Fantasy Aficionados discussion

Difficult reads but most of his novels are immensely rewarding and they become much easier to digest after the first two. He has a background in anthropology and if I read correctly he's Canadian. His concern with history and cultural phenomena really shows as he creates a fresh new universe with millions of years of history behind it. Highly recommend Gardens of the Moon and all sequels.

Favorite author. Favorite series. Although I don't like his non Book of the Fallen books as much as Gardens through Crippled God.
Hopefully Forge of Darkness will change my mind. :)

I struggled with Gardens, not sure why I didn't enjoy it, maybe as Rhett says, because it was a difficult read and I may have been distracted and not reading with my full attention.

I intend to give it another read at some point, only because everyone keeps telling me how brilliant the series is, so I don't want to miss out!

Weenie: I am currently working through Gardens and will say that I feel the reward coming soon. I've also heard the tremendous praise for this series and I'm heavily invested in finishing this (I've already got 8 of the 10 books so I'm going to give it a good shot). This series is my goal for the year, with a few other books scattered in there so I'm excited to keep reading.

Weenie wrote: "I struggled with Gardens, not sure why I didn't enjoy it, maybe as Rhett says, because it was a difficult read and I may have been distracted and not reading with my full attention.

I intend t..."

I'd say give it through Deadhouse Gates. If you don't like his writing after that book, then the series just probably isn't for you.

Personally, Erikson is one of my fav authors.

Cheers guys, will definitely be reading the first two this year.

I agree with what Josh said...I love Malazan just because of its huge scope...but it is not for everyone...

got myself so hyped into checking this that I ordered the whole saga and cant wait to start :)

Almost 300 pages through Gardens of the Moon now. Like most I have found it a hard slog but not bad by any means. I think its the lack of real exposition and explanation that is the hardest thing to adapt to... he really throws you in at the deep end!
That being said I am just now beginning to really get into his mindset and more and more things are becoming clear.
Off to read some more now! :)

If you're at that point already, I feel pretty confident you'll like the whole series.

cant wait, the books arrived, starting either tomorrow or day after

Derrick wrote: "I really enjoyed the first 6 or 7, then it started getting a bit too "stand on my authorial soapbox and preach my pet philosophy to the captive reader" for me to really enjoy the plots..."

Yeah, he does get a bit heavy handed with that toward the end. I usually skipped the worst it.

skimming or skipping passages in a book is a crime to me lol... in books like this you never know what is important and what isnt, at least not always, skipping a short part can cause that you wont understand something later... dunno about erikson yet, but if you skipped much in Martin's books, he would make you pay and badly, so I can imagine Erikson does the same

I would say skim more than skip and trust me you easily tell in those large chunks when to pay attention.

I still choose to read everything closely, that was part of the charm for me when reading ASOIAF, enjoyed even the details and seemingly tedious stuff :)

FYI, it isn't that bad. However, I do remember a section in Dust of dreams where a character went on for about six pages spouting philosophy to himself. It all could have been cut. Still loved the book though.

similar stuff happened in LOTR, usually when Gandalf spoke, or in ASOIAF whenever an older char spoke, like Barristan Selmy... those segments I do like however, they slow the pace a little, re-focus you, prepare your mind for the next onslaught, I guess :)

To me it would be really hard to skim Malazan. I get that some parts could've used tighter editing but it would be hard to do myself. I loved the first five. Flawlessly. But in six I got a little lost. And then in seven a little more. And that was without skimming. I still loved what I did get but there was a lot I didn't. For me books nine and ten made up for it though. And I do hope a reread sometime will make it a little clearer. The philosophy never bothered me. There were characters and opinions I disagreed with but other characters I did. It's not like an Ayn Rand or Terry Goodkind book where there's one and only one view point. The book of Erikson's that IS very preachy is Crack'd Pot Trail: A Bauchelain And Korbal Broach Novella, pretty much only for fans. I didn't hate it. But it made GRRM look like a Disney writer. Okay. Maybe not that bad. But definitely dark, gloomy, and all of humanity is evil. Loved Malazan though. I recommend finishing it.

well, I guess the fact that I loved A feast for crows out of ASOIAF whereas many ppl just seemed to hate it or not like it speaks a lot I guess... judging by that I might enjoy even the books of the series that you didnt :)

looking forward to discussions once I am further in the series... tomorrow I am going to pick up all ten books at the bookstore where I ordered them, and then start reading either tomorrow or day after, will see :)

definitely looking forward :)

A Feast for Crows was my second favorite ASoIaF book after Game of Thrones.
I'm actually looking forward to what you think of Gardens of the Moon. With me it was love at first sight...well first page. :)

you mean the maps that look like torn out of a historic map book? :D

Feast of Crows is a good book. Dorne and Ironmen storylines are great.

