I see a thread about Erikson's books and I can't resist at least chiming in.
GotM is not only the first of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, it was also largely written almost 10 years before Deadhouse Gates, which explains, why GotM and the sequels are not 100% congruent in certain aspects. But you will find out yourself.
As already mentioned, one of the best things about the books is the incredible (and by incredible I *mean* incredible) amount of details, which you only catch on a second, third, fourth reading or after reading the sequels and putting it together. Heck, even then I've found, that other people (for example on the
Malazan Empire boards) see aspects and make connections, I would have never thought of.
There is definitely more explanation needed, but my guess is that the Empire under Laseen has done something to tick off the Shadowthrone. How the gods play into this, I am not sure. Oponn seems simply to be an element of chance with no clear agenda at this time.
(Avoiding a huge spoiler here) The gods ultimately gamble for power, but the combination of motives is almost unfathomable as we learn of many, contradicting ones and more and more facets are revealed - Cotillion sums it up at one point in House of Chains, when he says, that speaking to a mortal one might say, that maybe *all* of them are real motives.
As far as the Tyrant goes, the introduction of the Azath (sp?) which "ate" it did seem a bit deus ex machina. But the same time it was hinted that this Azath was some sort of powerful force of good that protected the world when a tremendous evil walked it. Rake, for example, didn't seem too worried about the Tyrant's return, nor surprised at the Azath's appearance. Hopefully more explanations come with the other books.
Don't worry, the Houses of the Azath will feature prominently in the books. Their origin and true purpose doesn't become much less mysterious, though
It's probably no spoiler to say, that they are more of a force for balance than good, constraining unchecked power.
(1) Do the other 4 books enlighten you about what happened in the first books? Do they clear up some of the mysteries of the first book (I suppose I mean if I re-read Guardens of the Moon after reading the series as it stands, would I have a much clearer idea of what happened).
Yes and no. You will have a much better idea of the forces involved, but the incidents at Pale "rank among the worst foul-ups in Malazan history" (Dujek or Whiskeyjack in MoI) and the full picture is still not visible to the mortal reader.
(2) Which is the best of the five books? Could you give us your rankings of them from best to worst, and how necessary is reading them in order (they may not all be on the bookshop shelf).
I'll second the notion about the reading order - it's vital. Except for Midnight Tides maybe, which takes place somewhat outside the established timeline starting much earlier and finishing long before the time of GotM.
About the ranking oder ... note, that I'm loath to say, that one book is really better than the others with the exception of DHG - they all are at the very top of fantastic literature.
(1) Deadhouse Gates: The portrayal of the world feels very real in this book, more so than in the other books, mostly because of the focus on primary non-magical events. Coltaine's Chain of Dogs is the most heart-wrenching sequence of scenes I've ever read. (vague as to not give too much away)
(2) Memories of Ice: Huge Scope and gigantic events. Very hard to convey the
epicness of what happens.
(3) Gardens of the Moon: Looking back there's something endearing about the perceived straight-forwardness of this book - on it's own it's just a very good book, in the context it becomes the worthy start of a masterpiece.
(4) House of Chains: Very complex, maybe a little too much so. Still, there are many great parts in it.
(5) Midnight Tides: Have to read this again, but I can already say, that the humorous parts are slightly overdone. Also it plays one continent and some decades away from the other books, which makes it hard to categorize.
