Name: Anonymous 2008-08-21 18:43
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?
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?