Getting into the Malazan Book of the Fallen fantasy series is supposed to be hard.
Those days are done.
Imgurian kurtist04’s recently compiled a simple yet comprehensive megapost introduction to Malazan that explains the world, its gods, its magic, the main characters, the political powers in play, and more. The rundown, supplemented with fan art from over the years, is a perfect introduction to Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont’s fantasy series.
First, a caveat from kurtist04:
For many, the love of the mystery is what hooks them into the series. They like that Erickson *doesn’t* hold your hand. If you are the type of person that loves to read deeply and puzzle together the little details, this post isn’t for you. Come back to it if you get through the first book and are still confused. I avoid as many spoilers as I can, and am intentionally vague about certain details, but there are minor spoilers here. Mostly in the history of the empire and the races section.
But if you don’t mind some minor spoilers that will give you some context for the first book, or if you are planning on re-reading the series and want to brush up on your Malazan history, them give this a read.
Even if you’d like to preserve the mystery, it’s hard not to be drawn in by an opening line like this:
The Malazan Empire has humble beginnings, coming to existence in a small dirty tavern.
For those who missed the September 2016 Tor.com eBook Club download window of Gardens of the Moon, kurtist04’s Malazan series rundown is an excellent introduction, should you want to pick up the series later on. Happy reading!
Thanks for the link. I got the ebook from you (thank you for that, too!), but I bought the first book a few years back in hardcover–I just never started it, as other TBR books got in the way LOL
I’ll have to check this out too. Years ago, I read up to book 3 or 4 of this series. I love it but hated it too. I gotta ask a sincere question of the Malazan fans: How do you get into a fantasy without any clue what things look like?
When I was learning to read stories, I was taught to visualize everything as it’s described, like your own little movie in your head and now I don’t think I can do it any other way.
I had the same issue when I tried to read Daniel Abraham’s The Dagger and the Coin. I know these are great stories but I just get so lost if I don’t know what things look like, and I enjoy the view.
Malazan benefits from external-source hand-holding, and this is a good crack at addressing two of the key problems where assistance is most required: outlining the situation you’re being dropped into, and visualizing the races. Erikson is not even very clear about whether he’s referring to a distinct race or only a nationality as they’re mentioned in passing, so without some help like this you may not even realize for a while that not every character is human.
I read all ten books and I’m still surprised to see this depiction of Barghast, although I guess it makes sense; I thought of them as less human-looking, somehow.
Thanks for this. I was about to go looking for an intro/guide rather like this one.
I can see what a tough job it is to say “enough” without straying into the Sea of Spoilers!
Who needs descriptions? I have a number of coffee-table books full of other people’s imaginings of various fantastic races (Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials is one), and they’re quite frequently not the way I’ve imagined them. Malazan’s people and places look exactly as you imagine them! Picture them any way you want.
@@@@@ kid_greg – I can’t speak for Malazan readers, because I’ve just downloaded the ebook and haven’t started yet, but I read a lot of other fantasy and have generally no idea what anyone or anything looks like even when I’m in the process of reading a description of it. My imagination is not remotely visual; I’ve always found it weird when people complain that someone is cast in a film/TV adaptation and doesn’t “look” right because I have no idea what anyone looks like in fiction, not even my own characters when I write.
This has the unfortunate side effect of making me almost completely blind to lack of racial diversity in literature because everyone to me is just a nebulous set of words, an idea in the mind of the reader, rather than anything with an actual appearance.
Just to pour a bit of water on the parade … its a good reminder for people who know the series, but it has quite a few things that are just plain wrong which will be confusing for new readers.
He’s allegedly based it on the first three chapters of gardens, but he’s misread some things in his haste to get it out.
Take it with a grain of salt, particularly regarding the races.
Honestly the best resource for Malazan readers is Tor’s own reread.
@@@@@auspex
@@@@@ Muswell
Thanks for the suggestions, but I guess I’ll just have to accept that not every popular fantasy series is for me. Having a good author paint a picture in my mind is half the fun of fantasy for me. I don’t expect or want every minute detail. I just need a face to put with a character (especially with some of the hard to pronounce names in fantasy) and the general build and dress (plus a way a person wears their hair if they have hair, tells a lot about who they are) whether, a new race or species, is humanoid, reptilian or whatever. As far as the setting, that’s even more fun to see in my minds eye than anything else, even more so for fantasy.
But, one thing I absolutely hate is when I go with my own imagination, only to have the author to describe it later on and I find out that I’m way off.. Makes me feel like I have to go back and start over.
No worries though. I’ve got way too many books on my TBR list as it is.
Kid Greg:
I think I would have to agree with you that you may just have to accept that Malazan isn’t for you, and that’s okay. I do find it a strange criticism though, as I personally found that Ericsson and Esslemont have this strange ability to describe just enough to visualize the story, but not so much that you are bogged down by exposition. There is definitely not a Jordan-esque level of detail to the clothing, outfits, and descriptions of the races, and I think that is okay for most fans.
And, like you said, we all have way too many books on the TBR list as it is.