant in the “blink and you miss it” way (except it’s 1000 pages). But Erikson knows how to write (how much vocabulary does he have omg) and he brings to life this world and characters brilliantly with just the right balance between philosophical musings and mindblowing (or heartbreaking) action scenes. All the while also managing to bring a touch of absurd humour which I love. I also want to point out that he’s managed something that I don’t see nearly enough in fantasy, a mostly misogyny free world so he gets more brownie points for that.

Side note since it’s not particularly important but there is very little romance in this serie so far and I’m very thankful for it since I tend to heavily dislike when a story goes that way. The author clearly favors friendship (Tehol and Bugg are my favourite duo but there are plenty) and he doesn’t even try to add romance. Whatever relationship grows between characters is, with maybe one notable exception, very incidental. And even when there is developping romance, it’s usually seen through the eyes of a third character so we forego almost all “mooning” and the story can actually progress.

To sum it up, if you enjoy well written epic fantasy with lots of characters, lots of worldbuilding, crazy magic and breathtaking action you should definitely give this serie a try. It is a long one but the ride is definitely worth it, you just need a little (ok maybe a lot of) patience before it all starts to enravel perfectly.

And now theory time! Massive spoilers ahead obviously so be careful. My bet is that the Crippled God used to be the ruler of Shadow/Emurlhan and that’s why Shadowthrone could take over the empty warren and Emurlhan is fragmented. That or he is Scabandari Bloodeye but that is farfetched. Also I’m 95% sure they’ve basically told us who would ultimately go against him in House of Chains but I. Can’t. Figure. It. Out. It drives me crazy. Karsa is too easy a choice I think and he wasn’t even in the chapter concerned iirc. At the moment I’m settled on the Bridgeburners specifically Fiddler, Paran and Whiskeyjack. I recently re-read the original prologue and I thought SE might decide to bring everything full circle, but that’s also part wishful thinking on my part. And then Gardens of the Moon literally says “Every god falls at a mortal’s hands. Such is the only end to immortality”. And well aside from Fiddler (and even that’s a question mark) they aren’t really mortals anymore so who knows actually.