Malazan Book of the Fallen

I see a lot of praise for this series, especially around /book/. It's been likened to A Song of Ice and Fire, which I love. The problem is, I can't bring myself to read it.

I'm picky about fantasy series as of late. As I said, I love George R.R. Martin's works; China Mieville's Bas Lag is one of my favorite fictional settings of all time; The Kingkiller Chronicle looks to be an excellent trilogy; if I started gushing about how much I love the Gentlemen Bastard Sequence I'd never shut up.

But all these are low, very low, fantasy. The Black Company was another series that I heard a lot of praise heaped on, so a couple days ago I went and checked that out, and abandoned it after the first chapter. Wereleopards, resident mages, an island of spooooooky vampires, and at the end of the first chapter in the book a dark sorceror who was sealed away and oh fuck it. That is the kind of thing that I just can't stand anymore. Weird to think about, since I was devouring Dragonlance books a few years back, but that's the way of it. Too much wizardry just gets to me; in settings like Terry Pratchett's it's acceptable, even preferable, but for the most part it just doesn't do it for me.

But Malazan Book of the Fallen, as I said, has been likened repeatedly to A Song of Ice and Fire. So every once in awhile, I get the urge to check it out. I pick it up and look at the cover, check the blurb on the back, read the first page of the first chapter--I've done that twice and still haven't bought the book because when I look at it, I see names like Whiskeyjack, Deragoth, Jaghut, T'lan Imass, the Tiste Andii; I see things like "The Emperess's Army," and I get Black Company vibes. And so the book isn't bought.

Am I being overly biased? Would I fall in love with the series if only I would read more than the first page of the first book?

Yes, yes you will.  Or should.  Ive seen a lot of inexcplicable hate for it on Amazon, especially Gardens of the Moon.  Im on Reaper's Gale right now, and this is definitly one of my favorite series ever.  Its complicated as fuck, moreso than Martin by far I think, so you really have to get in to it.  But it is amazing, jump the fuck in.  And don't worry about the godly magic and stuff, its really not that big a deal.  The best storylines come from the non-magical malazan troops and their antics.  And a few really awesome characters in Letheras in Midnight Tides.  Read it.

>>1
I like practically the same stuff as you (and have read everything you mentioned) and fucking love Malazan. Just buy it and be done with it already. It's not like it's going to make you poor. At least steal an ebook, ffs.

Also, the magic is not essential to a lot of the subplots, like >>2
mentioned.

If you really don't like it after all .. go out and buy Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy. It's fucking excellent and has a (fairly) low magic setting.

I have a book and series that I am going to recommend you.

The book is Homeland of the series The Legend of Drizzt by the author R.A. Salvatore.

I recommend Homeland to you because it is the first of the series. Trust me, you will love these books.

>>4
Funny man.

The first book is ok but it is likely you'll feel like you are reading someone's homebrew D&D campaign (lots of magic and race dickery) and I also felt that it was overly expansive and thus needlessly confusing.  However, the second book is incredible and I highly recommend it even if you found the first to be a bit tiring.  I'm on the 6th book and have enjoyed each immensely.

That being said, anyone who says it is similar to ASoIaF is an idiot.  Martin writes complex characters with a wide range of desires and emotions and puts them through a semi-realistic and often brutal existance.  Erikson writes simplistic, creative, and often very endearing characters and puts them through his expansive, creative and often very endearing world.  Martin's writing is very precise;  Erikson writes 900 page books about every year and can be a little sloppy/unclear' but it's not that common of an occurrence.  I would say Martin is the better writer technically, but Erikson is more creative and he has created a world where that creativity can bloom.  I recommend the books.

>>6
you'll feel like you are reading someone's homebrew D&D campaign

That's the bad vibe I was talking about, that's made my tastes in fantasy so picky. I'll give it an honest try, though, next time I'm at the bookstore.

>>6

This man speaks truth.  Martin's characters are quite deep and in more of a crapsack world with no real good or evil, while Erikson's are perhaps a bit less well-developed but still likeable. 

I actually just finished reading the Bonehunters earlier today and I'm waiting for Reaper's Gale to be published in mass market paperback (because I'm cheap).  After the end of Bonehunters, I have an even bigger love for Kalam than before.

>>8
Fuck yeah Kalam was approaching ridiculous levels of win in BH.