Kevin's Watch

Over the years I have bought each paperback volume of the Wheel of Time up to Volume 11. Now I feel it is time to begin reading this might opus. Any suggestions on how best to approach this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Sure. Read 1 through 4 and then stop. The quality goes straight downhill after 4.

I haven't read it, but I've heard unflattering things about it. Therefore, the best approach might be to read the Malazan series instead. Only nine volumes in the main series so far, but there are a few side books, too.

Malazan?

Egad! Apparently, those of us who think we go on way too much about Malazan have not gone on nearly enough! Hang on, and I'll change my clothes...

Ah, that's better. Now then...

The Malazan Book of the Fallen is a 10-part series written by Steven Erikson. The 9th book was just released in (at least) England. I'll have to wait until January for the US release. The books are:
Gardens of the Moon
Deadhouse Gates
Memories of Ice
House of Chains
Midnight Tides
The Bonehunters
Reaper's Gale
Toll the Hounds
Dust of Dreams
The Crippled God

The paperback I own of GotM is 657 pages, and, by far, the shortest. One or two are literally twice as many pages. So, if you like it, there's plenty of reading! I have never come close to reading so many pages in such a short span of time. I'm a slow reader, and I only read in as short a time as others if I love it so much that I can't put it down. Such is the case here.

The depth of the world in these books is beyond most anything. It spans at least 300,000 years. Some cultures, and some beings, are still around after all that time. Others are ruins buried beneath the sands of deserts.

The system of magic, the realms where the power comes from, is complex, brilliant, and, seemingly, (as Lucimay put it) intuitive.

There are many characters. Many. They are gods, demons, humans, other races of humanoids races, other non-humanoid races, and some undead of more than one of those categories. Getting a handle on them all is easily the most difficult part of the series. I reread the first four books before going on to the fifth, just so I'd be on surer ground. But that rereading was a joy, and I read the 3,000+ pages almost as quickly the second time as I did the first.

There are also at least four books set in the Malazan world that are not (strictly speaking) part of the Book of the Fallen. I've read the two that were written by the guy who created the whole idea with Erikson, and they are both great also.

There's a Steven Erikson forum at the bottom of the Index page here.

Uh... Any questions?

They certainty sound intriguing. I shall see what the local library has got when I nip in later on today

Ignore Brinn. Read 1-6, then skip 7-10, and start again at Book 11.

Ok, I've read them all multiple times, because I'm like that. They start out great, go down hill from 6, hit the nadir in 10, then 11 is a huge improvement.

Then Jordan died.

And the proposed final book has become 3 books instead. All of which I will buy and read. Damn me.

(Oh, and the Malazan books are awesome.)

--A

Onos T'oolan wrote:Ah, that's better. Now then...

The Malazan Book of the Fallen is a 10-part series written by Steven Erikson. The 9th book was just released in (at least) England. I'll have to wait until January for the US release. The books are:
Gardens of the Moon
Deadhouse Gates
Memories of Ice
House of Chains
Midnight Tides
The Bonehunters
Reaper's Gale
Toll the Hounds
Dust of Dreams
The Crippled God

The paperback I own of GotM is 657 pages, and, by far, the shortest. One or two are literally twice as many pages. So, if you like it, there's plenty of reading! I have never come close to reading so many pages in such a short span of time. I'm a slow reader, and I only read in as short a time as others if I love it so much that I can't put it down. Such is the case here.

The depth of the world in these books is beyond most anything. It spans at least 300,000 years. Some cultures, and some beings, are still around after all that time. Others are ruins buried beneath the sands of deserts.

The system of magic, the realms where the power comes from, is complex, brilliant, and, seemingly, (as Lucimay put it) intuitive.

There are many characters. Many. They are gods, demons, humans, other races of humanoids races, other non-humanoid races, and some undead of more than one of those categories. Getting a handle on them all is easily the most difficult part of the series. I reread the first four books before going on to the fifth, just so I'd be on surer ground. But that rereading was a joy, and I read the 3,000+ pages almost as quickly the second time as I did the first.

There are also at least four books set in the Malazan world that are not (strictly speaking) part of the Book of the Fallen. I've read the two that were written by the guy who created the whole idea with Erikson, and they are both great also.

There's a Steven Erikson forum at the bottom of the Index page here.

Uh... Any questions?

They sound excellent, next in line for me to read now.

All I'll say is I'm still struggling to get through Gardens of the Moon, two years after it was given to me by Lucimay at elohimfest...

However, Beorn and Hyperception have both whizzed through the entire series, including Esselmont's two books and one tale of Bauchelain & Korbal Broach.

We got all of them except GotM through the library.

Guys named Steve seem to have a gift for prose.

Still haven't checked out the Malazan myself...but eventually I'm sure I'll get to it.

Never touched the Wheel of Time.

Gardens of the Moon is a bit slow and hard to get into; reading the second book first might be a place to start.

I stopped after the first 3 WoT books, where it seemed like the protag was just repeatedly defeating (killing?) the dark one, only to have him come back again, and again.
I am told by others that as the series progresses, the books get thicker, less time passes, thousands of sub-subplots are opened and not resolved -- all while whats-her-name tugs her braid and men are characterized as the buffoon-y gender. But that's all hearsay.

dw

Tug Braid. " OH THAT MAN!" Tug Braid. " THE BLACK AJAH!!!" Tug Braid. " OH THAT RAND, MATT, PERRIN!" Tug Briad " The BLACK AJAH!!!" Tug Braid...

sums up the basic failings of the series. Any chapters involving the three main girls are completely unreadable, unbearable and just down right annoying.

Seconded.
I never made it past the seventh. I'd read five and six, but it's pretty tedious.
Definitely read at least the first four. Very worth it.

DukkhaWaynhim wrote:... men are characterized as the buffoon-y gender.

Let's at least be fair...the male characters volubly vocalise the the exact same opinion of women.

--A

The first five books of Wheel of Time are good. There's a section in The Shadow Rising, book four, that's as good as any fantasy I've ever read. Lord of Chaos, the sixth book, is spotty but readable, but from there it went down hill. The pace of the story goes to a crawl. I bought the books up to Winter's Heart, the ninth; in which I only read the chapters on the characters I was interested in and ignored the other characters totally.

I've had a hard time getting into the Mazalan series. After having Gardens of the Moon for about three years I finally read it through. It's good. Deadhouse Gates I've had now for almost as long and I don't think I've read more than three chapters into the story. For some reason I can't get into the story. If I do I can read a book of that size in three days. Sometime in this life, probably around 2040, I'll have read the series.

Don't give up. DHG remains one of my favourite. But I agree it's a slow start...once you get to Coltaine though...

--A

I really have no idea why people KNOWING they are beginning a 10 book epic (Malazan) give up during GOTM. My take is it's simply too complicated for them because everything isn't spoon-fed to them (Erikson's term) like most Fantasy.

GOTM is a short novel by today's fantasy standards, I have no idea why people can't finish it, it's not that difficult. Ok, so It's a new World, it's complex, but really - it's not War and Peace.

Starting at Deadhouse Gates makes no sense either, it may be a much better novel, some say the best of the series, but you think thr series is going to get any less complex or easoer to fathom because you skipped GOTM???

I don't mind not being 'spoonfed' if ;

a) there are characters within the story you can actually care about and

b) the author in question is constructing a tightly written, well constructed

piece of fiction, rather than padding out a story over ten or twelve volumes

for what ever reason that may be.