Definitely looking forward to your thoughts as you read Malazan.

:P
Yeah, I'm a total map junky. And lists of characters? Ohhh, goose bumps.

All kidding aside. I loved the beginning. Just got hooked right away. :)

I picked p Gardens of the Moon a few years back trying to fill the void waiting on the next Wheel of Time book. I had a hard time getting into it, so I set it aside.

Last year I was looking for some good fantasy books to read (before I learned about Goodreads) and found out this was highly recommended. I did a little research on the book and found out he based it on a role-playing game. Once I realized this and looked at it from that angle, I found the book to be really enjoyable. I'm looking forward to reading Deadhouse Gates.

The problem is my taste in books varies and I never know what I'm in the mood for next until I'm through with the book I'm currently reading. As such I'm reluctant to start a series that has so many volumes. Right now I'm on a mystery kick, and I don't know how long that will last.

Separate shelf in my bookshelf for the series that I picked up just today (and it was DAMN heavy even though it was all paperbacks):
http://s1165.photobucket.com/albums/q...

The white thing next to the last book of the saga is a thing I made cos there was simply no other book of appropriate thickness (other books were either too thin or too thick /which was making too much pressure on the books/, or those books simply wouldnt look awesome next to the series)... I printed out list of books in the saga in appropriate order as they go, with the little helmet logos above and under the list, and then stuck it onto a precisely (LOL) cut piece of styrofoam which was cut into appropriate thickness and size... this way the books are fitting just perfectly and the styrofoam thing doesnt look bland but very nicely fitting IMO

Ha. Nice.

Traci wrote: "A Feast for Crows was my second favorite ASoIaF book after Game of Thrones.
I'm actually looking forward to what you think of Gardens of the Moon. With me it was love at first sight...well first p..."

It was much the same with me Traci. I had gone off fantasy for years, but after I read that prologue I was well and truly back.

Razmatus wrote: "Separate shelf in my bookshelf for the series that I picked up just today (and it was DAMN heavy even though it was all paperbacks):
http://s1165.photobucket.com/albums/q......"

I have them paperback with the U.K covers and hardcover with the U.S covers. Talk about heavy. =)

I liked the UK cover much more than the US. The first fake romance cover was so wrong.

I like the U.K. covers more too. It was actually quite a struggle to get the full set. But after reading the complete series some of the U.S covers have grown on me. Not Gardens of the Moon though. *Shudder*

Traci wrote: "Razmatus wrote: "Separate shelf in my bookshelf for the series that I picked up just today (and it was DAMN heavy even though it was all paperbacks):
http://s1165.photobucket.com/albums/q......"

You have them, but I bet you bought em one by one or so... I ordered the whole behemoth of a saga, to save travel costs when picking it up... yesterday I went to Bratislava to the bookstore to pick them up... it was 7 A-format (first seven books) and 3 B-format (books 7-10)... so yea it was DAMN heavy to carry it at once :D

but I dont mind... I got SO HYPED on this lol and read general descriptive stuff about it, so I had to have the whole thing to present myself with one of biggest challenges in epic fantasy... today I plan to finish first chapter (on the train I read most of it, so far I'm ok)

let me voice one complaint though, same as in ASOIAF - I dont like it when author talks about stuff that takes place at another continent than the one you get the maps of (in ASOIAF, I had to wait to see the area across the Narrow Sea till the fifth book geez)... like here in prologue I think when there is mention of Seven Cities, Malaz City etc., I know it is in the second book (cos I checked the maps there a tiny bit), but still... oh well, I guess I will have to remember some stuff and see then

so far I like the first pages, seems epic, I like that he uses a lot of dialogue... as for characters, it is doable so far... I noticed he uses mostly shorter sentences atm, which is good IMO :)